Her Untamed CEO

Chapter 3

“Do you really need to retire? I mean, Alicia is great, but it would feel so strange having to ask a stranger about my allowance?” Noah looks at his mother, giving her his best puppy eyes possible, but she simply drops a kiss on his cheek.

“Yes, I do. I also want to spend time at the spa and on holiday like you. And regarding your finances… I’m afraid you will have to cut down on your spending son. There is an allowance and then there is spending way above your means.” She rolls her eyes.

“What means?” He grins at her.

“Fine, the means your father will allow. I’m afraid that this time you have gone too far, and dear Alicia has nothing to do with it.” She lifts an eyebrow at him.

“It still doesn’t change the fact that you won’t be in the office every day. Aren’t you worried that dad might… You know…” He tries his luck, but the look on her face immediately tells him that he has really gone too far.

“Your father and I have been married for over forty years… Do you honestly think that he would waste his time on a young girl like Alicia? Besides, I think she would run for the hills if he tried.” She bursts out laughing.

“Yeah, she is a bit on the ice queen side, that one.” He rolls his eyes.

“No wonder she’s single.” He sighs.

“Who says that she’s single?” His mom looks amused.

He explains all the signs of her not having a mark on her wedding ring finger, and not having a life being the main two factors, and his mother is in stitches.

“I didn’t know you took such interest in the poor girl. Please do stay away from her. I really wouldn’t like wasting my time in training someone new, or I will be the one telling your father to stop your allowance.” The smile on her face, not going all the way to her eyes, suddenly tells Noah that his mother is being serious, and he should not overstep his boundaries on this one.

The rest of their lunch is spent talking about how much he would have liked spending time on the beach with this girl or that, and she can’t help but laugh at all the antics he planned.

***

“Have a nice lunch?” Mr. Bartlett mumbles when Mrs. Bartlett returns with Noah by her side. It’s the third day in a row that they’ve gone out, and he seems to be losing his patience with his son stealing his mother away from her desk every day.

“It was lovely! You should join us sometimes.” Mrs. Bartlett places a kiss on her husband’s cheek, and Alicia nearly falls out of her chair.

They never show any public affection!

“Noah, I need to talk to you.” Mr. Bartlett announces and walks into his office.

His son rolls his eyes and follows him, while Mrs. Bartlett goes to the kitchen. Alicia keeps her head down and concentrates on the letters Mr. Bartlett gave her to send out.

“I need you to do some typing for me, Alicia.” Mrs. Bartlett steps out of the kitchen with coffee in hand.

“Sure, I just need to finish these for Mr. Bartlett, then I can attend to your typing, ma’am.”

“Oh? What letters?” She lifts an eyebrow, and Alicia feels like a rabbit caught in headlights.

Did she know her husband was letting the entire department go? Did she just let a cat out of the bag that shouldn’t have existed?!

“Uhm, maybe you should discuss it with your husband?” Alicia cringes as Mrs. Bartlett steps closer.

Oh, boy… Today is the day she loses her job, and she will have to move back to her parent's house, and she won’t find another job because work is scarce, and she will have gotten fired!!

“Let me see.” Mrs. Bartlett holds out her hand, standing right next to Alicia’s desk, and she hands her the notes she made for the letters.

Mrs. Bartlett reads for what feels like a split second, walks over to her desk to put down her mug, and walks into Mr. Bartlett’s office, slamming the door behind her. Alicia cringes as she hears the screaming start.

“Okay, she didn’t know.” She sighs and sits with her hands on her keyboard, not sure what to do next.

Technically she reports to Mrs. Bartlett for now, but Mr. Bartlett gave her the instruction, and she will be reporting to him eventually. Isn’t that the intention? Noah storms out of the office in a flurry of shouts and slams the door shut behind him. He takes a moment to look at her and then slams his hands on the stairs door before disappearing.

What could she possibly have done to upset him this time?

Mrs. Bartlett steps out of Mr. Bartlett’s office not looking happy and places the note pad back on Alicia’s desk.

“Please complete what he gave you to do. I will sort out the other typing.” She looks slightly pale, and Alicia wonders if she should ask her if she’s okay.

Then she remembers the first words Mrs. Bartlett told her, and she carries on typing the letters. Thinking of every person that will be receiving a letter tomorrow that the department is closing and they will be receiving a severance package, but that they won’t have a job in two months.

Closing an entire department can only mean that what she saw in the financial reports wasn’t received well by the board. When companies are trying to cut costs and raise their profit margin, the first thing that goes out the window are the departments that only use money and don’t make money. That’s the way the world works.

