Chapter One
Nora Covington stared at her boss, Rex Donovan, and tried not to run to the nearest bathroom to cry. She hated Rex, absolutely hated him, which was new for her. All of her life she had never hated anyone, and yet, she hated him. Really did hate him, not even a smidge of a "like" about the man.
From the moment he had walked into his office to see her at this desk, he'd glared at her, and demanded why she was sitting in his PA's seat. He'd ordered her into his office where he then tried to fire her.
She was damn good at what she did, and had been working in this office for the past seven years. At eighteen she got the job organizing the company's mail, and had moved up from there. One day when a lawyer's PA was sick, she'd stood in for the role, and proved herself as being reliable. From that day forward she had been a PA for whoever needed her.
Up until last week she had been Frank's PA, and he was one of the partners in this firm. She adored Frank and his wife, Lidia. They had both helped her to feel welcome, and given her so much love and support that she would do anything for them. There was no way she would ever leave. Lidia was the kind of woman you just loved. She was a beautiful soul inside and out. Nora had lost count of the number of times she had been invited to their home for the weekend. She had spent the entire weekend with Lidia, where she taught her everything she knew in the kitchen. Anyway, besides Lidia, Frank's world was his job, his firm. Nora knew why he'd given her to Rex.
Rex had a very bad reputation when it came to screwing his PAs. She had seen the women he hired, and half of them didn't have a clue what they were doing. There had been many times that she had been at the copy machine, and been given several orders. Not only had she done Frank's work, she'd started to do Rex's work.
Of course, Frank, her boss, had been pissed about that. He didn't like her being stretched too thin, and when he found out what she had been doing along with her regular work, he'd taken action.
Frank had to deal with all of the crap that Rex had brought to the company. If it wasn't for him being such a damn good lawyer, she imagined they would have fired him long ago.
She should be offended about being employed because she was totally the opposite of who Rex screwed. He liked thin, sexy, women. There was nothing he liked about her. She was chubby. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a brain. He liked women that were blonde, slender, and dumb. Nora didn't think that blondes were necessarily dumb, but the ones that Rex had hired did the blonde myth justice.
Anyway, Rex couldn't fire her.
Frank had told him he couldn't.
"What the fuck is this?" he asked, staring at the letter.
"This is what you asked me to type."
"You're fucking useless. I would never ask you to type this up."
Holding up a hand, Nora rushed back to her desk, and brought back the piece of paper that he had scrawled the letter. It was hard to make any sense of it, but she'd done what she could.
He snatched the paper from her hand, and she locked her fingers together, trying not to feel intimidated by his large size.
She noticed his jaw clenched, and she bit her lip, hoping she wasn't about to get more abuse. Frank, considering his reputation as being a hard ass, was so much nicer to work for.
"I'll deal with this. You're dismissed."
Turning on her heel, she was at his door when he started talking.
"Don't think I don't know about you sending me to Alaric's on a wild goose chase, and that I've not clocked onto your false appointments either."
Nora glanced back at him.
Was he angry?
That had been a big mistake. She hadn't meant to do it. Rex thought she was petty enough to send him on a false appointment, and technically she had. The problem was, he'd demanded she write down all of his books, and she had spilt coffee on that book, and some pages had stuck together, so some of the ink had blended together. She had screwed up.
When she told Rex this, he'd told her to stop fucking lying, that it was all backed up on the computer. The same computer that his women had been on, and somehow managed to wipe the entire system, and may have installed a virus. So, she'd had to get a new computer, and of course that came at the time of the coffee accident, and everything just turned out a mess that week. Frank understood, which was why she wasn't fired. Rex didn't believe her, so she decided to stop fighting him, and let him believe whatever the hell he wanted to believe. She was a damn good PA, and even though Rex was a total asshole loser, she wouldn't risk damaging her own reputation.
Of course, it didn't help that his emergency appointment had been very vocal in his anger toward Rex, and called him incompetent. Once Rex had told her the extent of her failing, she had arranged for gift baskets to be sent to all parties who had been affected by her clumsiness. She had paid for them out of her own paycheck as well. The company didn't deserve to take the expense for her failings.
Now, of course, she wished it had always been part of her plan.
It hadn't.
"You're not going to pretend that it wasn't intentional?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Why would I do that?" Nora wanted to cheer as she closed his door very gently. She had tried to tell him the truth so many times. He wouldn't listen then, and he wasn't about to start listening now. He believed what he wanted to, and it was exhausting trying to prove him wrong.
Walking toward her desk, she glanced through the remaining pieces of work she needed to do today, and headed toward the copy machine to do what Rex had asked of her.
Once inside, she took several books that had relevant case information. Printing them out, she sat at the little table, and highlighted the points that he needed.
"You're here again?" Lorna asked.
Nora smiled at the woman who was old enough to be her mother. Lorna had taken over from her with Frank.
"Yeah, it's nicer here. The view is prettier." The view was crappy seeing as there was no window and the doors overlooked the rest of the office.
"Frank feels really badly by the way. I know he's not happy losing you, even if he was the one to send you there. I believe Lidia misses you as well."
"He's got you. I miss them both as well." Life had been pretty hectic just recently, and she hadn't been able to see Lidia for a few weeks.
"Yeah, but we all know that I'm good. You're outstanding."
Nora's cheeks heated, and she licked her lips. "You're just being nice to me."
"Am not. You're amazing, and everyone here knows it. Several people were pissed that you got matched with Rex. He's a damn good lawyer, and you're a damn good PA, and everyone here doesn't think he deserves you."
Nora took a deep breath, and glanced back at the sheet of paper. "It's … hard. I wish I'd been placed with someone else."
"Wow, you're actually going to complain?" Lorna asked, taking a seat.
"No, of course not. I wouldn't dream of complaining."
Lorna held her hand up. "Relax, sweetie. I come in peace. It was sarcasm. Everyone knows you don't complain at all. Rex is an asshole. I've heard the way he talks to you, and to be honest, I don't like him either."
"It's fine."
"Really? Your trips to the bathroom that last twenty minutes and result in you looking miserable with red, puffy eyes, and you're fine?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. He's just a guy, you know."
"Look, words hurt more than anything else. Rex, he's an asshole but just so you know, everyone here likes you. They put up with Rex because of his ability to win cases, and to bring in the good ones. Remember that." Lorna patted her shoulder. "Frank would listen to you. If he knew the kind of abuse that Rex was throwing your way, he'd handle it."
"Rex is a hard nut to crack. He'll like me one day." When hell froze over. "I'm not the kind of person to go tattling to the boss when I don't like something. I was put with Rex for a reason." She saw the pity in Lorna's gaze. "I know it's because I'm fat and ugly, Lorna."
"No, honey. You're not fat, and you're not ugly. Don't even go thinking that. You're simply not Rex's type." Lorna hugged her tight. "Don't let him get to you. You're better than that."
She watched as Lorna left, and released a breath. It wasn't normal for Rex to get to her. He'd not even said anything horrible to her today. Biting her lip, she glanced out across the floor, and wondered if she should consider moving on. This wasn't the life she had wanted, not that she had a clue what kind of life she actually did want. All she knew was the fact that every single day she was getting more and more unhappy. Life was hard now, and when life was hard, she struggled. How could she stay positive about everything when the guy she worked for was constantly pushing her?
Marking off the rest of the points, she gathered the books, and placed them back into the reference selection before heading toward her desk. She finished her presentation, putting the pages into a plastic folder to protect it.