Falling for the Beast

The Beauty

 

Now where did he go again? I whirled around in my seat to reach across my office desk and pick up my phone. I swiped through the different apps with my finger and began to text my father one more time. It was nearly five o’clock and he still wasn’t replying. He was supposed to pick me up so we could have dinner together.

“Hey, Bella, could you get these done this week?” a male voice asked and I turned around just in time to see my boss, Ruben, drop a small stack of papers on my desk. “AfforMed wants a new front-end for their app. Here’s all the details and background for you to go through.”

I put my phone down and thumbed through the papers, “Oh, okay. Yeah, I can get this done. I’m just compiling the assets for the Black Thorn game app. You know – the shooter thing they asked us to do?”

Ruben thought about it for a second and then went, “Ah, yeah, I remember. Well, when you’re done with it, send it to the QA folks then get started on this one. You pick your team for this because we want it done as soon as possible.”

“Sure,” I replied and just pushed it all out of my way. I didn’t have to rush through it right now. “Hey, I’m leaving in a bit. Do you have any other last requests?”

“Do you mean any request other than a sweet little kiss?” he asked me, sarcastically but with a tone of honest intent. “Nah, I think just this bit of work is all for now. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

I watched him as he turned around and left my little cubicle. He wasn’t all too bad-looking, to be completely honest, and if he wasn’t such a perverted asshole I could see myself going out with him. Ruben had the whole “tall, dark and handsome” gig going real fine. The real problem was his ego and the way he’d rape me with his gaze. It was unsettling.

I then turned back to my work and did my best to organize my documents so I could hop back to work in the morning. Once everything was settled I checked my phone but to my dismay my father still hadn’t texted me. I was starting to feel a little worried.

“Dad, I’m just going to go home,” I sent him a message. “You can drop by my apartment. I’ll cook us dinner.”

Well, it was time to leave. I didn’t want to stay here longer than I should. I had to learn the hard way. When I first started here I tried to be “the most diligent” worker in the company and over-timed all the time. It turned out that wasn’t a good idea because all the other employees just gossiped about me and in the end I didn’t get any extra pay for my efforts.

Quickly I got up, shoved some of the more important documents into my tiny bag and slipped my phone back into my blouse pocket. I fixed my skirt, shut off my computer and headed out of the work floor and to the bathroom.

I was going to just powder my face and re-apply my lipstick but I felt the need to relieve myself first so I stepped into a cubicle, locked the door and did my business. While I was in there I heard the main bathroom door open and the steps of a few other women as they flocked in front of the mirror.

“Did you hear the rumor about the boss?” one of them asked the other. I couldn’t tell who they were by the sound of their voice.

“Who? Ruben?” asked another. This one sounded a little high-pitched and it could have been Brittany or Laurie.

“Well, duh, who else?” the first girl replied. “I heard he’s been trying to get between Bella’s legs.”

The three girls laughed. What was so funny? I didn’t find Ruben’s flirty moves funny – I found them a little offensive and beyond perverted.

“He’ll never get her,” a third voice said. This one was definitely Veronica. She was such a bitch – that was a fact even in my first day at the office. She had an ego twice the size of the moon but the truth was she was one of the bottom tier programmers in the company.

“That’s just a fact,” the first girl commented. “I mean, come on, look at Bella. She’s such a freaking weirdo. Sure, she can look hot when she tries but with those ugly glasses and clothes she looks more like my grandma.”

All three girls agreed to that with a lot of “uh-huh” and “yep” being passed around. It was infuriating and I had to grip myself tight to stop me from bursting out of the cubicle and confronting them regarding their insults.

The second girl then stated, “You know she spends her free time reading books, right? Like, come on, it’s not 1995. What’s so interesting about a book when you have the internet?”

I rolled my eyes when I heard her. It’s no wonder they’re all freaking idiots. These are the type of girls who do nothing but look in front of a mirror all day and just flash their eyes at guys. It was a wonder they even got a job here other than being a janitor.

“Come on, let’s go,” Veronica then said. “Johnny’s waiting for us at the parking lot. Do my eyelashes look too fake? They can’t look fake, right? These are Valen’s, they’ve got to look astounding or I want my two hundred dollars back.”

The others joined her as they gaggled on out of the bathroom. It was only after a few moments more that I finally got out of the cubicle and stared at myself in the mirror. Did I really look ugly with these glasses on? What was wrong with my blouse? It wasn’t even a year old. How in the world did I look a grandma?

