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When a Tornado Meets a Volcano

the boss' boss' boss.

I groaned as Nora yelled at me to wake up. The hangover in my head seemed inevitable, but waking up this early seemed to be completely unnecessary. “Get the fuck up! I need to make you presentable for your sexy date!” Nora ordered, I moaned loudly and finally gave up, throwing off my covers and following her into the bathroom we shared where everything had already been laid out and prepared. The curling iron, enough makeup for a movie set and other grooming items. “Sit,” Nora said curtly pointing to the bar stool she had moved into the bathroom. I let out a soft laugh before plopping down into the chair.

“You know, this seems a little unnecessary because I threw up on him last night and he’ll probably throw my phone at me then run away,” I struggled to get out as she put some lipstick on my lips. She smacked my arm and raised an eyebrow at me.

“Shut up and don’t move, I need to work my magic,” Nora muttered, she was concentrating as she put different things on my skin. “Besides, I doubt he would meet up with you if he didn’t want to see you! He could’ve easily asked for your address to mail it to you or drop it off, but he wants to get coffee. Besides, looking hot never hurt anyone.” I jutted my lip out and agreed. Once she had finished my face, she started curling my hair into loose waves that cascaded down and finally smiled before letting me see the mirror. My jaw dropped, I looked like someone out of a magazine. Nora had even managed to erase all traces of crying from my now bright green eyes.

“Damn, you’re good,” was all I could manage from my pink lips.

“I told you, now outfits,” Nora smiled, clapping her hands together. I touched my hair, wondering how I had never managed to make it look good in twenty-two years and Nora could do it in thirty minutes. I didn’t have time to study my face, because Nora yanked me back into my room and told me to wear a push-up bra. I complained under my breath while putting it on under my cami, every girl had locker room tricks for dressing and undressing, but I wasn’t exactly shy around Nora. We had been friends since the eighth grade.

She bit her lip fishing through all my denim shorts and t-shirts from my college days before pulling out a high-waisted charcoal pencil skirt and a pale coral blouse. She grabbed a pair of dark wash, straight-legged jeans and a button down white shirt and pulled out a thin brown belt pairing the outfit together. I hadn’t seen her this concentrated since our Physics final exam, I let out a tiny laugh. “Okay, try this on,” Nora said pointing to the high-waisted skirt and blouse. I nodded, awkwardly dressing to avoid messing up my hair or makeup. I zipped up the skirt after tucking in the blouse and she smiled, looking satisfied.

I looked at my full length mirror and stared at the stranger staring back at me. For one, this woman looked employed. “Oh shit, Nora, I have a job interview with Whittaker Public Relations today at noon,” I cursed at the realization. I cupped my cheeks, wondering if this would be appropriate to wear to a job interview.

“Lucky for you, I didn’t forget! When you go in for your interview, just toss this on. Here’s a pair of heels,” She listed off. I scrunched my nose at her, resenting her for her neurotic perfection. Nora had always managed to be on top of everything, I swear she was born responsible. “Now, you have to go, because you have a date and I have to get ready for work,” Nora smiled condescendingly before hugging me and nudging me toward the door.

“Thanks Nora,” I smiled before slipping on the pair of black pumps Nora had given me and spilling my essentials into a black briefcase, not forgetting my reference letters and notes to self for the day. I grabbed my car keys and had to run back into my room forgetting the cream cardigan Nora had told me to wear. I slid on deodorant before spritzing perfume in my hair in case of lingering bar smell and ran out the door. I found my car and turned the ignition three times before my engine decided to start.

“Fuck you,” I muttered to a car that swerved into the lane I was trying to turn into at the last minute. Driving always seemed to be such a hassle. I drove a couple blocks up the road to the cafe I was supposed to meet Kent at, I didn’t even know how to acknowledge him. I took one more look at myself and inhaled sharply, telling myself to be confident over and over. I grabbed my briefcase and walked into the coffee shop and realized it was incredibly crowded. I scanned the crowds nervously, but saw no one. Instead, I felt a hand on my lower back and turned around quickly. “Goodness, you scared the shit out of me,” I called out before over compensating and lowering my voice into a whisper.

Kent let out a laugh, he was wearing a crisp white button down shirt, with a well-cut black suit and a thin black tie, probably Italian. He looked expensive, I caught a whiff of some sort of cologne and I almost swooned. “Well, I must say, you clean up nicely Ms. Montgomery,” he chuckled fondly. I smirked, knowing I looked awesome. I mentally thanked Nora for her insistence. “Are you on your lunch break?” he asked.

