The Boss’s Unconventional Assistant

With Croix safely locked away in his office and with no meetings planned for the day, Lyner decided to make most of her time by checking in on the security department.

Stepping into the Security Division floor, the first person Lyner laid eyes on was the sole female member of security, Mute. She was by far the most muscular and strongest member of staff, with her rippling muscles in her legs and arms, her face masculine and seemingly always pulled into a scowl. By first appearance she looked like a mean pro-wrestler.

A bit of a contrast to the light floral dress she was wearing.

"Good morning Mute," Lyner greeted cheerfully before asking. "Is that a new dress?" When she received a curt nod in reply, Lyner's smile brightened further as she sincerely stated, "It suits you!"

Mute's scowl, although deep and manly, brightened a little and since Lyner had known Mute for quite some years, she knew the other woman was pleased with the comment and knew that she was being honest. Mute liked it when people commented on her girliness.

Lyner liked Mute. She was a girly-girl who was both tough and gentle at the same time. She was as strong as any man, but loved pulling her hair into pig-tails and wearing sparkly pink things. Her body-builder appearance made her the butt of insults and vile jokes from many other women, mostly MFOSs who had 'curves in all the right places'. She tried not to take them to heart, though. She knew that she was better than them. Without a doubt.

"I hear that Randolf has more files he wants me to look through," Lyner said.

Since she was the one with the most experience with sussing out MFOSs, she was often called upon to glance over job resumes. These ones, however, were more...sneaky was probably the right word. Different name, detailed resume with all the right things and actually going for the job that was being advertised. But that didn't mean they were legit.

The MFOSs might be able to get one over on the staff in Human Resources, but they had no chance of getting one over on Lyner.

The days leading up to Interview Week (yeah, not day, week) was always a stressful time for everyone within the Blue Zircon Enterprise. The week itself was utterly nerve-wracking. It was the time where everyone had to be on guard, watching the potential job candidates with suspicious gazes as they file in through the doors and taking to three stories up in order to be interviewed. Letting them run wild in the lift was dangerous as they could 'accidentally' step onto the wrong floor, look around, see that Croix wasn't there before 'accidentally' stepping onto another wrong floor.

They were determined.

“These are new,” Mute said as she picked up a rather tall stack of files and notes.

Again, Lyner nearly stumbled under the weight of the files. "Thanks," she stuttered.

"Need help?" Mute asked in her usually terse voice.

Lyner was about to reply with a courteous no, that she was fine, but realised that there was just too many files and it would take her a while to make it back to her desk. She couldn’t afford to impede herself in anyway. She needed to be light and agile at all times. After all, MFOSs seem to always appear when they weren’t wanted.

Which was all the time.

“…That would be great, thanks,” Lyner murmured, sighing with relief when Mute effortlessly removed the stack of files from her arms, seemingly holding them with one hand.

With her strength and presence, it was no wonder Mute was often called upon to throw any unwanted socialite out of the building. And yes, Lyner meant that literally.

~*~*~*~*~

Flipping through the photocopies of some of the dodgy resumes for the data entry position, Lyner tapped her highlighter pen against her chin. Just as she had suspected, most of the resumes she had inspected so far were indeed well hidden fakes. Lying might sound easy, but keeping up with the lies was a lot of hard work. And in this day and age with computer searchers, it wasn’t at all difficult to catch someone out in a lie.

Really, a bit of research would go a long way.

For starters, maybe they should choose a name of someone who wasn’t already well known. Or had a popular facebook page. Secondly, they should also choose a high school that actually existed, not to mention a university decree that was feasible for their age.

You can’t have been in the work force for ten years when you were supposedly 20 years old. Child labour was illegal, after all. Working in some ma and pa’s take-away corner store was reasonable, not when the applicant declares that she had been working in a law firm for ten years. No law firm would hire a ten-year-old!

Once again, her high powered and heavy duty shredder was getting a work out.

While shredding a good portion of the resumes, the shredding bin becoming quite full, Lyner’s personal phone suddenly rang with a particular tune. One that was all too familiar.

“Hello, Randolf,” Lyner said into her phone easily, not even needing to glance at the screen.

“Morning, Lyner,” Randolf replied politely and professionally, before seeming sighing with exasperation. “We seem to have a repeat offender on the property.”

Familiar words that still put Lyner on edge. “Do you recognise her?”

“Although her hair seems different than last time, we’re fairly certain that she’s Kyarra McCue, aka Kya,” Randolf explained.

…Kyarra, huh? Yeah, that name did seem to be familiar to her.

“She hasn’t done anything untoward, yet,” Randolf went on to say. “But she is heading straight for you. I have some security guards on stand-by, just in case.”

