9 Eight....

***

Audora ran down the stairs hurriedly before falling into the arms of man. A Blondie with the dark blue eyes. He pulled her to himself and stroked her hair.

"My love, I missed you so much." He said and she tightened her arms around him in reply. She released him to stare at how well he looked. Staring at him after a long time brought back their memories. She missed him so much, so damn much!

"Darius, is that you my dear?" Kara said, smiling immediately she recognized him and engulfing him in a warm embrace.

"Yes mother, I missed you too." He replied.

___

Clarissa noticed that the office was oddly different today. She later discovered Cynthia's desk empty on her way back from lunch. She rolled her eyes at how oblivious she had been to her absence. This was very unusual. Thia was never absent from work except when she catches a fever, other than that, one can say she loves working.

Typical,

"Becky, quick question, I haven't seen Thia around is everything okay?" Clarissa asked.

"Clarissa, Thia has been fired." Becky told her.

"You aren't serious, are you?"

"You don't seem to notice what goes on in this office Clarissa, Thia was fired yesterday. She just left angrily and then the news went round."

"Yesterday? Why am I just knowing of this?"

"You left, remember?" Becky said with a raised brow before smiling.

"I almost forgot," Clarissa sighed. Her mind were filled with thoughts of why he would actually fire her. It couldn't be because of her, could it?

"Don't overthink it baby girl, If you ask me I think he did it for you. I mean why else would he do it." Becky shrugged. "So we should celebrate, now you have Daniel all to yourself." Becky told her winking at her.

Daniel all to herself! The thought sounded nice, she didn't deny it.

___

( flashback)

Standing by a Porsche was a guy on Nike's wear. He tapped impatiently checking his time for the nth time. Where could she be?! He was suppose to pick her up here and now she was nowhere to be found. For goodness sake she wasn't even picking up her calls.

Maybe she was running late, maybe her class was closing a little late, maybe..... He sighed when he ran out of excuses for her tardiness. This wasn't the first time this was happening and he didn't know how much he could take. After a while of waiting, he started off towards the school building to look for her.

***

A locker shut aggressively and the girl combed her hair with her fingers in frustration. Another test was ruined for her. If she wanted to make up for the last test that was a complete failure, she had to pass this one. But this one, was a complete failure too.

"Damn calculus!" She almost punched her locker but she held back her hand thinking of the consequences. She groaned once more before turning to leave accidentally bumping into the figure that was coming right to her.

"Sorry," She paused. Daniel? Her cousin's boyfriend? What was he doing here? She mentally face palmed herself thinking of how stupid she could be. Of course he came looking for his girlfriend.

She subconsciously ogled him, praising him on how good looking he was looking that evening.

"I don't think Clara would be so happy seeing her cousin swoon over her guy too." He smirked at her. He knew how good looking he is and it was getting in his head, like literally. She rolled her eyes rather and began walking away from him, but he followed her.

"I can't find her," He simply said and she stopped once again before turning to him.

"School closed a bit earlier and she as well as I am a hater of calculus." Clarissa told him.

"You're meaning to say, she left?!" Daniel asked frowning.

"Yap." He thought for a while before sighing heavily. "Goodbye Daniel."

"Wait!" She turned back to him curiously. "You don't have a ride home, do you?" She shook her head.

"C'mon let's go," He said walking ahead of her. It took her a moment to recover from her train of thoughts before she ran after him.

(Ends)

___

She thought of many reasons why he would want to see her. Work related or personal? She gave a deep breath before knocking.

"Come in," he said.

"You sent for me?" The further she went, the more uncertain she became that this was work related.

"Yes, I did. Sit, give me a minute." He told her.

For a while he could feel her stare on him. "Something's bothering you, tell me. Is there something you want to ask me?" He said to her with a raised brow.

"Well, yes, I was thinking..." She paused but he urged her to go on. "I heard something, it's not that important, just a rumor or something but I just wanted to confirm."

"Confirm what Clarissa? Tell me," he requested.

"I just wanted to know if you....if you relieved Thia of her work, for me?" He paused flipping of the sheets and closed it for a start dropping it on his table. She was thinking he was going to shrug it off immediately but he leaned back on his chair and stared back at her.

"Actually-" she nodded curiously when he stopped. "Yes, I did. Do you have a problem with that?" She paled. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing was forthcoming.

"She was giving you a tough time, always against you and I didn't like it." He continued.

"That shouldn't be enough reason to fire her Daniel, she was just-"

"I run this place now dad and Mom are on their vacation and I saw enough reason to do what I did Rissa. You belong to me! So who ever is having a problem with you, already has one with me, do you get that?"

You belong to me?!

He fucking said it! Don't over think it, don't over think it!

She looked away from him immediately trying to pretend like she hadn't heard something that made her heart skip after ages. "Why did you call me here?" She asked him not sparing him another glance.

What is the worst thing that could possibly happen after this? She thought.

"Actually, I just talked to dad about what happened and he didn't mind giving you a promotion. So you're now my Personal assistant whether you like it or not."

She turned immediately to him in shock, Personal assistant?!

What the hell is he thinking?!

___

(Flashback)

......she ran after him,

Standing in front of a Porsche, she stared in amazement. He had never picked Clara up with this car! This car was so new and beautiful.

"Are you going to make love to the car or are you going to hop in?"

She rolled her eyes at him once more before getting in and letting him shut the door besides her. She looked ahead at the driver that seemed to be minding his own business.

"You know, you can just comment if you love the car,"

"Say what now?! I've seen better than this and I was just inspecting if the car had any external fault that would cause us an early grave."

He burst out laughing. "God you're funny, this is a brand new car Clarissa. There are no faults for now, besides, why would I let you on it if it's not road worthy?"

"I can see that it does in fact have no fault, so I'm cool."

He nodded. "Hey, tell me something? Do you and Clara live together?"

"No, our Mom's don't like to be separated and so, they decided to live in the same country."

"Oh, I get but does she have any other sibling? Cause she never mentions them,"

"Look whatever your name is, I don't like talking about my family to strangers."

He scoffed with amusement. "Oh really, we've been talking for a week now and we're still strangers? Plus, you know my name princess, why use the term then?" He chuckled the more.

"Because I don't consider you a friend yet and your name may or may not be annoying to my ears." She stated. "Stop the car! I can walk from here." She said to no one in particular but the car stopped and she got out.

"Frustrating!" She mumbled to herself but with no doubt he could hear her and so, he chuckled once more.

He had never seen any girl like her.

(Ends)...