The Territory

Chapter 2

                I continue to work, trying to forget the gorgeous man and his hatred towards me, but I find my mind drifting back to his eyes. The hazel-green color of his eyes sticks with me. I see the color everywhere and each time it brings me back to him. I want to have a good experience here. I want to put my finance and architecture knowledge to good use and get experience I need to move to New York with Patrick. I can’t let some random guy and his bad attitude get in the way of that. I force myself to focus and keep working through the pages. Damian comes out and is standing right next to my desk before I realize he is there. “Crap!” I scream. “You scared me!” Suddenly my face goes red as I realize I just screamed crap and then yelled at my boss. This is not the best way to make a good impression first day on the job.

                Damian laughs. “I’m sorry. You were so focused on what you were doing that you didn’t hear me come out of my office. Then I decided it would be fun to see how close I could get to you before you realized I was here.” He smiles. It is so genuine that I can’t stay mad and start laughing with him. “Well I am sorry for saying crap and yelling at you,” I say, only making myself laugh harder. Our eyes connect and again I get a strange feeling form him. I don’t know why, but he makes me feel so calm and accepted. There is nothing romantic or s****l about the feeling he gives me, it is almost like he and I are the old friends, and there is caring behind his look. “Did you need something?” I ask, trying to return to our professional personas. “Here is my lunch order,” Damian sets down a post it note. “It also has Vice’s order. Order whatever you want. There is a menu with the card, and you can press speed dial number one to get the restaurant. We order from them a lot, so I figured it was good to save their number. I nod and take the note, placing it in front of me.

                I pull out the menu and after much debate, I decide I am going to get the roasted chicken breast pasta. Damian is having a French dip sandwich with fries, and Vice wants the chicken salad sandwich, no mustard. The petty and childish part of me wants to order extra mustard instead just to stick it to him! But, again, I need this job, so I decide against it. Once the food is ordered I get back to work, hoping to get through at least a few months before the end of the day. This company does a lot of work each day; the pile of daily receipts is astronomical! I make it through half a month when the food arrives. The nice guy that drops it off is surprised to see me. He makes a face at me that doesn’t go unnoticed. “You are new here…?” I look at him, “Is that a question or a statement?” He laughs, and it is very genuine. “It is a little of both I suppose.” I smile back, “Yes, I am. I am Emileen, my friend Liza Mountbatten talked to Damian about giving me the job.” He is taken back by my words. “You call him Damian?” I am confused by his question. “Yes, what do you call him?”

                His face suddenly changes, as if he has realized something. It is almost as if I can see the lightbulb go off over his head. “Um, I just call him Sir.” He says nodding his head, almost as if he is saying, yeah, that is believable… But I don’t believe him. I don’t know what is up with him, but I don’t know him well enough to press the issues. “Okay. Well, he asked me to call him Damian, so that is what I call him.” He nods. “You have a great day outsider,” he says nodding at me and walking away. Outsider? Well, that is rude. I might not live on The Territory, or have grown up here… But I work here now, I am on a first name basis with the guy who runs it… I am not an outsider… I am a… visitor? I don’t know. This little place is very cliquey, I guess. I shrug to myself and stand, grabbing the bags of food. I walk to the kitchen that is on the other side of the one of the doors, and put Damian’s food on a plate, and grab him a soda from the vending machine with change I found in the drawer, and fill a glass with ice.

                I walk back to the office and knock on the door. “Come in.” I open the door and Damian looks up at me with hard eyes, but the instant he sees me they soften. “Oh! Emileen, I didn’t know it was you. I thought it might be Vice or Tripp. What’s up?” He smiles. I can’t help by smile back at him. “Lunch is here. I plated it up for you,” I say, lifting the plate. “I don’t know what you like to drink, I got you a lemon lime soda, but I can get something else for you.” I walk up to his desk and put down the glass plate, the can, and the glass. “I also didn’t know if you like to drink it from the can or from a glass, so I brought both.” His face spreads into a huge smile. “Emileen, you have only been here a day and you are already way better than any of my past assistants. You are the best.” I smile at him, his words making me feel less like an ‘outsider’. “You can call me Em… all my friends do.” I say, feeling like I am going to like this job. “Great, Em it is. Can you please take Vice his food. His office is the first door on the left past the kitchen. If he isn’t there you can just leave it. He like cream soda.” I nod and walk away, closing the door behind me.

