Chapter one
It was the morning of March 15th, when the world around them started to fall apart, the CEO and his secretary were stuck together, they were supposed to fly to Thailand for a conference but all of the world just shut down in two days.
Zephyr has to sign the deals and close the consignments in Bangkok and it was supposed to be a big break for his swiftly branching food business.
Ashley Matthews was a newly appointed secretary who hardly knew her way around, took this underpaying job despite holding an MBA from Princeton under her sleeve due to her piling up student loans and moving into the city after her father died of cancer, knee-deep into debt she took the job without knowing what she was getting herself into. She was going to work for Zephyr Grey, owner of FoodZeus. Inc
He was known to be taken the food industry by storm in less than a year, but there was a bad side to all this glamour, he was known to have a very bad temper, was very strict with his employees, almost villainous when it came to listening to their requests. Rumor has it, Zephyr had a very bad past, but no one actually knows about it, some journalist, unfortunately, tried to pry, but he shut her down without caring that he was on live television.
Here on a normal Friday she was about to pack her things up and head out to her little apartment, with being new in the city she had no friends yet and was about to spend her weekend alone with emptying the boxes, and just lounge on her couch which she got at a decent price from Ikea, while she made mental notes about how sad her weekend was actually going to be, she couldn't help but think about her first day at the job, how Zephyr had grilled her through, question after question but in the end, she nailed the interview and landed on the job, her colleagues were the worst as the most people are in L. A, the rumor of sleeping with Zephyr spread like wildfire, but Ashley kept her head straight ignoring the buzz around her.
A sharp but husky voice spun her out of her reverie, "Earth to Ashley?" Zephyr was standing at her desk with both his arms leaning over the desk, he was wearing a V-neck olive-colored t-shirt which complimented his skin tone, his arms placed firmly on her desk made his collar bones more prominent, and the stag's antlers more obvious. She wondered to herself if she could ever see the whole tattooed stag. Shaking her head with all the inappropriate thoughts and mentally scolding herself, she sat up straight and asked him, "Yes Mr. Grey? How can I be of assistance to you?" Glancing nervously at the clock behind him on the wall, for it was almost time for her to head home. What he says now almost comes as a shock to her and there is some visible gasp in the background as well. "Ashley, I know it's a lot to ask since you are new and you are always screwing things up and I'm kind enough to give you a big chance to prove yourself, (she rolled her eyes internally), he sighed and continued. "anyway. I was wondering if you could come with me down to Thailand, they have shut down the regular flights but I pulled some strings and got a private plane to Bangkok, to seal the deal before everything else gets shut down, so what do you say?" he looked at her almost pleadingly, she thought to herself,(wow there are sometimes when he doesn't have a stick up his ass and these are indeed one of those miraculous times)
she chewed her lower lip, picked a blank diary from her desk, skimmed through the pages, Zephyr kept waiting with his arms folded across his chest, eyes peeled to her face, tapping his foot impatiently.
Ashley took her good time to annoy him, but in a moment she stood up from her desk with a smile pasted on her face. "Well Mr. Grey, looks like my schedule is clear for the weekend and I would be delighted to accompany you". Zephyr scoffed, "Cut the crap, rookie, I know you just moved in town" ignoring his comment, she looked up at him and deadpanned at him, "Itinerary?", "Huh?" Zephyr replied as he was caught off guard.
Ashley chuckled a little and asked, "What is the schedule and agenda, please let me know". "Check your email rookie", his ice-cold demeanor returning. (There it is the icicle from Artic is back)
Walking towards his office, he looked back at Ashley almost thoughtfully and said "Cut the Mr. Grey crap, and call me Zeph".
She swore she could see a few heads turn in her direction.
The next morning with her little bag ready, hailed a cab and headed to LAX.
Zeph was already waiting at the tarmac, dressed in a crisp black suit with collar buttons open, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Took you long enough rookie, let’s not waste any more time you already wasted two minutes and four seconds", she rolled her eyes and hopped on the plane.