While the intruder did appear to be a repeat offender, they were legally obligated not to immediately throw her out until she did something extraordinary stupid – such as try to force her way into Croix’s office to show her feisty and bold she was. Or extraordinary dangerous – such as using threats and force to get into Croix’s office to show how determined and independent she was. Or extraordinary bewildering – such as making a huge scene by revealing either how sweet and innocent she was, or how daring and sensual she was.

If they were ‘lucky’, sometimes all three.

“I’ll see what she wants,” Lyner said into her phone.

After hanging up on Randolf, Lyner turned her attention to her computer, sending Croix a quick message about staying inside his office; she then opened a computer file she had created about repeat offenders. As one could imagine, it was a rather large folder…

Quickly scanning through the name, which were thankfully in alphabetical order, Lyner located the file marked Kyarra "Kya" McCue and opened it. The first thing she saw was a picture of the rather eccentric woman and immediately the unfortunate memories she had of her came rushing back.

Lyner had to resist the urge to slump back in her seat and groan in exasperation.

Kyarra, or Kya as she sometimes responded to, was one of those rather irritating kind of people. Because of her rash tongue and her supposedly feisty outspokenness (when, really, she was just had a foul tongue and was insulting toward everyone, especially men), she kept getting the sack from all her jobs.

Getting the sack wasn’t as easy as many believed. There was a lot of paperwork involved with getting the sack and there had to be a good reason for someone losing their job or the company could be sued. Since Kyarra had gotten the sack from every job she worked at told a very telling tale.

The girl-bachelor (bachelorette was word she loathed for some reason) was, however, feisty and undaunted. Instead of trying to reign in her bad attitude (perish the thought!), she decided to instead up come with a plan that could give her a future beyond her wildest dreams. And the best way to do that? Uh huh, you guessed it – what she wanted was for Croix to pay her to become his mistress and allow her to do whatever she wanted with his money!

Ludicrous. Absolutely ridiculous.

Kyarra had actually expected him to fall madly in lust with her at first sight, intrigued by her boldness and sass, and immediately agree to have her as his mistress so he could have a sexy vixen warming his bed whenever he wanted.

But unlike what Kyarra had expected, Croix wasn’t some sex-starved alpha male who was willing to ‘conquer’ every willing female he came across. When she burst into his office that fateful day, dressed like she had been at a night club and boldly offering her ‘deal’, he immediately kicked her out. He would not listen to her ‘reasoning’ nor did he care that she was a feisty girl-bachelor who took the world by the balls. He wasn’t impressed in the slightest, nor was he interested.

Lyner wasn’t at work that day, unfortunately, so didn’t witness the event. But from what she had heard, Mute had to literally drag the woman out by her hair to get her to leave. How she found her way into Croix’s office, no one knew. She was probably one of those ‘random’ and ‘lolz’ kind of girls and had picked the lock.

Lyner, however, had been at work every other occasion where Kyarra returned in vain attempts to ‘wow’ Croix with her sensual determination. Each time sporting a new outfit and hair-do, each time with a poorly made resume for a job she was clearly underqualified for.

Each time Lyner had to wait until she did something stupid before having her kicked off the property.

But no matter how many times she had been thrown out and threatened with arrest, she kept coming back. Had she been a man, Lyner was certain that the law would have slapped a restraint order on her and ordered her to keep away from Croix due to stalking. But since Kyarra was a feisty woman who went after what she wanted, she was praised for being a go-getter.

Again, infuriating.

Croix absolutely loathed her, much like every other repeat offender. He had once declared; “There is no way I’d risk my business – and sanity – giving this idiot a job. Especially that of a cleaner!”

Despite what many people seem to think, a cleaner wasn’t some low-life that you treat like shit. They had keys and the authority to enter any room to clean it. While it was frowned upon, cleaners essentially could find dirt on anyone. Or plant dirt on someone.

Cleaners were not to be messed with.

Still, offering the role of a cleaner to haughty and better-than-thou MFOSs was fun, just to see their outraged and utterly appalled expression. They would never actually get the job, but it was always fun stomping on their egos.

The sound of the lift opening brought a new sense of irritation and trepidation. Glancing over idly, Lyner was once again subjected to the dazzling (re)introduction of another gold-digging woman. They would never simply walk in – they strode, bounced, sashayed, glided, swanned, paraded and flounced in. They were simply too mesmerising and special to ‘walk’ into a room.

Although her hair had changed, from long and goth-like in style, her hair was still black in colour, but was long at the front with bangs reaching past her chin and short at the back and gelled into small spikes. Flicking her head back as she sassily removed her sunglasses, she revealed that she had light green eyes that were apparently always full of laughter, curiosity, and mischief. No, really, she once stated as much herself. It was written down in her file.

Never mind that, the outfit she wore was completely out of place in such a prestige working environment. She wore a pair of skinny jeans with tall heeled boots that reached her knees. Her top was as tight as her jeans and rather simple in design – a singlet top that was white in colour and set low on her bust, which was large and perky (as they always are). Hanging over her arm was a short leather jacket and a large leather handbag.