I took a closer look. My blouse was made of wool, a little thick and dark red – almost maroon, one could say – and had a cute little puppy on the front. My hair, jet black and long, was tied up in a ponytail and I didn’t wear accessories save for the glasses. Now that I had a better look at them, they did seem a little weird. My glasses had really thick black frames, were circular and made me kind of look like a librarian. I couldn’t really see the green tint of my eyes behind the thickness of the lenses.

So what if I was old-fashioned? Just because I was out of style didn’t mean I was ugly… right?

Sure, I was tiny for a girl my age – I was twenty-one and I stood only five-foot-one – but I liked to refer to myself as petite instead of small. I still had curves where it mattered, my figure was still in the ideal range and I had decently-sized tits… maybe, I couldn’t really know because I’ve never had a man – or woman for that matter – touch them.

“They just can’t see the world beyond the length of their phones,” I whispered to myself, consoling my feelings as best as I could.

Speaking of phones, I tried to call my dad again but he still didn’t answer. Sure that he wasn’t going to meet up with me today I quietly left the bathroom, bid good-bye to those I passed by on my way out and finally got to my rickety-old car. After taking a deep breath I smiled and drove on home.

During the drive I couldn’t help but constantly look at myself in the rear-view mirror. I didn’t find myself ugly so why did they? I mean, do I really have to wear short skirts and a revealing top to qualify in their categories of beautiful and normal? I didn’t want to conform to those trends. I wasn’t going to show-off skin just to fit in.

The office was in the dead center of the city and traffic was already making it difficult to get anywhere. Uncertain, I decided to go take a detour and headed down to the Holly’s Coffee and Donuts shop. It was one of my favorites and they had a really good cappuccino too.

I parked my car and strode inside. I was instantly blasted with the aroma of coffee. It was like getting showered in pure magic. I felt giddy and warm just standing in the shop. All the frustrations from earlier washed off instantly.

I then got in line at the counter and ordered one donut and a cup of cappuccino. I was more excited to just sit down and drown myself in my snack than worry about the opinions of my co-workers. When I got to sip my coffee I felt as if I was being washed and cleansed by an intense fire. It was relieving to be away from my workplace.

“Bella!” a familiar voice called out. I groaned under my breath when I realized who it was.

I turned around and saw Aiden walking towards me. He had a tray of donuts and a mocha shake. Aiden, in the best description possible, was the most gorgeous man on the face of the Earth. He was tall, muscular and as manly as a man could get. However, the size of his brain was as small as his muscles were big. I couldn’t think of any other moron dumber than him and that was saying something.

Before I could stop him he sat right down at my table and even forced me to scoot over so he could be right by my side instead of opposite me. I might have been imagining things but I thought I saw him flex his muscles as he did so too. Disgusting.

“Hey babe,” he called me right as he stuffed food into his mouth. He kept on talking, “Good thing I saw you come in. I was going to get the heck out of here. So, where are you off to? Want to spend some time with me?”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “No, Aiden, I don’t because I have to go home. I haven’t heard from my dad so I’m a little concerned and busy right now.”

“Oh, your father can take care of himself, he’s a grown man,” he blew my excuse off and wrapped an arm around me. He was so big he could crush tiny little me with a single move. “You on the other hand… you’re a pretty little flower, baby, don’t you think you need a guy like me to take good care of you?”

I desperately tried to push away and out of his embrace, “Ugh, no, thank you. I can handle myself. Seriously, I just want to go home and wait for my dad.”

“Then let me take you,” he offered. “Women shouldn’t be driving anyway. It causes traffic, traffic accidents, and traffic.”

Once again I rolled my eyes in disgust. He didn’t even notice how he had repeated what he just said. He probably pushed out all of his brain power and substituted it with meat and muscle. No matter how good he looked I couldn’t find him attractive, not even by a single percent.

“I’m fine by myself,” I tried to wiggle my way out of his arms and now out of his proposal too. I didn’t want him knowing where I lived. The mere thought of him driving by every day of my life was enough to drive me insane. “Don’t you have a party or photo shoot to go to?”

Aiden genuinely paused to think about it real quick and then he turned to me and said, “Yeah, but I can ditch them all to join you. Come on, what could go wrong? You and me bumping in the night and having babies? They’d be gorgeous!”

“And idiots if they get anything from you,” I mumbled to myself. I finally got out of his hold by sliding beneath his arms. “Look, I got to go. I’ll see you some other time.”

Even when I ditched him he still had his fluttery gaze at me, “I have your number now, don’t you know? I got it from that bimbo Janette at your work place. Maybe I can give you a call tonight?”

