Her Untamed CEO

Chapter 5

“Alicia, I’ve been asked by the board to give them a full breakdown of the overheads.” Mr. Bartlett sighs rubbing his fingers across his forehead, and she tilts her head to one side. She feels confused with the instruction.

“Sir? Isn’t that something Mrs. Bartlett would normally do?”

“Yes, well, she wants you to take over when she retires, so you may just as well start to do the job.” He sounds agitated and sits down behind his desk, explaining what he needs.

When he is done, Alicia leaves his office, almost too scared to face Mrs. Bartlett.

“I’ve sent you the files you will need to do the balance sheets with.” She doesn’t even look in Alicia’s direction, and Alicia can feel the tension in the reception area.

“Mrs. Bartlett, I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but have I done something wrong?” Alicia asks hoping she isn’t in trouble, and Mrs. Bartlett sighs.

“No, dear. It’s something between my husband and me, and he is right. I need to start giving you more responsibilities if I want you to take over from me soon.” She puts her hands on her lap, turning her chair in Alicia’s direction.

“I will be retiring sooner than planned, so we need to get you prepared to take over as soon as possible.” She looks Alicia in the eye and for the first time, Alicia can see how tired she looks.

“Okay, just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Start with the overhead sheets that he gave you. We need to show the board that the company isn’t spending money on unnecessary purchases.” Mrs. Bartlett throws her hands in the air, rolling her eyes.

“As if my husband would let anyone buy so much as one pen too many!”

Alicia nods and opens the file on her computer. Knowing that the company is in financial trouble, she will do anything in her power to keep her job, and if that means making sure people aren’t wasting company money, then that is what she’s going to do.

***

Pulling into the driveway of the huge mansion, Noah feels the need for a drink… No, a party! He can’t have one here because his father will just chase his friends away and make him look like a fool!

He can no longer stay in the house. He needs to get out on his own!

He runs up the stairs to his bedroom and starts to pack. He can stay on his boat, but then he wouldn’t like to live there permanently, but it will do for now. At least he will be able to have some guests over, and the girls can even spend some time in the jacuzzi.

Deciding that he needs fresh ocean air, he calls the captain and finds out if they can take the yacht out for the night. It’s more like an instruction than a question, and when the captain tells him that he will make a plan, Noah smiles from ear to ear.

He grabs his phone and calls Gabriel to let him know that he is having a get-together for his close friends on the yacht.

“The boat? Are you being serious?”

“Yes, are you coming or not?”

His friend would never say no to a party, especially when he doesn’t have to pay for the drinks. They hang up after deciding on which girls to invite, and Gab tells him which of their friends he thinks would be the best for a trip like this.

Noah starts making a couple of calls to the guys, and not long after he drops his bag in the back of his car and pulls out of the driveway. If his parents don't let him have a holiday or buy a damn boat, he will just have one on his boat!

“Damn, that sounded stupid…” He frowns.

He can’t be that spoiled, can he? He shakes off the idea and drives to the harbor, meeting Gab and some of the guys there.

He stepped onto the yacht (which they refer to as the boat!) and greeted the captain and the staff with a bright smile. This is going to be one hell of a great trip. He arranged for them to be out for three days with some scuba diving, snorkeling, a picnic on the beach, and whatever else he felt like doing.

Walking into the main parlor of the yacht, he drops his bag and takes the drink from the pretty blond stewardess. The white couches, with their light blue cushions, look really inviting after the day he’s had, and he flops down, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

The staff takes their bags down to the rooms, and the chef comes out to discuss the menu with him. It doesn’t take long for the girls to arrive, and he makes sure that the stewardesses know to keep the drinks flowing.

The yacht pulls out of the bay and he pulls Melinda up close to him. He decided to invite her because she knows there is no possibility of a relationship, and he likes her spunk.

Everyone gets together on the main deck and watches the sunset while the staff runs around, prepping the yacht for the party. Noah takes a deep breath of the fresh ocean air and feels all the stress of the day drain from his muscles as he places a soft kiss on Melinda’s shoulder.

She turns around in his arms and grins at him with a glint in her eyes that he knows very well. He grabs her and she squeals in delight when he picks her up bridal style, carrying her off to his room.

***

Alicia looks up from the screen to stretch her back and realizes that it’s dark outside. She has probably missed her bus and will have to walk to the train station, meaning she will hardly get any sleep before she has to be up to come back.

Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett left hours ago already, and she told them that she just wanted to check one more thing, which led to another and then another and well… Here she is. She packs up her things and walks over to the lift feeling the strain of the day in her shoulders and neck.

