“ Time's over.”

“ Alright.”

“ Wise decision,” he replied.

Hope didn't actually say alright for the job offer, she said it in answer of his former statement. But anyway there was no arguing that was a wise decision to make. Hope knew that too. So she didn't correct him on that.
And stood still in front him waiting for the next order.

But it never came. He looked at her with squinted eyes. Hope tried to stay quiet but his intense gaze was too much to handle so she finally asked,
“ What do I need to do first?”

“ Bring me my coffee.”

“ Excuse me?” she asked, baffled.

“ You heard right. And that would be the first job you'll do everyday when you'll reach the office. Sharp at 7:45. 15 minutes earlier. Get going now. You don't have all day.”

Hope was leaving when he called back,
“ I like my coffee black.”

“As your soul, I know,” Hope mumbled on her own and huffing, she left for the break room.

She was done with the coffee and when she was returning she ran into the group of three she had encountered with at first.

“ You're lucky he left you early,” the woman told her. She was dressed normally, as normal as you can be in a corporate office but just by seeing her lips anyone could say she had an obsession with the color red.

Hope didn't know how to reply to her. Was Xavier Maxwell always this rude? - she wondered.

“ No, actually. How did he leave you so early? He either would have fired you or have given you an hour long lecture…  But he did none? Odd,” Will wondered out loud.

Hope still stayed quiet.

“Anyway, as you're done already, come with me I'll tell you about everything” Will informed Hope, “and even after that if you have any kind of problem Sofia will help you,” he gestured to the woman beside him. The woman in red, Sofia, smiled at Hope to put her in ease. But nothing could work then. Hope was stuck with a job now she never intended to do. Thinking she could have worked along with all these cheery people instead of that arrogant CEO made her feel miserable on its own.

“ I-” she hesitated for a bit. Telling the person who accepted her for the job that she actually didn't get that was both pathetic and a disgrace for her.

“ Mr Maxwell doesn't think I'm fit for the post so he wants me to work for him for sometime as his assistant. If he thinks afterwards that I'm capable enough he'll give the post back,” she admitted at last.

“He did what?!” Will exclaimed. Both shocked and confused. “ He can't do that, it's against the rules of this company…” he mumbled on his own and left the room, probably to meet Xavier Maxwell.

Hope kept looking at the figure of Will Johnson from back until he vanished inside the elevator. Something wasn't adding up and Sofia cleared up her confusion,
“ Will is a friend of Mr Maxwell. He's the only one here who can actually talk to him and make him change his mind. I'm Sofia, by the way. Sofia Cromwell.”

“ Hope Avery,” Hope replied, shaking her forwarded hand.

“ I would have loved to get to know you but I think you should get going, the coffee is turning cold. Serve it right and soon we'll be working together,” Sofia told her with so much confidence that for a second Hope believed her too.

“ Right,” Hope replied with a nod of her head and left Sofia and a still very nervous looking Elton there and started for the elevator to serve the coffee to her new boss.

“ You can't do that! I know it's important but you need to think from others' perspective too. Think how she must be feeling now…”
Hope heard Will's voice from outside of the room.

She wanted to know what Xavier Maxwell had for an answer to that but the coffee was turning cold. The steam was almost nonexistent by then; so wasting no time, knocking on the door, Hope merged in.

Looking at the sight of her Xavier Maxwell closed his mouth. Giving a final look to her he replaced his focus on the man in front him,
“ I'll talk to you later, Will.”

It seemed like Will wanted to finish the topic right then but thought better of it at the last second and nodding slightly at his friend and boss, he left.

“ Took you long enough to bring just a cup of coffee,” he retorted as soon as Will was out of the room.

Hope had an answer to that question. She didn't know where everything was at the very first day of her job. She had a hard time finding it. But she didn't say that. Actually, she didn't say anything and stood there silently.

“ You like to tattletale a lot, don't you?” he asked her then.

She knew from where that was coming and she had an answer for that too. But she chose to stay quiet again.

And that was a good decision from her side. Xavier Maxwell liked that. If she had said whatever was on her mind that day she wouldn't even have the job as the PA then.

“ My coffee?”

“ Here,” Hope answered, forwarding the cup to him.

“ You'll sit at the table right outside of my office. There are already some notes there of my whole schedule for today. Just go and look after it. And tell me what I have next,” he told her while sipping on his coffee lightly.

‘ You don't know what you have to do next?! Great!’

Smiling sweetly, more like, sarcastically, at him, Hope went out of the room and found the table he was talking about.

Settling herself in there, Hope started to look for the notes he was talking about. She found them. And after quickly eyeing them, she tried to memorize it.

‘The last person who was working probably was great she/he had written down everything clearly. Why did she leave the job?’ Hope wondered and the answer was right in front of her when she opened the door again,
‘ Of course! Because of this man!’

Telling Xavier Maxwell his schedule for the whole day Hope started to leave again.

“ You don't have to come every time to inform me of something, there's a phone right at your table,” he informed her.

Taking that as a first time gratitude from him, Hope walked away to do all the work she didn't want to do.

From time to time she got called from her boss and she ran around the office following every order he gave her. And the fact that she still couldn't run her mind around all the work she had to do from then was another reason for her exhaustion.

