Chapter 13: NOW THAT I’VE EARNED A NICKNAME
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Alex’s POV;
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After a well deserved off-time It took me two days to think of something to test him without being too out of line, changing his keyboard settings and shortcuts seemed too personal, ridiculous ringtones seemed too inappropriate, TP-ing his office and everything inside seemed too childish…all these thoughts went through my mind until I came up with a perfect plan today, this morning I sneaked into his office with help of Kate (without her knowledge obviously, I don’t wanna die so soon) and changed the settings of his multifunction printer.
Now the machine only accepts instructions in Japanese and each time you turn it on, it will greet you with a very loud and happy sounding “kon’nichiwa….” followed by more Japanese that sounded incoherent to my inexperienced ears.
It was hard not to smile… especially when I pictured his enraged reaction to all that mixup.
Sitting in my office, sipping my morning coffee, I was awaiting the volcano that was about to erupt, hopefully the walls are not perfectly soundproofed, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts and I dragged my attention to Nick who was standing in my doorway giving me his usual geeky stern look. “Come in” I mumbled and he casually walked in and handed me a new project file along with some papers.
“Here” he said, I made a sad face at him but accepted the added work anyway. The papers showed a brief progress report of the new campaign advertisement and some marketing schemes.
Just as I was going through the papers Nick spoke up “Oh and almost forgot, Mr. Black had asked for you to meet him in his office.”
I froze and I guess, visibly paled at his words “Now?” I asked at which he just nodded.
“He wants to discuss the sales and profit agenda right?” I asked again, almost urging him to say yes telepathically.
He shook his head and answered “No idea whatsoever.” So much for my telepathy.
I was in trouble. Heaps of trouble. After Nick left, I clumsily got out of my chair and grabbed the sales file (just in case) as I ungracefully stumbled out of my own office room and very very very slowly started walking towards the CEO’s office.
Just as I was to enter, Kate exited his office and she gave me a smile and mouthed “talk later, I’m kinda in a hurry” when our gaze met.
I desperately needed a friend so I planted myself in her way despite what she said and stopped her “Kate, help me…I’m in a big problem” I said gesturing towards his office.
“What? B-but how?” She asked, confused. “Did you do something again? Alex how many times do I have to tell you to-“
I cut off her speech by putting my hand on her mouth “stop it will you! I’m stressed enough as it is.”
“What did you do?” She asked.
“Something,” I told her vaguely.
She shook her head at me in disapproval and I pouted “what do I do? I’m being summoned to the villain’s chamber”. Yes I started calling him ‘the villain’, only Nick and Kate knew, it was one of our inner-circle things.
Kate rolled her eyes and smiled “It’s probably not that big of a deal, stop being a drama queen.”
“It seems that way to you but remember Kate, if I don’t make it out alive…” I took a small pause to prolong this very grave matter “please don’t let my mom choose pink flowers for my funeral.”
She sighed in annoyance and started to walk away from me but not before I saw the smile she was desperately trying to hide. “Remember! When I kick the bucket…No pink!” I said after her, in a louder voice.
Once Kate walked away I was left alone to deal with my nerves, gathering my courage I stepped forward to knock on the door.
When I heard a faint “Come in” I twisted the doorknob and stepped inside. Here goes nothing.
“….no don’t. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself thank you very much.” Jensen was standing, talking on the phone and he was smiling might I add. This was the first time I’ve seen him look so genuinely happy that his eyes sparkled at whatever the other person was saying.
I sighed. He belonged on the cover page of Abercrombie and Fitch, it was unfair how he wasn’t even doing anything out of the norm yet he managed to look absolutely picture perfect.
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, just the fact that you’re a few minutes older doesn’t give you the right to boss me around” he was saying as he chuckled and my eyes went wide with disbelief. Who is this guy? And what happened to ‘Mr. Devil’ a.k.a Jensen Black?
“Your friends are lame and I’m not gonna go out on any more blind dates, especially the ones you arrange” He retorted and almost immediately pulled the phone away from his ear while cringing and smiling at the same time.
I immediately suppressed my laughter by pressing my lips in a thin line. Forced to go on blind dates, huh?
He looked up at me and met my gaze for the first time today, he gestured for me to give him the file that I had and I wordlessly handed it to him and continued awkwardly standing since he didn’t offer me a seat.
“That’s never gonna happen so get over it” he scoffed while leafing through the sales file, multitasking effortlessly. Who was he talking to? A friend? sibling? Curiosity had been sparked inside me, and I was way too nosy to ignore something like this.
He dramatically rolled his eyes, still smiling at whatever the person on the other end said and spoke up “Let’s discuss this later, shall we?” His tone suggested that it wasn’t a request. Is something wrong with him, or am I hallucinating?
The voice in his phone said something which made him laugh loudly and then he exaggerated every syllable when he spoke “Yes madam, whatever you say” and chuckled before muttering a “bye”.
‘Who was this woman who can make even Jensen Black seem like a tolerable person?’
After hanging up he smiled down at his phone and shook his head like he couldn’t decide whether the person who called was absolutely adorable or crazy. I raised my eyebrows in a barely contained amusement. It seemed he was in an awfully good mood this morning.
“Ms. Brook I presume you are working on organizing the sales visit regarding our next project?” He said as he turned to face me.
“Yes and to achieve this month’s target we’ll have to negotiate a few more contracts, I believe you’re aware of them” he phrased it as a question. He was smiling and seemed amused for some reason…
I was sweating “Of course, I’ve even looked into arranging a conference meeting with the heir of Harrison chain of hotels for the same, I believe we might be able to renegotiate.” I answered almost robotically.
He nodded in agreement “I’d like you to look into their sales records and yeah…” and then suddenly added, “make two copies of the contract we already signed.” He handed me a few documents.
