Page 4 of The Fool

Present

Bea 27

“I swear my boss fucking hates me,” I cry to Leah after another hideous day at work.

“What the hell did the jerk do this time?” she asks, having heard this declaration nearly every day for the last eighteen months. She’s way feistier than I am and would have happily kicked his ass by now. Not only that, but she would also have done so with a huge smile on her face. Believe me, I’ve been tempted to let her more than once over the past year and a half of working under my bully of a boss; he certainly deserves it.

“Nothing new, really, it’s just the way he belittles me in front of everyone who comes into the office. I hate him…with a passion!”

My boss is none other than Nathaniel Carter, or ‘Nate’ as he is known to those he likes, which is pretty much everyone else but me. Who would have thought the popular boy with a heart from school would end up being such an asshole to work for?

Alas, when I took the job working for the infamous Cameron Carter of Westlake Prep, I was desperate. Besides, he had always seemed nice, and his employees all raved about what an awesome boss he was. And I’ll admit, he is. His brother, however, is the complete opposite.

I began working for him after I was offered extra training to become a personal assistant. I was originally a receptionist, far away from the top floor and all the bosses. However, when Cameron forced his lay-about brother to come and actually work for a living, I was ‘promoted’ to being his assistant. Having known who he was throughout high school, being that he was the town’s golden boy, I was a little excited to meet him. Alas, the reality didn’t exactly live up to the legend of Nate, high-school-dream-boy, Carter. In fact, I have absolutely no idea who everyone had been creaming their panties over, but it surely can’t have been the guy who I have to work for every day of the week.

“Why don’t you just leave, hun?” Leah asks the obvious. “But kick his balls on the way out.”

We laugh over the delicious thought of kicking him in the crotch with steel-capped boots, possibly encrusted with metal spikes on the toe. Seriously though, if I don’t laugh, I’ll end up crying. Lord knows he’s made me do enough of that over the last year or so.

“Because the big boss, Cameron Carter, has been so good to me over the years,” I explain, “he took me on with virtually no experience, kept me going even when his bitchy girlfriends insisted that he fire me, and then paid for me to train up as a PA. He even promoted me to Nathaniel’s PA because he was so impressed with my professionalism. I can’t just take the company’s money to train me and then fuck off.”

“People do that all the time, Bea,” she says as she begins rubbing my leg soothingly. “No one would look down on you if you did.”

“Perhaps, but before I was promoted to Nathaniel, I loved it at Medina Technologies. It has a real family feel and they reward their employees well. Like, really well! I’d be hard pushed to find the same benefits package anywhere else.”

“Hmm, well couldn’t you ask to be someone else’s PA?” she suggests.

“I don’t know, it would be like taking a step down. The only other way to go is to be promoted to Cameron’s PA, but I know Jack isn’t leaving anytime soon. Face it, I’m stuck.”

“Well, you might have to reconsider that step down if this continues, Bea. I’ve already had to hold your brother off from going down there to beat the shit out of him,” she says matter of factly. I believe her too. Living with Ben means he’s witnessed what Nate Carter has put me through. Ben is just a tad overprotective of me; though, I only have myself to blame for that one.

“I hope it’s not affecting you guys?” I ask, feeling suddenly panicked. Leah is Ben’s girlfriend so I would hate for them to be arguing over his attempts to march in and save the day, so to speak.

“Nah, I have your big brother wrapped around my little finger,” she giggles at the same time as holding up her right pinky.

“Well, I know that, but he can be a right sulky, stubborn bastard when he wants to be,” I reply.

“True,” she nods with a smirk.

“Is someone talking about me?” Ben shouts out as he walks through the door. “I heard the words ‘stubborn’ and ‘bastard’ being thrown around.”

Ben walks into the room, all six foot something of him, filling it like a basketball player hooked on steroids. His messy, dark blonde hair pointing this way and that in an effortless, Abercrombie and Fitch model kind of style. His unapologetic grin spreads over his chiseled features the moment his eyes feast on Leah’s naked legs and low-cut top. The boy is always thinking with his penis and feels zero shame in displaying this fact openly and proudly.

Ben, the easiest lay in his high school days, chased, caught, and pretty much fucked the entire cheerleading squad in true cliché jock fashion. Even though he’s my big brother, I know he’s a good-looking guy with a body that is the envy of most gym junkies. However, he chose to pursue the one girl who didn’t drop her panties within the first five seconds of meeting him. Like a true player, this only made the hunt that much more exhilarating for him. The poor guy never saw that it was Leah who was trapping his little heart until it was too late. She definitely won the initial round of cat and mouse.

Smitten as he is, Ben has undeniably turned the figurative tables, refusing to move out with her until he deems me fit enough to live without his brotherly protection. I can protest as much as I like, but Ben takes stubbornness to an all-new, sky-soaring level, arguing black is white if it suits him. Leah may as well live here, but I know, deep down, she wants them to make that next step together, in their own space, without his kid sister cramping their style with her history of fucked up mental health.

“Your sister’s boss is being a grade-A asshole again,” Leah says to him with a wink for me.

“Beatrice Summers, for the love of God, give me the word and I will be down there so fast, you won’t even see me pass through your office to get to him,” he says through gritted, frustrated teeth.

“No!” I gasp, sloshing my wine as I reach out to flap at him. “As subtle as your form of payback would be, it would completely ruin my career. I can handle it, I promise.”

Perhaps I need to stop telling them everything, but what can I say? Ben’s always been my go-to port of call; my safety net; my big brother in every way.

“Fine, but then we need to stop talking about it because it’s going to wind me up. Leah, baby, are we still on tonight?” he asks.

“Yep, I’ll nip home to get ready and then you can pick me up, like a proper date.”

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