His Little Secret

10. The Beauty Pageant

Emilia smiled, once she was finally done fixing the ‘The Monger Beauty Pageant 2021’, up on the back drop board.

She climbed down the small ladder and turned back to find the room filled with three rows of chairs with a slight separation in the middle and ten chairs placed on each side and five big ones placed in center and front of the audience chairs, making it obviously a judges’ panel.

Volunteers and other interns and associates, worked around the entire hall, making sure to bring out the best of the arrangements and organize the pageant show with the best they could possibly pull off.

Emilia’s phone buzzed inside her back pocket and she picked it out, looking at the screen and finding her alert alarm going off.

“s**t!” she cursed under her breath and placed her phone back inside her pocket and held the jotter in her hands up and high in front of her, ticking off everything in her list that was required to be done.

“Everybody! The final round before the big event, will start in about thirty minutes. So, let’s wrap things up.”

She announced walking towards the backrooms and the dressing room, where all the participants were hassling around in order to get ready with their pageant coaches also rushing the poor girls and their makeup artists to get done with their get ups already.

No one in the dressing room, dared to stop Emilia, who had the ‘Head of Management’, badge donned with a holder right over her chest.

She had no idea that she would even be getting that Head Management title when the pageant had begun but Hannah had some special plans for her.

Ever since the two became friends – or best friends as per Hannah’s vocabulary, Emilia has been getting some extra privileges at the magazine.

Hannah asked her to submit direct report and articles from the entire research department directly to Hannah’s assistant.

This did put Marina on a fiery foot with Emilia, who began wondering why Hannah was being so nice to a mere intern but she only assumed it to be, Hannah’s attempt at blocking Marina with the promotion, since the woman assumed that the whole world revolved around her and her selfish thinking allowed Emilia and Hannah to continue having a very close relationship.

With having dinners and lunches together and since Emilia had saved Hannah’s life once, the woman trusted Emilia, literally with her life.

Emilia also enjoyed some of her time with Hannah. She couldn’t lie but getting to eat in Michelin three and four star restaurants, with lavish and unique dishes that each time, their lids would get opened up would have blends of colors and a body of some exotic sea animal, did entice Emilia.

She also continued eating with Igor, who did enjoy her company, since she would use her humor to warm her way in the couple’s life but her progress with Igor was very weak.

All she had about him so far was him walking all exhausted and fumed up at a dinner and told Hannah, which Emilia happened to pry upon that he had some problem with a container that was held back by a custom’s officer, who was not passing the container out, so he had to take care of it.

Later that night, Emilia did some research and found out that a custom’s officer was killed in a car accident and the other one took over his duty, who was a close relative to a senator, with whom Emilia had seen pictures of Igor with, when Jason had shown her.

So far, her research was making quite a lot of sense and she just needed that close gap that Igor was going to leave in his tracks and Emilia was going to pick up on.

She did feel guilty every now and then, seeing how much Hannah showered her with favoritism and love and one way or the other Hannah was going to get hurt when she was going to find out what was Emilia’s true intentions but Emilia was pretty sure that Hannah was unaware of Igor’s true identity as well.

By the conversation that the two had in front of Emilia and the conversation that Hannah had with Emilia about Igor, she was certain that Hannah was oblivious of Igor’s true identity and he was posing in front of her, as some sort of diamond merchant.

That’s why when the whilst will be blown on Igor and the dirty politicians who helped him, the police was going to come for Igor and then Emilia was actually prove her friendship to Hannah and ask her to become a witness of the case, getting an easy way out.

At Emilia wanted to ask Hannah if she knew who Igor really was, or at least warn him but then, she also knew that she would be creating a dent in her and Hannah’s friendship that could otherwise interrupt in Emilia’s investigation, causing her a huge setback.

She wasn’t even doing it anymore for Jason’s job offer, hell that was the last thing at the back of her mind but in fact what she was really focused on was to get a man like Igor behind the bars and have him arrested, since he was a menace to the society and having such people in prisons was Emilia’s superior motive.

“Everyone, the final questioning round will begin in thirty minutes.”

Emilia announced to every single pageant participant, who felt rushed and began hurrying up.

As Emilia turned to leave, she bumped right in to Marina, who stood by the entrance of the dressing room, with her hands crossed over her chest.

Emilia groaned mentally, holding back her footsteps.

“Wow! Look at you. Aren’t you a bit too much in to the role of the head of management? Trying to show Hannah, how she made the right decision by replacing you with me.” Hannah smiled a fake one and Emilia could tell that the woman wanted to rip Emilia’s head off, as she had her palms fisted and her teeth all grinding against one another.

“Well, I am just trying to do my duty.”

Marina had been extra over Emilia’s back, ever since Hannah asked the former to hands over the head management duties to the latter one and all Marina wanted to do was make it harder for Emilia than it already was.

“Mari!” a soft feminine voice spoke up and Emilia held back her urge to scream, recognizing that voice and realizing it to be Marina’s younger sister, Parana, who was an aspiring model and a competing pageant.

