Chapter 2

"So he's like, a total asshole now?" Beth asked, munching on chips at the same time.

I sighed "Yeah, unfortunately." I replied, separating clean from dirty clothes in my suitcase.

Beth grunted over the phone "That's total bullshit! I feel like cryi-"

"Don't give me the sympathy card. Maybe we just aren't compatible? I mean we just don't know how to handle things." I dragged the basket of dirty clothes by the door, as a reminder of what I would be doing Saturday morning.

"No! You guys are meant for each other and that's how it's going to be. I won't let my ship sink like this."

I grimaced at the phone "Your...ship?"

"Yeah! You know, when you want two people to be together. Like...Johnlock-"

"Oh, I see." I wasn't too familiarized with "fandom" terms but that particular term wasn't new to me.

"Like, I'm dead serious right now, my shipping name is Sebaslie. Or Lebastian. Either way."

I couldn't help but laugh "God, really Beth?"

"What? It's true. I shipped it since day one and I refuse to let it end like this. When I get back I'll have to see for myself."

"Which reminds me. How is it France?"

"Well...about that...there may have been an intervention."

"A what?"

There was a pause "I'm not with Leo anymore. I met a new guy, Louis. He's...amazing."

A look of confusion and disgust crept on my face "What the hell, Beth-"

"It's a long story, but to make it short until I get back, Leo ended up being a controlling, self centered, egotistical jerk with anger issues and a lying problem."

I put the folded clothes in my drawers "It seems all Harrison men are like that." I mumbled.

"I mean sure he's gorgeous but you know...eh...so anyway, we got into an argument after he saw me talking to this waiter after lunch 'cause you know me," she giggled, "but it was completely innocent conversing that he blew out of proportion. So I got mad and went to the bakery across the street from our hotel and that's where I met Louis. He saw I was upset and gave me some french pastries for free and from there it just was...magical."

Beth was an enigma. She was so indecisive about men that it made my head hurt.

"It was like that movie 'Monte Carlo' when that blonde southern girl liked that rich guy but then she didn't cause he was a grade A asshole so she went with that Australian guy."

"...Beth you're mixing two characters into one."

She thought for a moment "Oh...well you know what I mean."

"And what's going to happen when you come back to America?"

"We talked about this. He said he wants to keep a long distance relationship until he can come out here. I agreed. I really like him, Leslie; he's amazing."

"You say that now until I see you on Dateline."

She laughed "No, it's not like that. I met his family and they're all really nice even though he had to translate for me since their English wasn't too good."

"Well I'm still pretty iffy about this. Ill trust it when I meet him. Seems like your relationship jump starts in a couple weeks while mine takes a couple months."

Beth gasped "There it is! There's hope! Sebaslie for life, bitch!"

I groaned.

*****

Later on that night, I got an e***l from Garret telling me to check my bank account. As I logged in, I noticed I was Fifteen thousand dollars richer. Of course I was happy at the moment but in all honesty it wasn't what I was expecting; the long term affect is what's most important.

I decided to keep the money deposit a secret for now. I didn't even know what I was going to do with it. Get a new place? No, maybe not yet. Beth would kill me. Buy a new car? The one I had was fine. I pondered on it heavily for about an hour, then decided that I would let it sit there until I found a good use for it.

Saturday morning, I woke up to the usual bombardment of notifications on my phone. I was off on Saturdays and Sundays but it still seemed as if I worked from home. I skipped the text messages and missed phone calls and went straight to emails as usual. The first one I see, from none other than Mr. Harrison himself:

To all Executives of Harrison inc.,

Monday morning a meeting will be held in the C-2 conference room. It will be brief, but important information will be disclosed so please make it on time.

-S

I knew for a fact either Sarah, Lucas or Lucinda wrote that for him. I rolled my eyes and dragged it to the trash bin; Darcy would remind me.

