Cinderella Man

Marshall sat back in his chair, watching the bright-eyed red head before him. She was slender with a touch of feminine curves. Her auburn, curly hair cascaded loosely down her shoulder. Her green eyes sparked with lust as she read off his gigs.

She was no Aubrey.

“BET has sent an invitation to their awards ceremony. They want you to perform.” The words seemed to roll off her tongue seductively, her eyes locked with his.

Marshall nodded, his eyes shifting from the redhead to the screen of his laptop. His fingers danced across the keyboard. He didn’t pay his new assistant much mind. She was… well, she was like the rest of them. Hungry for fame and fortune, bending over at every opportunity for him.

The young woman cleared her throat, walking around his desk in a sultry fashion. Her hips swayed from side to side as she approached him, licking her red stained lips. She walked around, stopping behind him, and quickly snaking two hands around his neck. She began to massage his skin, whispering in his ear, “You’re so tense. I can loosen you up a bit.” She let out a light giggle, as if to hint that her intentions were innocent.

‘Why the hell not?’ he thought to himself. He was never one to turn down a beautiful, young woman.

An imagine of Aubrey flashed through his mind. The way she blushed when he sent perverted advanced towards her, the way she twisted her hips when she walked, the way her face would flush with anger when he did or said something wrong. He missed her, and there was no one that could replace her.

Marshall spun around in his chair, facing the young redhead. His eyes carefully took in every curve. “I think I would be the one loosening you up…But then again, you’re probably as loose and stretched as my grandmother’s tits.” He smirked at her shocked expression. She must not get turned down very often. “If you want to keep this job, I suggest you keep your hands to yourself Miss Johnson. Are we clear?”

The green-eyed beautiful nodded, quickly leaving his office. As he watched her, Marshall wondered if she ever felt the burn of the heat as her cheeks flushed. Had she ever blushed? Was she humble enough to blush?

No. She was the typical gold digger. She valued herself and knew what she deserved, never blushing at any compliment.

Marshall groaned, his mind at a war with his heart. It seemed as though his feelings for Aubrey only grew over the past two months, his desire to see her growing stronger day by day. His heart wanted to tell her… that he loved her.

But his mind wouldn’t let him. He didn’t love her… at least not completely. He loved the shell, but the core was altogether another subject. Never had he expected her to be so heartless. To kill something so innocent, whether it was created in an act of lust or love. Never had he expect her to leave like she did, breaking his heart in the process.

He had to let his mind win. She was gone and she wasn’t coming back. Besides, he had the three most important women in his life already – his daughters.

….

Aubrey sighed, playing with the pen in her hand absentmindedly. She landed the assistant job at the Hewitt Law Firm. She thought she would be happy, ecstatic in fact. After all, ever since she was a little girl she had wanted to become a lawyer- a powerful, independent woman who pulled her own weight. Besides, the TV shows made being a lawyer look fun.

It was anything but. She may not yet be a lawyer, but with the work she was doing she might as well be. Stacks upon stacks of cases – work injuries, car accidents, health insurance, criminal, misdemeanor – you name it, it was on her desk.

William Hewitt, her new boss, had piled up a mountain of cases for her to work on. His firm was the largest firm in Detroit; naturally it would be the busiest. It seemed as if everyone and their grandmother wanted Mr. Hewitt to represent them in court.

Aubrey picked up a random manila folder and took out its contents. She began to scan the case at hand. It was her job to find loopholes in the system that would give William Hewitt an upper hand in the courtroom. She had to assist him in finding his argument – a way for her to learn “the ropes” as William had said during her interview.

William was an attractive man considering his almost fifty-something age. Aubrey could tell that under the suit was a well toned body. His graying hair and light blue eyes added to his dominant features. “Well, Miss Davis,” she recalled his words, “I would love to have you as my assistant. And, in a year or two, possibly as a partner.”

She thought she would be happy…but she wasn’t. Maybe it was the hormones, but Aubrey didn’t like her job. She didn’t like the job of a lawyer. It was nothing like she had imagined it to be. She was miserable. Cases upon cases with no end in sight.

’Maybe I should just drop out,’ she reasoned with herself.

No, she couldn’t. She was less than two years away from her degree. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, give up now. Even if she hated every minute of her career as a lawyer, she had to think about someone else now. She couldn’t think about herself anymore and what made her happy.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Aubrey let out a loud, glass-shattering scream. Her eyes fell back on the scale, checking the digits for the third time. It had to be broken! There was no way she gained thirty pounds! She still had roughly three months left of her pregnancy. At this rate, she would end up looking like an elephant on the delivery bed.

She stepped off the scale, her mind concluding that it must be broken. Surely she wasn’t carrying a thirty pound baby.

She glanced at her full length mirror, unable to recognize the whale that stared back at her.

’That’s it,’ she thought to herself, ’I am going to tell Marshall and force him to pay for liposuction once this thing is out of me.’

A sudden wave of mixed emotions washed over her. Marshall…

She had finally come to terms with the fact that she was pregnant. She was done going through her pre-partum depression. She was ready to be a mother – ready to let the father of her child back into her life.

She had to tell him.

Would he still give her the chance to talk? Did he even care anymore?

Aubrey shook the thoughts out of her head and picked up her cell phone. Her fingers quickly keyed in some numbers. She paused before hitting the green button, composing herself. She took a deep breath in and let her thumb glide across the button, her heartbeat increasing at the sound of each unanswered ring.

Before anyone could answer, Aubrey hung up the phone. What was she doing? Who had she become? She had more balls than this.

She would march down to Shady Records and tell Marshall in person.