“Good,” his tense shoulders slump. “I feel people deserve a second chance, Scarlett,” her heart skips a beat at the sound of her name. “But I do not believe in a third.”
Her boss exits through the elevator leaving her to stand like an idiot.
She can do this, she reminds herself.
Walking into his office her eyes widen upon looking at the mess of manilla colored folders and papers everywhere. There is no way she can get this done in an hour, but she has to try. Organizing is one of her favorite things to do, maybe it is possible. Organizing is what keeps her mind at bay, cleaning helps her buzzing and empty mind stay occupied.
When Scarlett was seven years old she was in a car accident that left her with permanent amnesia. Since then, her mind has always felt hollow searching for seven years of memories lost forever. She knows some stories of her childhood, but only what her father told. She left him at age eighteen to come to New York City. They moved every few months, he claims it was for his job, but the older Scarlett got, the more she realized he would quit a temporary job, pack up but little they had, and left for a new state. She lived in forty-one different states, some of them they returned to, but never the same town.
Her father begged her not to go, said the city would be too much for her. It is true, lots of stimuli overwhelms her mind. She easily get distracted and her concentration is the same as a goldfish, sometimes it is hard for her to recognize objects or even faces and often times she has severe mental confusion. There are two things that make all those symptoms go away; writing and cleaning. Her focus is sharp and she feels at her prime when doing either of them. The consequence of having her cleaning tick can best be described from the events that happened this morning. When there is a mess, she hyper focuses on it unable to do anything else—like making it to work on time—until the mess is cleaned and her mind can resume focusing on her next task.
Scarlett was always homeschooled due to their nomadic lifestyle. Hating it more than anything, when she was finished she applied for colleges in New York getting accepted to SUNY New Paltz where she decided to major in English. Her first semester there she met Jo, the two of them bonded and four years later they moved to New York City together. Jo was smart and go a job quickly after college and took to the night scene in the city, Scarlett was still living off of minimum wage, hoping to find a better job to help pay half the rent for their expensive, shitty apartment. It was a miracle when looking through the mail there was a flyer saying Novak was hiring a secretary for twenty dollars an hour to start. She couldn’t believe it when they called her back to tell her she got the job just one day after she had an interview with them.
A knock on the door startles her. A man with blond hair and green eyes—similar to Alexander’s—is standing in the doorway staring at her. “I see you got off on the wrong foot with my brother,” he smiles extending his hand to her. “I’m Liam.”
Liam Novak the third Novak child. The Novak family is one of the most talked about families in the media, the press, magazines, and social networking. Their entire lives are public.
“Scarlett,” she shakes his hand. Her mind wanders to the mess she didn’t finish. “His new secretary.”
“Well hopefully you’re better than the last one.”
“What happened?” She asks curiously.
“Don’t know,” her shrugs, “I just know her fired her on the spot and the next day he was looking at applications and now four days later here you are.”
“Is he always so hot-tempered,” she mumbles and then realizes how stupid she is for saying that against her own boss to his own brother.
He laughs. “Yep. Don’t worry, try and get on his good side. Butter him up—give him lots of compliments.”
He must be joking judging by the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
“Don’t look so tense,” he sighs. “I’m messing with you. I know Alex is intense but I’m not. Someone has to have a sense of humor in the family and it seems to be me. I’m just a floor below if you need anything—or if Alex fires you, I might give you a job as my own secretary,” he gives her a kind look. “See you later, Scarlett. Good luck with my brother.”
She waves goodbye to the beautiful man and quickly resumes putting papers in folders, alphabetizing, organizing piles into contracts, needs to be signed, and mail.
Nearly finished, Alexander walks in. She opens her mouth to plead her case, there’s no way he’d give her another chance after failing to complete her first task.
“I’m impressed,” he says in a not-so-impressed tone. His voice is gruff when he speaks and sends shivers down Scarlett’s spine. “I see your desk isn’t organized…”
“I’m sorry. It’s just your desk was cluttered and papers were everywhere and—”
He raises his hand stopping her rambling. “It’s fine. Go to you desk and leave me alone. I have work to do.”
Her first day she didn’t see much of Alexander. He shut his door and worked silently as people walked in and out of his office. She organized her own desk, making all the phone calls she needed for the day as well as sending and emailing documents that needed to go out today. She is exhausted by the end of her shift, but for once she feels like her mind is clear. She felt focused on every task and not at all scrambled or forgetful like usual.
As the windows turned dark with the night sky and people began to pack up their briefcases and head home, Scarlett stayed organizing.
The elevator opens and out pours Liam along with two other men and a woman. She knew them right away. Kai, Atticus, and Olive Novak. Suddenly her palms start to sweat. Liam winks at her before knocking on Alexander’s door.
“What?” She can hear him call to them.
Liam opens the door and they pile inside. The door is left open and Scarlett can hear—eavesdropping.
“Mom prepared dinner. She wanted us to grab you and drag you home. Says you work too late and too much and we all agree.”
“I have work to do and then I’m going back to my place,” Alexander sounds distracted, probably doing paperwork.
“You know Mom wants just one day where we can all be together,” Olive says sadly.
“Not today. I’m busy,” he dismisses them.
They don’t argue and Scarlett feels as though they don’t argue back because they know there’s no point. As if they constantly beg him to do things with them and he constantly turns them down or stands them up.
Of course she’s just speculating.
When the Novak siblings leave Scarlett knocks on his open door. “You’re still here?” He briefly looks up from his paperwork.
“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you I’m leaving,” she fidgets with her fingers.
“Good night, Miss. Halloway.”
“Good night, sir.”
She turns on her heel to leave when she hears. “Don’t be late tomorrow.”
“I won’t, sir,” she smiles before shutting his door, grabbing herself and leaving the Novak building feeling satisfied and excited for tomorrow work.
Scarlett hates the subway but not as much as she hates cars. The subway is too crowded. Too noisy. The thought of all the hands who have touches the bars, seat in the seats…all the germs. She always carries antibacterial wipes on her and after a thorough wipe down on the seat, there is only ten minutes until her stop. One time she was so busy cleaning, she missed her stopped.