When Cedric said that she was going to be his secretary, Rosie thought that she was going to be his personal secretary. He had thrown his head back and laughed when she had asked why she wasn't going to be moved to his offices and bluntly told her there was no way an idiot like her would work anywhere near his person. Then he sent in his personal executive secretary, a middle-aged brunette named Maribel, to brief her about her new responsibilities and sent her back to the secretarial office.
Apparently, because Rosie was a pushover who couldn't refuse other people, she did twice the amount of work that others do in her department and did more record-keeping than anyone else. So she was tasked to coordinate with Cedric's personal staff about the matters of client information, management records and other valuable company data. All of this meant overtime.
All of this, and her new boss, was extremely stressing her out.
Rosie had to tell herself she needed this nice salary and benefits package over and over again. Plus, her employee discount for ice cream. Her new boss might be a jerk but voicing that out might land her into trouble.
News of the acquisition was all everyone could talk about for the next few days and while they were all relieved no one would have to lose their jobs, they would soon be neck-deep in work to think about anything else. Cedric Orion was apparently a hardass to work with and the too lax working environment did not fit his vision for the company to be one of the best it could be.
Rosie had searched him up on the internet and read every article she could find about him. He was the second son of Orion Global Inc.'s CEO who owns one of the largest conglomerate corporations in the country. He was 25 years old, three years older than her, and when he was her age, he was already featured on Forbes Billionaires list. He was also on the top 10 most successful entrepreneurs of the year, a Scorpio and preferred blondes as his dates to events. There were a lot of articles written about him but Rosie gave up reading after the few first sentences. They all pretty much said the same thing. That Cedric Orion was one of the most successful bachelor businessmen in the country.
Trudging into her apartment building after working overtime again, all Rosie could think about was crawling into her bed, wrap herself tight with a blanket and eat the tub of ice cream she had bought from the shop inside the company.
She'd already had dinner at work. If there was overtime work to be done, there was free dinner for everyone. It was probably to make sure that they were all fed enough to continue their work, Rosie thought grimly.
The elevator doors were closing and she quickened her steps.
"Please wait!" she shouted and the doors suddenly opened, revealing Aiden.
She froze. It had been a while since she last saw him.
Then after a second, defrosted and quickly boarded the elevator. He probably never left his apartment or was too busy to be at home.
"Thanks," she mumbled, shifting the weight of the paper bag tucked in her arm.
Aiden nodded. Again, he was wearing a black hooded jacket and was holding a duffel bag in one hand.
"Do you always come home this late?" he asked.
She stared at the moving numbers above them when she answered, "No. I had to work overtime. Your brother, er, friend, needs us to meet this deadline and everyone's working their butts off to finish their projects on time." The elevator opened on their floor and she quickly stepped out. "See you, Aiden."
But she could take no more than three steps when he grabbed her wrist.
"Wait," he said.
Reluctantly, she looked at him. His brows were furrowed deeply as he looked at her.
"What friend?"
Rosie sighed. "You know. Your friend who was in the hospital with you? Cedric Orion? He's our new CEO and he's really sadistic, er, demanding, no, ferociously protective of our company's reputation. He has quite rigid high standards set for the company now. That's why we're all working hard to please him."
Aiden fell silent. Rosie could see that his mind was working but she couldn't wait until he finished. He was making her nervous. Actually, he still terrified her a little. And her ice cream was melting.
"Aiden?" she prompted softly, shaking her wrist. "Can you let me go now? I'm really tired."
He stared hard at her for a few more moments before he let her go. Then he asked, "Are you working tomorrow?"
She shook her head. "I don't have work on the weekends, why?"
"I'll pick you up around 5:30. We'll go out and have dinner together."
Her lips parted in shock. She watched him walk past her to the end of the hall like he hadn't just dropped a bomb on her.
Then she found her voice. "Wait, dinner? I—."
"Your ice cream's melting, Rosie," he said, looking at her over his shoulder. "You might want to put that in your fridge."
Then he opened the door and disappeared into his apartment.
Rosie's gaze dropped to the paper bag tucked in her arm.
How did he know she had bought ice cream?
**********
Rosie's nerves were shot.
She couldn't believe she was going out to dinner with the man who lived at the end of the hall.
Sure, he was attractive. But he made her nervous because she didn't know exactly what kind of person he was. He was a mystery and she had no room for mysteries in her life. She didn't even like watching horror films; they always made her feel anxious and she could never enjoy watching them at all.
She checked her appearance in the full-length, free-standing mirror of her room. She was wearing a white ruffled top, blue jeans and a pair of pink pumps. Her only accessory was She had light make-up on and wore her brown hair in loose waves. She didn't know where they were going and didn't want to overdress. So casual was a safe bet. And he was probably going to show up in another hoodie.
The doorbell chimed. Rosie's stomach tightened. It wasn't that she hadn't been out in dates before. She just stopped when all the men she met and dated only wanted to get into her pants or wanted her to be some trophy girlfriend. Scumbags, like Jenny said. And with Aiden, she wasn't certain what he wanted from her. Guess she was going to found out soon, she thought, when she went to open the door.
He wasn't wearing a hooded jacket.
That was the first thing that crossed Rosie's mind.
He was wearing a light gray long-sleeved button-down shirt, black trousers and black loafers, his beard trimmed. He looked like a model, a hunky model. Or perhaps a rich heir to a conglomerate like Cedric. She could finally see that he had wavy dark blond hair that hung just over his ears. Out of the hood and in this get-up, he looked even more handsome than she initially thought he'd be.
