? ROOMMATES WITH
THE CEO ?
? Living with my boss ?
By: Racheal Dennis.
Chapter 7 ?
? The silent treatment ?
Claire’s POV ?
The next morning, I woke up to no Killian in the house. Doesn’t he wants to talk about last night?, Does this mean that I can stay?.
Anyway, I got ready and left for the office.
“Good morning Claire” Derrick greets me, he did a double check. “You don’t look like you slept too well last night”
“Is that some backhanded way to say I look terrible? ” I teased him.
” What? No of course not! I didn’t mean it that way” he tries to explain. I’m amused by how flustered he is.
“You can never look terrible” he muttered under his breath but I heard him, I raised an eyebrow at him.
” I’m going to stop talking no” he raised his hand in surrender.
” Good morning everyone” Raven greets us all as she walks in. Raven’s entrance commands the attention of all including me. This morning though, she instills a different kind of fear in me.
Has Killian talked to her about me? Is she going to pull me aside to fire me?
“You’ll continue to work on your designs today” without so much as casting a glance in my direction, she leaves.
I guess not. Phew that’s a relief.
I push the thought of last night to the back of my mind ad I begin to work on my character.
“So about the snail… If we’re sticking to it, I happened to have a great idea” I told Charlotte.
” So do I! What do you think of a snail that roller blades? ”
” Erm… Let’s hear mine first” I told her.
Get in through deceitful means? I’ll show Killian cause right now I’m so determined to do a good job today.
My phone beeped..
I looked at it, it’s a message from Lucas?
Lucas:- meet me at the cafe around the corner for lunch.
Lucas wants to meet me for lunch? Why?
??????
Time flew by quickly and before I knew it, I’m sitting in front of Lucas in the cafe.
“Is this it? Is this a goodbye lunch? Is Killian firing me?”
“What? Share did you get that idea? ”
Oh? Am I overthinking?
” Then why are we having this lunch? ”
He chuckled softly.
“Can’t I just want to have lunch with you? ”
“Well, when you put it that way… ” I trail off. “so why are you wearing sunglasses anyway? ”
” I thought it’d be weird if an intern have lunch with the CEOs secretary” he said.
“It’s weirder for someone to be in sunglasses indoors, you’re drawing more attention this way”
” Oh, fine” he took off the sunglasses. ” I can’t believe I hired one of our interns as his housekeeper. Killian is so going to kill me this time”
“Has he talked to you about it? ” I asked him.
” Well to be honest, when we found out you were an intern, I expect Killian to fire you immediately but he hasn’t said anything about it yet”
“Oh… ”
“But as his secretary it’s my duty to make sure you keep your living arrangements confidential. We wouldn’t want tongues wagging unnecessarily”
” Of course, I guess there’s a reason for this meeting after all”.
Lucas smiles “When you put it that way”.
” But you have to believe me, I didn’t plan for any of this to happen”
“Of course, I believe you. I told you I have a good feeling about you, remember? ”
” Thanks” I thanked him, at least he believes me, not everyone is like Killian.
“That, plus I did a thorough background check on you last night” he said.
” Hey! ” I bang the table a little.
“I know about the initial agreement with the questionnaire, but you can’t fault me for being extra careful with everything that has happened. But… I can just say I love an underdog tale of a small-town girl moving to the big city….. ”
So he’s actually teasing me.
” Lucas! ” I called warningly.
” What? I’m rooting for you” he said.
“Do you think he’ll eventually fire me though? ”
Why does this thought lingers in my head even when I try to take my mind from it.?
Lucas ponders on those words.
“I’ve been working for Killian for almost five years now, and I like to think if myself as his older brother of sorts. Though he hates that a lot, even then…. I find him difficult to figure out sometimes” I gulped nervously.
Why Killian so damn hard to deal with.
****************
After my lunch with Lucas, I rushed back to the office, there’s no much work for me to do, so it didn’t take long for my closing time to come.
Right now, I’m back in the penthouse. There’s still so much to do on the character design, I’ll just finish my chores quickly, before I start working on it again.
I heard the door open behind me.
“Oh, you’re back” I said.
But Killian didn’t acknowledge me, he marches into his room without a word. That’s strange….. Little did I expect that his silent treatment will continue for days.
? Two days later ?
I’m in the office working on my character, Killian is still giving me the silent treatment.
“Mr Knight is coming our way” Charlotte told me, but I didn’t pay attention to her cause I know Killian won’t look our way.
“Good morning Mr Knight” she averted her attention to Killian.
Without paying attention to me or Charlotte… He simply walks by.
That bastard….
“So cool” Charlotte said, somewhat embarrassed.
Killian and I never acknowledges each other at the office so his behavior hardly fazes me.
But even at the penthouse he ignores me, whenever I tried to start a conversation he just walks by without saying a word, as if I’m talking to a ghost.
