Layla
Before I knew it, it was Thursday—the day before the benefit gala. The last week and a half flew by with my running all over the place trying to get everything ready for that night. I had made hundreds upon hundreds of calls to different venues, caterers, party guests, and the place where the invitations were being made. And on top of that, I still had to do everything for Ashton at work, with meetings, filing, reports, and running stupid errands for him. I hadn’t slept very much in the last week. I didn’t leave the office until eight on most nights, sometimes even staying until nine or ten. I was exhausted but I had to make this gala amazing, or Ashton would win and I would look stupid and incompetent.
A few days into the project, I wondered why I was the only one doing all the work and he didn’t have others doing stuff too. I was tempted to ask Judy why, but I thought she would talk to Ashton about it and that was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want him thinking I couldn’t handle it. Most days I almost missed lunch, but Neena had gotten in the habit of calling and texting me over and over again until I came down to the cafeteria with her. If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t eat all day. I had found out that Neena was very sarcastic and seemed to say whatever was on her mind most of the time. On Monday, when Neena and I went to lunch, Liam surprisingly came and ate with us. Neena had seen him a few times but never talked to him, so when he took a seat at our table, she almost choked on her drink. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was smitten with the data processor.
Liam and Neena were my only friends at work, and I was okay with that. They were both great to talk to and kept my mind off of a certain someone. When Neena came over during the weekend, her and Kacey immediately clicked. They sat down on the couch and talked about fashion for a good hour before I interrupted them, bored out of my mind. Since that night, Neena seemed to come into our friendship and we were now the three amigos. Kacey, of course, was still Kacey. Every night before bed, she laid something out for me to wear, and they probably weren’t the best outfits to wear to work but since I had nothing else, I wore them. She also made me promise once this gala was over and I got paid, we were going shopping. She had it in her mind that if I showed a lot of skin, Ashton would come running back apologizing, and she had it totally wrong. All week he never once looked at me; he only did when he bossed me around.
Even during meetings with board members, clients, or other supervisors, he kept his distance and his gaze far away from me. Whenever he did look at me, it was with disgust and almost loathing. I guess I was really that terrible looking and disgusting that he regretted ever touching me. I swallowed down the pain every day and ignored the ache in my chest that seemed to grow every time he asked me to book him a reservation at some fancy restaurant, or when I went to his apartment and found a pair of woman’s panties on his bedside table. I took all of that in stride, but the other day when he came into work and had lipstick smeared on his neck and around his mouth, I lost it. I locked myself in my office for a good hour before forcing all of my feelings down and got back to work. It was safe to say my heart had a pretty good crack in it by now. I was happy now that I hadn’t slept with him, or the pain would be worse.
Both Neena and Kacey didn’t like that Ashton was using me and making me do this whole gala by myself. They both threatened to kick Ashton’s ass. After telling them I was fine and practically yelling at them both to stop, they did but rather reluctantly. They still said stuff about Ashton every day, but luckily didn’t do anything. I agreed with them, but I needed this job, and I felt like I needed to prove myself to everyone.
Back in high school, I was the quiet, shy nerd with the popular best friend. I didn’t socialize much, thanks to my parents mostly, and kids tended to pick on me more than others. I never told Kacey that people did, and that most were her friends on the cheerleading squad. While Kacey was cheer co-captain, student body officer, and was outgoing and friendly, I was the total opposite. I never did any sports, I stayed home more often than not, and I was quiet around people. Maybe it was because I didn’t want people to find out what my parents did to me, or maybe it was because my parents threatened me that, if anyone found out about how they abused me, they would do something way worse than usual. I feared that if I got out of my shell the spotlight would turn to me and shine down on my family and how terrible my home life was. So, I stayed the social hermit and let Kacey have all the spotlight.
Once I moved out and went to college, I kind of became a different person. Being away from my abusive family was the best thing that could have happened to me. I came out of my shell and loosened up a bit more. I was more outgoing and actually went to parties with Kacey. My first year of college I got my very first boyfriend, Jason Wells, and I couldn’t be happier. He was on the school’s football team, very cute, and about a year older than me. He had blonde hair that was a little on the long side, and had a pair of really pretty green eyes, and a very fine body. I was one of those girls who had the hottest boyfriend and was a nerd. We got along great, and he helped me become more confident and social. Well, I kind of had to be when I was dating the school’s star running back.
Jason managed to push down my walls and wedged himself inside. And for once, I was completely and utterly happy. He didn’t seem to care about my past and the huge scar I had on my stomach. He liked me for me. Being a happy and naive nineteen-year-old, I lost my virginity to him. We dated for almost two years; I was in the middle of my junior year and he was a senior. Everything in my life was going great. My grades were high, I hadn’t heard from my parents, Kacey was happy with her own boyfriend, and I was in love. I remember the day when my whole split in two, like it just happened yesterday.
It was the day of our anniversary; we had been together for two years. I had gotten all ready, dressed up in a tight short dress cause that’s what he liked. My hair was curled perfectly, and my makeup was on point. I had never gotten this dressed up before, but I wanted this night to be perfect. For our special day, I went and spent my last three paychecks and bought him a specially signed football by his favorite quarterback. I had searched for weeks to find one and when I did, it was a lot of money. At the time, I was working on campus and only made so much but I wanted to get Jason something nice, so I bought it. I wrapped it all nice and made a card telling him how much I loved him and how he had changed my life. He told me he would pick me up at six and take me somewhere that was a surprise. Six came and went. I sat on my couch waiting and looking at the door every five seconds.