****

On Monday morning, I sluggishly dragged myself into my car and put the keys in the ignition. The weekend was spent entirely on thinking about Beth, the deposit, but most importantly, Sebastian. It was astonishing how fast he changed. I knew he was going corporate but not...this corporate. I shook the thought from my mind and decided to focus on getting to the meeting on time.

When I pulled into the garage, Darcy was waiting for me by the elevator.

"Good morning, Leslie." She greeted.

"Morning, Darcy. Um, remind me what time the meeting was again?" I asked, taking the black coffee, two sugars, from her hands and sipping it slowly.

"Um, it's in ten minutes."

"Good, I have time. I need you to make sure that his schedule doesn't interfere with his meeting with the Board today. And if it does, reschedule the fundraiser this afternoon to next month; it isn't that important."

She nodded, jotting down every word I said in her phone.

When we made it to the lobby, Darcy followed me and other executives to the conference room.

"Hey, Leslie...you okay?" She asked, a concerned look on her face. It looked as if she could see right through my act.

I smiled "Yeah. Never been better."

**

His stride was intense, strict, demanding. It matched his posture as well; one that held a sense of seriousness and forgetfulness of the person he used to be just a month ago.

I sat in my chair, my heart beat quickening with every step he took closer to the podium. Normally, with Garret in office there would be the slight sounds of conversation echoing throughout the conference room. However now, it was different.

The silence was almost painful.

Sarah stared intently at Sebastian as he stood at the podium. Her gaze looked as if she was trying to see through him, trying to find where his past persona disappeared to.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"He's changed. I don't like it." She replied, keeping her eyes set on the man in front of her.

Sebastian cleared his throat, causing all seventy four of us to look up.

"Good Morning, everyone. I have called you in here for an obvious reason that should be clear to the conscience: to be able to address somethings that I have issues with."

He looked every where except at me.

"First off, I have found that there are too many employees working for this company than I deem necessary. Each department has a ten percent overflow of employees, which, in turn, causes for dense work places. So, not only will my department heads and I be working this week to transfer those recently hired to different departments, we will be issuing lay offs."

The entire room suddenly began to chatter frantically. Sebastian narrowed his eyebrows, causing everyone to stop talking immediately.

He then grinned deviously "If there are any problems with this, speak up now."

It was quiet until Francis Joel, a member of the Board stood up. Our heads turned to his direction.

"With all due respect Seb-Mr. Harrison, our department employees have been working hard to ensure that the company thrives just as it did in the past. The rest of the Board would work with your father and create great strategies for our employees-"

"You're right, Mr. Joel. Which is why I think it's wise to demote you to Executive Officer instead, and promote Alissa Drummer to your position. You would be a great addition to that department with the amount of knowledge you possess."

Francis' jaw dropped open in shock, as well as Alissa's. I knew Francis. I always sat next to him when Garret and the Board would have their weekly meetings. He had great ideas and was a patient man. He was one of the reasons this company was so successful. The thought of him being demoted enraged me.

"You can't do that!" I blurted, standing up in the process.

Sebastian snapped his head in my direction. I saw his jaw clench and his grip on the podium tighten when he looked at me. Everyone's protests was silenced.

"Excuse me?" He questioned in disbelief.

Sit...down, Leslie! My conscience snapped.

I took a deep breath "Francis has-he's been working for Harrison Inc. for a long time. He...he only had a suggestion." I avoided eye contact with him, though I knew his stare was toxic.

Footsteps grew louder, and before I could gather something else to say, Sebastian was beyond the foot of the stairs and staring directly at me.

"Perhaps you too would like to be demoted? You would make a lovely secretary for marketing."

I stared at him in shock, but nothing came out of my mouth. We just glared at each other for a good ten seconds before I sat down in my chair, defeated.

Sebastian backed away from me and stuffed his hands in his pockets. His eyes never left mine "If that's the end of the interruptions, you're all dismissed. Have a great day."

**

"That fucking asshole!" Sarah yelled, kicking the vending machine with such force the sound echoed through the hallway. A few people from Sales looked at Sarah, startled.