Every night when he gets home, he grabs a glass of water and enters his room. And in the mornings he wakes up and leave the house before I do. But I don’t have time to let it get to me, silence means I get to keep both of my jobs. Besides, I have enough on my plate with my first major project.
His silent treatment continue until one night. I told myself that the silence is now unbearable. I’m sure he’ll respond if I ask the right questions.
He’s reading a magazine in the living room, so I walk up to him. I just pray he doesn’t walk pass me as I speak.
“How’s your wound?” I asked him.
For the first time in weeks, Killian stop what he’s doing and look at me. For a strange reason, my heart skips a bit when our eyes meet. He clenched then unclench his fist.
“It’s better” he answered, without giving it much thought, I grab his hand gently and pull it down to examine his wound.
“Hmmm, you could use a new dressing” I quickly grab the first aid kit and begin to work on the bandage.
” Claire…. It’s fine”
“Hold still” I sound sterner than I expected, but it seems to work. Killian stay perfectly still as I replace the bandage.
Once I’m done, I take a step back to admired the dressing.
“Are you pleased with it?” Killian asked.
“Very” I smiled triumphantly.
” Thank you” he didn’t say anything else after that, but I know I’ve definitely eased the tension between us. I went back to my room and stretch lazily.
Time really pass quickly, I can’t believe we have to present our characters tomorrow. There’s still so much to do.
Another thought lingers in my head.
Today also marks the fourteen day Killian stopped talking to me. Not that I’m keeping track or anything. I’m not too sure why, but that weigh a little heavy in my chest.
Ugh! Focus Claire.
I try to get myself to fucus on the work laid out on my desk, but it doesn’t help that the bed just look so inviting.
I just can’t seem to concentrate tonight, maybe a change of scenery is what I need. Last I checked, Killian isn’t home yet, since left for wherever he went.
So I pack my stuff and decide to work in the dinning room.
I seat myself comfortably on the dinning chair, and lay my laptop, notes and sketchbook on the dinning table in front of me. To others it may seem like a complete mess, but I believe in the term ‘organised mess’
Now let’s do this!
I add the final touches to my character.
?????
I woke up to the blaring of my alarm clock the next morning.
Hmmm? I’m in my bed? What happened last night?
The last thing I remember was completing my work, then deciding to catch some shut eye by laying my head in the dinning table.
Silly me! I guess I crawled into bed on my own.
I yawned sleepily.
I’d better get ready wouldn’t want to be late for work today. But what should I wear, after racking through my closet, I decide to wear something simple but cute. After all I’m not dressing to impress nobody.
I looked around my room and noticed that my notes have been stacked neatly on my desk. I grab the notes and head to work.
*****************
“Today’s the day you present your character to us, my team and I will be selecting the best character design and it’ll be featured in our upcoming games” Raven told us.
” A great honor for an intern really, without further ado, let’s have Timothy and Kai present their character” she said.
Timothy and Kai strut confidently tithe front to set up their presentation. I looked over to Derrick, who’s seated next to me. He’s been fidgeting on his seat all morning.
I should help take his mind off the presentation a little.
“Hey Derrick want to hear a joke?” I asked him.
” Huh?… I mean, sure”
” Knock knock” I said.
” Who’s there? ” He replied…
” Boo”
” Boo who? ”
” There, there. There’s no need to cry”
” That’s….. Really bad Claire” he said with a small smile. At least I made him smile.
” But it helped take your mind off the presentation”
“It did, thanks” he thanked me.
I turn my attention back to Timothy who’s about to present, my eyes widen in shock. On the screen is a character that bears uncanny resemblance to mine, granted, there are a few minor modifications, but it’s clearly a copy of my work.
I turn to my left and Charlotte is just as much as shocked as I am.
“That’s…… That’s our work isn’t it? How…. ” Charlotte sucks in her breath to calm herself down.
She turns to me with an apologetic look on her face.
“Timothy asked to see our work a couple of days ago, but I thought he was just curious about our progress. I didn’t think he’d actually copy it! And I can’t believe he’s presenting before us, Raven will think we’re the ones who copied him. What do we do now? ” Charlotte lamented.
A round of applause turned my attention back to Timothy and Kai. They have just completed their presentation.
“Excellent job boys, these are the kind of talents we want in Knight Gaming, if you boys continue like this, there will surely be a place for you at Knight Gaming” Raven praised them.
That’s our character, he’s stealing all our credits! I wanted to scream.
Timothy’s Brady eyes shifts to me, the corner of his lips curled into a sinister smile. I have to come up with something really quick.
My train of thought is broken by the sudden murmurs all around me. I whip my head around to find the source of it, and my eyes land on those familiar dark ones. Leaning on the wall, at the back of the room is Killian Knight.
When did he get here? Now I understand why it’s weird living under the same roof with your boss.
“Mr Knight! I didn’t notice you were there! How lovely of you to join us, I sent you an invite but Lucas said you had an important meeting to attend” Raven blabbed somehow nervously, hmm this is a first.
“I did” Killian strides to the front of the room.
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