Chapter Two
Ashley
I’d found it hard to sleep that night. For one thing I kept looking around my squalid apartment thinking that I didn’t need to stay here anymore. With all that money going into my account the following day I could just forgo the rest of my lease in this shit hole and move to a hotel while I looked for somewhere else to rent before my new apartment was ready. We were looking at a few months before the club and apartments were done so I needed a short term tenancy. In the meantime, I’d start packing up my stuff, and tomorrow evening, I’d book into The Global, a luxury hotel near to work. I’d treat myself to a suite for a week and live the high life. What the hell. I worked hard, had been saving and hadn’t been on vacation. It was time to celebrate my promotion and have a little splurge. My stomach fizzed with excitement and that was one of the reasons I couldn’t sleep.
The other was the fact I had to meet this guy the next morning, Lucas. What if I didn’t like him? Aidan hadn’t told me anything about his past experience, so I didn’t know if he had a background in clubs, knew about property, nothing. I didn’t even know his last name! We would have to work very closely together so I hoped he was a friendly guy who didn’t mind the fact that he’d have a female boss. He was taking over management of the main floor but needed training up first and so he’d need to be able to listen and follow orders. Once my own floor was up and running, I’d take more of a back seat with Abandon and concentrate on XL, but I’d still be in charge overall. New people brought new ideas and while I was more than willing to listen to them, Abandon was a tightly run ship and I didn’t want that rocking.
I reached over to my bedside table and flicked on the light. Propping myself up against the headboard I reached into my bedside drawer for a notepad and pen and began writing down ideas as they came to me. Thoughts about decor, little extras we could offer like a personal shopping service while the VIPs were in the club maybe? Perhaps a massage room etc. Top DJs playing sets in the main bar?
Finally at around 3:30am my eyelids began to droop and I threw the notebook and pen to the floor, flicked off the light and slipped down under the comforter. My alarm was set for 6:00 am and sure enough in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, it was beeping and I needed to get on with the day.
I wanted to make a good impression. The meeting was with Aidan, Lucas, Jess and myself so we could talk about the future direction of the business. I flung open my closet door and stared at the boring black suits and white blouses inside. PA corporate wear had been appropriate before, but now I was the boss. Well, the Manager of Abandon. I didn’t need to remind myself that Aidan was the boss overall. He had a commanding but pleasant demeanor, but I knew he needed to start delegating to other people. Not only were all his businesses majorly successful and expanding but his girlfriend, Lori, was training to be a photographer in New Jersey and he wanted to spend time with her now he’d found the ‘love of his life’. It was strange to see the change that had come over Aidan in the last couple years. From a playboy who enjoyed the fruits of the club, to the owner, and now to a businessman who wanted to cut loose a little and enjoy life. Yet another reason I didn’t want to date. My own career was now taking off and I didn’t need any distractions. I needed to make sure that Aidan wouldn’t regret his decision to give me this responsibility and that if possible I could get him a return on his investment in the least possible time.
I decided on a red silky top with a high neckline and tie sleeves, and a pair of black pants. I added some simple jewelry, grabbed my black jacket, and with a purse, plus a pair of elegant flats on my feet, I made my way to the tall building that housed the two floors belonging to Hall Enterprises. I was near the elevator when the doors started to close. I let out a large sigh of despair as it could take a while to get another with how busy this place got during the day, but just as I was about to turn away, a hand waved through the door and they opened, much to the annoyance of the rest of the inhabitants of the car.
“Thanks.” I squeezed in at the side of the guy who’d held his hand out. “No worries.” He replied, giving me a wide smile. I looked over and my floor number was already lit so I took a deep breath. My nerves were starting to kick in. I wondered what Lucas looked like. And then I had a thought. No. It couldn’t be? I checked out the guy who’d opened the doors. He was around six feet two, really tall at the side of my five six. He was dressed in a gray suit with a pale blue shirt and a silver tie. His hair was blond and a little wavy. He caught me checking him out and gave me a little smirk. Fuck! I wasn’t checking him out in that way, but he didn’t know that did he? Anyway the chances of me being in a lift with Lucas whatever-his-surname-was in a building that housed hundreds of staff was unlikely. So maybe I could just drop my head down and check out his package on my way down to looking if my own shoes were clean.