“OH, there’s my sister.” Marina pointed out, towards the skinny brunette, who sat in a sparkling gown in front of a vanity mirror, with three stylists trying their very best to get the snotty woman ready in time.

“Mari! I need my sparkling water. I can’t go on stage without my sparkling water.”

Marina nodded at her sister’s request and turned towards Emilia, who was completely flabbergasted by Hannah’s audacity.

“You know what to do.”

With that Hannah paraded towards her sister and Emilia grunted, walking out of the backrooms and walked out of the hall, just to get her stupid boss’s stupid sister’s water.

Inside the dressing room, Parana sat looking at her glowing skin and makeup donned face, that looked impeccably perfect.

“Marina, are you sure that Henry Christopher would be here? Because I didn’t even want to participate in this stupid pageant and I only did because you told me that I could get to meet him.”

Marina smirked, gently pressing her sister’s shoulder, “Don’t worry! He will be here. Hannah sent an email this morning to him, keeping me BCed in the email, she asked him to come in any condition, since it was his duty to select the finalists as well. Now, you don’t have to worry about him coming or not, but what you have to worry is to make sure to attract him with your perfect answers.”

With that Hannah looked up in the mirror in front of her and shrieked a little when she saw Emilia standing right behind her.

“s**t!”

Parana also felt a bit confused by Emilia’s sudden appearance.

“Your water.” She almost shoved the bottles in to Hannah’s hands and turned to leave away.

“What’s her problem?” Parana asked from her sister and Hannah shrugged Emilia’s moody behavior away, “Forget about her! you don’t have to worry about that and only focus on how you are going to swoon Henry with your looks and your wits.”

Emilia heard her words that felt like a huge rake being driven right over her heart.

She knew it was wrong of her to even be slightly jealous of another woman trying to capture Henry’s heart but Emilia couldn’t help it.

Somehow, she felt that the right to occupy Henry’s heart was owned by her and her alone.

Maybe, it was the sweet gesture that Henry did by giving her his coat, or sending her that shirt with a flirtatious note or maybe because each time the two passed through each other any time at the office, he would smile her way, something that she noticed that he didn’t do for any other female employs.

She couldn’t help it but her heart had started to flutter, each time she would think about Henry.

Maybe it was his looks or his partially good behavior towards Emilia, but every now and then, her heart wondered about him and even if she looked at him from a distance, her heart pounded loudly inside her chest and her skin felt brushed with this light feeling, that made her feel enlightened and floating up in the sky.

But when she heard Parana and Marina and their little plan of how the younger sister would entrap Henry, Emilia felt like having a reality check thrown over her face.

She realized that she was being too rash by thinking that she would ever have a chance with a rich and handsome man like Henry, who just like every other man, would go after the leggy and slander woman like Parana, who loved to show their bodies off and men like Henry loved to parade such women around as well and while Emilia on the other hand, was someone who wore baggy jeans and hoodies and there was no way that Henry would look at her, as anything but just as a mere stupid intern, who ended up humiliating herself in front of him, not just once and twice and each time he looked at her and smiled, she finally had the revelation that he was not smiling in courtesy but just like Hannah, he must be having flashbacks of how stupid she looked each time she embarrassed herself.

With her mood quite glum, she walked away from the dressing room and helped everyone around until one the lightning guys asked for her help to fix a light up and high.

She grabbed a ladder and climbed it up, but the light was quite high and she couldn’t reach it, for which she stretched her arm further up and stood on her tip toes, reaching up and high for the bulb but unfortunately the ladder beneath her began shaking and soon she lost her balance, as the ladder slid and fell on to one side and Emilia shrieked, as her heart skipped a beat and she also fell down over one side.

But luckily, she had something to hold on to that prevented her from falling down on the ground with her face forward.

Emilia gasped at once, as she closed her eyes tightly when she was falling but she let go off her breath slowly and gently, opening her eyes along with it and finding the man of her dreams, standing right in front of her and holding her from her waist and shoulder, keeping her from falling down on the ground.

“You okay? We have got to stop meeting with each other like this.” Henry asked with a soft smile and his hand over her waist and his face so up close to hers, as his soft breath touch the tip of her nose, made Emilia, lose her mental capability to function at all.

“I think you are still in shock.”

Having no response from her, Henry joked once again, that made Emilia shake her head up a bit, as she realized that once again she was being a buffoon in front of Henry and not giving a much stronger and confident impression to him.

She straightened up, letting go off his arms, that she had held on to and suddenly her hands felt empty, making her realize how strong and buffed Henry was, since his arms were quite big and felt quite filling in Emilia’s hands.

“I am sorry.” She breathed softly, fixing her hair behind her ears, that had opened up and falled out of her messy bun, when she was falling down from the ladder.

“Why sorry? When someone helps you, you are supposed to say thanks.” Henry kept the conversation light and Emilia couldn’t help but feel gutted with anxiety, as her heart was flipping crazily inside her chest and her mind seemed totally hazy.

“Umm, yeah, sorry…” the words slipped out of her mouth and a soft chuckle escaped Henry’s mouth but Emilia looked down at the floor, not wanting to look up at him and avoid those electrifying blue eyes of his, that hypnotized her and left her completely frozen and confused.

