"Hey, how are you feeling today?" His grin widened as he walked in further.

"Better, thank you." I smiled sheepishly.

"When is your lunch break?" He paused to ask.

"In about an hour."

"Great, let me buy you lunch today then."

"You can't take my PA to lunch Mark," William said.

"She's not your PA during a lunch break," Mark responded and the corners of my lips lifted at the wit of his words.

"I'll see you in an hour then." I grinned and left. Keeping the envelope away, I continued with work; replying emails, making photocopies and occasionally chatting with Heather. An hour passed before the double doors to William's office opened and Mark came out.

"Heather, I see you're already eating, I'd have asked you to join us for lunch," Mark smiled at Heather who was munching away at her bowl of salad.

"Next time," she smiled raising her fork high and he nodded.

"You ready?" Mark turned to me.

"Yup," I carried my bag then waved Heather goodbye.

The restaurant Mark chose was two blocks away from the office building and we sat by the window which had a pretty nice view of the busy street. The restaurant was equally as busy, as many other offices in the vicinity had their lunch breaks at this hour too.

"Thank you for agreeing to share your lunch break with me." Mark beamed after the waiter left the table with our orders.

"How could I say no to free food?" I grinned. We talked about random topics of interest until the waiter returned with our food.

"So why did you really want to buy me lunch today?" I asked.

I wasn't stupid.

He smiled knowingly, "can't I just causally take you out?"

"So you want to court me?" I laughed fully aware that wasn't the case at all.

"Will might object." He smirked.

"I know exactly where you are heading," I dropped a fry and sighed, "Friday night was interesting enough. You are probably wondering why I wasn't fired and you may have some funny theories like an upcoming 'office romance' but that is very far from the truth."

When Mark proposed the lunch, I knew he probably had some assumptions and maybe even questions to follow.

"You're quite funny Ophelia," he laughed heartily, "so what is the 'truth'?"

"I should really have been fired on Friday but something personal happened, and my boss being so kind and gracious decided not to fire me, yet." I shrugged noncommittedly.

"And here I was thinking it was going to be one of those classics, 'falling for my boss', 'the boss and I'." His tone was more mocking than understanding. But his words were funny and I laughed before sipping my soda through the straw.

"I've known Will nearly six years now, how long have you?"

I choked on my soda.

"You okay?" He asked as I coughed.

"Yeah, the soda just went down the wrong pipe and I've know Mr Illston for about a month now, why?" I asked nervelessly. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought he only wanted to find out if William and I were really acting out an 'office romance novel'. His question came unexpectedly. But I knew he didn't know about I and William's past; William would probably never tell that tale.

"When Will and I met, he was a hopeless software engineer and I was an even more hopeless investment banker. But we found common ground. We both had dreams we wanted to come true. Will was mostly cold and aloof back then but I knew what was up. He'd been in a bad place, and was just desparately trying to get out of it. I understood almost everything that affected him, except one."

"What?"

He leaned forward, "his broken heart."

I wanted to scoff.

"He never mentioned it but I know he must have had one of those sob stories. A lot he did and does while we work revolves around many factors, the highest being family and I believe a certain her."

"And what does any of that have to do with me?" I stared at him squarely.

"Are you her?" He asked boldly and I immediately laughed.

"I'm flattered but I just met my boss a few weeks ago," I half lied. Yes, I met William about eight years ago but I knew without a doubt, I wasn't the her Mark was looking for. I couldn't be. It was hilarious to even think it.

"What college did you attend?"

"NYU."

"So did Will," he mused.

"And a lot of other people here in New York." I deadpanned.

He sighed then gave a resigned smile, "I'm sorry. Will's one of my best buds, I worry for him and can get carried away sometimes."

"I understand," I shrugged and we continued eating. Mark was a wonderful conversationalist hence why the next few minutes weren't awkward at all. He swiftly dropped the topic and soon we were laughing about something else entirely.

"Thank you for lunch," I said to the Mark as we stepped out of the elevator.

"I'm sorry again, if I made you uncomfortable." He smiled apologetically.

"It's okay."

"Great, I'll see you tomorrow."

"You aren't going to see him?" I asked.

