Chapter Ten

Philip POV:

The sight of Zoe and Martin chit-chatting in every corner was beginning to get on my nerves. There was also something weird about that Martin guy. I always caught him glaring at me for some bizarre reasons.

The annoying thing was that Zoe found everything he said very funny. She was a completely different person when she was with him, she was never like that with me. I couldn't blame her. I was always an asshole to her.

Why am I even bothered anyway? I asked myself that question every time the thought popped up in my head. She's just my secretary and that's all that she is to me? Or is it?

This was messing with my head, Zoe was messing with my head, and I continued to ask myself, why did I hire her?

The first day I saw her at that coffee shop, I felt the need to protect her. I couldn't stand those guys hitting on her even though I didn't know her. Not to mention, I was instantly hooked the first time I saw her. There was something intriguing about her, something I couldn't quite place my finger on.

There was no denying that I was developing a weird feeling for my secretary. Was it lust? It had to be.

"Phil, where's your head at?" Clinton asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

We were at our favorite hang-out with some guys we knew in college. It was a Sunday evening.

"Work stuff," I replied. Technically, It was work stuff since it involved my secretary.

"You can't be thinking about work on a Sunday evening," Bryan said.

"He's a freaking CEO. All they do is think about work," Larry chipped in.

I rolled my eyes. "Can you all stop talking about me?"

"You know what we should talk about?" Clinton asked. "Your love life."

"Arrgh," I groaned and rolled my eyes. Since Clinton had gotten himself a fiancée, he never stopped bugging me about the topic.

"I bet you can't stop thinking about your secretary," he added as he wriggled his brows. "Have you seen his secretary? Damn, she's hot as hell!"

"Your fiancée won't like to hear that you called another girl hot," I told him.

"I need to meet her and maybe shoot my shots." Bryan rubbed his palms together and licked his lips.

"Ok, hold on. Nobody is shooting shots at my secretary, okay?"

"Why?" Larry asked.

"Because she's my secretary," I replied with a straight face.

"OK, fine." Bryan raised his hands in surrender, and they burst into laughter.

"You know you have to come to my wedding with a plus one, right?" Clinton asked after he took a sip from his drink.

"Don't remind me," I said.

"You know who could be your plus one?" Clinton asked with a smirk.

"Please, don't say Zoe," I pleaded.

"Zoe. What? There would be no strings attached, she's just going to come with you to the wedding, that's all."

"I can't ask my secretary to be my plus-one."

"Why not?" Larry asked. "Isn't that in the job description? She has to accompany her boss to every occasion."

"Can we please stop talking about my secretary? It's making me uncomfortable."

"I would stop by your office first thing on Monday morning so I can see this Zoe girl. I'd love to meet her. I can already imagine how pretty she is," Larry said.

"Ok, I think it's time to call it a day," I grabbed my keys and stood up.

"Come on, are you leaving already?" Clinton asked.

"Yeah, since what you all want to do is get on my nerves. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow."

"Ok, CEO," Larry whined.

I gave him the middle finger before I walked out.

***

I walked out of the elevator and was met with yet another sight of Martin and Zoe.

"Good morning, sir," they greeted simultaneously like kids caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

"You know, I do not pay you two to chit-chat all day."

"I'm sorry, sir," they said simultaneously.

Martin grabbed his ID card from her desk and scurried towards the elevator. Bryan stepped out of the elevator the same time Martin got in.

"What the hell is wrong with that guy?" He asked.

"Bryan, what the hell are you doing here?" I asked.

"What do you mean? I came to say Hi, bro," he smirked. He turned to Zoe, "Zoe, right?" He asked.

She scrunched her eyebrows, probably wondering how he knew her name. "Yeah," she nodded.

"Bryan. Bryan Johnson," he extended his hand for a handshake, and she took it with a smile.

Why the hell does she smile into everybody's face?

"Zoe Ortega."

"Beautiful name for a beautiful lady," he kissed her hand. "You're so pretty."

He didn't let go of my hands.

"Thank you," she smiled. Behind the smile, I could see how uncomfortable she was.

I almost smiled knowing that she wasn't enjoying this but that would have made me look stupid.

"Bryan, my office. Now!" I ordered and walked into my office.

"I'll see you later, mademoiselle," I heard him say before I came in and shut the door.

"Dang! She's hot as hell! Don't you get a boner at work?" He walked to my desk and picked up my cup of coffee.

"That's mine."

"Well, it's mine now," he said and took a long sip. "You didn't make this coffee."

"How are you so sure?" I asked the same time I pressed the intercom button. "Zoe, could you please make me another coffee? This asshole drank mine."

"Okay, sir." She replied and I ended the call.

"As I was saying, before you called me an asshole, that coffee tasted like it was made by professional hands."

"What the hell are you doing here, Bryan?"

"I was in the area, so I decided to drop by to see your beautiful secretary. My work here is done," he rose to his feet. He sat down again and turned moody all of a sudden.

"Weren't you about to leave? And why are you so moody all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I messed up, Phil. Big time!"

I sighed. "What did you do this time? Messing up is always your thing."

"First of all, Clinton's fiancée is a hoe! She's only after his money."

"Are you for real? Why haven't you told him?"

"He's whipped. He isn't going to believe me."

"I knew all that sounded too good to be true. I never even liked the girl the first time I saw her."

I heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Zoe walked in and placed the cup of coffee on the table.

"Thank you," I said and took a sip.

Bryan smiled at her, and she smiled back. I almost spat out the coffee on his face.

Zoe walked out of the office, and we were left alone.

"You were saying…"

"Oh yeah. So, I found out that she was using him for his money over a phone call and I confronted her about it. She begged me to keep my mouth shut. You won't believe this girl came to my house, drugged me and…"

"Wait…hold on. How exactly did she drug you?"

"She said we should talk over drinks. She walked up to my mini bar and poured us some martinis. I don't know what gave her that right to walk around in my penthouse. The next thing I know, I woke up in bed and she was right beside me. She had taken some pictures, making it seem like we had sex and threatened to show them to Clinton if I didn't keep my mouth shut."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! When did this happen?"

"Last week."

"Did she…rape you?" I asked with widened eyes.

"What?" His face scrunched up in disgust. "No! I still had my briefs on. I don't think she did anything, or did she?"

I threw my head back in uncontrollable laughter.

"It's not funny, man," he whined.

"This is real messed up," I said "What do I do?" He asked with frustration written all over his face.

"Have you told Larry?" I asked.

"Not yet," he replied.

"First of all, you have to tell Clinton. It's better he finds out from you first. How did you let this happen anyway?"

"I don't know. I was so careless. Damn it!"

"Relax, okay? The deed has already been done. We just have to look for a way to fix it. Besides, you were only looking out for a brother."

"Clinton is sure going to kill me," Bryan palmed his face.

"Well, I promise to visit your graveyard with flowers as often as I can," I joked.

"That's not helping, Phil," he whined.

"Leave the girl to me, I know how to handle such women."

I had met a lot of crazy women and I knew just how to handle this one.