The Assistant Saga

“For better or worse, they really weren’t kidding. Cliché and traditional vows are there for a reason.”

Beatrice grunted to herself as she shifted Ava in her arms to redistribute her weight. She looked down at the woman in her arms fondly. The aftermath of knocking back glasses of cocktail like they were water was Ava attempting to rush to the ladies to throw up while Lilth jeered nonsensically before tossing her cookies in the bag that Camila magicked from the air. Beatrice had to physically support her wife to the washroom before gathering said wife in her arms to say her goodbyes to the rest.

“And to think you want me to skip out on gym all the time. Who will carry you in this situation then? I sure as hell would not let anyone else carry you.”

She chided Ava softly but fondly as Ava curled deeper into the hold.

“Love you, Bea”

She mumbled out incoherently, her breath a mixture of tequila and vomit.

“Love you too baby.”

She planted a soft kiss on Ava’s forehead as she made her way up the stairs to their room. Drunk Ava was like a koala and Beatrice loved that fact about her no matter how much she grumbles about Ava being a dead weight after drinking.

It has been a while since Ava was this drunk but Beatrice was a pro at getting her wife situated in such a situation with the amount of practice she had. After situating Ava on their bed in clean clothes and a close shave with the mouth wash, Beatrice shook out the kinks in her arms and started stretching the muscles. It has been a while since she had to carry Ava bridal style over such a long period of time.

Guess I know what I’ll be working on tomorrow after my run.

-- Next day --

“Ugh, god, why is it so fucking bright?”

Ava groaned and attempted to raise her arms to cover her face. All her half hearted attempts fell flat as she could not, for the life of her, muster up the strength require to lift her arms completely.

“Bea?”

Ava reached out to the right side of the bed and felt around for her wife. Finding only empty sheets and pillows, she cracked an eye open and turned to face the nightstand next to her. As always after a hard night of drinking, she found a tall glass of water, a couple of ibuprofen and a note held in place by the glass.

Out for a run and the gym.

I’ve left painkillers and a glass of water out for you. When you feel up to it, I’ve made a plate of breakfast for you and kept it in the fridge. Heat it up in the microwave before eating it love, I cannot stress how important that is.

I love you and I’ll be back soon.

Bea xx

Despite the drilling, hammering and hacking that was going on in her head, Ava smiled as she read the note. Puffing out a breath, Ava noticed that it didn’t smell as terrible as she thought it would and the cottony feeling in her mouth wasn’t as bad.

I love you Bea, thank you for saying yes and marrying my disastrous drunk ass.

Sitting up just enough, she popped the pills and washed them down with the glass of water before falling back into the bed waiting for the painkillers to do their job.

I must have fallen back asleep.

That was the first thought that crossed her mind when she felt someone running their fingers through her hair softly.

“What am I going to do with you?”

She heard Beatrice sigh, never ceasing her ministrations.

“I know how much you hate me stepping in to fight your battles for you. But darling, you don’t have anything to prove anymore. I know you think otherwise, I just wish you would let me help, let us help. If John Vincent being assigned to you is causing this much stress, maybe I should do something.”

Beatrice’s fingers stilled.

“I could always swap and let you take Jessica while I take John Vincent off your hands.”

Beatrice mused to herself.

“What! No, I don’t want that.”

Ava startled at the outlandish suggestion she just heard and sat up abruptly.

“Ow ow ow ow ow, my head.”

She flopped back onto the bed uselessly while Beatrice bit back a laugh.

“Stop laughing at my pain.”

Ava reached out to swat Beatrice halfheartedly. Beatrice caught the offending hand and planted a kiss on the back of it.

“I meant it you know, I would swap Jess for him in a heartbeat. As long as we don’t give Vincent any more reason to make life more difficult for Suzanne. We know Adriel has been gunning for managing partner since forever and the only reason he has failed repeatedly was because all the other senior partners saw for themselves Suzanne’s contribution to OCS. I don’t want her legacy to be one of favoritism even if Adriel is blatantly favoring Vincent and they are both completely useless.”

Ava melted at Beatrice’s words. Due to her strict upbringing, Beatrice rarely badmouth the other partners at OCS, choosing more often than not to stay silent when she did not have anything complimentary to contribute.

Boo boo just gave her unvarnished, hidden in her soul, if you know you know, opinion on the whole situation. We have been together for so many years and I can count the number of times this has happened.

“Babe, no. I know how much Jessica means to you. Also, I don’t think she would appreciate it very much if she has to work with me. The stink eye she gives me each time I walk into your room without an appointment is traumatic enough.”

“But think of how you would never be on the receiving end of that ever again.”