It’s twelve o'clock when she gets home, and she is too tired to worry about eating anything. Besides, her throat is killing her after the cold from outside, so she takes a quick shower and goes straight to bed.

Luckily, she had spoken to her mom very quickly earlier in the evening, and she didn’t have to call her at this time of the night. Her nose feels totally blocked up, she has trouble breathing and finally gives up on trying to sleep. Deciding to make herself a cup of tea, she gets out of bed and makes her way to the kitchen.

She really can’t afford to get sick right now and takes some more meds in the hopes that she will be able to fall asleep and feel better in the morning. When she finally feels sleep pulling her into oblivion, her alarm goes off, signaling that it’s time for her to get up.

“Great!” She sneezes.

“f*****g great!” She shouts and gets out of bed.

She wonders if Noah ever has to wake up at this time of the morning. He probably sleeps until noon, or maybe he might surprise her and be in the gym…

“Nah, I doubt that very much.” Grabbing her coat, she faces the cold morning air and walks to the train station.

He probably doesn’t even know how the train system works! When she switches to her bus, she wonders if he has ever seen the inside of a bus, and when she finally walks into the office, she is coughing and can hardly catch her breath.

She rushes to the bathroom in the hopes that the Bartletts aren’t in the office yet and haven’t heard her cough so terribly. Splashing some water on her face when she catches her breath, she looks at herself in the mirror.

She looks a bit pale… But that might just be because she is getting sick.

By the time her bosses arrive, she is looking better and has gotten rid of most of the cold symptoms with the medicine she brought along. When she wants to hand Mr. Bartlett’s coffee over to Mrs. Bartlett, she gets a look that tells her that’s not happening.

Alicia looks at Mr. Bartlett walking into his office then back at Mrs. Bartlett who takes her seat behind her desk and decides she should take his coffee to him. The tension between the two of them is so thick it feels as if it’s going to strangle Alicia, but she has to push through it.

She can’t let them see that it’s getting to her. She studied long and hard to be able to do a job like this, and she can’t fail. She won’t! She’s not going back to that small house with the two bedrooms and faded furniture.

She promised herself that she would do better, be better. Not that she looks down on what her parents have, but she wants more from life. She wants pretty suits and shoes and a fancy apartment. Knowing it will take time and hard work, but she has never been scared of doing the work.

She takes her seat and carries on where she left off with the overheads.

Picking up that there are fuel expenses that don’t make sense, she asks Mrs. Bartlett about it, who explains that all the vehicles are registered in the company name. That would explain why that expense is so high.

Alicia still feels that it’s a lot, and she decides to pull the logbooks for all the vehicles. When she adds up the logs, there is still something missing, and it takes her most of the morning to try and find where the money is going.

If she is going to hand in the report to the board, she wants to make sure that she knows exactly what is in it. After adding the numbers a couple of times, she throws her pen down on the desk in frustration and drops her forehead in her hands.

“Is everything okay over there?” Mrs. Bartlett asks startling her.

She has completely forgotten that she’s not alone.

“No, actually it’s not.” Alicia frowns, explaining her predicament.

Mrs. Bartlett immediately seems to know what the problem is and walks over to the hidden cupboards to pull out a file. Handing it to Alicia.

“This should solve the problem.” She smiles.

“I completely forgot to give you the logs for Noah’s boats.”

NOAH’S BOATS!!!! Alicia’s eyes grow wide before her lips pull into a thin line, and she feels as if steam was going to blow out of her ears.

“Oh, boats, great.” She tries to smile at Mrs. Bartlett and is thankful when she realizes that she has actually left the reception and stepped into Mr. Bartlett’s office.

Noah’s freaking boats! How is she going to explain that one to the board of directors who just instructed that the entire department be laid off?! She huffs and decides that she needs coffee.

Popping her head into Mr. Bartlett’s office, she catches the end of a sentence.

“…The boats.”

“I’m sorry… I just wanted to find out if you need something to drink? I’m going to make coffee.”

“Sure, coffee sounds good.” Mr. Bartlett nods and Mrs. Bartlett sighs again for the umpteenth time today.

“Some tea would be nice, thank you, Alicia.”

Knowing full well she probably interrupted another conversation about Noah, she quickly disappeared to the kitchen to make their coffee when suddenly all hell broke loose in the reception area.

Mrs. and Mr. Bartlett are in a screaming match that usually only happens when it has to do with Noah’s spending! Dammit! If only she didn’t have to put his damn boat expenses into the company financial reports!! How much fuel can one boat use?!