Her Untamed CEO

Chapter 1

Being the assistant to one of the highest-ranked power women in the city is a stressful job as it is, and she rushes out of her apartment to catch the train in time. The winter is freezing this year, and, unfortunately, she can only wear so many jackets before taking over the entire coat rack at work. She invested her money in a coat she thought looked stylish enough for her position but didn’t take into account that the lining wasn’t the warmest of the bunch.

“Well, too late now.”

She just makes the train and puts on her gloves before touching the pole to hold onto while the train burrows its way through the underground tunnels. She gets off at her station, rushing to catch the bus in time. The cold air burns her throat as she breathes heavily and moves fast.

It took her a couple of days to figure out the fastest route to the office, so she is there half an hour before Mrs. Bartlett, but she finally has it down and jumps on the bus step, right before the bus driver aims to close the door.

He giggles at her, and she has grown to like the old man who drives this route. She looks out the window at the city slowly coming to life, and her conversation with her mother from the night before comes to mind. Things at her father’s work aren’t going well, and there are talks of retrenchments, which reminds her to quickly transfer some money on her banking app to her mother.

She convinced her mother that things would get better and that the economic state of the country was just taking a small dip and would soon recover, then all the rumors would stop. Seeing her stop come up, she moves to the front of the bus and says a friendly goodbye before stepping out and facing her six-block walk to the office. At least this way she gets some exercise, but the winter wind is cold against her lungs and burns down her throat.

“Good morning, Bronwyn.”

“Good morning, miss Moonvalor. Chilly outside?”

“Just a bit.” She winks at the front desk clerk and scans her security badge before taking the lift up to the top floor.

Stepping into the huge reception area, she quickly takes off her freezing jacket so she can warm up in the air-conditioned office. She would give anything to have this kind of heating system in her apartment, but she quickly pushes the thought aside so she can start her day.

Setting up Mrs. Bartlett’s desk the way she likes it, she quickly checks her emails for any instructions before her alarm on her phone goes off to let her know to prepare the coffee for Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett.

At half-past eight on the dot, they step out of the lift and she is standing at the ready with their coffee.

“Good morning, sweetheart! This is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Morning, Alicia.”

Mr. Bartlett greets her and walks right past her, his wife taking his coffee and rolling her eyes as she follows him into his office. Emma is slowly growing used to his cold, blunt manner and doesn’t take offense. She returns to her desk and starts working on the financial reports Mrs. Bartlett sent her early this morning.

She was given a cell phone so that Mrs. Bartlett can reach her at any time of day or night if she needs something from her, and it actually made Alicia very happy feeling important to think that they viewed her as important enough to call her at any time.

The gentleman from IT walks in just as Mrs. Bartlett walks out of Mr. Bartlett’s office, and he has a laptop box in his hand.

“Probably a new toy for Noah,” Alicia sighs, and she looks down at her screen at the lines of numbers on her spreadsheet.

Concentrating on what she is doing, she doesn’t notice Mrs. Bartlett opening the box, packing everything in an executive suitcase, and moving over to her desk.

“Huh-uh…” She clears her throat and Alicia nearly jumps.

“I’m so sorry. I…”

“Never mind that. This is yours. Reading these pages and pages of sheets on your phone screen is an impossible task, so I had IT set up everything on this laptop for you.”

Alicia starts, ready to think of excuses why she shouldn’t be carrying such an expensive piece of work equipment with her when Mrs. Bartlett cuts her off. Telling her that it’s for work, it’s insured, and she insists.

“They copied everything from your computer here, and it will look the same when you start it up. Your work is saved onto our network system, so you can access it from anywhere, the same way you and I share the spreadsheets.”

Alicia nods, smiling from ear to ear. She has an executive suitcase now. This is all so unreal that she is ready to freak out but holds herself together.

“I will give you thirty seconds to scream if you feel like it, then we will get back to work. You look like you are about to burst!”

“No, I’m fine, thank you, Mrs. Bartlett. I will look after it as if it’s my own child.”

“I know you will, darling child.”

The rest of the day Alicia spends working on the financial report, missing lunch, and hardly noticing when Noah steps into the office.

“Noah, sweetheart! What are you doing here?”

“Can’t a boy take his mother out for lunch? Wait, is dad around?”

***

Noah looks around the office for any sign of his father and notices the uptight miss Moonvalor scrunching up her nose while looking at the screen in front of her.

“No, you are lucky.” His mom hooks her arm in his, walking to the coat rack, and he helps her into her coat.

“Alicia, I will be back a little later.”

The young woman looks up and smiles, but the smile doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Never mind her. She seems to go into this… What do you young people call it?”