And just like that Hope found out soon it was lunch time. She still had a lot to manage. She needed to call all clients from today to postpone the meeting. Because her boss couldn't attend without preparing for them and he couldn't prepare because he wasn't fully able to do that without an assistant who knew about everything beforehand.

‘ How dependent one can be on his assistant that he can't even function without them?’ Hope thought while tearing out her hair in frustration from all the work she had to do that day and the next day too. She needed to adjust with so many things. Get to know about so many things. And behave like she was here all along. Working for years. She was exhausted. If anyone was there instead of her, they probably would have quit by then. But definitely not Hope.

She liked challenges.

But not when she was hungry and feeling sleep deprived.

Hope was scribbling on a notepad, about all the things she had to do, when her boss walked out of his office.

“ You can take a break for lunch. It's alright. Just come back in time.”

Hope wanted to go too. She needed food in her stomach. But the work was too much. And if she left it there she almost had to start over. And she didn't want to do the same thing again. She wanted to be in form from the next day of her job. And to do that she needed to work hard today.

“ No, I'm fine.”

“ As you wish.” With that he was gone.

And Hope engrossed herself with the work again.

Half an hour later Hope was still working but with the company of her growling stomach.

“ I wanna die…” Hope mumbled looking at her schedule for tomorrow when it was finally finished.

She looked at her watch, if she left for lunch then there was no way she would come back in time. So she stopped herself from wondering how good it would have been to have something for lunch and focused on what she needed to do next.

Right then, the aroma of food hit her nose, and she wondered if she was hallucinating from excessive starvation.
‘ I'm probably going crazy…’ she thought but to prove her wrong, someone stood in front of her. And the first thing Hope noticed was a decent sized sandwich in their hand. And when she raised her head to see the person properly she saw Sofia standing there with Elton by her side.

“ Here's your lunch.” Sofia told her, sliding the sandwich her way. And made herself comfortable in the chair in front of Hope's table. And after a gesture from Sofia, Elton did the same.

“ Um… thanks,” Hope said, a little awkwardly. She didn't know how to accept such kindness, especially when she was starving.

“ Don't mention,” Sofia replied with a flip of her hand like it was nothing. But it was. It meant a lot to Hope.

Without wasting a second, Hope started to munch on her lunch and when it was finished she remembered she didn't know whether the two people in front of her had lunch or not.
‘ They probably have. They don't have a boss like mine.’

‘ But he offered you to take a break, it's you who didn't want that,’ her subconscious mind told her.

Hope sighed, knowing they had lunch she still asked them, just to be polite.

“ Yeah we had our lunch. And we noticed you weren't there. Boss was a little worried for you to be honest,” Sofia added with a laugh. “ Anyhow, when I saw the lunch hour was almost over and you still didn't come downstairs I thought I'll bring something for you. And I tagged him along. Because he's weird. And he needs company,” Sofia said pointing at Elton, without even trying to be secretive about it.

Hope laughed heartily. After how many hours? She didn't know. But it felt like an eternity. 

‘ Mr Maxwell was worried because I didn't have lunch? Wow! I guess he isn't as rude as I thought he was.’ Hope wondered. And a smile crept on her lips but she was soon to erase it, remembering the two people in front of her could see that.

“ So how's work going for you?” Sofia asked her.

“ Not great to be honest. Mr Maxwell wants me to be like I've been here all along,” she replied with a shrug. “ Do you know why his other assistant left her job?”

“ Yeah. Julia was pregnant. And Mr Maxwell knew that. And she applied for resignation too. But probably he thought she wouldn't need the leave so soon. Her job was temporary anyways. Mr Maxwell had someone on his mind for this job even before I joined this company, as much as I know. But probably something happened. So he had to hire Julia for some time. But then all these things happened…”

“ So he already has someone for this job, right? I don't have to do this for long?”

“ No. You don't. He probably just didn't want to hire someone again temporarily so he used his mind and put you in it. You already had a job in this company…”

“ Yeah, that makes sense. He sounds evil anyways.”

Sofia laughed.

“ So you've been working here for long?”

“ No. From last year.”

“ Really? It felt like Will trusts you a lot with work.”

“ That he does,” she replied, making a face, “ Bad that doesn't go good for me. For example, now I've to be with this sulky as long as he doesn't feel comfortable,” Sofia said again pointing at Elton.

“ You know you are mean sometimes,” Elton spoke. It was the first time Hope heard his voice and looking at Sofia's expression, she knew it was true from her side too.

“ And you can talk! Oh My God!” Sofia exclaimed sarcastically.

Elton grimaced at her tone and sat quietly like he was doing a minute ago.

“ How's your day going?” Hope asked him to put him at ease.

He shrugged, not answering.

“ See that's what I was talking about,” Sofia whispered not so quietly.

Hope chuckled lightly, “ I would have been so grateful to be in your shoe today, Elton.”

“ But unlike him, you're late so you don't get to be in his shoe. And for the other two people sitting here, lunch hour was over three minutes ago,” Xavier Maxwell retorted as soon as he entered the floor. Stopping three of them in the middle of their conversation.

And wasting no time, all got back to work.

A/N:  I tried to do the daily update thing but it didn't work for me. So from now on it'll be weekly updates. I guess. Or maybe monthly. Or yearly....
Or— maybe I can go on a 18 months hiatus.

So until then, see you! Byeeeee!