During the next two weeks, Kim followed me around von Hauser and I showed her where everything and everyone were; taught her how to deal with Julian's schedule, how to solve some of his most common tantrums – calling me, obviously, that would be the wisest thing she could do –, and what she would have to do for Julian.

And, then, it was my turn to be the new girl. Again.

"Miss Lohr? Miss McAllister is here." Karen, the Pandora receptionist said into her headset "You can go, now."

I nodded, smiling. Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside Pandora as one of their employees. Officially. In my mind I had confetti, a parade, and people were clapping and handing me flowers as I walked by; an empowering song beating in the background.

"Excuse me?"

I stopped in the middle of the white metal and glass furniture to look at my right. Nina Scierra, the little ass kisser that wrote the monthly caption on beauty asked, with a frown on her tanned forehead.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi. I'm meeting Miss Lohr."

"Oh, you're the new secretary!" Another girl, a blonde one – fake blonde, by the way – chuckled, her eyes exchanged a meaningful look with Nina "You're the one screwing Rush, right? How did that work out, Plus Size?"

I felt my stomach clench, but didn't let it stick as the two of them giggled.

"Well, why don't you just go take a long walk out of a very short pier?" I grinned, blowing them a kiss.

"Pff. Whatever, Fa-"

"- bulous ass? Yeah, I know!" I grinned, over my shoulder "Just remember, there's gotta be something fine about a woman with a little extra more to love, 'cause why would Piet Rush be interested in all of this?" I winked at them.

They kept looking at me with sour faces as I walked happily towards Cynthia's office. The redheaded woman was inside, in a beautiful white dress and red heels. She was talking to Melinda – oh, God, Melinda... I wasn't looking forward for that confrontation. The two were bent over Cynthia's desk, going through some work, I presume.

"Oh, great. Right on time. Miss McAllister, I believe you know Miss Trevino."

"Huh, yes. We've met, briefly" I smiled tensely; I just couldn't act all nice and perky now that I was the woman in Julian's life.

"You're Julian's assistant, right?" Melinda smiled, her brown eyes warm and assessing me closely.

"Was" I corrected, smiling at Cynthia.

"Miss McAllister is my new assistant. She's a little genius, if I may say." Cynthia grinned at me and showed me a chair in front of her desk "Come, sit. Melinda, dear, we'll talk later, alright?"

Melinda nodded and left the office. Miss Lohr took her seat at the desk and put on her reading glasses. I took my time to look at her. She had a different vibe than Julian. On one hand, Julian had an aura of bad mood and grumpiness you could feel on your skin. Miss Lohr had a more polished and an overall put together vibe.

"Alright, then. Résumé aside, you're a promising addition to Pandora. Now, I know you're used to work with Julian, but I assure you I do things differently."

Oh boy...

"Well, I'll do my best to attend your every need."

"Good. Well, I'm asking Matisse to give you some guidance in these first few days. If you have any questions, you'll address her, not me. Matisse" Cynthia pressed her intercom "Miss McAllister is here for you."

The skinny redhead entered Cynthia's office with a big amount of files on her slender arms, and a very stern face.

"This is Matisse. She's one of our Junior editors, and she'll help you get around our ways. So, ladies, I'll leave you two to your doings. Now, I have a very important call awaiting me."

I understood she was dismissing us when she picked up the white phone and Matisse cleared her throat. Her blue eyes opened wide and gestured outside. I got my handbag and followed her out of the office.

"This is your desk." She pointed at a cleared white desk with a phone and a computer, a glass half wall dividing each cubicle "Here's the list of the phone extensions. Emails. Phone numbers." She would pass several files to my hands, until I was grunting with the effort "Miss Lohr's address, personal phone numbers, email and her usual dry cleaner and coffee shop. There's the list of what she usually eats – it's organized daily. Don't mess it up, she'll get cranky."

"She has a weekly menu?" I frowned at the long list.

"Weekly menu, thoroughly planned weekend and a very short patience for mistakes." Matisse assured me, as she walked me through the Pandora's offices and pointed away "Coffee room. Copy room – here's your new ID card." She tossed a white and blue ID card to the pile in my hands "Here are this week's appointments, just so you can walk around and don't look stupid for the first few days."

I rolled my eyes and followed her quickly through the main hall and into the Creative Editors' area.

