Her Untamed CEO

Chapter 13

Alicia walks into the office bright and early with the dress and coat in their original bags and hangs them up in the hidden cupboard.

Although she would love to keep such a beautiful coat, it would make her a target to be mugged in the area where she lives. Coughing after she walked through the cold air the short distance from the apartments to the offices, she grabs a glass of water to take the cold medication she has in her bag.

Then she gets on with her morning routine and by the time the Bartletts step through the lift, she is ready and waiting with their coffee.

“Goodness, I thought you were going to be late this morning!” Mrs. Bartlett exclaims.

“Morning, Alicia.”

“Good morning, why would I be late, ma’am?”

“Did the date not go well?”

“It was a beautiful evening, thank you. I have put the dress and the coat in the cupboard. I know they probably can’t be returned, but I can’t keep them.”

She takes out the jewellery from her bag and just as she is about to hand it to Mrs Bartlett, she stops her saying that it is a gift, and Alicia should take it all home.

The morning is pretty uneventful and they carry on as they would every other day until they hear the ding sound of the lift and a man walks in with such a huge bunch of roses, he can hardly see past the bouquet to look where he is going.

“I have a delivery for miss Moonvalor.”

“Oh, thank you.” Her eyes grow wide, and she signs, quickly moving the flowers to the kitchen.

Mrs. Bartlett leans against the doorframe with her arms crossed, smiling at Alicia.

“And you say the date was just lovely. Honey, a bunch of roses like that means the date was a lot more than just that.”

“I promise, nothing happened!” Alicia’s eyes grow wide at the realization of what she means.

She pulls out the card and frowns.

“So, what does it say, is he asking you on another date?”

“Uhm, it’s from Noah. Apologizing for last night.”

Mrs. Bartlett rolls her eyes.

“What did my son do this time?”

“He was having a party, but he didn’t do anything wrong.” Alicia shrugs.

“Oh! That boy!” She huffs and storms off.

Alicia looks at the flowers and has no idea how she is going to get them home. Just as she was leaving the kitchen, the lift dings again, and this time a delivery man walks in with a pot plant.

“I have a delivery for miss Moonvalor.”

The flowers are beautiful, but the pot plant is small enough to go on her desk, and she puts it down, signing for it.

“Okay, that can’t be from Liam.” Mrs. Bartlett giggles.

Mr. Bartlett comes walking out of his office and calls her before she can read the card. She takes a seat in front of his desk and Mrs. Bartlett sits beside her. They ask all sorts of questions wanting to know if he tried to find out anything about their business, but all she has to say is that they spoke about themselves, and he didn’t bring the business up once.

“That’s good. I’m sorry for the questions, Alicia, but as you’ve probably figured out by now, we can’t trust Liam.”

She remembers the signature on his email address and decides to find out what exactly is going on… That is if they are going to tell her. Mr Bartlett sighs deeply, telling her about the mistake he made letting Liam buy into the company a couple of years back.

“His cash infusion gave us the opportunity for our research department to develop quite a few new oxygen and the new heart monitor machines. But now that we are financially in trouble, he is pressuring me to sell him the rest of the shares, so he can inject more money into the company and, according to him, save it. I’ve seen what he does to these companies that he saves! He doesn’t save them! Unfortunately, I didn’t know this when I agreed to his investment.”

“Okay,” Alicia takes a deep breath.

“Then we find a way of saving on our overheads without having to ask him for help. With the new way that I’ve set up the financial statements, it shouldn’t be too difficult to see where we need to cut on spending.”

“I told you she’s a keeper.” Mrs. Bartlett grins broadly, winking at her husband.

“Hmm, and where do you suggest we start. Mrs Bartlett and I have been working on this for a couple of months. That’s why we had to shut down the entire research and development department. We could no longer afford them.”

“And that was another huge mistake on your part, sir. Sorry for speaking so directly, but you require your research and development to keep coming up with new ideas to sell.”

“But we aren’t selling what we currently have!”

“Then we need to find out why the sales are so low and what we can do to motivate our salespeople.”

“The economy is in a slum, miss Moonvalor! How do you expect people to sell something when nobody is buying it?!”

“You make them believe they need it.”

He sits looking at her with a blank expression on his face. Those were the exact words he used when he started his company all those years back.

“Let’s start with cutting costs.” Mrs Bartlett interjects to break the staredown between her husband and Alicia.

“I will need total authority to check all records without interference from the different department heads.”

“Of course, you are my assistant. If anyone gives you any trouble, just refer them to me.”

“No, Sir. That isn’t going to help. That will just look like a little girl running to her daddy to tattle on the school bully. I will type up an email for you to approve that can go out to all the departments. They will already be on edge because of the closure of the research department, and they will be doing their best to hide what they can from me. I don’t need the big boss breathing down their necks when I start checking their records.”

“What about your work here in the office?”

“I can handle it. I’m not scared to work hard.”