“Stop tempting me. I know you baby. If we swapped, you will end up doing your entire division’s work by yourself because John Vincent’s stupidity is extremely contagious and the first people to go would be the stupid innocent lack-of-a-brain first years. The idiots who are incidentally the ones who are responsible for trawling through all the numbers required and creating a semi-respectable benchmark for the seniors to work off on. With them out of commission, your team would be more overburdened than they are right now. I cannot do that to you baby.”

Ava leveraged on her current status as a poor, sick, hungover, stressed out wife and pulled out her puppy dog eyes.

“Okay fine, we will think of something else.”

Beatrice sighed, knowing that she lost the minute Ava started to actually make sense in her argument before pulling out the big guns.

“Babe, not that I’m not loving this moment right now but… you are not panicking and freaking out about how we are going to be late? Like really really late.”

“Wait, WORK! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. We are so late, we are so dead. Suzanne needs shit done by the end of the week and tomorrow is the end of the week.”

Ava whipped herself into a frenzy with her hungover attempt at leaping out of bed in the direction of their shower.

“Oh god, what time is it? Where’s my phone? Bea, did you see my phone? Given the position of the sun, oh no no no no no no. Is it almost lunch? I am so dead. So officially dead. Bea why are you -”

Ava turned to look at her wife trying her best to conceal her amusement at the entire scene in front of her as her shoulders shook with laughter.

“I texted Mrs Dobbs that you are sick and got her to cancel all your meetings and appointments today. I have also texted Yasmine to make sure that she is on top of everything that should go out by today. Suzanne called to say it has been too long since something like that happened, she was on the verge of being worried that you have been body snatched and replaced by aliens. But she also asked me to remind you to take it easy for the rest of the day and to drink more water.”

“Wait, so you texted my assistant, got her to rearrange my entire schedule, contacted my senior associate. made sure that she is focused on the shit that needs to be done and even called Mama S for me?”

“Yes…? Love, are you okay? Did you not want me to do that?”

Beatrice looked at Ava a little worried. Ava never had an issue with Beatrice’s occasional stepping in to help ensure that her professional life runs smoothly. Ava’s chaotic energy usually meant she was very prone to forgetting one thing or another which makes her assistant very invaluable to her.

“Have I told you lately just how much I love you? I love you Bea, if it is possible, I would marry you again. Which reminds me, can couples that are married remarry each other? Is that legal? Is it a thing? Could I do that? I should ask Lilith. Where is my phone?”

Ava started patting around the bed for her phone only to have her hands captured in Beatrice’s.

“Lilith is out of office, just like you. I would say I told you it is a bad idea to be drinking that hard on a Wednesday night but you have had a long week and there’s still tomorrow.”

“Shhhh. Don’t jinx me boo. But seriously, thank you. Which reminds me, then why are you here?”

“I have pushed a couple of meetings from physical to virtual which means I have got to take a couple of calls in the afternoon but other than that, I have finished most of the outstanding issues yesterday pending the edits from the team. So I can be here when you get up. Besides, I can clear emails just the same on my phone if they are urgent.”

Ava wanted to dissolve into a puddle at Beatrice’s thoughtfulness. She never doubted that Beatrice loved her. It was only because of how subtle Beatrice’s affections were that it took Ava that long to be clued in on how Beatrice felt.

It was always in the little things that she did. And I was fucking blind back then. Thank god we don’t have to go through that again.

Ava sighed, flopped back onto the bed and snuggled up to Beatrice.

“Does this mean that you will be cooking lunch today?”

“Do you want me to?”

Ava nodded excitedly. It has been a while since Beatrice was the one cooking and Ava missed it.

We really are meant to be. Even something as mundane and boring as household chores, we complement each other completely.

Ava shuddered a little, remembering that period in time early in their relationship when she had volunteered to wash up after Beatrice cooked.

Oh the dread, to think Bea was dreading cooking the whole time too. Good job me for finally saying something and solving this whole mess for the both of us.

Ava pat herself on the back mentally.

Beatrice watched as a myriad of expressions flashed across her wife’s face.

“Pleased about ourselves aren’t we?”

She could not help but tease Ava.

“Of course. I mean, I did get you to marry me. That is like probably the achievement of the century and definitely of my life.”

Beatrice laughed at what a dork Ava was being.

“Also, can we have cereal prawn with a ton of cereal, sweet sour pork and egg fried rice for lunch?”

Ava salivated at the thought of the crispiness of the prawns in their shell, the crunch of the cereal, the sweetness mixed in the sour of the sauce drenched over fried pork cubes and the fragrance of the egg fried rice.

“I love you?”