He was saying something to her. She focused.
"- have reservations at six. Shall we go?"
She nodded. "Just let me get my purse," she whispered.
Aiden took her to a restaurant in a luxury hotel chain.
She winced as she entered the tall building. She had an embarrassing memory of a past date who also invited her to dinner in a hotel restaurant and who then tried to bring her upstairs in his rented room.
He pulled out a chair for her. She gingerly took a seat, conscious about the fact that she was wearing jeans to such a high-class place. Looking around the well-dressed diners, she cursed herself for her wardrobe decisions at the same time cursing Aiden for not tell her where they were going for dinner.
"What would you like to order?" Aiden was asking her, staring at his menu as a waiter poured them some wine.
Rosie's eyes bulged at the expensive prices of each dish on her own menu.
Could she afford this?
She peeked at Aiden over the gold-plated menu.
He'd probably pay for dinner, right? she thought worriedly. He did invite her after all.
Still, she mentally checked how much cash she had left in her accounts in case they'd go Dutch.
Aiden lifted his gaze then. "Do you want me to order for you?" he asked.
She set the menu down. "Yes, please. It's my first time in this kind of place and I'm really out of my elements," she told him honestly.
He nodded and proceeded to order the most expensive dishes on the menu to the waiter standing by his side. The waiter then took the menu out of their hands and hurried away. Rosie mentally double-checked her accounts as he left.
Aiden's head suddenly lifted and he held his hand up in a short wave. Curious, she twisted her head around and looked over her shoulder. Her body jumped with a start. Cedric was a few tables away, disbelief working its way across his handsome face.
Cedric was dining with a couple of other men in business suits. He was wearing a pin-stripe suit over a white silk shirt and his hair was not in its usual slicked back state but was styled in a casual disarray.
"Excuse me," she heard him say and she whipped her gaze back to Aiden. There was a self-satisfied smile on his lips and she gave him a confused look. Before Aiden could tell her what was going on, she felt heavy hands on her shoulders. She stiffened.
"What are you two doing here?"
Aiden lifted his glass of wine and tipped it slightly towards Rosie. "My neighbor and I are getting to know each other." Then he took a sip.
The hands on her shoulders tightened briefly. "I see. And whose brilliant idea was this?"
"Mine," Aiden answered.
Her shoulders were freed and Cedric came to view, taking a seat on the chair that a waiter had quickly brought over. He looked at her with irritated eyes.
"Who wears jeans in a four-star restaurant?" he asked.
She shook her head sadly. "Someone who didn't know we'd be in a four-star restaurant," she muttered, glancing at Aiden. "You should have really given me a heads-up."
Aiden's lips quirked in amusement. "You look beautiful, Rosie. Don't listen to your obnoxious boss."
"I didn't say she was ugly," Cedric muttered just as Rosie also said, "He's not obnoxious."
Aiden's lips widened into a grin. "So you both say."
Rosie quickly took a sip of her wine to hide her discomfort with his assessing gaze. Cedric gave him a steely glare which his friend returned with a smirk.
"So, Cedric," Aiden began. "I heard that you acquired the company where Rosie works at."
Cedric's glare turned into a scowl. He sent Rosie an accusatory look and she almost threw her hands up in exasperation. She didn't know he was keeping it a secret from his friend. Why would he keep it a secret from his friend?
"You know we're expanding the market," he muttered. "And we've always been interested in the brand and its related manufacturing facilities."
"I also heard the acquisition wasn't as brutal as expected," Aiden mused. "All the other potential buyers pulled out when they heard you were going to acquire the company. They practically let you have it."
He smirked.
"My takeover team is good at their jobs," he said mysteriously.
Aiden stared at him intently. "And why are you working there as CEO? Surely Orion Global Inc. had a candidate for the job. How did you convince your father to leave—?"
"I really don't want to talk about business right now, Aiden," Cedric interrupted brusquely. "You don't want Miss Conley's brain to bleed out from listening to what she can't understand, do you?"
Rosie had been studying those around her while chewing on a breadstick when had Cedric said that. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him but it was true. She was getting bored of all the business talk.
And was it just her imagination or did Aiden just glance meaningfully at him before he asked, "What do you do in his company, Rosie?"
"I'm merely an employee," she took another sip of wine, "Just a lowly secretary of Mr. Orion."
Aiden lifted his brows at this and shifted his gaze to Cedric. Cedric let out a long exhale.
"You made her your secretary?" Aiden asked, bewildered.
"One of his secretaries," Rosie supplied helpfully. "He already has a personal secretary and she's a wonderful and sweet lady named Maribel."
Cedric frowned at her. "How would you know she's sweet?"
"Because she always smiles at everyone even though she works closely with you?"
"And what do you mean by that?"
Rosie was saved from answering when the waiters came to serve their food. There were some dramatic flourishes while they served which made her laugh low.
"Why don't you go back to your table, Cedric?" Aiden suggested as he picked his fork up. "Rosie and I still have to get to know each other."
Cedric looked like he didn't want to leave them. Giving Rosie a long hard look like he was telling her to watch her mouth, he stood up and patted her head.
"Don't wear jeans next time alright? You stick out like a sore thumb."
Then he was gone.
"Your friend is really kind of rude, isn't he?" Rosie grumbled as she cut her steak with her knife, wishing it was Cedric instead.
Aiden smiled another of his secretive smiles. Then he told her to help herself to anything, saying that he was going to have Cedric pay for everything.