"Face that grumpy sop today? Nah." He grinned before getting back into the elevator. I shook my head, a smile on my lips as I walked to my work desk.

"Hey, how was lunch?"

"Good. I'm so full." I rubbed my belly.

"Me too," Heather laughed, "and oh yes, Mr Illston said to go his office when you return."

"Alright, thanks." I dropped my bag, walked further and knocked on the door once before entering.

"How was your lunch?" William asked, smiling dryly.

"It was good." I smiled.

"Do you think you still have a job here?"

My jaw dropped.

"You can't possibly fire me for something like this."

"Of course I can, I'm the boss and I make the rules." He said arrogantly.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous."

He scowled in reply and I was able to smile again.

"So what did Mark have to say?" He asked quietly.

"He thinks I'm the long lost juliet to your romeo." I scoffed, again baffled at the ridiculousness of it all.

"And what did you tell him?" William inquired.

"A truth and a lie," I simply said. If he understood my words, he didn't say or show but I knew he did.

"Take a seat, salaries will be paid next week Thursday. Three departments are yet to be reviewed." He finally said after a few quiet moments passed.

The only words I heard were 'salaries' and 'next week'. That would mean a few days earlier than planned. I didn't say anything and neither did he. For the next few minutes, we worked in silence.

"Is this how much Heather and I will be paid in a month?" My fingers traced the paper. Without looking up he answered in the positive. I gaped at the amount that was drafted on the A4 paper. It was a few dollars away from being double of the original drafted salary.

Some other departments in the company also received a raise while some had theirs reduced but I didn't expect a significant increase in mine. I stared at William again who was still focused on whatever he was reading. Was it smart to increase salaries after buying into a company? I didn't know. It really all depended.

I dropped the paper and smiled thinking about all the money that would soon be mine.

***

I yawned for the fifth time that morning. I popped a piece of gum into my mouth and yawned again. My incessant yawning may have been due to me staying up all night thinking about how to save and spend money or due to dreading the arrival of Lilian, who'd be here today, to teach one of her lessons.

I chewed the gum in the hopes my busy mouth would prevent me from falling asleep. Falling asleep would certainly give Lilian something to talk about. She finally arrived at half past ten, haughty, efficient and stern as ever. I sat up straight and smiled at her.

"Good morning ladies," she nodded as she walked past our tables to William's office. She entered after knocking and about five minutes later, was back out.

"I am sorry I could not be here yesterday, a lot of other matters had to be taken care of at Illston tech but be rest assured, you'll have me for the rest of the week."

Yay.

"Today's lesson will be on reception," Lilian had somehow procured a whiteboard over the weekend and yesterday, and wheeled it out. It felt more like a heist plan than a secretarial teaching. "You are of course Personal assistants but based on the location of your desks, you are also parttime receptionists and dare I say security."

She wrote the word 'security' on the white board in capital letters.

"You haven't started receiving a myriad number of visitors as many do not know Mr Illston sits here most of the week but when you do, you have to be prepared. If they are able to get past the lobby, you will encounter three main sets of people. The girlfriends, the high achievers and the visitors." She turned back to her board to write it all out.

"The girlfriends are all criteria of women who will claim to be Mr Illston's wife, girlfriend and even baby mama. He has none of those. The high achievers are more diverse, they will come with risky business propositions, hack claims, harassment claims and even the lost puppy dog like looking female hoping to start some kind of romance. Banish them all." She waved her hand. "Lastly, the visitors are the actual guests we are expecting. You will actually be able find their names in the appointment log books."

"From all I have said you should understand, there will be nice and rude people," she said and I immediately snorted remembering the first day we met. She hadn't been nice. There was a pause in her speech and I looked up to see her staring at me. shit.

"Is there anything amusing miss Duhamels?"

"Nope." I shook my head and she continued.

"No matter whom you encounter, the first thing to remember is to always be courteous, nice and approachable. We are after all not cliche, dumb, mean, blonde receptionists chewing mannerlessly on a piece of gum." All her words carried a force that succeeded in dealing me a heavy blow. I stopped chewing my gum and slowly grit my teeth.

This was going to be another one of those long days.

***