                I go back into the kitchen and plate of Vice’s food and buy two cream sodas from the machine. I like cream soda too. It is weird to think I have anything in common with that jerk. I plate up his food and just to be a brat I put a mustard packet I found in the drawer when looking for napkins on the pate. I may not be brave enough to ruin his food, but I hope my little gesture ruins his day. I am also not getting him a cup of ice. So there! That’ll show him! I smile to myself, feeling like I have gotten a small victory of Vice. I walk to his door and knock, there is no answer. I open the door and see a small sitting area similar to mine, but smaller. There is an older woman sitting behind a desk like mine, typing on a laptop. She has mahogany skin and her hair pulled back into a French braid. Though she is older, her skin is smooth and flawless. If it was not for the hint of grays in her hair… “Can I help you?” She asks, pulling me from my thoughts, causing me to realize I am staring at her.

                “Oh, erm… I am Emileen, I am Damian’s new assistant. He asked me to order Vice lunch.” I stumble through my words slightly. She nods, “I am Casey, Casey Kegan. Mr. Cruz’s assistant. He is out, but you can go place it on his desk.” I nod, “Thank you.” I open his door and I am met with a different type of office. Damian’s is lined with books and has a huge desk and chair. It is beautiful but also very cluttered. This office is more my style. All the furniture is white, and the walls are a light grey. There is a large painting covering one wall. It looks like the view from the top of a tall building. There is a thick fog, or cloud covering over the city and you can just see the tops of smaller buildings peaking through. As an architect I love the juxtaposition between nature and man. The fog cannot be stopped by man and its desire to build up into the clouds. It is breathtaking. The other wall has large white bookcases, but they are sparsely decorated with small items. I assume they have sentimental value to have made the bookcase. There is a clean, glass and grey metal desk close to the wall, and the office chair is small and comfortable looking. The two chairs that face his desk are simple and elegant.

                I place the food on the desk next to the laptop, and place the soda on a napkin, not wanting to leave a ring of moisture on the glass surface. I turn to leave, and I am drawn to the small seating area to the side by the bookcases. There are two small chairs with a small glass end table between them that matches the desk. There is a loveseat that matches the chairs facing them with a glass coffee table in the middle. All of it situated on a grey square rug that matches the wall. Everything is clean and simple but fits beautifully. I can not resist and sit down on the love seat, running my hands along the cool, smooth, white leather on either side of me. This is very similar to how I would style my own office. Yuck, I have the same taste as the jerk. Ugh. I decide I do not want to run into the colossal ass that this office belongs to, and I stand, exiting. “Thank you Casey,” I say as I walk past her and back to the kitchen.

                I plate my food, grab my cream soda and sit at the small two chair table that is in the kitchen. I eat quickly, not wanting to waste time, I have a goal to reach with my work. When I return to my office Damian’s door is open and he is no where to be found. I sit down at my desk and notice a little envelope icon. I click on it and it is an email from Damian.

From: Damian Montague

            President of the Territory Corp.

To: Emileen Hanson

            Executive assistant to Damian Montague

Hey Em,

                This is your company email; I hope you find it. I had to leave while you were on your lunch break. I will not be back in today. You can leave around three thirty if you’d like. Or earlier. I don’t really care. I trust that you will work until you feel like you have completed an appropriate amount of days work. No biggy. We can iron out hours later. Let me know if you need anything.

                Dam

                I am a little thrown off by how casual he is in his email. He is the big man around here and is so relaxed and casual. I look at the clock, it is only one, so I have time to get things done still. I get back to work plugging in numbers and making notes. Suddenly my computer flashes green and shuts off. “No, no, no, no, no….” I press the power button, but nothing happens. s**t, what do I do?! I get up and run to see Casey, the only other person I know here. I enter Vice’s office as he closes the door and I hear him speak for the first time. “That is fine, I can handle that, but I will need to take…” The door closes and I don’t hear the rest of his conversation. I find myself frozen by the sound of his voice. He sounds nothing like I thought he would. His voice is rough and deep. I can’t help but think that his voice is… well… sexy. I lean in trying to hear more of him, but I am interrupted from my though. “Excuse me, is there something you need?” Casey yanks me back to reality.

                “Casey! You are just the person I was hoping to see. I was working on my computer and the screen when green and turned off. I didn’t get to save; I am scared that all my work from today is gone. Is there anyone I can call? Like a tech support or something?” She purses her lips. I do not think she likes me very much. She turns and opens a drawer, removing a card. “Here, that is Zeke’s number. He is the tech guy around the territory. Call him and he will come help you.” I take the card from her hand, “I am eternally grateful. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.” I turn to walk away but am stopped. “Actually, there is something you can do.” She calls. I stop and turn to face her. “Name it,” I respond, smiling at her genuinely. “Next time if you need anything, please just call instead of bursting in here. You can reach me at extension 7866.” My smile falls, yup, she doesn’t like me. “Sure thing.” I nod to her as I leave, making sure I close the door behind me… I don’t know what I did to people around here, but they do not like me.