“I’m still here, sweetheart. I can stay until after her investigation is done.” Mrs. Bartlett offers.

He seems to be mulling it over for a moment then agrees, but he has one condition, he wants her to work only on the financial statements and his wife to take charge of the reception.

“This is your only priority. I can’t have you buggering this up and making fools of us all.”

“Yes, Sir.” She smiles feeling the excitement bubbling up in her stomach.

She is going to get to do what she loves! They leave his office, and she immediately starts to request the records of the department with the highest expenditure. The sales department.

***

Liam is sitting in his office, tapping his pen on his desk. The florist confirmed that the plant was delivered over an hour ago, and she still hasn’t said anything yet. Did they get the address wrong?

No, he checked, it was delivered to her, in her hands.

He would have at least expected a thank you! Jumping up from behind his desk, he calls the second number on his speed dial, knowing she will immediately pick up.

“How do you feel about lunch?”

“Uhm, okay.”

“I’ll pick you up in ten.” Then he puts the phone down.

He has never taken her out for lunch, but today he doesn’t want to get caught with his pants down, but he still needs someone to talk to, and even though they have a strange relationship, she remains the only person he trusts. Arriving at her apartment building, she is standing on the sidewalk waiting and slides into the seat.

“Wow, you look pretty.”

She bursts out laughing.

“Let me guess, you didn’t think I owned any clothes, huh?”

How she always gets it right to make him blush, he will never know.

“So, what’s up with lunch?”

“I thought I would take you out for once.”

They talk in general, and he pulls up into a parking spot near the park. Stepping out of his car, she didn’t think he was going to take her to a restaurant out in public. He buys each of them a hotdog, and they walk into the park to find a place to sit.

He stares at the ground in front of him, and she takes a bite of her food, studying him.

“Look, Liam, I know you, probably even better than you know yourself. What’s wrong? First, you don’t want to come up for your usual, and now you are sitting here staring into the distance.”

He sighs.

“Okay, so I’ve been working on getting this one company, but things aren’t completely going according to plan. Then there is this girl that works there…”

“Oh, this sounds interesting! Please continue.” Her eyes sparkle, and he burst out laughing, feeling light-hearted for the first time today.

***

Noah wakes up feeling the stiffness in his neck after sleeping in the same position all night. He got up in the early morning hours and placed an online order for flowers to be delivered at the office. Every girl likes flowers, right?

Making his way to the bathroom, he quickly takes a shower and gets dressed before rushing out of his apartment. He slept later than planned and knows that she won’t be in the apartment anymore. His idea is to ask his mom out for lunch and then suggest that she goes with them. That way he can try and charm her, yet make her feel comfortable while his mom is around.

At least with the lovely miss Moonvalor, he won’t have to worry about her asking to meet his parents… He smiles at himself.

The drive to the office is quick and he happily whistles in the lift on the way up to the top floor.

“Good afternoon, ladies.” He flashes them his signature smile.

“Noah!” His mom exclaims, getting up to greet him, but Alicia doesn’t even look up from her computer screen.

She can’t still be angry at him.

***

His presence makes butterflies jump in her stomach, but she ignores them, focusing extra hard on the calculations in front of her.

“This is a huge surprise! How is your leg?”

“Much better, thank you, mom. Listen, are you free for lunch?”

“Oh, honey, I wish I was, but I need to stay and help.”

“With what? I’m sure you can take some time to go out to eat something. My treat. Maybe Alicia can join us.” He looks in her direction, but she hasn’t even moved, still whispering while she concentrates on her numbers.

“Oh, son, I wish we could, but your father has given her something that really requires her full attention, and that means I need to be here to pick up the slack. Maybe next time?” From the corner of her eye, Alicia can see Mrs Bartlett rubbing his arms, and his face slightly drops.

“What could be so urgent that you can’t even go out to eat, mother?” He pouts.

“Darling, please, don’t pout.”

Alicia takes a deep breath.

“I just wanted to make up for my horrible behaviour of late, and to Alicia for making so much noise last night.”

“No need,” Alicia says without looking up.

“Did you at least get your flowers?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“They are beautiful, darling. Now you have to get out of here so she can concentrate.” His mom tries to get him to leave, but he is shuffling around on one spot, clearly not happy that he isn’t getting his way.

“Noah Bartlett, if you really want to do something, go home, get a damn job and stop living off company funds!” Alicia bursts out in anger and storms off to the kitchen, leaving both him and his mom stumped.

***

“What did I do?” He looks at her in shock.

“Honey, she is under immense pressure. Don’t hold it against her.”

Alicia comes back into the reception with a glass of water, coughing terribly, catching both of their attention, before she hits the ground.

“Alicia!” Noah and his mom rush to her side, and Mr Bartlett comes rushing out of his office when he hears his wife’s scream.

At the sight of the girl on the floor, he calls for the paramedics.