The CEO's Secret

6: The Day Before

June 2009

C H A P T E R S I X:

T H E D A Y B E F O R E

By the time the gala came around, Katie was completely exhausted. A few days ago in work, she remembered actually dozing off into a light sleep a couple of times while sitting at her desk. With Carrie gone and Catherine becoming even more hateful and seething by the day, work was beginning to totally take its toll on Katie.

She was at the point of exhaustion where if she stopped constantly working and took a moment to think about things other than the gala, she would break down in tears. But it was Friday then, the morning before the gala and soon everything would go back to normal. Her workload would still be more than she had at the beginning of the job but she would not have the burden of attending planning committee meetings or Catherine to deal with also.

"I told you to push the meeting with the caterer to review the final menu back by two hours yesterday."

"I did." Katie said, wondering what drama today's meeting would unfold for her.

"You didn't-"

"I would not have answered your question with 'I did', if I did not. I called your cell phone to tell you they could only push it back by an hour but you wouldn't answer. Then I contacted your assistant upstairs who told me you were not around. So after I made two attempts at telling you about the meeting- calling your phone and attempting to tell you in person- I asked him to pass on the message to you immediately."

"You made me miss my meeting."

"I didn't make you do anything." Katie spoke through her teeth then, unable to control herself or the anger that was beginning to bubble inside her. "If you had have picked up my call, you wouldn't have missed the meeting. And if your assistant didn't pass on the message that is not my fault, although I know you wish it was."

The look Catherine gave Katie right then was indescribable, it made every part of the young woman want to shake. She knew she had messed with the wrong woman but she could not stand to be treated the way she had been any longer.

"Go and get our coffees." Katie knew the order off by heart by this time. She looked over to Alice who only gave her a grim look before standing up and walking towards Katie.

"You stay here, she'll just have to manage by herself." Catherine ordered. Katie let out a breath through her nose, trying to contain herself as she began to walk out of the meeting room, everyone's eyes on her as she did so.

Catherine was absolutely livid about missing the meeting yesterday, so much so that everyone's heads seemed to be on the chopping board. She was ordering people around since she had gotten into work and all the people on the committee knew not to cross her at this point. She always got like this coming close to the gala, it was just 'stress' they would say, but not attending the review with the caterer for tomorrow's gala had tipped her completely over the edge.

"Little crossbreed." Katie thought she had imagined it at first, those terrible words being mumbled from Catherine's mouth but, how could she? Katie could tell by the complete silence that fell upon the room after the older woman uttered those words that she had heard correctly.

Katie had a choice then, one she did not want to make. She had never had to deal with people making ignorant comments about her race since many years ago. Katie was mixed race, and she was proud of who she was despite so many times before having trouble with people who wanted to make her race and ethnicity their concern. Deciding whether this time was worth putting her job at risk or not was tough. She could walk out the door, pretend she heard nothing or she could turn around and tell Catherine how she really felt about her. Katie chose the latter over the former, although her decision may have been the wrong one. She turned around, looking at every face in the room before stopping at Catherine's.

"Those words you just used were absolutely repulsive. You're a disgusting woman and I don't care what you tell Mr. Anderson after all this is over, say whatever the hell you want. But I know the truth, that you've had me running around doing every single little thing you could possibly think of to make my job a living hell for me over the past couple of weeks when the workload could have been distributed evenly throughout the committee."

"Well I wouldn't-"

"Screw you Catherine, and get your own god damn coffee." Katie looked around the room then at the many sets of anxious eyes that were on her. She stormed out of the meeting room, leaving behind whatever hell would break loose once she was gone.

She had a troublesome feeling in the pit of her stomach, her breath hitched in her throat and she found it hard to focus on anything as she smashed down on one of the buttons in the elevator. Tears pricked her eyes as she walked out onto her floor and went straight to the bathroom where once she was inside a cubicle, she would allow herself to cry.

Katie was a strong woman, she had been through so much she thought she couldn't, yet she could not help but allow Catherine to make her feel so weak. She was already beginning to regret her outburst although she knew it was somewhat justified. For Catherine to call her what she did because Katie was mixed race was completely unacceptable but she was sure the older woman would have a way of getting out of punishment if something did get out about the awful remark she had said.

It took a couple of minutes for Katie to compose herself again. She had completely untangled in the bathroom alone, all her stress and anger had left her body in the form of tears yet she did not feel any better, if anything she felt worse. The fears of losing her job, of the things Catherine might make up about her strangely close relationship with Colin and the fact that she had to see everyone from that planning committee again tomorrow for the gala made the young woman want to burst into tears again but she had promised herself she was done crying- for now.