“Uh, no. I have a job interview at noon,” I explained, pushing a stray hair out of my face. I stood in line, but when we got the counter Kent stood in front of me and ordered something complicated before turning at me expectantly. I flushed awkwardly, “Oh, I’ll have a small nonfat vanilla latte, please,” I smiled gratefully at the overwhelmed counter girl.

“Okay, that’ll be nine dollars and forty-seven cents, please,” she smiled back looking at me appreciatively. I knew how affluent people treated customer service people, like they were dirt on the bottoms of their shoes. I couldn’t understand how they could dehumanize someone like that. Kent passed his black American Express card to her and she scanned it quickly, but my eyes caught it. Of course he had had a black one, he had to be, like, a billionaire or something, I thought sarcastically.

“Thank you, Mr. Connors,” I blushed as we walked down towards the pick up counter. He nodded without saying anything. I stood awkwardly and peered over to him, realizing that he was still taller than me even with heels on. He seemed even taller than last night, he had perfect posture and strong, wide shoulders. I tried not to stare too blatantly at him.

“So, where is your job interview?” Kent asked, looking down at me with a kind smile on his lips. I had no idea what kind of personality he had, which made me quiet and uncomfortable.

“Whittaker Public Relations,” I answered, walking forward to get both of our coffees, passing his to him and looking up to see a giant smile on his face. I raised my eyebrows, “What?”

He took his coffee and shrugged, before passing me my cell phone. I thanked him before checking the time on my gold Marc Jacobs watch and excused myself. I had approximately thirty minutes to drive in shitty traffic, park and get to the twenty-seventh floor of the building. I tapped my steering wheel, it seemed everyone was going slower than usual because I had somewhere to be. I checked my watch again, twenty minutes, I looked for the parking spaces allotted for Whittaker Public Relations and took the first one I could find before practically dashing towards the elevator.

I took the time to check my phone and saw fourteen missed messages from Jason and three from Jess. I frowned clearing them all, I didn’t need that right now. I tapped my heel as the elevator slowly came to a stop. The ornate doors spread open into a glass and steel room that seemed humongous and overwhelming. My heels were the loudest thing in the silent lobby, tapping and echoing through the emptiness. I immediately felt my cheeks heat up, but tried not to let the awkwardness get to me.

“Hi, can I help you?” A young brunette smiled after putting someone on hold. I cleared my throat and tried to act like I belonged here.

“Hello, I’m Lilly Montgomery, I’m here for a job interview with Mr. Rivera,” I said confidently, pushing my shoulders back and straightening my posture. She smiled and nodded before pushing a button and waiting.

“Mr. Rivera, Miss Montgomery is here for your twelve o’clock,” She chirped, her blue eyes strained from forcing the happiness and with that I relaxed a little bit. “Yes, sir, I’ll send her right up,” she said before pushing another button and turning her attention to me, “he’s ready for you, just go up those stairs and it’ll be the first door on your right.”

“Thank you,” I said at her before giving her a small smile. I felt a chill down my spine from the air conditioning and remembered my cardigan. I frowned, realizing that I had left it in my car. I mentally cursed myself and decided to mask the insecurity and frustration brewing within me with a big, confident smile. I followed the receptionist’s directions and opened up a door seeing a very modern office with a great view of downtown and the town lake. It almost seemed like a giant painting, but the clouds softly drifting reminded me this was real.

“Beautiful view, am I right?” Mr. Rivera’s voice shocked me as it came from a wet bar in the corner of his office. He was an average guy, of an average height and middle age. With a gold ring on his left ring finger and a pink tie, I figured he was married with children, probably girls. I recalled giving my dad an ugly pink tie, my mother had tried to persuade me to buy something more masculine, but I loved it- and he pretended to.

“Oh yes, it’s breathtaking,” I smiled trying to mask my awkwardness. I didn’t know if I should shake his hand or just sit down or what. Luckily, he seemed to sense this.

“Please, sit down Miss Montgomery. I must say, you have a very impressive resume and-” Mr. Rivera began, as I sat down in a very plush black chair across the desk from him, lowering himself into an office chair with lumbar support. He paused after hearing a receptionist calling out after someone, the door opened and I was shocked to see Kent Connors grinning.

“Mr. Connors, you can’t go in there…” The reception shouted until she saw the door was already open and she flushed, struggling to gather her thoughts. “Uh, Mr. Rivera, Mr. Connors here to see you.” Both Mr. Rivera and I had looks of disbelief on our faces, for very different reasons.

“Sylvia, it’s fine. Mr. Connors, what can I do for you?” Mr. Rivera stood up, shaking Kent’s hand. I stared at him with my jaw on the floor who was this guy? I thought and my face clearly echoed my thoughts.