“Zone? A brain fart? Zombie mode?”

“Oh, stop it! Now you are just being rude!” His mom reprimands him when they step out of the elevator on the ground floor.

“She is highly intelligent. In fact, you would do well to follow her example a little.” She points her index finger at Noah, and he rolls his eyes.

“Let me guess, dad didn’t approve my request for the boat?”

“Well, what else did you expect? You already have two others!”

She laughs, and they walk to the restaurant nearby.

***

She hears the laughter in the elevator on its way up and looks up to the door where she knows Mr. Bartlett is waiting in his office. She might not be working for them for long, but she knows this to be a fact.

He will be coming out of his office in three… two… The elevator bell dings and one… Mr. Bartlett steps out of his office looking angrily at his wife and son.

“I need to speak to you both. NOW.” His voice boulders, loud enough that Alicia is even convinced the reception clerk at the bottom of the building heard him.

“I’m taking off my coat first.” Mrs. Bartlett informs him.

“Do you always have to say something to undermine me?”

“I’m not undermining you. I’m simply stating a fact.” She says as Noah hangs their coats on the rack.

“Coffee.” He nods in Alicia’s direction.

“That won’t be necessary, miss Moonvalor. My son won’t be staying that long.”

She watches as the door closes and counts… two… one… And the screaming starts. It kind of makes her happy that she and her parents don’t have money. If this is how rich families interact, she would rather just have a good job and help her parents than be rich and fight like this.

It’s not as she thinks they don’t love each other, she just thinks they are very passionate and very, very stubborn. Mr. Bartlett wasn’t wrong when his door slams open and Noah barges out, storming to the elevator.

“Noah! Noah, I’m still talking to you!”

He is incessantly pressing on the button, but when the elevator takes too long for his liking, and she hears Mr. Bartlett's heavy footsteps coming closer, he looks back, shrugs at her, and rushes into the staircase. She has to bite back a giggle when the lift doors open the moment the stair door closes.

“NOAH!”

Mrs. Bartlett steps out of his office, informing him that their son is gone, and he should stop shouting at ghosts. Mr. Bartlett stands inside his door and finally steps back slamming it shut to show his anger.

“I’m done with the report, Mrs. Bartlett.”

“Thank you, Alicia. I think you should go home now. I will call you later tonight if I need any help with the report.”

Alicia hates being sent home early, but under the circumstances, she doesn’t mind. Besides, it’s not that early. Everyone else in the building leaves at this time of the afternoon, and that is probably what started the screaming in the first place.

Mr. Bartlett is refusing to work with her and Mrs. Bartlett is ready to retire and have long lunches with her son.

***

Noah gets dressed and steps out of the house at ten, knowing his parents would be home any minute now. They never get home from work before ten pm, which gives him enough time to get ready for a night out on the town and run away before his father gets back home.

The front door opens just as he grabs his keys and the first set of eyes he sees are those of his mom, followed by his father right behind her.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Out.”

“Noah, we haven’t finished our conversation.”

“That wasn’t a conversation! That was you being your normal bullying self. Now, if you excuse me. I have friends waiting for me.” He sidesteps his father and disappears as quickly as he possibly can.

His mom has been trying to convince him to start using his degree and step up to the plate in the company, in the hopes that his father will retire with her, but there is no way he is giving up his carefree life just to become like his father! He thinks his father is trying to get his mother not to retire and is now pulling him into the middle of things. Why on earth would the old man want him involved in the business in any case? He has more than enough minions to do things for him.

Noah slides his long legs in behind the steering wheel of his car and pulls out of their driveway at racing speed. He can’t wait to get out and get a couple of drinks into his body. He needs to get today’s crap out of his mind and relax. If he can’t have the boat, he will just have to arrange for the private jet to fly them to the islands.

It won’t be the same, but then again, he will be able to take more of his friends along, and they will get there faster… And he can drink on the way. If he is sailing, he can’t drink…

His dad might have just saved him a lot of trouble without even knowing it.

Noah pulls up outside of the club, buttons up his jacket when he climbs out of his car, and grins. It’s going to be an epic night!

***

Alicia finally makes it home and steps into her cold, dark apartment. She switches on the lights, puts down her things on the small kitchen table, and switches on her kettle. She needs something hot to defrost her throat after her trip home.

If she could run her shower non-stop to heat her place, she would, but even her shower water is barely enough hot water to take a proper shower. The spreadsheet comes to mind, and she thinks of some of the numbers she saw in the financial report.

Especially the expense accounts for the company executives. One of which is ridiculous!