“God, I’m such an idiot,” I hissed.
When I heard the front door open, I turned off the headlights of my car. I needed to get inside before my parents started asking questions, and I needed a fucking shower. I grabbed my purse and headed inside, ignoring the blatant smell of stale beer in the air.
“How was your first day, honey?” Mom asked.
I made my way up the stairs. “It was good. Long. I’m beyond exhausted.”
Dad harrumphed. “He better not keep you late anymore. Your mother slaved over dinner.”
I sniffed the air. “Yeah, takes a lot of work to order out pizza.”
Dad yelled up at me, “Hey! You get back down here!”
I rolled my eyes. “Need a shower. Got another long day ahead of me tomorrow.”
“Bella, I told you to get down here!”
I whipped around and pinned my father with an angry gaze. “Unless you want me down there to apologize for embarrassing me and almost costing me my job today, you can stuff it. The reason why I had to stay late in the first place was to try to show my new boss that I am dedicated to this job and that your drunken antics won’t affect my workplace productivity. So, you want me home on time? Quit being a drunk.”
Then, I stormed upstairs and locked myself in my bathroom before the tears started barreling down my cheeks.
10
Wyatt
I nodded as I walked through the front doors. “Miss Bella.”
She didn’t look up from her computer. “Mr. Remington.”
I paused at her desk. “I take it you’ve had a good morning thus far?”
She still didn’t look at me. “Of course. I hope you have, as well.”
It was the same shit but a different morning. For days now, Bella and I had been tiptoeing around one another. And while her father hadn’t come storming back in liquored up with vodka or beer, I’d been finding excuses to stop by her desk. Bidding her good morning was a prime opportunity to gauge her mood and determine if she could even look at me after what had happened a few days prior.
But, she never did.
Nevertheless, I kept pursuing it. I wanted her to look at me. I wanted to see whatever it was she felt she was hiding like a professional. So, I took improperly completed paperwork straight to her desk of my own volition. I had her come up to my office a few times to pick up things I ordered for her that kept coming in.
Like her name plaque for her desk.
Or her company credit card for making conference purchases.
Or the keys to her company car.
“You gave her a car?” Will asked.
I drew in a deep breath as the man stormed through my office door. “Yes, come in. Please, have a seat.”
He placed his hands against my desk. “Since when do we shell out the money to give secretaries company cars, Wyatt?”
My fingers kept clacking against the keyboard. “Have you seen my email, by any chance? I haven’t gotten responses back yet.”
“Focus, Wyatt. We’re talking about things that financially impact the company.”
My eyes finally met his. “So am I.”
He sighed. “Why in the world did you requisition a car for that girl?”
“Doesn’t every department-head have one?”
He blinked. “Since when is a secretary the department-head of anything?”
I shrugged. “Since we hired Bella to be the presenting face of this company and gave her the ability to coordinate every other secretary’s schedules for every individual department.”
“Wyatt, we don’t have a ‘secretaries’ department. They are simply aids to the actual departments we have.”
I stood slowly to my feet. “So, what you’re saying is that without those aids, our departments wouldn’t run as smoothly.”
He shook his head. “Oh, no. I see where this argument is going.”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “Then, I’ll save you the argument. Bella’s getting this car. She’s the face of this headquarters. She’s the only secretary employed full-time with benefits. She’s the sole coordinator of things like our conferences and out-of-town business ventures. She’s getting the damn car.”
Will straightened his back. “If she wrecks that car—”
I cut him off. “Our insurance will deal with it, just like it always does.”
And when he didn’t respond, I showed him out the same way he had come barging in.
However, I found myself distracted for the rest of the day. Even though everything had come in for Bella, I still wanted to see her. I still wanted to be around her. I just didn’t have an appropriate excuse. That little spat with Will cost me my lunch hour, and I was thirty minutes behind on paperwork I had to have logged by the end of the day.
Still, I decided that I needed to make sure our prime secretary had eaten.
I made my way down to the main floor and silenced my footsteps. I heard Bella talking on the phone, but her voice was hushed. I furrowed my brow as I approached her desk from behind, trying to keep myself as quiet as possible. And when she turned toward her computer, I saw she had her cell phone propped against her shoulder.
“Daddy, I’m at work,” she whispered, “can’t this wait?”
I paused, holding my breath as Bella continued to speak.
“I can order you something. But—yes, Daddy, I know. I mean, that’s great that Mom’s—yes, there’s sandwich meat—will you let me finish a sentence, please?”
My heart broke for her. She led a rough life, it seemed, and part of that was due to her father as well as my own. I wondered if she knew. I wondered if she had put it together yet. Had her father told her? Surely, she knew by now.
Maybe that’s why she won’t look at me anymore.
Bella sighed. “Daddy, I have to go. I’m already behind on work. And if Mom wants to get a job, that’s completely her call. No one can babysit you while you drink yourself to death; that’s your choice. Oh? Well, then whose choice is it, Dad, if not yours?”
I braced for it. I braced for the moment Bella’s father told her everything and she stormed out of this place, never to return. But instead, she simply shook her head and hung up the phone. I saw her screen instantly light up before she pressed a button on the side. And when the screen lit up again, she shoved it into her purse.
So, I came around to the side of her desk. “Did you clock out for lunch?”
Bella almost leaped out of her chair. “Holy shi— I mean, uh… Mr. Remington. Hello. I didn’t hear you, my apologies.”
I leaned against her desk. “Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Her eyes met mine for the first time since Monday. “Um, but yes. I—I did clock out for lunch. Why? Was I gone too long?”
I shook my head. “Just wanted to make sure you take your lunch hour. The company can be audited and fined if we don’t adhere to the strict hiring practices laid out for us.”
She nodded. “Well, I took a fifty-six-minute break and ate right there in the kitchen.”
I drew in a deep breath through my nose. “Have you given the car a test drive yet?” I could’ve sworn she smiled softly at me.