                I run back to my office and dial the phone. “Zeke.” I guess that is how he answers the phone…? Strange. “Hi, this is Emileen, I am Damian’s new assistant. I don’t know what happened, but my computer is on the fritz and I need help as soon as possible if you have a moment.” I hear a chuckle on the other line. “Yea, I will be right there girly.” He hangs up… Um, girly? That guy is strange. I pace the office back and forth nervously waiting for him to come. About ten minutes go by when the door finally opens, and a short man enters. Though he is smaller than Damian and Vice, he is still very handsome. He is about my height in heels, so maybe five foot nine inches, and he is tan with sandy blond hair that is long and curly. He has bright blue eyes that crinkle in the corner when he smiles. “Alright girly, show me what ya got.” I make a face at him, confused and kind of annoyed by being called girly. “The computer is over here.” He walks over and looks at it.

                “Damn it, I have told Damian I don’t know how many times that this computer was not going to make it much longer. I am not a miracle worker. I can only fix this thing so many times.” I shrug, not knowing what to say. “Listen, I can’t fix this and make it work anymore.” My heart begins to pound. “No, you don’t understand. All the work I have done today was on that. I don’t know if it saved and if the computer is done, I am going to have to start all over. Please help me!” I beg, pouting and looking at him with my sad eyes. He sigs heavily. “Okay. I will take it home tonight and try to pull your files off for you.” I nod. “Hang on.” He pulls out his phone and calls someone putting it up to his ear. I hear noise on the other side. “Hi Sir, it is Zeke… Yes sir… I am here with…” he looks at me waiting for my name, clearly not remembering which is probably why he calls me girly. “Emileen.” I whisper to him. “With Emileen Sir. Her computer died and it is dead for real this time. I am not a miracle worker and I have done everything I can for this computer. It wasn’t even working when old Carmen sat here twiddling her thumbs. It definitely can not handle Emileen actually doing work on it… Yes sir… Yes sir… Of course sir… Thank you.”

                He hangs up and smiles at me. “Damian said to go home for tonight. Tomorrow morning, I am going to come pick you up. We are going to go get you a new desktop and he wants me to get you a laptop that you like so that you can use it on the road. Price is not and object… I love that phrase. Zeke, get her a new desk top and a laptop she can use for work and fun. Price is not an object… YES! Free reign girl! Up top!” He puts his hand up in the air and I give him a high five. Okay, I think this guy is kind of funny… He is growing on me. “So, what time tomorrow?” he asks me. I shrug. “I don’t know. I start at eight.” I respond. “Great, the store opens at like nine thirty, so I will come get you at nine, we will grab a coffee, go shopping on Damian’s credit card, then have lunch before coming back. Sound like a plan?” I can’t help by smile at him, he really grows on you. “Sure, sounds like a plan.” He nods and winks at me before leaving.

                Well, at least Zeke seems to like me. I organize the books, put the last of the notes I was working on the page to save my place, and tidy everything up before closing Damian’s door and heading out. I get outside and I see Casey is leaving also, she stops at a large truck to say something to someone. I realize who it is as she turns and walks towards me… It is Vice and he is staring me down… This is going to be a long three years if I can’t win this guy over. He glares at me as he rolls up his window and drives away towards the town. I feel a small pang in my heart… I have never been so instantly liked by anyone before… It isn’t like I have to be liked by everyone, but I don’t want to be hated… There have been people who didn’t like me, but I don’t think I have ever been hated. I walk to my car, fighting the tears that I feel pooling in my eyes.

                A hand rubs my back and I turn to see Casey. She is making a face that says she knows I have had a hard day. “Listen Emileen, it is nothing personal, I promise… It is just that… Vice… He is a very particular man and he doesn’t warm up to people easily. He doesn’t want you in the office. But don’t take it personal. There are tons of people who he has told not to come into his office… You can call me when his lunch comes and I will come get it from the kitchen. And I was serious, if you need anything, you can call me at my extension and I will come help.” She smiles at me and I nod, feeling better. I guess she didn’t hate me, her boss is just a controlling ass. He probably doesn’t want her being nice to anyone that comes in there. She walks away and I see her put her bag on the back of a bicycle and begin peddling away towards the town. I guess everyone lives in The Territory except me.