At the end of the day, Alicia closes the last of the envelopes and places them in the box with the rest. She will be going down to the department first thing in the morning with Mr. Bartlett to hand out the letters in person. She finds it strange that he wants to do it himself and hasn’t just sent the orders down to the department head, but whatever he says goes.

Mrs. Bartlett developed a headache soon after the fight and left early, leaving Alicia to find out from Mr. Bartlett if there is anything else he requires from her before she goes home.

She finds him standing in his office looking out the window at the city below.

“I’m on my way out, sir. Do you need anything before I go?”

“If you were in my position, and you had to make a decision based on those financial reports you sent to the board… What would you have done?” He turns around to look at her, and she is surprised at the pain she sees in his eyes.

This must have been a very difficult decision for him to make.

“I don’t know, Sir. I’m not in that position where I have to make that decision.” She shrugs.

“I guess I’m very thankful that I don’t.” She gives him an open and honest answer, and he nods.

“Thank you. You can go. I don’t need anything.” He turned back towards the window, and she felt her heart go out to the old man.

She realizes as she steps into the lift that the reason Mrs. Bartlett told her not to get too familiar is that even though they try and hide it, they care about every person who works for the company. It’s very rare in today’s day and age. Most people just want to make as much money as fast as possible no matter the cost to their staff.

Then again… She climbs onto the train, pulling her jacket tighter around her, fighting against the cold that is creeping into her bones. It feels as if she was getting sick, and she can’t afford to right now!

***

Noah walks out of the bathroom with his hair still wet from his shower, wearing only a pair of sweats. His perfectly toned and tanned muscles twisting and turning as he moves. After the fight he had with his father, he is not in the mood to have people around him, which is strange to him, and he makes himself comfortable in front of his big-screen smart television.

Putting his headset over his ears, he announces to his friends that he is online and ready for the battle. Pressing start on his controller, his avatar appears on the screen and they roll into action, looking for the enemy.

He tries his best to focus on the game, but the image of Alicia Moonvalor keeps popping into his thoughts, and what his father told him makes him lose his concentration.

“Dammit! Gabriel! Watch where you are going!” He shouts at his best friend when he dies for the umpteenth time.

“Dude! That wasn’t me! What is wrong with you tonight?”

“Nothing.” His avatar appears again and he runs to catch up to the rest of his team.

When he misses the deadline and the screen declares that he is dead, he resigns from the game, leaving Gabriel and the rest hanging while he goes in search of a drink. He finds his father in his office as usual working, and his mom sitting on the couch reading.

“Dad.”

Gary Bartlett looks up, and Noah can see the strain in his father’s face.

“I’m sorry about today.”

“I’m sorry too, son.” He sighs.

“How did things go so wrong?” Noah knows he probably shouldn’t ask at a time like this, but he needs to know what is going on.

His mom looks at his dad, and when his dad looks at her, Noah loses his temper.

“You blame me for acting like a spoiled brat, but neither of you wants to tell me the truth!” He storms out of the office ignoring the calls from his mom to come back.

All they told him was that they have to cut back on spending and that they are closing their Research and Development department. Things can’t possibly be that bad! His dad probably made it up, just so he has an excuse not to pay for his holiday! He grabs his headset the moment he walks into his room.

“Gab, I’m going out.”

Hearing a whoop from his friend. An hour later, they walk into the club and are greeted by their normal group of friends. Noah starts the evening with a round of drinks on him. All of the girls in their group have tried to catch him, but all of them know that he isn’t a dumb fish. He makes his rounds, greeting them as a proper gentleman would, and then zones in on the girl he wants to go home with for the night.

The beat of the music pounds against their bodies as they move, and the harder he tries to concentrate on the girl in front of him, the more Alicia’s face pops into his thoughts. Making him drink even more to forget about her.

***

Alicia climbs out of her shower, drying herself quickly and jumping into her pajamas before rushing over to her bed. Her tea has already cooled down in the little time she spent in the shower, and just as she has made herself comfortable, she feels it coming…

“No, no, no… Aaaaachoooooo!”

Great! That would be the first sign that she is in fact sick! Dammit! That’s the last thing she can afford right now! She grabs for the tissues on the shelf above her head and blows her nose.

If she’s lucky, it was just an isolated incident, and she sneezed because of the amount of dust in her little apartment…

“Oh, stop trying to fool yourself.”

Her phone rings and she sees her mom’s name popping up on the screen. She doesn’t have the strength to talk to her for the first time in forever. The second she answers the phone, her mom is going to know she is sick and something is wrong, and all she wants to do right now is sleep.

If she doesn’t answer, her mom is going to worry that something serious happened…

“Hi, mom.”

“Hi sweetheart, oh dear, are you ill?”