Soon it was eight and he still hadn’t shown up. Wondering what was taking so long, I sent him a text and waited. When eight thirty hit and there was still no reply, I decided to check his room. Maybe something had happened and he left his phone at home. Thankfully his dorm room wasn’t too far from mine, so I walked there in five minutes. With his present under one arm, I knocked on his door. When no answer came, I tried again. This time I heard shuffling through the door and a few grunts and moans. Confused, I put my hand on the door handle and found it unlocked. The voice in the back of my head was yelling and telling me not to go in there, but I ignored it. I pushed through the door and immediately froze.
There on the bed was my boyfriend and some blonde. I recognized her from the cheer team but couldn’t think of her name. They were both stark naked and didn’t even seem to notice me there. They kept going at it as I stood there frozen and watched. My eyes filled with tears as I realized he was here fucking some other girl while I sat at home waiting for him to come pick me up, and on our anniversary. I must have gasped or something, because both of their heads snapped to my direction. Jason’s green eyes widened as he took me in staring at them.
“Layla—” he started to say but I just shook my head at him.
“So, this is what you were doing instead of picking me up for our anniversary?” I said, surprised my voice came out strong instead of small like how I was feeling. He pushed the blonde to the side and went to stand up, a sheet wrapped around his bare waist.
“Babe.”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me. I am not your babe anymore,” I said, my voice neutral despite the anger and hurt. I should have known this was too good to be true. “Happy anniversary.” With that, I set his gift on the table by the door and walked out slamming the door behind me. I walked down the hall blindly as tears streamed down my face. I somehow made my way home and collapsed on my bed, sobbing.
It was pretty ironic how I was in the same position only a week ago. After the day I found him, I went back to being a shell. Jason only bugged me for a few days before he stopped and he never talked to me again. After Jason, I only went on a few dates but never had a serious relationship. I became who I once was, and I didn’t want to become like that again. It took me months to get back to semi-normal and even then, I wasn’t the same. That was why, this time with Ashton, I was determined I wasn’t going to do that again and that I was going to prove to everyone and myself I was stronger now than I was before. This gala was going to show that I could do things myself and that I wasn’t easily broken. Friday’s gala was going to be the best one this company had ever had, and it would be all thanks to me.
That was why I was here sitting in Ashton’s office writing down his speech for him. I wanted to ignore him completely, but being his PA and in charge of everything, I had to make sure his speech was written and done. Ashton had to give the opening speech Friday, and it had to be good. We have been going at it for an hour and thankfully we were about done. Only a few more sentences to wrap it all up. It was times like these I was glad my handwriting was pretty good. It would suck for Ashton if my handwriting sucked and he had to read it.
Ashton sat there looking out his window, not saying anything as I caught up writing what he told me to. The tension in the air was almost palpable and I wanted out of this office quickly. It was past five-thirty, and my stomach was growling constantly. Who knew this job would make me this hungry? You would think I had a physical job, but my old job was worse than this and I wasn’t nearly as hungry. I was starting to think they put pot in the food so you would keep coming to get more.
Being the writer that I am, or, well, want to be, I had put extra words into Ashton’s speech along with some extra sentences to sound better. Noticing that Ashton wasn’t paying attention to me, I finished his speech off for him. Quickly re-reading through it, I deemed it good and set it down on his desk. I stood up, ready to go home. I needed as much sleep as I could get, since tomorrow was the gala. I had a thousand things to do tomorrow at work, then I had to get ready and head to the place to gala was being held to make sure everything was set up at exactly seven, before the guests arrived. I didn’t want to attend, but I had to be there to make sure security was in place, that the food was done on time and that there was enough, that the tables were finished and set, and that people who were making speeches and auctioning off stuff was done correctly. I wasn’t even planning on dressing up; I was just going to wear what I would wear to work. It wasn’t like I was important enough to be there anyways.
“Is that all, Mr. Miller?” I asked, straightening out my things.
“I need you to cancel all of my appointments tomorrow and reschedule them. I won’t be in all day,” he said, not looking at me. Great, just great. More work for me.
“Sure thing. Anything else?” I saw him shake his head, so I stood up and straightened my skirt. “Make sure you are there a little bit before seven,” I said.
“Make sure you don’t wear anything revealing; not that it’s going to be hard, seeing the way you are. I don’t want people talking about how much of a slut my assistant is. And if this gala is terrible, it is on your head. Not mine,” Ashton said out of the blue. I froze and stared at him. Did he just say I was a slut and that I would be fired if this gala was bad? My chest ached, as his words hurt me. I bit back my retort.
“Yes, sir,” I bit out and left his office. There were so many things I wanted to say to Ashton. Most were swear words and the others were questions as to why he was treating me like shit now. Forcing myself to leave the building instead of turning around and giving Ashton a piece of my mind was hard to do. As I got in a taxi and headed home, I couldn’t help but think.
Just you wait, Ashton. Just you wait.