“M-maybe,” I stuttered when I realized just how badly I needed to change numbers now. I crawled under the table and got to the seat on the opposite end. I grabbed my donut and coffee and quickly got up. “Hey, I’ll see you next time okay? I’ve got to go. Bye.”

I trotted out of there before he could grab me and haul me back in. It was cute that at least someone other than my boss found me attractive but did it really have to be the one guy who was both super handsome and super dumb?

“Okay, see you cupcakes!” was the last I heard from Aiden before I got out the door and back to the blistering cold. It wasn’t winter yet but the air was crisp and the cold was biting deep into my skin. As soon as I got into my car I strapped on my seatbelt and finished my coffee to warm myself. Once my cup was empty I drove off, leaving Aiden behind to his fantasies. I finished the rest of my donut as I drove home, my mind focused solely on the road and the troubles left behind.

When I got home I was surprised to see my father’s car parked right outside the apartment building. Had he been here all this time? Why didn’t he respond to any of my text messages?

I got out of the car and quickly made my way inside. I found the lights in the kitchen on but he wasn’t in there. It took a little roaming around but eventually I found him in the spare bedroom upstairs, seated on a recliner with a bottle of beer in his hand. It was really dark as he kept the lights off save for a really dim lamp.

“D-dad?” I called out to him. “Dad?”

He turned to look my way, “B-Bella? Oh.”

I raised an eyebrow in question and worry. What exactly happened to him? I hadn’t seen my father pick up a bottle in years. It was a little disturbing to see him drunk after all this time.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” I slowly crept to him and sat down by the bed beside his chair. Gently I grabbed his bottle and placed it down on the floor. “You didn’t reply to any of my messages. I texted you like a million times.”

He looked at me with a blank expression on his face, “We, uh, we’ll have to sell the house or the farm. Maybe your car too, my car as well, and you’ll have to move out of this apartment so we can cut down the expenses.”

“Huh? What for? Why do we need to sell everything?” I was more confused now than I was earlier.

“I couldn’t go to you earlier because I got stuck in a meeting with one of our clients,” he explained. It was a little hard to understand what he was saying with the slurs. “We got hired by Adam Rousseau, you know, the famous stockbroker? He asked us to develop a new website for his firm but things went awry.”

My father was a skilled web designer. He had been doing this ever since the Internet became a thing in the 1990s and has been a pioneer of new strategies, designs and ideas ever since. I couldn’t remember the last time he ever ran into trouble with a client like this.

“What do you mean things went awry?” I asked.

He looked at me straight in the eye and for the first time I realized his eyes were sullen, probably from crying for hours on end. “One of my guys screwed things over while hooked to their network. One of his mistakes caused a major system crash and it didn’t just affect our system. It took down Rousseau’s database too. That’s a lot of money down the drain – billions – and we’re still in the process of recovering the data.”

That was not good. That was not good at all. Of all the clients he could get into trouble with it had to be with a major stockbroker firm.

“What did Mr. Rousseau himself say?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if they were dealing directly with him or with any of the managers and executives working directly under him. “I mean, he can’t make you pay for everything, right?”

“He’s not,” my father replied. “But we do have to pay for the damages and the costs for recovering the information. It’s well over three million dollars. I could work for a hundred years and still be in debt. I’m afraid I’ll have to shut my company down and declare bankruptcy too.”

I shook my head, “No. I won’t let that happen, daddy. Maybe we can plead with him, outside of court, and agree to a better settlement. I mean, you guys are still trying to recover the information and repair the database so it’s not like everything’s gone.”

“He wouldn’t even speak with me,” my father said. “I only got to speak with the Vice President, Carl Herbert.”

“No, I won’t settle for that,” I wasn’t going to let Rousseau just trample on my father and all he worked for. “Just rest up, daddy, I’ll take care of this. I’ll go in and speak with him first thing tomorrow morning before I head over to work.”

My father shook his head and waved his hands, “N-no, I shouldn’t let you handle my problems, sweetie.”

“Daddy,” I held his hands tightly. “It’s nothing, I promise. I know you and the company will have to fix what broke but we can’t let Rousseau’s firm just step on you like that. I’ll just try to negotiate something reasonable.”

He finally relented and allowed me to help him up and get on the bed. I took one of the spare blankets, tucked him in and then kissed him goodnight. Finally, I headed to my own room and plopped on the bed. Exhausted, I wanted to sleep but I couldn’t stop thinking about the task now ahead of me. I decided to just turn on my TV and watch one of the cooking channels until I finally dozed off.