So Long You Pretty Thing

Clair tapped her pink pen against her blank sticky pad in a rhythm of seven. She was bored out of her mind; she always had a strange desire to work, and she was never able to stay still. She picked up her pen and began to twirl it in her naturally golden blonde hair. As she lifted her head, she saw Alex, from accounting, not being discreet about looking down her shirt. He had floppy brown hair and skin that was so pale he could be florescent.

Clair had a British accent that she had refused to lose since she had come to America when she was nine. “Can I help you?” She did her best to not sound annoyed.

“Why don’t you come to accounting on floor 69, and I’ll punch a few numbers into you,” he had a revolting amount of arrogance in his tone.

“Leave me alone,” she went back to ignoring him.

He sighed and walked toward the elevator. Everyone in the office was chatting and laughing with each other while Clair believed that being antisocial was a virtue. She was shocked when a wave of silence fell over everyone.

Clair went against her better judgment and looked up to see what had happened. An elegantly dressed man stepped out of the elevator, and Clair thought he might be looking at her. No one had seen him before, so they assumed he was new. Almost all of the women were already swooning over him, but Clair only put her head down and began to draw on the paper. She was in a relationship, even though she was thinking of ending it.

She had become so lost in her thought that she didn’t notice the man had walked over to her. He was very handsome with brown hair that came down to his ears and brown eyes that looked hardened, ancient and youthful at the same time.

Clair did not notice this at the time, so she told him off. “Let me make this easy for you. You are going to try and use a lame pick up line on me, but I will beat you to it. I’m new here, would you mind showing me around downstairs? No, that won’t work. Do you know what would look good on you? Me. That still won’t work.

“The only one that I might giggle at is: I’ve been all over the universe, but I’ve never been to Uranus. Would you like to change that? That will still not work.”

He smiled before he extended his right hand, “Or we could start with hello. I’m Liam, and you would be?” He had an American accent, or to be more exact it sounded like it was Connecticut.

Clair was stunned, and it took her a moment before she shook his hand. “Clair,” she immediately let go of his hand when she realized he was wearing leather gloves. She couldn’t think of a reason where he would find a use for them.

She had a desk like Harmony in Angel. For those who are not freaks and know everything about the show, her desk had a two story effect to it. The wooden desk itself was concealed by a marble table on the top that was a foot higher than the desk itself. She had fallen in love with it, because she was separated from everyone else by being on the other side of the room.

Clair was the secretary to the CEO of this law firm called Herbert and Son; she was paid well, and she was kept from losing her sanity from boredom. This branch was located in Manhattan, which made Clair feel even farther from home. When she had come to America all those years ago, 19 years to be exact, Clair and her mother had stayed with relatives in North Carolina. Clair was still upset with her mother because Clair became separated from her sister who had stayed in the UK with their father.

Liam leaned over the side of her desk to see what Clair had been drawing. He instantly tensed when he saw that it was an angel standing over a fish. He asked, actually commented, “Raphael?”

Clair was surprised by his knowledge of obscure archangels, “You know him?”

“A little too well,” he shivered.

Clair took this as a joke and laughed, but Liam kept a straight face. “He is actually my favorite archangel,” she smiled at him.

“Awesome,” he said with no emotion attached to his voice. Clair thought that she was about to get upset at him when he asked, “Is this your boyfriend?” He held up the picture of Clair with her blonde hair and hazel eyes standing next to a man of Asian descent.

“Yes,” Clair smiled at the way that his eyes widened when he saw the picture of Clair with her family. It was a group shot that had both sides of her family pushed together into one frame at a beach in Florida. It was also the last time that her parents had been together in the same country. They were with their second lovers. Her father was with a woman named April. Clair thought that she was a kind-hearted woman, but she only came at the wrong time. She felt the same about her mother’s Richard. Her mother carried him around like a trophy when Clair’s father was near.

The aspect of the picture that got Liam’s attention was the fact that she stood with her sister, and they both wore bikinis that were more revealing than their parents had appreciated.

That was when Mr. Pughman, the CEO, came out of his office. Clair looked around to find that Liam had vanished.