Thud! Went the sound of something heavy falling on the floor, and that something in this case, turned out to be Avery.
The pain that shot through her body was enough to make the deep sleep that had once consumed her to vanish. As if the pain from falling wasn't enough, she also felt a throbbing pain in her head.
Forcing herself to sit up, Avery looked around, and noticed she was in her house – the living room, to be more precise – and it seemed she had fallen from the couch.
A rumbling noise which sounded like a growl then caught her attention, and when she looked to see where it was coming from, she saw a figure slumped over on the other couch, opposite the couch she had fallen from. It was Madeline, and she was snoring like a chainsaw.
Avery's brows creased in confusion. She didn't remember inviting Madeline over for a sleep over at her house. 'I feel like I'm forgetting something. What could it be?' Avery wondered as she massaged her temples in order to ease her headache, and that was when it all came to her.
She remembered all the events of the previous day, or at least, most of them. Owen's medical condition, the makeover she got through Madeline's help, her interview with Ethan, and how she and Madeline had gone to Moonlight lounge bar to celebrate which then led to a silly drink off. The events that ensued after the drinking competition was what she couldn't remember.
With a little difficulty, she stood up and approached the snoring human on the couch. She was about to tap Madeline, when the front door suddenly flung open, and her mother walked in.
"Hello! This is Owen's mom speaking. How may I help you?" Mrs. Campbell said to someone over the phone.
Looking closely at the phone, Avery recognized it immediately, it was Owen's phone.
"What are you talking about? Why would the CEO of GameHive want my son to come over to his house? My son didn't even make it to the interview yesterday."
Avery's ears sprang up as she heard what her mother had said. Strength from nowhere immediately came over her, and in a flash, she ran to her mother, snatching the phone from her grasp before she could spill anything else that would ruin the hard work Madeline and herself had put in, for her to get a job.
"Hello, please pardon my mother. She likes to joke a lot." Avery said in a deep voice.
Shocked to see Avery, and at the same time, pissed at what Avery did, Mrs. Campbell yelled, "Avery! Have you gone nuts?" She tried to reach for the phone, but Avery dodged, and ran up the stairs with the phone.
"Hello? Is everything okay over there?" Avery heard a man's voice from the phone.
"Sure." Avery replied while locking the door to her room, just in case her mother stubbornly followed her upstairs. "Please don't pay any attention to whatever you just heard. My mom is a bit of a jokester, and she sometimes she just doesn't know when to be serious."
"Okayyy?… Well, I'm the driver Mr. Smith assigned to pick you up, and bring you over to meet him. So just text me your address, and I'll be there to pick you up in no time."
"Bring me over to meet him? Isn't he at the company?" Avery asked in confusion.
"I'll be expecting your text." The man simply said, and hung up.
A little offended by the way the man had ignored her question, and hung up, Avery scoffed. "That Ethan guy sure does a great job at hiring men who are just as rude as he is." She said, and then a thought crossed her mind. 'How did he even get Owen's number? If I hadn't been there when he called, everything would have been over before it even started.'
"Oh, right." Avery mumbled to herself as she remembered that Owen had earlier submitted his resume to the company. Of course he would have dropped his phone number, or email address for contact purposes.
She reached for her own phone in her jean's pocket, and saw that she had fifteen missed calls. Ten of them were from her mom, while the rest were from her grandma. There were also many unread text messages from them.
Avery sighed, and texted her address to the number that had called Owen's number. Then she sent an additional text, which said, 'Please contact me only through the number.'
A loud bang on the door startled Avery, making her phone almost slip from her hands. "Avery! Get out this instant." She heard her mom's voice from behind the door, and she knew better than to keep mom waiting, so she quickly opened the door.
"What has gotten into you? You left us at the hospital without leaving a message, and you didn't even bother coming back to check on your brother. You didn't even return our calls, or text messages."
"Mom, please calm down and hear me out, I…"
Mrs. Campbell leaned closer to Avery, and sniffed. "Is that alcohol I am perceiving from you? You were out drinking?"
"Nooo." Avery blatantly denied, and before her mother could say a word to refute, she quickly dropped the bomb. "I went in search for a job, and I've found one. A high paying one at that."
Mrs. Campbell's mouth opened in surprise. Of all the excuses she had expected to come out of Avery's mouth, getting a job was the least. "You got a job?" She asked, her voice laced with obvious doubt, "what job is that, and… how much is the pay?"
"I got a job as a personal assistant, and the pay is…" Avery paused as she contemplated telling her the truth, but then she decided that there would be no harm in telling her mother. "thirty-thousand dollars."
Mrs. Campbell's hand flew to her mouth as she let out a gasp. Too stunned to speak, she stuttered, "T-thirty-thousand? That means you would get over seven thousand dollars per week? Who on earth agreed to pay you such huge amount?"
With the way things were going, if she kept answering her mother's questions, she might end up having to reveal how she was actually going to have to be disguised as Owen during the course of her new job, and that would only lead to loads of further questions, which she couldn't afford to answer at the moment.
The driver was already on his way, and she had not even had her bath yet, talk more of getting her make up done.
"Mom, there's no time for me to answer your questions. I just got a call from my boss that I need to be at work, so I have to prepare. You don't want me to lose this golden job, do you?"
"Of course not. I'll leave you to prepare, so you won't be late." Mrs. Campbell said, and immediately left, closing the door behind her.
….
Madeline's eyes slowly fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was the face of a very handsome man. He looked so beautiful, just like an angel.
She reached for his face, caressing it, as she said, "Hope it didn't hurt when you fell from heaven?"
"What is gonna hurt is your face, if you do not take your hand off my face." The man threatened in a cold voice, that contradicted his calm facade.
Confused, Madeline rubbed her eyes with her hands, and when she looked back at the man, he was gone. What she saw instead, was Mrs. Campbell's face, as she spat the words, "I knew my nose wasn't playing tricks on me when I perceived alcohol on Avery. You two were really out drinking, weren't you?"