Cinderella for Hire

"You know that's not what I meant, Olivia," he said, rubbing his temple. "Get out of my office. You have no right to be here."

"And she does?" This Olivia person shrieked back, pointing a finger towards me. Oh wow, where did she get her nails done? They looked awesome.

"She is my guest. I've actually invited her in here as oppose to you, who came barging in here thinking what? You own this place?"

I had this impression that I wasn't supposed to be here so I silently got up and tried to tiptoe out the doors. But the woman was really…alert. She whirled around and glared daggers at me and I wanted to crawl back to my seat and just be a stone there.

"You. What's your name?" She said.

"Olivia—" Nicholas, I meant, Nick barked.

"How did you meet him? What are you after?" She hissed at my face. I slowly backed away, not knowing if I should even answer her or not. I didn't want to make things worse for anyone. "Why did he chose you?"
She continued, glaring at me threateningly. It didn't help that I was shorter than she was.

Nick's hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. "Such nerves. Who do you think you are to talk to her like that?"

I took the moment to scurry off and stopped at Nick's PA desk. Zara was looking nervous. "I've called security," she said in her sweet, tiny voice. "Do you think he'll appreciate it?"

"I think if he isn't too polite somehow, he'd drag her out of the room by her hair and throw her out on the streets. What's the story anyway?"

"The story?" Zara said, looking up at me. "Olivia is Nicholas' on-and-off ex-girlfriend, but don't worry. That was 2 years ago. They were a really odd couple. Nicholas is well, Nicholas. And Olivia was a…a…I don't know how to say this…"

"First class bitch?" I offered. Zara looked so affronted that I'd almost laugh.

"Well, I suppose she is," Zara said, giving me a little smile.

"Everyone didn't approve of her you see, even her dad," she continued. "She was being a nuisance to everyone in this floor, and they never stop fighting, the both of them. People called them the Heartless Couple, but I felt offended on behalf of Nicholas. He's not a bad guy, once you get to know him," she said, smiling but then quickly corrected herself, "of course you know that, I mean."

I nodded absent-mindedly as Nicholas stormed out of his office, leaving Olivia fuming in the middle of the office. Everyone who was near the office was hunched over their computers or work, trying hard to ignore the bickering and pretending as if they didn't heard anything. I shrugged and looked down on Zara's table. "Oh my god, is that a pair of Hello Kitty glasses? Where did you get those?!"

Zara looked down too and picked it up. And for a straight 10 minutes or so, we were in a heated conversation about how awesome Hello Kitty was. And about a couple of minutes after that Olivia scowled at the guards (who were late) that came to shoo her away. "I can find the exit myself, thank you," she said. By the sound of her voice, I couldn't help but look at her. She gave me another sharp glare that frankly, scared the shit out of me and gave me the finger before storming off, the guard following her closely behind.

"How rude of her," Zara scoffed as she too watched Olivia left before going back to her work.

Odd.

When she flipped me off, she was clutching a USB drive in her hand. I didn't even remember her carrying anything of that sort when she first entered the office. And even so, why would she come out holding it?

"Oh by the way, here's the website where I got the glasses…" Zara trailed off, clicking a new tab open on her browser.

Score!