She went straight to her office from the bathroom, she had a lot of work to do. The first thing on her list was the Jefferson report that she had put off for over a week. Colin needed it by today, which meant Katie had to finish off the overview as soon as she possibly could. That did not take much time, but it did take quite a while for her to pluck up the courage to face Colin. Katie wondered if and when Catherine might inform both Anderson men of what happened earlier that morning.

It took a deep breath and a fake smile for Katie to finally knock on Colin's door but as soon as she entered, he knew something was different about her.

"And how are you on this fine morning Katie?" Colin gave her a wolfish smile although that did not take the gloomy mood in the room away. Eventually, she broke the silence she had caused.

"I'm okay, thank you Colin." Katie's voice was so quiet and gentle, it crackled out from her throat in a hushed way that he could not describe.

"Is something wrong?" Colin found himself asking her this question almost every day recently. There was an apparent change in her exterior, in her mood and her smile that he could clearly detect and examined very carefully. She had told him so many times that there was nothing wrong or that she was just stressed but he knew there had to be something more than that. No matter how many times he would ask the same question, she would always give the same lie.

"No. Here's the Jefferson report you were looking for, I'm sorry I didn't have it for you sooner." She placed the report down on his desk in front of him and turned to walk away but he grabbed her wrist before her feet could take her anywhere.

"Hey, Katie?" Colin stood up then and walked around from his desk so that he was beside her.

"Yes?"

"Seriously, I can tell there's something bothering you."

Being that close to her then gave him the opportunity to observe her face, her red eyes that looked glassy. If he took another step closer, she did not know what she would do. She began to become upset again, he cared but she did not want him to.

Katie's eyes began to water again, she looked to the ceiling as a solution to stop any from falling down her cheek. She had all of this pent-up anger and frustration she thought she had gotten rid of in the rest room but clearly did not. Katie wasn't sure how to take Colin in that moment. His eyes searched her for some sort of explanation but she refused to open her mouth. He sensed this and did something he possibly should not have done- he extended his arms out to wrap her in a warm hug that lasted a moment too long.

She tried desperately to pull away, but the truth was, that wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't what either of them wanted. It was strange how something so normal felt so much more intense with him- Katie couldn't help but take in his scent and savour his touch. It all felt very natural, for Colin to be comforting her the way he was, running his hand up and down her back as she leaned in closer. A little too natural, Colin thought. It was him who had realised first how inappropriate this looked but did not feel.

Colin pulled away first and noticed the strange look on Katie's face, like she was somehow apologetic yet he didn't want her to be. Her eyes widened a little but the pair remained close to each other, lips lingering, eyes searching one another's as if waiting to see what would happen next.

Katie cleared her throat and stepped away from him, trying to figure out how she felt then. He too was in the same position.

"I should probably get back to work." She mumbled before leaving.

As if Katie was not going through enough that day, her thoughts constantly went back to what had happened in Colin's office. She knew she had so many other things to be concerned about at that point in time, with her outburst earlier in front of Catherine and the entire planning committee. It was just a simple hug, but one she felt was crossing the line too much. But why was she being so sensitive about it? She did not want her mind to divulge into the many questions that awaited her once she had time to think clearly.

Colin was feeling everything at once. Confusion, bewilderment, joy and regret. He felt like there was something there, between him and Katie but then felt foolish for even thinking that in the first place. Nothing could happen, he was just overreacting and needed to stop. He was being irrational. Colin tried to push everything to the side but couldn't help but feel slight embarrassment once he mulled over the situation from earlier. He was the one who initiated the hug, he was the one who was so concerned about her and he felt his interest in her was not only pointless but one-sided.

After heading out for a long lunch Colin returned to find David waiting around in his office. He felt a lot more agitated than he did when first leaving for lunch as he had more time to think about everything.

"Hey, how's it going?" David met him with a smiling face but Colin did not return the expression.

"Fine." Colin grumbled before sitting down at his desk and sighing.

"So is Vinny coming out with us tonight? Maybe he can fix us up with some of that-"

"David." He looked at his friend then, a stern look on his face after cutting him off. "Don't talk about that here, the walls are thin and you never know when my dad's going to randomly appear."

"Sorry bro, I forgot..." David took a minute before he spoke again. "You excited for the gala tomorrow?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Sure, my dad keeps pestering me about bringing a date though." Colin rolled his eyes.