“I just thought I would pop in, see if you needed any help with the interview,” he shrugged casually. I raised my eyebrow skeptically and Mr. Rivera coughed from probably the same feeling.

“Mr. Connors, I was about to offer Miss Montgomery a job, but I didn’t think that would concern the CEO,” Mr. Rivera said with a questioning inflection, I jutted out my bottom lip, wondering the same thing myself. Pause. CEO? I thought this guy was twenty-eight, aren’t CEOs supposed to be like sixty? Pause again, he was going to offer me the job. I grinned with the realization.

“Well, normally not, but I was going to pop in anyway. Routine check up, you know, David?” He grinned and Mr. Rivera laughed, I remained silent and waited for him to ask me some questions or something. This whole situation was incredibly awkward, I had thrown up on my boss’s boss’s boss. Awesome, my future here did not seem the brightest.

“Certainly, well sit down Mr. Connors, I’m sure Miss Montgomery won’t mind. Very few Junior Associates ever get to meet the higher-ups,” Mr. Rivera grinned looking at me, I had a forced smile on my lips. What was I supposed to say? Yeah, he can’t stay because I’m horrendously embarrassed by my behavior from last night?

“Sure,” I said meekly, my cheeks beginning to hurt from forcing a smile.

“All right, well let’s see. As I was saying, you have a GPA of 3.9 coming out of Stanford, very impressive. Chapter president of your sorority, which my wife coincidently is an alumnae. Excellent references and I see your father is Colton Montgomery, he’s a very affluential executive. If talent is genetic, we’d love to see how far you go,” Mr. Rivera smiled reading my resume. I feigned a laugh about my father, he was an unyielding maverick, which made him very successful at him job, but not many people liked him. “Do you have any questions, Mr. Connors?” Mr. Rivera added on turning to Kent who was smirking at me.

“How committed are you willing to be to this job? Would you be willing to work late and weekends, if necessary?” He asked with a charming smile on his lips. I tried to hide my curiosity, wondering if this was a euphemism or just a standard job interview question. I nodded affirmatively and he checked my resume over Mr. Rivera’s shoulders. “Wonderful, you have many extracurriculars, that’s good,” He read sounding completely disinterested.

“Perfect, well here is your badge, it will let you in through the staff elevators. Here’s your parking pass and we’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine. Oh and this is the employee manual, you’ll have to go over it tonight and sign,” Mr. Rivera smiled handing over a stack of papers, a thin plastic pass for the rearview mirror and a magnetic ID badge with my picture on it. I had wondered why they made applicants submit a two by two inch picture, now I was glad I picked a flattering one.

“All right, thank you so much for this opportunity Mr. Rivera, I won’t let you down,” I grinned happily as I shook his hand before Kent stood up and cleared his throat. “Thank you, as well, Mr. Connors, it was a pleasure to meet you,” I smiled coyly before letting myself out, hearing both of them talking about their golf swing.

I saw Sylvia texting on her phone as she answered the phone with a faux bubbly tone. I smiled and waved at her and she kindly did the same. I was trying to get to the elevator doors quickly so I could do my happy dance, but once the doors began to close a hand came between them and I frowned. “Congratulations on your new job,” Kent smirked mysteriously.

“Are you stalking me or something?” I asked bluntly, before I mentally hit myself remembering he was my boss’s boss’s boss. I was relieved when he let out a laugh, my shoulders slowly sank from their rigid position.

“No, but I must admit I’m really curious about you,” Kent replied, or Mr. Connors, what should I call him? Then I realized what he was saying and I tried not to blush. “You seemed like such a mess last night and frankly, when you’re the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, not many people call you a douche, was it?” he asked with a teasing tone. This time, I couldn’t conceal my blush. I bit my lip remembering I made fun of his V-neck then called him a douche. Yep, that happened.

“Yeah, well you should’ve told me you owned the company I was going to a job interview for,” I ignored his other remarks and pressed my stack of papers tightly to my chest, wishing that the elevator would hurry up because the twenty-seven floors seemed like a thousand.

“I own many companies and once again you left rather precipitously, so I couldn’t tell you regardless if I wanted to. Do you make a habit out of that?” He asked. I tried to hide the fact I had no idea what precipitously meant and made a mental note to look that up when I got home. I turned and saw his greenish-hazel eyes glimmering at me and a boyish, flirtatious smile on his lips. Is that what this is? Is he flirting with me or patronizing me? I couldn’t tell.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, how would like to have dinner with me?” He asked completely confidently, my eyes widened at his proposition. I clutched the papers even tighter as the elevator doors opened, to my dismay he kept following me as I walked to my car.