“I mean, thank you!”

“Is that the only think you have to thank me for?” Henry c****d, making Emilia look up at him with confusion.

“Huh?”

He crossed his arms across his chest and Emilia gulped hard, as a devious side of hers, eyes those bulgy muscles of Henry that threatened to rip the arms of his coat and flash right out.

“You owe me a thanks for the shirt, that I sent you.” He c****d, making Emilia’s cheeks blush crimson.

She cursed that man’s memory.

He is so busy, why does he have such a good memory and remembers everything!”

“I mean, technically, I had to sent you a shirt only after I ripped open your last one.” He winked at her, making her inside melt completely. She didn’t need a ladder to fall from this side and she felt like falling down easily, since her legs felt wobbly and her mind was completely in a maze of her surrounded by Henry, out of which she could never step out of.

The parts of her body between her legs suddenly felt moist and heavy and Emilia had never felt something to swirling yet mesmerizing before.

“Thanks for the shirt!”

Emilia stated abruptly, not trusting her body anymore and afraid that it would embarrass her in front of Henry if she spent another two more seconds in front of him.

She pushed past him and walked forward but stopped when she saw Hannah and Marina standing in front of her.

She didn’t have time to deal with either of the two and smiled softly at them, walking past them as well and rushed out of the event room and down towards the staff bathroom, where she looked herself in a stall and held herself back against the door, biting her lips harshly and closing her eyes, where she dreamed of doing the unthinkable and somethings sinful with Henry.

Hearing a knock on the door, she opened her eyes up and realized that she was completely and horrendously wrong for what her brain was thinking of.

She needed to remind herself that Henry was her boss and she needed to be extremely respectful of that fact.

He was simply trying to have his fun with her, since she was a mere intern who was not even of any importance to Henry and Emilia just needed to remind herself of her boundaries.

Shaking her head and washing her face, to dust off some of that crimson shade off her cheeks, that got on to her face, since she was feeling extremely hot by Henry’s presence in front of her.

Once she was done calming herself down, she walked back towards the event room and the final round had already started with Hannah and Henry taking up the middle seat with the chief editor of the fashion magazine that The Monger usually collaborated with taking up a spot next to Henry and the creative head of a luxury clothing brand, sitting next to Hannah.

Emilia tried her best to keep her head straight and focus entirely on just managing the event but she just couldn’t control her eyes, that had a mind of their own and every now and then they prance upon Henry, who sat with a straight and serious look on his face, even when many models tried to flirt with him but he kept a very straight face and avoided to ask any questioned from the contestants and would ask any only if Hannah would ask him to do so.

He seemed to be quite respectful of Hannah and Emilia just couldn’t tell why Hannah was so annoyed by him. He seemed to be very nice to her but at the same time, it was a game of politics that Hannah had built up in her mind and she ought to hate him, since the seat that he had taken was going to be hers, if he was not going to be involved in the picture.

“Mr. Christopher, do you have any questions?” The creative designer, forwarded the ball to Henry to take and ask if he had any questions for Parana, who was standing up on the stage and smiling cheerily.

Marina smirked, sitting on the audience chair as her plan of forcing Henry to have a conversation with Parana, by bribing the designer and asking him to imply Henry to question Parana, so she could make a move on Henry.

But Henry seemed to be quite reluctant and simply declined the chance to question Parana.

“No, I don’t. and please, don’t feel obligated to include me in to any of the conversation. I am here only to represent The Monger, I have no idea about these pageants and since you guys are the experts, I am only here to support you guys.”

“Wow! A white man who lets other do the work without giving his unnecessarily and incompetent advice, is a rare sight to see.” Hannah praised Henry and Emilia couldn’t help but smile at how Henry was actually not that much of a bad person and most of the delusions that she had in her head about him were perceived persona characteristics about any man that would be in his place but maybe he was different.

Once the event was concluded and the finalists were announced, Hannah called for Emilia and she walked up to her desk, where Henry was busy in his phone and Emilia’s eyes, just as usual, being greedy for Henry, wandered over his phone and her heart broke a little as she saw him texting with someone who was sending him hearts.

She immediately looked away, not wanting to break her heart by her own self and decided to focus on the mission with Hannah and Igor for the moment and keep her mind a bit busy and off Henry.

“You are coming to the party tonight, right?” Hannah inquired from Emilia, who tried to catch up with her but seemed completely lost.

“What party?”

“Oh! Did I forget to tell you?” Hannah slapped her hand over her forehead, “Well, you see, Igor and I are hosting a party at his penthouse on 54th street.” She wiggled with joy and confidence, showing how proud she was of her rich boyfriend.

“You have to be there. I will text you the address and if you don’t come to the party. I will get extremely mad. Okay?”

A party, at the Russian Mafia boss’s house, that she was trying to get some information on and where she might be able to find something on him? There was no way that Emilia would miss it for the world.

“I will be there!”

------------------------------------

Do you think Emilia would be successful in finding something on Igor?

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3