"I think I know the perfect date you could bring."

"Who?" He looked quizzically at David.

"She works right outside your office and you practically drool over her whenever you see her- I don't' blame you though." David's words made Colin a little nervous, could other people see how he was beginning to feel about his assistant? He sure hoped not.

"That's not funny man, I would never bring Katie as my date and I definitely don't drool over her either. But whatever you're into." The harsh words almost burned Colin's tongue as they escaped his mouth but he needed to hide how he felt.

"So you don't think Katie's cute?"

"God no." he scoffed at David who was narrowing his eyes sceptically at the other man. "Besides, I don't want to bring any date, let alone her."

The thin walls Colin had spoken of earlier were what cause the next situation to happen. Katie had heard it all, although she wished she hadn't. She was carrying a pile of documents for Colin to sign when she happened to overhear his conversation with his friend, David. Katie was unsure as to whether she should continue with what she was doing or not. The anger she suddenly felt inside made her carry on, she knocked at his door then entered before he could open his mouth to speak.

"David." She nodded at the young man who stood beside Colin's desk.

"I need you to sign these for me, when you're done you can put them on my desk." Her voice was cold and lacked emotion.

Katie handed Colin the documents but kept her eyes looking down, avoiding his gaze as he tried desperately to catch some hint from her face to figure out if she had heard his previous conversation but it was difficult to do.

"Sure, I'll do it now." He spoke warmly to her but she replied quickly, almost butting across him.

"Thanks." She said before walking out and closing the door behind her. As soon as she did so, the two men looked at each other.

"She definitely heard me, didn't she?" A look of panic crossed Colin's face that made David laugh.

"Why do you care? By the way you were talking just a second ago, you shouldn't be phased."

"I have to go out and ask her, don't I?" He got up quickly from his chair and left his friend standing in his office alone while he went to go find Katie.

She was standing at the copier machine, staring gloomily down at the buttons as she waited for her prints outs.

"Katie." Colin almost sighed with relief when he saw her.

"Yes Mr. Anderson?" she used a more formal voice when she spoke, she didn't use his first name when addressing him which he hated.

It took Colin a moment to inspect the unnecessary situation he had ran into again with her. He did not speak for a minute, and all the way through the silence Katie waited, waited for him to say something she wanted to hear. But what did she want to hear?

It was then that she wondered why she cared as much as she did? Katie wasn't sure then if she wanted him to apologise or tell her that he didn't mean what he said, because both of those things weren't needed. He was her boss and could think of her as repulsive if he pleased. It should not matter to Katie the words he had spoken just moments ago. But still, she couldn't help how she felt.

"Never mind." He mumbled and walked away, leaving her feeling disappointed although it was not justified.

Once Colin returned to his office, he immediately noticed the grin that had appeared on David's face.

"Did she accept your apology?" David laughed again, finding great humour in his friend's reaction to finding out Katie heard everything.

"You have to give an apology before someone accepts it David." His tone was gruff.

"So you're telling me you didn't apologise? You practically ran out there after her."

"No, I didn't apologise. I have nothing to be sorry for."

"Whatever man, are you ready to go yet or what?"

"No, I'm actually going to stick around here for another while. I need to get some things done."

"But you said you were going to leave early today, we're heading out later."

"I know but I have a lot to do."

"So you're deciding to actually work for once?" Colin shot David a glare once he spoke, to which his friend held his hands up in surrender and looked innocently at him. "What? Suit yourself man. I'm off." He said before leaving Colin to drown in his own thoughts, mostly about Katie.

He hoped by staying a little later he might be able to catch her alone again before she went home. Colin knew he had lots of time to just go into her office and talk to her but he was cowering away from any sort of intent filled meeting. He wanted to just subtly bump into her on her way out, as he knew she would be stuck in her office until the end of the day- she was so busy lately with the gala and all of Colin's paperwork that seemed to be piling up.

Unfortunately for Colin, he never bumped into Katie. She rushed out as soon as it was time to go. Colin, although quickly he got his things together, was not quick enough to catch her before she left.

Confusion fell over Katie on her walk to the train station. It did not leave her that night, not on the train home, not once she got ready for bed, not before she fell asleep. She shouldn't be fantasizing about her boss, she should be glad he said the things he did. At least that way she knew there would not be a repeat with what happened at her last job. But she just couldn't get him out of her head even though there were other matters that needed to be thought about first, Catherine being a perfect example.