“Isn’t that inappropriate? You’re my boss and that’s generally frowned upon,” I assembled all the excuses I could find to turn him down. Even though he was gorgeous and apparently witty. When I reached my car he frowned looking at it. I caught him and realized he was judging poor Old Blue and I sneered. “Well, it was great seeing you again Mr. Connors, maybe I’ll see you in the office,” I said hastily opening my front door and leaning in to place my papers on my passenger seat before putting my brief case on top of them.

“First, I own this company and there is no board, so I can essentially do whatever I want. Second, this is one of many holdings I have, do you think anyone would care? Also, I have a feeling inappropriate suits you,” Kent leaned in giving me a smoldering look and my jaw dropped from shock. Whoa! Okay, he is definitely flirting with me, I wanted to pull out of the spot as quickly as I could, but at the same time running over my boss’s boss’s boss would end my future here.

“You’re not gonna let me leave until I say yes, are you?” I replied with a deadpanned face after I realized what he was doing. He looked giddy as he smiled and nodding his head affirmatively. “Fine, dinner. Bye now,” I agreed quickly before shooing him away with the back of my hand and pulled out of the parking spot. I felt my heart racing excitedly and my stomach was doing flips, I cursed my involuntary reaction to his effect on me.

I drove straight home and realized I was completely starving and developing a blister on my right heel. I staggered up the steps and remembered Nora wouldn’t be home. Once I was in my house, I kicked off my heels and put the pile of papers on the coffee table in our living room. I unzipped my skirt and soon replaced them with a pair of boxers before putting my pumps away. I grabbed a Diet Coke from the refrigerator and sank into the couch, my mind racing from the days events.

Comfortable at last, I began to skim through the papers Mr. Rivera had given me. It was relatively basic: show up on time, don’t steal shit, don’t embarrass the company, if you don’t do a good job you will get fired and you have to give at least a two-weeks notice for quitting. I finished reading it and signed quickly before looking at my parking pass and ID badge. I stared at the picture of me and somehow I seemed younger, my hair in natural waves and relatively no makeup. I had dimples and freckles, both made me look much younger than I was. I smiled realizing that I had a real, grown up job. I hummed happily, stretching out on the couch and my mind drifted to the conversation I'd had in the elevator. I shot up and grabbed my phone googled precipitous and read: 1. Dangerously high or steep 2. (On an action) done suddenly and without careful consideration. I scoffed reading it and murmured, “What a pretentious jerk.”

I relaxed with a small smile on my lips, I had never met anyone like him. I wasn’t sure if I should be so … interested, after all it is a relationship doomed to fail. He’s my boss, super good-looking and rich and I’m a twenty-two-year-old Junior Associate in one of his many businesses. Maybe he’ll realize it at dinner tonight, my eyes widened as I remembered. I immediately called Nora’s work number and waited for the line to pick up.

“Nora Anderson, Editing,” She answered professionally and I raised my eyebrows completely impressed. It was weird to hear someone you’ve known since you were fourteen acting like a grown up. I guess we’re both grown ups now.

“Hey Nora, I got the job! Also, Kent Connors asked me out to dinner?” I spilled to her. I heard a giant gasp.

“Oh my God! Lilly! That is so great! No more getting drunk on weekdays, missy,” She scolded and I laughed, but my mind was waiting for her to comment on the second thing I had mentioned. “Wait, Kent Connors, the bajillionaire? Lilly, how did you meet Kent Connors? He’s one of the most influential people in the world!” My jaw dropped, in the world? I puked on him, awesome.

“He’s the guy who gave me a ride home yesterday,” I answered meekly. I felt completely intimidated now. What was a guy like that doing with me? Shouldn’t he be out dating an aristocrat or something, I rolled my eyes trying to shake the nerves.

“Holy crap, you are so fucking lucky. You would meet Kent Connors in a bar and I met Ryan,” Nora scoffed talking about her current boyfriend. “Oh and I told you so.”

“Told me what?” I asked.

“Told you that he liked you! What are you gonna wear?” Nora sounded like a giddy school girl again and I laughed nervously. “Okay, I’m coming home. Do not attempt to do anything to yourself without me there! Oh and we are celebrating your job this weekend, girl!” Nora said, I looked at the clock and realized it was already five. I didn’t know where the time went anymore, but I felt better knowing Nora was going to help me.
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thank you to Captain_S1m0n and daisylove for commenting
i appreciate it soooooooooo much :)
i'm just gonna keep writing this for the six subscribers T-T
because you guys are awesome for reading this and i love you... a lot...
kbai.