I stared at his hand like it was a ticking time bomb before slowly moving forward and accepting the task. I walked towards the printer very slowly, and suddenly stopped and started walking towards the door instead.
“Where are you going?” He asked.
“I’ll just be using the printing room.” I answered.
“No need, it’s just two pages, you can use my printer, it’s right there.” He said gesturing at it, as if I couldn’t see the huge contraption in the room. I nodded and approached it slowly.
I knew what was coming as I pressed the power button and as expected the machine greeted me with annoyingly loud Japanese excitement. I cringed.
Kill me please.
I glanced back at Jensen who looked completely composed.
“I don’t understand what this is saying.” I look at him, trying to seem completely perplexed.
“I wonder why?” He wasn’t fooling anyone with that innocent look on his face as he shrugged. He knows. Great!
Guess the joke is on me.
I was cursing him, myself and everything that was in sight. Jensen just enjoyed his morning coffee and my miserable state with an amused smirk on his face.
After long painful moments of struggle with the stubborn machine, I was finally able to print out copies after switching it back to normal settings. When I was finally done with my task it was past lunchtime, he walked up to me with a file in hand and said, “you can put those with the ones over here…” Leaving the file with me he returned to his desk.
I checked it to find a bunch of copies of the contract I just printed out. I sighed in annoyance, why am I not surprised?
“Just so you know, I know my office like the back of my hand… ” He confirmed what I already knew.
There was no point in denying it, “Now that you have proved your point, may I leave?”
He smiled a little, looking awfully smug sitting in his terribly comfortable chair. “yes, you may.” And with that he went back to his work.
I was about to leave the room when I realised I had my phone with me when I came in and suddenly it was nowhere to be found. After a few minutes of uselessly searching for it I asked a very busy looking Jensen. “Did you see my phone?”
He didn’t answer, but pulled out his own iPhone to call my number… it started ringing on his desk under the sales file. I might have left it there while talking to him.
He reached for the ringing device before I did since he was closer, and his eyebrows raised up in surprise at whatever he saw. When he turned the screen towards me I paled. It said ‘Villain Calling’.
Shit!
I might as well jump off this building, conveniently enough it was the top floor.
‘It’s not what you think…’ I wanted to say but no words would come out. When my phone stopped ringing, everything came to a staggering halt drowning in absolute silence.
With narrowed eyes he stared at me for a second too long and I contemplated ending my existence in a million different ways.
I was frozen as he walked closer to me “Now that I’ve earned a nickname….I might as well live up to it” he handed me my phone back and winked before turning around and walking back to his chair behind the desk.
What the hell just happened?
I was obviously dismissed, so I returned to my own office with raging thoughts, which this time were directed towards myself. ‘Why is my luck this bad? And why ever did I save his contact information like that?’ At least you didn’t save him as ‘Mr. Abercrombie and Fitch’ said an annoying voice inside my head. I groaned.
And he… winked at me? Either he was high or he had completely lost his mind, maybe both.
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My phone pinged with a message from Sam “If your parents call you frantically about Kyle, please don’t let them freak out, your brother is fine by the way, he just got a little hurt because of a stunt, but the media is hyping it up too much.”
I frowned, worrying despite what Sam told me, I could only imagine how mom would lose her mind if she found out.
Immediately I speed dialled Kyle, and listened to his phone ring while my heart was beating anxiously. He picked up after the fourth ring, easing my restless mind, “Hey Alex.”
Without beating around the bush I started scolding, “what is this I’m hearing about you almost dying while attempting a backflip?!” I scolded, trying to exaggerate and make it sound humorous but underneath I was terrified for him.
“No, damn it…” I could hear him laugh as I paced the room. “I just hurt my shoulder a little bit….. It’s not too bad.”
He sounded okay, so that was a little reassuring, I sighed in relief. “why didn’t you call me right away?”
“I’m fine Lexi” He only ever called me Lexi when he was being a genuinely caring older brother.
“You always downplay everything… How do I know it’s the truth.” I complained, frowning intensely. “I’m flying out… “
“I’m being taken care of, my doctor and manager is making sure everything is fine, Sam is with me, It’s not even a big deal, and you can’t do anything even if you come here… just make sure mom and dad are not going to freak out. Okay?” He requested earnestly.
“Alright I’ll tell them, but I swear Kyle if you’re lying right now I’m going to track you down and break your neck myself!” I threatened.
He laughed loudly, “I’ll hold you to that.” He said and then the line went dead.
Next twenty minutes went by as I talked to my parents on a conference call and let me tell you it was a bad idea, mom refused to calm down, dad was creating more chaos and we were all talking over each other while no one listened to what the other was saying.
It was pure torture.
Finally I told them to talk to Kyle directly for a peace of mind. I hope they didn’t drive him up a wall, while he was already so stressed and injured.
I just sat perched on my chair, tired even though I physically did nothing.
Kate walked in announcing that she’s had enough work to last her a lifetime, “I need a break.”
“So do I…” I echoed, only in a very miserable tone.
“Hey, What’s wrong?” Kate asked sensing my quiet behavior and antsy mind. This girl would be an epic detective.
I exhaled and tried to relax myself and then I dove into the whole story about Kyle.
Kate listened, offering comforting words every now and then, she hugged me and told me he’ll be fine.
“If you ever tell him I was worried about his well being… you’re dead.” I warned.
“God, you pretend to be such a tough cookie, while deep inside you’re a marshmallow.” She teased.
“I mean it Kate.” I glared, “not a word.”
“Ok, okay geez… I won’t tell. I’m taking this secret to the grave.” She winked at me cheekily.
“You better.”
“You and your stupid sibling rivalry.” She shook her head.
“Hypocrite much…. As if you and Matt are any better.” I fired back.
“Touché”
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