Ben
Everyone was ecstatic about what just happened. Everyone was in such high spirits that I said, screw it, we were going to have a corporate-wide party.
With the help of Eric, several hours later, the entire OVT building's banquet hall was filled with an array of catered gourmet food, a DJ, and an open bar for today's successful show.
"Well, this is certainly a way to celebrate," my father commented, as I assisted him toward the hall. "You know, I once interviewed Bette Davis in these very halls, and now you're having…whatever this is," he waved his arm, covering seemingly everything. I was expecting him to be more irritated by the colorful lights and the thumping sound of the DJ's tracks, but he seemed relatively peaceful. Which was saying a lot, considering it was my father.
"Oh, come on, Dad, let loose a little," I urged. We had our differences in the past, for sure, but I never hated him. He was tough and sometimes negligent, but he was still my father. Everything I experienced with him helped make me, me. Learning from Olivia what I was missing, made me know what I wanted. I didn't need to regret the past.
Not to mention, I just recently confirmed that he really did care for me and respected my decisions. "And, I wanted to say thank you, Dad," I said, leaning down a bit to look my father directly in the eyes. His old eyes had seen a lot in his lifetime, but this was the first time I saw it with such relief and gratitude washing over him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he immediately responded, and honestly, I kind of expected him to say that. "But if anyone waslegendaryenough to use his connections to delete a certain photo, I would say it was within his plans. Now someone get me a drink!" He covered up his first few mumbled sentences with the sudden volume of his last one, and that was such an expert move to deflect the topic from his true intentions. Well, he wastheJohnson DuPont after all.
He left me after that, which wasn't entirely new, but thankfully, a beautiful woman immediately came to my rescue by tapping on my back. I turned around with a quaint smile. No matter how much I wanted to drop everything and kiss her hard on the lips right now, I knew that was a hurdle for another day.
"Hello there, mister iconic host," Olivia greeted with a drink in both of her hands. She proceeded to hand me one of them. "Cheers to a successful night?" With a wink, she raised her drink up towards mine.
"Cheers," I replied, clinking my glass with hers and taking a deep sip. I also deeply regretted doing that as I had never tasted this liquor before, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. "What on earth—?"
"Oh, come on, mister fancy pants, it's a rum and Coke. I used to drink that all the time in college!" Olivia defended. "You need to get more to the cheaper side of things. Everything's more fun over here, you know," she proclaimed, taking a sip of the drink and enjoying herself.
I scoffed, taking another swig of the drink. I winced. I just really did not like it.
"Maybe you could come to this side, instead? We could enjoy some caviar along with some of my favorite Italian wine?" I counter-offered, with a teasing look in my eye.
This time, she was the one to scoff.
"Not everyone has a company that makes a ridiculous amount of money every day, you know."
"Ah, but you forget that OVT is currently hemorr haging money."
"All the more reason for you to come to the cheaper side of things!" Olivia successfully ended the discussion with an extremely satisfied grin. "I win," she teased. I rolled my eyes and clinked to that, forcing myself to take another sip of the absolutely horrid beverage.
"So… you still haven't told me yet," I brought up, slightly nudging her elbow as we both watched everyone party like there was no tomorrow. Some of them were keeping it relatively tame, like Lucy and my father enjoying the hors d'oeuvres while sipping a sensible glass of wine. Eric and Mark were absolutely rioting, however, being the life of the party as the DJ dropped another sick beat, making everyone on the dance floor jump up and down in rhythm.
"I know you had something to do with that campaign manager dragging Olson out of the set," I clarified.
Olivia simply hummed, and I had a feeling she was mimicking me.
"Well, long story short, I guess," she began to explain, still satisfactorily consuming her drink while I discreetly set mine on the table, resolving never to pick it up again. "I figured that, much like us, everyone else had secrets they weren't ready to tell the world yet, you know?"
Olivia
I could tell just from that, Ben successfully pieced together the puzzle in that sexy perfect head. "You had some personal dirt of Jebediah Olson tucked away, didn't you?" he asked in a low tone directly in my ear.
I grinned at him devilishly, confirming the answer. I didn't work for a man for about five years without picking up a lot of his dirt. It was practically impossible since my job was toactually cover uphis dirt.
"It went down like this," I started to tell my story to Ben.
See, I knew Jebediah wasn't going to recognize me. A man with an ego that huge was definitely going to forget any of his lowly staffers. So, I had to go the scenic route to get to him. Once I saw Olson and his entourage arrive at the OVT building, I took it as my opportunity to corner the next best person: His campaign manager, Tom.
"Why hello, sir. It's been a long time," I greeted him with a toothy grin, trying to be as disarming as possible.
It took a couple of seconds, but eventually, Tom recognized me.
"Olivia? Is that you?" I simply nodded. He started to be snarky. Basically, most of Olson's staff members were carbon copies of himself. "So, you ended up in this garbage can of a news outlet? It serves you right to work for trash because youaretrash," he stated with a raised chin, and if it weren't for my plan in motion, I probably would have smacked his face off the earth by then.
But at least terrifying him was the next best thing.
"Do you remember where you were on April twenty-ninth of last year?" I asked with a cheeky grin, and the campaign manager's eyes immediately widened in fear.
"W…What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about," he tried to play dumb, but the high-definition photo on my phone immediately shut him down. "Where did you get that!?" He attempted to swipe my phone from me, but I was too fast.
I knew I had the upper hand by then, and I could use that to our advantage. I could make all of my problems go away and we would get to live our lives normally, but I started to feel bad for the guy.
Without needing to second guess it, I took a deep breath and deleted the photo of the campaign manager stealing Jebediah Olson's campaign funds.
"W-Why did you delete the—"
"Look, we all have secrets, and I know you know about mine," I interrupted. "I know Olson is gonna try to use it to his advantage, but I've come to realize that what I was about to do was the exact same thing," I explained as I put my phone back in my pocket. "I left Jebediah because I hated his dirty tricks. I didn't want to become like him."
Tim sported a thoughtful look. "But then, he'd expose you and your relationship with your boss," he reminded me.
I shrugged.
"I guess we should have been more careful," I admitted, then walked away from him to come back to the set.
"So… you mean to say that the Tom just stopped Olson of his own accord?" Ben asked.
I nodded
"Crazy, isn't it?" I sighed. "I guess there are some good people working for bad people."
For a moment, we stood in the middle of the party in silence, watching all of our friends and co-workers have a blast with this impromptu, but still extremely lavish party that Ben put together in just a few hours. I could never understand how rich people did these things so fast, but I wasn't complaining. Well, I hadonecomplaint.
"This party kinda sucks. Who threw this together?" I teased Ben, slightly giggling when I saw his head snap immediately, outrage on his face.
He rolled his eyes when he saw I was joking.
"I know, right? Guy's real sloppy, and it all looks so last-minute."
"Oh, you hate it, too?" I teased. I boldly leaned toward his ear, knowing fully well that anyone could see us at any second, but the thrill of that made it even more exciting.
"Then what do you say we get out of this place and go somewhere more private?"
Ben didn't respond. Not with words, but with a gaze that could melt every cell in my body.
And that was how we found ourselves back to where it all started: Ben's office.