Chapter One
Tick-Tock. Sarah glanced at her watch nervously. She’s never this late. Rachel’s gonna be pissed. Not the first time though, she thinks to herself. She takes a look at her reflection in the elevator as she tries to put on a relaxed face. She can barely recognize herself. She looks different, she knows she looks good because she also feels good, but she won’t fully believe it, at least not until she’s seen Rachel’s reaction. Sarah’s updated image was actually Rachel’s suggestion. Okay, it was less of a suggestion and more of a request.
...”For heaven’s sake Manning, do you not understand the wardrobe policy?” Sarah’s boss scoffed while rummaging through some documents.
“You’re supposed to be my assistant, not my bodyguard”, she continued, not looking up from the huge pile of paperwork that was spread all over her desk, “- so stop dressing like you work for a drug lord”, she lifted her head and nodded pointedly to Sarah, who was dressed in black leather from head to toe.
“Do I look like a drug lord to you?”
Sarah just shrugged her shoulders, chuckling slightly. Sarah actually couldn’t be bothered to learn what her new boss actually did, she just needed a job, and she needed it desperately, so when her friend Cosima told her that "the head bitch in charge of the company she worked at needed an assistant", she just applied online not thinking about it. The only thing she knew was that the company was named DYAD, and that they were a biotech company. Cosima has been working there for the past two years as a head scientist, along her french girlfriend Delphine.
“I suppose you are aware of the consequences for disobeying the rules.”
Sarah nodded curtly, but she wasn’t aware nor did she care about the consequences. If it were up to her, she would’ve continued to bartender, but this new assistant job payed insanely better and the hours weren’t so bad.. at first...
“Martin will take you shopping later today, and everything you choose will be paid for with my credit card, so choose wisely.” she pronounced each word painfully slowly, letting her thick posh accent swarm the room completely.
So what, she’s my sugar mama now? Sarah thought to herselfwhile her eyebrows furrowed involuntary.
Rachel took a seat in her all-white leather office chair and crossed her legs, unintentionally showing off her toned calves and white designer heels that had red bottoms. She rested her chin between her fingers and looked deep in thought. Rachel always looked good. Sarah couldn’t pinpoint what made her attractive: the expensive outfits, the perfect blonde bob, the perfume that Sarah could smell throughout the entire building, the upper-class posh accent or the ever so slightly swaying of her hips while she walked and…
The elevator dings and the doors finally open. “Well, I’m not that late”, she tries reassuring herself, but fails. She sighs, hoping that Rachel’s too busy with her numerous e-mails and papers and meetings and.. whatever else that she does.
Sarah couldn’t help but think that Rachel doesn’t even need an assistant, just someone to lash out on without having to deal with consequences, not that there were any consequences at all, for the one and only Rachel Duncan (at least that’s what Sarah’s heard from other employees here). She can only hear the clicking of her new heels while walking down the hall that is all white and bland like the rest of the building, but at the same time feels expensive and powerful and just sometimes, a bit scary.
After a couple seconds she finds herself in front of the doors to Rachel’s office and takes a deep breath, preparing herself for the chaos that’s about to unfold. She announces herself with a few rather quick knocks to the door and enters, not waiting for a response. Rachel has a bluetooth headset on and she doesn’t even look up from her computer screen and Sarah hopes that maybe, just maybe, Rachel didn’t even notice that she was absent.
“Ich verstehe Ihre Bedanken in Bezug auf DYAD, aber…”
Of course she’s fluent in German too, Sarah thinks to herself, rolling her eyes involuntary. She’s been working her for only two weeks and she has witnessed Rachel having meetings in at least three different languages, besides English.
Sarah was sitting at her desk, which was placed in one of the corners of Rachel’s huge office, trying to name all of those languages in her mind when she heard the familiar clicking of expensive heels.
“You’re late. Again.” Rachel stated as-matter-of-factly, her voice cold and free of any emotion, all while staring through the huge windows, not even bothering to look at Sarah, who was now wearing a slight pink tint on her cheeks, trying to come up with another one of her usual lame excuses.
“Sorry Miss Duncan, the traffic was..”
“-terrible, yes, you have said that yesterday as well. And maybe I would’ve believed you if I wasn’t aware that your house is a walking distance from our office. And do I have to remind you that you were the one who informed me of this fact during your interview, stating this was just one of the, and I quote-”, she paused her monologue and let her posh accent echo through her spacious office, “-perks, of employing you. And in these two weeks that you’ve been working here, I haven’t once seen this fact work out in your favor.”
Rachel smirked, turning on her heels to face Sarah, but her smirk was very short lived. Her eyes widen just as her red lips part slightly, but she regains her composure in under a millisecond.