Lyner sat up straight in her chair and rolled her shoulders, getting ready for the impeding battle of wits. No point in beating around the bush. Best to simply get to the point. “You can’t apply for a job unless you have a resume. It’s company rules.”

Although she loathed red-tape and paperwork, sometimes it was useful.

Coming to an abrupt stop in front of her desk, Kyarra rolled her light green eyes at Lyner in annoyance before reaching into her handbag and pulling out a couple pieces of paper. However, instead of simply dropping it onto Lyner’s desk, she held onto them, expecting Lyner to point to the door of Croix’s office and telling her to go inside.

When Lyner didn’t, Kyarra frowned deeply and looked increasingly annoyed. “Of course,” she said as she rolled her eyes again. “I guess Croix is ‘too busy’ for the likes of me, huh?”

As true as that was, Lyner really didn’t like her tone of voice.

“Expect nothing less of a cold-hearted bastard like him,” Kyarra snorted.

Lyner narrowed her eyes into a glare, a surge of protectiveness washing over her. Want to get on Lyner’s bad side immediately? Call Croix a cold-hearted bastard.

“Don't call him a cold-hearted bastard,” Lyner demanded.

Kyarra scoffed and flicked her black bangs from her eyes, only for the hair to fall straight back to where it was. “But that's what he is, obviously. He treats me like shit.”

It was hard to be polite to someone who made unreasonable demands, trespassed on private property and treated you like a second-rate being.

“That's because you treat him like shit,” Lyner retorted sharply.

"I am a sassy and independent woman,” Kyarra went on to exclaim as she cocked her hip out to the side and placed her hand on her perfectly shaped hipbone. “It's obvious that he can't stand powerful women like me.”

Since when did being a complete and utter bitch mean you were a ‘powerful’ woman?

"What gender you are has nothing to do with this," Lyner snapped, finding herself getting angrier and angrier. Kyarra’s absolute disregard to everyone made her feel so irritated. “If you treat someone badly, you shouldn't be surprised if they return the favour.”

Kyarra gave her a scathing look, but there was also a somewhat puzzled expression on her face. It was almost like she couldn't understand why Lyner wasn't agreeing with her and immediately launching into a spiel about how much of a bastard Croix was and how Kyarra would be the perfect woman to take him down a notch.

…Right.

Lyner sighed. So that was what she was trying to do this time, huh?

“Wow,” Kyarra suddenly said, giving Lyner this somewhat pitying smirk. “Your jealousy is so annoying.”

Jealousy? Oh no, it was hatred that was annoying.

Wordlessly, Lyner stood up from her seat and before Kyarra could react, she leant forward to snatch her resume from her hand. Keeping her eyes locked on Kyarra, she stepped back from her desk toward the much beloved shredder and…dropped the resume into the shredder, listening as it grounded the wad of paper easily. It sounded so satisfying.

Kyarra, on the other hand, looked absolutely appalled and bewildered. How dare she have the audacity to shred her resume like she did?

“I’m afraid to say that the position of Personal Assistant is not open for applicants,” Lyner stated coolly, with little room for argument as she folded her arms over her chest, noting from the corner of her eye as Mute and a few others from security slowly ease onto the floor and surround the infuriated Kyarra. “So unless you wish to apply for another position, I suggest you leave the premises.”

Kyarra simply stared at her for a few seconds, looking bewildered and shocked by Lyner’s, well, feistiness. However, a look of utter anger appeared on her face, furious that she was being disrespected. She suddenly dropped her bag and jacket and made the motion of wanting to jump over Lyner’s desk to attack her, physically showing everyone how ‘bold’ and ‘sassy’ she was.

Mute, however, effortlessly placed the girl-bachelor into a choke-hold and pulled her away, Kyarra spitting and spluttering about how her ‘rivals’ were always so jealous of her, making her out to be the bad guy when she was simply an outspoken and independent woman.

Lyner barely battered an eye as Mute dragged Kyarra into the lift and out of sight, not remotely ruffled that Kyarra had attempted to launch herself at her to attack her for showing disrespect toward her. Lyner was confident in her abilities to put Kyarra in her place. Besides, the bitch was getting on her nerves…

A second later the door to Croix’s office flew open and he stepped out, immediately looking over at her in concern. “Are you all right?” he asked her, a sense of worry and guilt in his voice.

“I’m fine,” Lyner immediately replied as she walked out from behind her desk and over to him, letting him take her into his arms. “Still irritated, though.”

While Lyner was indeed getting sick of spending every morning at work watching a MFOSs strut out of the lift and toward Croix’s office, only to talk to his PA instead, they were at least consistent. When they start to get creative then she’d worry.

“I think it’s time that we move your office again, don’t you?”

“Yeah, probably…”