She tacked on almost as an afterthought hoping that Beatrice would agree to the lunch menu even if the preparation time for the dishes were brutal.

“I promise to help out with prep. See my head is all good now.”

Ava tapped her head with her fingers as a form of validation of how fine her head felt.

Beatrice shook her head and smiled fondly. Food had always been a surefire way to Ava’s heart. It became more apparent after she realize Ava had a weakness for Cantonese food even if cereal prawns weren’t exactly Cantonese. She ran through the ingredients she required and what they had in their kitchen mentally.

“Babe, we don’t have cereal or prawns. How about this, I promise to make it some other time and we just make do with the rice and sweet sour pork? In exchange, I’ll make that steamed egg milk pudding you love.”

“Really?”

Beatrice nodded.

“You had me at the pudding. You know I could never say no to that.”

“Alright then. I’ll go get a head start and pull out all the stuff we will need. While you,”

Beatrice tweaked Ava’s nose.

“Finish that glass of water and freshen up. I’ll be waiting for my sous chef.”

Beatrice leaned in and kissed Ava before making her way out of their room and to the kitchen.

--

Lunch was an enjoyable affair. It had been a while since Ava wheedled Beatrice into cooking for her, as much as she loathed the clean up, she wished Beatrice cooked more often.

We should try to do this more often.

She thought to herself as she cleared up the remnants of their lunch while Beatrice disappeared into their home office for the rest of the afternoon attending to her meetings.

Damn, there really is nothing on Netflix these days.

Ava scrolled through sections after sections looking for something to watch. She switched over to Disney plus only to arrive at the same conclusion.

So many fucking titles, so many fucking platforms and there is absolutely nothing I want to watch. What the fuck is wrong with me.

She pulled out her phone and started a game of Hearthstone after switching off the TV.

“Ha! Eat that!”

She crowed as she finally destroyed her opponent.

“Are you playing in the Battlegrounds?”

Ava jumped.

“Bea! You’re done!”

She threw her arms around Beatrice as though she hasn’t seen her in forever.

“I missed you.”

Ava leaned in for a quick kiss before focusing on her game.

“Cast it on the TV babe, I want to watch.”

“Gimme a minute.”

Beatrice switched on their TV and set the input to their Chrome Cast while Ava toggled the controls on her phone to cast her game on the screen.

“Now that you are here, I’m almost guaranteed to be first.”

“Darling, pay attention to the game and watch what you are doing.”

True to her prediction, after half an hour of intense game play, Ava emerged first in the round robin matches that was the Battlegrounds.

“This is why they say you are the most strategic of all transfer pricing partners.”

“To help you win matches in Hearthstone?”

“That is just an added bonus for me.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Cam called after the meeting to say that she and Lilith are having dinner at Jiro’s later and asked if we would like to join them.”

“Jiro’s? Sounds good to me. We haven’t had sushi in a while.”

Beatrice rolled her eyes.

“Love, we just had sushi for lunch on Monday because you said you had a bad morning and only the uni from Jiro’s can make it better remember?”

“Did we? But it is Jiro’s Bea! Does this mean we have to go get changed now?”

Beatrice looked at the time on Ava’s phone and at Ava in her sweatpants and tank top sitting cross-legged on the sofa.

“If we want to make it there on time, we would have to leave the house sometime about now.”

“I can be quick!”

Ava vaulted over the sofa after realizing that Beatrice was dressed and ready thanks to the meetings and video calls she took in the afternoon.

So much for being hungover.

Beatrice smiled to herself as she began clearing her inbox while waiting for Ava to be ready.

-- Later that night at Jiro’s --

“Sushiiiiiii”

Ava sighed as she clicked her chopsticks together.

“You look like shit Lil.”

Beatrice commented as soon as Lilith and Camila sat down at the table.

“Yeah Lil, all offense, you look like shit.”

“Warm sake Lil? I heard it will help to settle your stomach and you will be glowing when you reach the bottom of the bottle.”

Ava cackled as she waved to the waiter and ordered two bottles of warm sake.

“Young, if you value your wife, you will…”

“Didn’t Camila put an embargo on killing Ava for like 6 weeks? It is barely a day and you are breaking your word to her?”

Beatrice laughed as Lilith grimaced at the reminder of her promise.

“Yeah Lil, you can’t touch me. I’m IMMUNE.”

Ava wriggled in happiness in her seat.

“How are you this energetic and alive? You drank more than I did.”

Lilith tiredly waved in Ava’s general direction.

“Years of being drunk baby, years of bring drunk. Also, have I mentioned that my wife is the best? She cooked this brilliant lunch that will cure even the mother of all hangovers. And the steamed milk pudding. Oh sweet baby Jesus, the steamed milk pudding can even raise people from the dead.”