“I see you have finally developed a sense of where you work and, more importantly, who you work for.” Rachel’s red lips now offer a tight smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
Sarah returns her smile and looks at her reflection in one of the windows. She’s wearing a black pantsuit that is accompanied with black high heels. And although she was supposed to obey Rachel’s wishes, she put her own twist on the mentioned outfit, and she did so by only wearing a skimpy lace top underneath her blazer. Her hair is still in thick brown locks, cascading just past her shoulders, but she did get rid of her signature smeared eye shadow and settled for some light makeup instead.
Rachel gave Sarah a slow up and down, staring at her only a second longer than necessary, but a second was long enough to make Sarah shift nervously under the gaze of the slightly younger woman. Rachel licks her lips as to say something but a loud knock on the door interrupts her.
“Ms. Duncan?” a familiar voice fills up the room.
“Yes, Martin.”
“Mr. Chevalier is here to see you.”
Rachel rolls her eyes hard, and lets out an exaggerated puff. “Tell him I’m not here.”
Martin was looking at her now all wide-eyed and confused.
“Why are you looking at me like that, tell him I resigned.”
Sarah lets out a small chuckle. Rachel looks at Sarah for a split second. She likes that she makes Sarah somewhat amused, and that Sarah doesn’t seem scared of her. Well not too scared anyways. She returns her attention to Martin, who was now looking at her like a deer in headlights.
“Oh for heaven’s sake Martin what do I pay you for, just say anything to get him out of here. I do not want to see him.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be necessary, Rachel.” Another voice chimes in and Rachel finally lets her head rest in between the palms of her hand sighing silently but desperately.
“I see you still have zero manners, Ferdinand”, she states, straightening her back against her chair, with her head tilted ever so slightly and her left hand grazing the skin under her chin softly, her nails flashing a metallic silver color.
Ferdinand strutted around her office, all while grinning hard, and Sarah couldn’t help but think that the said man had the most punchable face she’s ever seen. He kept on babbling about some business-related things that Rachel clearly wasn’t listening to. Instead, she opted for a couple of glances here and there, eyeing the brunette in front of her and offering her an eye-roll every other minute, and if eyes could talk Rachel’s would be saying something in the lines of: I am bored out of my mind.
For a second Ferdinand stops talking, acting as if he’d just realized that there was another person in the room- Sarah.
“And who you may be?” Ferdinand says, his eyes gleaming with strange and creepy curiosity.
Ferdinand moves forward, proud of himself that he finally caught Rachel’s attention.
“That is none of your concern.” She says sternly while rising from her seat, leaving no room for any further arguments. But Ferdinand certainly won’t back up just yet. He likes to push Rachel’s buttons.
He turns to face Sarah again. “An assistant? A personal toy? Or maybe… both ?” He says, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Sarah could feel her anger starting to build up. Who the fuck does this guy think he is?
Sarah was about to get up from her seat when she heard a loud thud. Her eyes widened at the realization. Rachel’s back was now in front of her and Ferdinand was whimpering slightly, his hand instinctively covering his cheek, where a bright red mark was now forming very rapidly. Ferdinand’s shocked gaze was set on Rachel’s face, that was fairly brushed with an emotion between anger and disgust.
Sarah never pegged Rachel as a violent person; yes, she was dominant and authoritative and controlling, but Sarah thought Rachel was all words and no action. Well, on the second thought…
..."Rule number 34-" the blonde woman continued, and Sarah tried to focus on her words even though her attention span was compromised after rule number six.
This woman's bloody crazy if she thinks anyone can keep up with 'er, Sarah thinks to herself and curses her whole damn bloodline for ever applying for this stupid job.
"There cannot be, under any given circumstances, any physical altercation between you and any other subject."
Sarah's eyebrows now furrowed in confusion, and she didn't even care to hide it. Why in the bloody hell would Sarah ever need to get in a bloody fight while working as a bloody personal assistent? Why was her new boss referring to other people as subjects? Was Sarah a subject? Did her new boss think that she was above everyone else?
Sarah had so many questions that she was afraid to ask, but the woman was still talking. "If any physical altercations were bound to happen, you will let me deal with those in my own way. Am I being clear?" Sarah just nodded, not even daring to think what dealing with something in Rachel's way meant.
“If you address another word to her, I will personally gut you like a fish. Now get out of my office”, she spat.
"Touché." Ferdinand replied and left the room, still wearing a smug look on his face, despite the situation that unraveled just a couple of seconds ago.
Rachel took a deep breath straightening an imaginary crease on her skirt. She was wearing all white, in contrast to Sarah. The two of them were like yin and yang, in each and every way. Sarah with her soft but untamed dark brown locks and Rachel with her perfectly symmetrical blonde bob, with every hair in its place. Sarah had wondered if the posh queen's hair ever looked anything other than flawless. Sarah was wild, uncaged and free of anyone ordering her around. Well apart from Rachel, but Rachel is her boss so does she even count? Besides, Rachel bossing her around didn't even feel wrong, which made Sarah feel wrong. As in she-could-actually-feel-each-droplet-of-her-blood-circulating-through-her-body wrong. And along with that, she could feel that a certain blonde will change her outlook on life, forever.