"What do you want?" She snapped, they all resumed walking.

"Sarah, calm down-"

"No, I don't need to 'calm down' he's issuing lay offs! And what better place to start than the CEO who has three fucking assistants; two of us are getting transferred or let go, and I can assure you it isn't Lucinda."

I was still shaking from the encounter Sebastian and I had a few minutes ago, and the fact that Sarah was about to explode wasn't helping either.

"We don't know that. He's known you two for the longest he can't just-"

"Oh but he can." Sarah was power walking towards the elevator; I followed. Lucas stayed to talk with Francis about something I knew nothing about.

Once the elevator doors closed, Sarah began talking again "He's exactly like Garret now, and the difference between the way Garret treated you and the way Garret treated everyone else is by a landslide. But what's worse is that Sebastian has no favorites. I mean, besides you, but he's burying those feelings down. Garret showed that he liked you. Not like that, but you know what I mean."

I gulped "I think we should just see how this turns out. I mean it's only the first week."

"Why the fuck are you so calm about this?" Sarah glared at me until a halfhearted smirk crossed her face.

"Oh right...that. I swear you're such a softie. Despite that outburst in the conference room which was funny as hell by the way."

I rolled my eyes. The elevator doors opened, and Sarah and I walked through the hall, through the reception area to my office. I closed the door and watched Sarah plop down on the small sofa. Darcy looked up from her computer in surprise.

"Darcy, Sarah. Sarah, Darcy." I said. They both waved to each other, and Darcy pretended to get back to work.

"It has nothing to do with that." I said, sitting at my desk "I'm just trying to make sure that I don't get in any ones way, like you said to do. If we can keep it this way from now on then everything else will be history."

"He's only doing this because of you; he's a spoiled little brat who's used to getting his way and when he doesn't get something he wants, which is rare, then he throws a fit. I have to admit, though, he's doing a good job at this one. But this won't last though. He's a man of power now, and soon he won't be able to resist the temptation to bang you on his giant des-"

"Sarah!" I yelled, covering my face in embarrassment. She laughed.

"Okay, okay. I have no filter, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you really don-"

Suddenly, a gasp came from the corner where Darcy sat. I turned towards Darcy's direction and saw her sit in shock, her hand covering her mouth.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's-I-I just got this l**k and...take a look." She turned her computer screen around after clicking on the l**k. My heart felt like a weight in my chest.

"What the hell?" Sarah exclaimed. I was at a loss for words at the sight in front of me.

"SEBASLIE.LOVERS." Sarah read aloud. "Sharing the best and cutest photos of Sebastian Harrison and his publicist, Leslie King. Hash tag forever sebaslie."

"It has almost 2000 followers." Darcy said.

"But it's on private..." Sarah said, fighting a smile. Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets as she pointed to the left of the screen.

"Oh my God 56 photos!? I'm request that shit!" Sarah pulled out her phone, opened the i*******m app and sent a request to the page; I was still frozen in shock.

"They just accepted my request!" Sarah said, frantically typing at her phone.

"I-I can't look." I said, turning away. Darcy got up from her desk and looked at Sarah's phone.

"Oh my God!" Sarah brought the phone next to my cheek, forcing me to look at the photo.

It was of Sebastian and I at the ice skating rink. Both of us were laughing about something, our smiles genuine. It was an amazing photo, but it made me uncomfortable.

"This makes me sick." I mumbled.

Sarah clicked on two more photos before the sound of someone knocking on my office door made her lock her phone. I opened it, greeted with a preppy Lucinda, a clipboard in hand.

"Hi, Leslie. Just here to tell you that Sebastian wants to see you in his office."

"Um, thanks. I'll be there right away."

Lucinda smiled before making her way to the receptionist's desk, handing something to Paul. I gave a look of dread to Sarah before I exited.

Halfway down the hall, I heard Sarah calling my name.

I turned around to find her doing pelvic thrusts with a devious smirk on her face, making me hate going into his office even more.