C4 Mark

Zoe

I woke up with a splitting headache and the sun shone brightly on my face. I groaned and got out of bed.

There was no sight of Mark or Mr. MacArthur, then it dawned on me, "Oh my God! The meeting!"

I looked at the big clock in the living room, it was 11:30 pm.

I began to panic, "Oh my God! He's going to fire me. How did I sleep in so late?"

The pain in my head grew worse. I found some painkillers on the dining table and wondered who put them there. I took them anyway and made coffee for myself. I made some sandwiches and went to take a shower and wait for Mr. MacArthur to come home and fry me.

"Oh, God! I'm so stupid." I was on the brink of tears. "How the hell am I going to get another job? Zoe, what have you done to yourself?" I groaned into the pillow.

I sat by the pool and waited for them to come home. The weather was nice, so was the view. I took pictures of everything and went ahead to read an ebook.

About an hour later, the gates opened and Mark drove in. I jolted up immediately and stood in the same spot, too afraid to move an inch.

Mark opened the door for Mr. MacArthur and he got down. I began to walk slowly toward them, he looked at me with an expressionless face before he walked into the house.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked Mark.

"He sealed the deal so you're in less trouble," he smiled.

I sighed, I was relieved because the deal was sealed, and afraid that I might still get fired.

We walked into the house and Mr. MacArthur was not in sight. Mark went to his room while I remained in the living room waiting for my boss to tell me I'm fired.

He came down the stairs buttoning his shirt, his hair was still wet from the shower and some of the strands were on his face. He walked past me and went to the minibar to pour himself a cup of wine.

I stood in the same spot playing with my fingers.

"Do you have anything to say to me?" He walked over to the couch and sat down with his legs crossed.

I couldn't find the words so I kept mute.

"You're wasting my time," he said.

"I'm sorry, sir," I finally said.

"For what?" He sipped his wine.

"I'm sorry for getting drunk and waking up late."

"Zoe, I brought you on a business trip with me and you got drunk, woke up late, and missed the meeting. I had to go to a meeting without my secretary. You're lucky I sealed the deal or you would have been in big trouble. You have no experience at all, I wondered why I hired you," he sounded too calm and it was scary.

Tears already began to form in my eyes, "I'm sorry, sir. This will never happen again, I promise."

"It better not happen again, I sent you a file, you have work to do," he stood up.

"Sir," Mark came down the stairs, "the jet suddenly developed a fault, we can't leave today."

"What do you mean it suddenly developed a fault? It seemed fine yesterday, so what went wrong today?"

"I have no idea, sir," Mark replied.

He sighed and pushed his hair backward, "When are we leaving, then?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, sir."

"Fine." He looked at me before he walked out of the house.

I let out a breath relieved that my job was intact.

I took the wine glass to the kitchen, rinsed it, and put it back.

Then, it dawned on me. Did I say anything silly last night?

"Oh my God," I palmed my mouth. "Did I try to kiss him? Well, if I did, he would have said something about it. But, what if I did?"

"You did not." Mr. MacArthur came out from nowhere and I froze. He went up the stairs without saying another word.

How long had he been standing there that he heard me questioning myself?

*************

Philip

It was mum's death anniversary tomorrow. I had planned to go to her grave tomorrow and drop some flowers. It pained me that our flight had to be delayed.

Years had gone by and I was still not over her death, mum was my best friend and my mother at the same time, and losing her was a big blow to me.

Mark had gone to hang out with his friends. Since we always came here a lot over the years, he seemed to have made a few friends while I was more bent on making more money than friends. I was the only child, I never had friends as a kid and I didn't need any now. Mark and Clinton were enough.

I watched Zoe from the window as she put her legs into the swimming pool and played with the water. I realized that I might have been too harsh when I said she had no experience at all.

I still wondered why I hired her in the first place. This had to be lust. I'd never felt this way about any of my past secretaries before, in fact, I had never lusted after any of them. Once they became my secretary, I found them less attractive because I had to hold on to my rule of never mixing business with pleasure. But this one, she was giving me a hard time, the thought of firing her had once crossed my mind, anything to get her out of my sight. Maybe if I had sex with her, I would get her out of my system but there was no way I was getting in bed with my secretary. I threw all my unclean thoughts out of my head and walked away from the window.

I went downstairs to the living room and headed straight to the mini-bar. I took out a bottle of whisky and some ice cubes and poured them into a glass. My phone rang and it was a call from Dad.

"Philip?" Dad called.

"Yes, Dad?"

"I called your secretary, she said you couldn't make it today."

"If you already knew, why did you call me then?"

"Philip, I don't have time to bicker with you. It took you long enough to seal that deal with Mr. Rodriguez."

Here we go again. Why wasn't this man ever satisfied with anything I did?

"Is that what you called for, Dad? I have to go," I told him.

"Philip," his voice was going up a higher octave and I ended the call before he could say anything else.

I had another glass of whisky and more until I became drunk. I didn't care, I was going to forget all my pains by getting drunk. The pain in my heart was too much, the loneliness was excruciating. Why did mum have to die? Why did she leave me alone with this man I call my father?

Somebody grabbed the bottle from me as I was about to have more of its content.

You're drunk, sir. You scolded me for getting drunk on a business trip and you're the one who's drunk now."

"Let go of the bottle," I ordered her.

She grabbed the bottle out of my hands and walked around the counter to put it back into the rack. I grabbed her hands and pulled her towards me. "Who told you to put it back?"

"You shouldn't be drinking, sir," she said.

"You're just a secretary, act accordingly."

"I don't know what it is you're going through but getting yourself drunk won't take away the pain," she said.

"Are you going to take away the pain? Huh? Can you bring my mother back?!"

She reached up to my face and wiped the tears off with her thumb. I didn't even know they had escaped. I held her hands and pulled it away from my face but still holding it. "You. What are you doing to me?"

"Mr. MacArthur….."

"What the hell are you? Why are you messing with my head?"

My grip on her hand tightened.

"Philip…."

"Who said you could call me by my first name? Huh?" I asked.

"How did you get so drunk? I only left for a while and…."

Before she could say anything else, I sealed her lips with mine. She gasped and that gave me a better entrance. Her lips were just as I imagined, soft and plump and I found myself getting lost while exploring her mouth.

No, this isn't me. I might be drunk but I knew that kissing my secretary wasn't right.

I stopped immediately and looked at her, her eyes were closed and her lips were swollen. I got off the stool and gently pushed her aside and staggered to the stairs.

"This never happened," I said before I went up the stairs leaving her flustered.