“Bea, you made steamed milk pudding?!”

Camila excitedly grabbed Beatrice’s arm.

“Did you make our share? Please tell me you at least made my share. I stopped Lilith from killing Ava. I helped!”

“Cam!”

Lilith looked at her girlfriend betrayed.

“There’s mine right Young? Your wife is still alive and breathing, plus we’ve known each other since we were 5. That itself is pudding worthy.”

Beatrice laughed at the weird competition Camila and Lilith were engaged in.

“Yes, yes. I made enough for the both of you and to feed my bottomless pit of a wife.”

Beatrice looked over at Ava who had completely checked out of the conversation, focusing all her attention on the sushi that were being carried by the waiters passing by their table.

“Just swing by later and collect them before you head back?”

“Yes!!”

Camila bounced in her seat in excitement.

“I guess it is time to -”

Lilith looked down at the spread that is on the table.

“When the fuck did this happened?!”

“This is why we shouldn’t leave Ava unattended for too long in Jiro’s.”

Beatrice sighed.

“Love, did you over-ordered again?”

“No…?”

Ava batted her eyes in hopes of looking innocent.

“Nope, that is not going to work.”

Ava sighed.

“Well, at least I tried.”

“You are going to throw up again tonight. What am I doing to do with you?”

Beatrice poked Ava in her side as she distributed the small plates at the side of the table.

“Barffff”

“Shut it Lilith.’

Beatrice kicked Lilith under the table.

“Ouch! What are you? Five?”

Beatrice stuck her tongue out at Lilith only for Lilith to pull the exact same stunt with a slightly different result.

“Ouch!!” What the hell Cam!”

“What what? What did I do?”

“You smashed your foot into my shin, hard. Bea…. It hurts, Camila hates me and kicked me for no reason.”

“Me? Ava, what?”

Camila looked at Ava confused.

“Shit.”

All eyes snapped to Lilith.

“Fine fine, that was me. I was trying to get back at Beatrice for kicking me.”

“Babe, what are you? Five?”

Camila glared at Lilith with her hands on her hips.

This is bad. Cam is royally pissed. Stupid Beatrice and her stupid dodging skills. Stupid Ava and her singular focus on the food.

“Cami, no, I mean… she started it?”

“Wow, you really are five. Fine, since you want to behave like you are five, I shall treat you like you are five. Half your pudding is mine for dragging me into this mess.”

“But Cam….”

“Nope. End of discussion. Now we are going to have our dinner and pretend this did not happen.”

-- in the meantime --

“Poor baby, how does your shin feel now?”

“It hurts but nothing uni can’t fix. Bea, can we get like ten servings of it for the entire table? I’m injureddddddd.”

Ava whined.

“Fine, fine. You are going to get high cholesterol someday baby. No more uni for the rest of the month after tonight if you are deadset on ordering and eating all ten.”

Ava thought about it for a while.

“Deal.”

She immediately turned around in her seat to flag down a waiter.

-- Later that night --

“Jiro’s the best.”

Ava skipped ahead of the gang in the direction of her and Beatrice’s apartment.

“Are you driving over to mine or walking with us?”

“It is a nice night out and after the amount of food we had to eat because Ava went wild whilst ordering again, we could do with the walk?”

Lilith looked to Camila for confirmation as the latter nodded.

Ava stopped, turned around, held her hand out and wiggled her fingers.

“Bea”

Beatrice sped up to where Ava was at, reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers.

“Feels like we are back in University all over again doesn’t it?”

Ava nodded.

“Except back then we didn’t have these.”

Ava lifted her left hand, both her engagement ring and wedding ring gleamed under the streetlight.

“And I couldn’t do this.”

Ava pulled Beatrice to a stop, turned to face her and kissed her on the lips.

“Oi! Walking PDAs, let’s keep on moving.”

Lilith heckled them from her spot next to Camila.

“Well, that sure feels like no time has passed.”

Ava laughed.

“Shut it Lili but also never change.”

Lilith waved a middle finger at Ava as a gasp was heard behind them.

The group turned around to see a harried woman herding a small child away from them as quickly as possible.

“Now my night is complete. Lilith traumatizing a mother-child duo, CHECKED!”

The group laughed at Ava’s exuberance. Beatrice tightened her hold on Ava’s hand causing Ava to look at Beatrice quizzically.

“I love you.”

Beatrice mouthed. Ava’s eyes lit up as she brought their joined hands to her lips and kissed the back of Beatrice’s hand.

“I love you too.”