Hmmmm. Packing by the looks of things. Hey, just cos I didn’t date didn’t mean I was dead inside.
The doors opened to my floor and I stepped out. The hottie did too.
He turned to me and laughed.
I tilted my head towards him. “Hey, you’re not by any chance named Lucas are you?” I said, expecting him to tell me I was mistaken.
What I didn’t expect was for his body to stiffen and for the smile to slide off his face.
“I am.” He glared at me, his gray eyes appearing icy cold without the crinkles caused by a smile, at the side of them.
“Seems you have me at a disadvantage, seeing as I don’t know who you are.” His voice was gravelly and abrupt.
Well, talk about showing your true colors. I decided that he could kiss my ass seeing as he was being an douche.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” I told him and I stomped off ahead of him.
I grabbed what I needed for the meeting. Jess was already waiting for me in my office. “I ordered refreshments, they are in the room waiting.” She informed me.
“It’s so strange not doing that myself.”
“Well, Boss Lady, you’d better get used to it because I intend to be the best assistant you ever had.”
“You’re the only assistant I ever had.” I laughed.
“Holy fuck. Is that the new guy?” Jess had just caught a glimpse of Lucas through the window.
“It would appear so. I rode the elevator with him. He seemed really nice at first then changed into an ass.”
“How so?”
“I don’t have time to explain now. Let’s go through to Aidan’s office and we’ll let you form your own opinion.”
***
“You know what hassle I’ve been through and now I have this shit again.” Lucas’ voice rang out through the door.
I turned to Jess. “Like I said, ass.”
“Yeah it’s really nice.” She said.
“Not look at his ass. He is an ass.” I pointed out, a little too loudly. The voices inside the office shut down.
Closing my eyes I took a deep breath. Professional, Ashley, professional.
And then I pushed open the door and walked into the office.
Aidan gave us a warm smile as we entered the room. “Lucas. May I introduce you to your new Assistant, Jess Wallis. As I said to you before she will be working for all three of us, so please use her for work and not picking up laundry or choosing mother’s day gifts…” Jess nodded at him and leaned over to shake his hand. “And this is Ashley Jenson, my right-hand woman and the new Manager of Abandon and Abandon XL. She’ll be training you to take over Abandon while she works on developing the floor upstairs, so you’re all going to be very busy over the next few months. Prepare to live in each other’s pockets and have no lives. Not much different for you, hey, Ash?” He winked and looked at Lucas. “I hardly see this one go home. See if you can take some of the pressure off so she can have a life.” He chortled. “I was going to say leave the building, but you’re going to live here.”
I smiled and reached out to shake Lucas’ hand. “I look forward to working with you.”
He shook my hand in return though the reluctance to do so was written all over his face and the fact he dropped my hand like I’d handed him a turd.
“Okay, take a seat everyone. We have a lot to get through this morning.” Aidan indicated the chairs at the end of the large table in the room. I ended up sat opposite Lucas. Lucky for me - not. Jess got everyone a coffee and Aidan started.
“I’m going to be away for the rest of the week, so I need everyone up to speed with what we need to get underway. Mainly, Ash, you could focus on getting Lucas trained up on Abandon? Introduce him to the staff on the floor, and show him how everything works. Jess, can you take him to meet everyone upstairs and fix appointments for him with human resources for his health and safety inductions, IT for passwords etc?
“Yes, Sir.”
Aidan laughed.
“It’s only Lucas, you don’t have to call me Sir in front of him.”
Lucas pulled on the neckline of his shirt as if it were strangling him.
“I should only need a brief tour of Abandon as Aidan already showed me the place, Miss, er, Mrs. Jenson?” He queried.
“It’s Ashley to everyone in this building. We don’t do the formal thing here unless we’re trying to impress investors.” He could screw himself if he thought I was telling him my marital status.
“So if an investor calls in?” He quirked an eyebrow.
“Then you can call me Ms. Jenson.” I tried to communicate ‘go fuck yourself’ through my glare but all that happened was his mouth ticked up a little more at the corner.
“Oh, stupid me. I forgot to formally introduce you to Lucas.” Aidan smacked his forehead. “I guess I’m so used to him, I forget no one else knows him. He slapped Lucas on the back.
“Meet Lucas Hall.” He announced. “My cousin.”