"Alright. Miss Trevino's office is over there." She pointed out where Kenny was working, in a long and well put together desk "She's the Creative Director, so every idea she has should pass by you before Miss Lohr. She'll be your worst partner; believe me, Creative Directors are always trying to sell you their ideas, no matter what. Whatever she does, good or bad, will be the image Pandora is projecting. Careful."

Trevino had been recently promoted to Creative director, which was amazing! Kenny was electrical with joy at the perspective to be a more important assistant, and official member of the creative team. He saw me and waved, ecstatic. I grinned and waved back, gesturing for him to IM me later. He winked.

"There's a list in there with the names of every editor in the magazine and their assistants. Be sure to remember them all, they'll definitely remember you." Matisse assured me, turning on her heels and going back towards the main office "I'm sure you remember where the photography studio is...?"

"Yes, I remember." I assured her, as she gestured to my desk "Just one question, though. Do I, like, go on the set for the photo-shoots?"

Matisse threw me a sour look and let the big pile of files drop on my desk. It snapped with a wince of its own.

"You'll, like, deal with these last minute articles, for now" She squeaked, turning and walking on her black dress all the way to the end of the office, right to her cubicle.

What a stuck up little bitch!

Obviously, both Kenny and I gossiped about her through IM, as I read the articles the journalists and editors had printed for me to evaluate, made some changes on grammar and some notes on their length. I loved the last big spread Melinda had sent, as a journalist: ten ways to boost your confidence through self-assessment. Almost made me cry.

"Hello?" I answered proudly, as my own phone jingled in my new desk, for the very first time.

"Good morning, Miss McAllister."

I grinned with no chance to stop it.

"Well, how do you do, Mr. CEO?" I purred into the phone, being careful to drop my tone so the content of our conversation didn't pass through the glass on my upper left.

"Not bad. Your sister did a great job with my breakfast and reading. I'm guessing you proudly handed her your 'Julian's bitchiness' notebook."

"Yes, I most certainly did." I chuckled, opening my IM box where Kenny was demanding attention, as I kept talking to my... boyfriend...? Lover...? "Although we McAllister women have an elephant memory; she wouldn't mess it up, anyway."

"Noted. So how's your first day down there going?"

"Just started, so you know, slow." I shrugged, eyeing my new boss, in her office, still on the phone "Miss Lohr is much more approachable than my former master."

"What a jackass that guy must've been." He chuckled "Well, just calling to know how you were doing, and to bid you good luck. Again."

"And thank you. Again." I chuckled, nodding at Cynthia when she gestured with one hand for me to go to her "Well, honey, I gotta go. Duty calls."

"Go solve whatever fashion crime there is to be solved" He chuckled.

"I will. Call you later."

"Oh, wait!" He added quickly, and I waited "Just to inform you that you left your underwear all around the bathroom, this morning. I... you know I really hate that..."

"Julian? Go to hell."

I hung up and picked my notebook and Cynthia's schedule before meeting her.

"Ok, Georgia. Your first real assignment." She grinned, taking off her glasses and passing me two thin files "I need you to go uptown and visit these two designers. Make me an inventory of the pieces they have for our next shoot. Details are all there: Melinda's concept, directions, names, etc. Oh and, be a dear and pick up my dry cleaning, will you?"

***

It was the worst day ever!

"Oh my God!" I gasped.

The girl in the desk next to mine was whispering to the girl to her right, both gossiping about me, I was sure. Why?

"Holy crap, Pollyanna!" Was Kenny's witty response through IM.

Yeah, so someone had found out that Julian and I were... together. We all got an email via the company's intranet with a picture of Julian and I leaving a restaurant. That had been, like, almost three weeks ago, for heaven's sake! Who found out?! Who took the picture?!

"Hey, Gorgeous."

"Open your email." I told him as he picked up "Now, Julian!" I grunted as he started to argue.

"What the hell?!" Was his answer.

"Exactly my reaction" I swallowed hard as everyone kept whispering to one another and staring at me!

The email had the witty title of 'CEO Afterhours'.

"I'm going to find out who did this." He assured me, and I could hear him punching buttons on his desk phone "Miss McAllister? Come inside, please. I'm sorry, G. I'm going to investigate this, don't worry. Just... If any reporter contacts you, say you have no idea what they're talking about and hung up, alright?"

"Sure. Your mother's gonna love this..." I mumbled, and heard him curse "Forget it. Don't worry about it. We'll talk later."

"Sure. Yes, Miss McAllister, please do sit." He told Kim "I'm investigating this. Wait for me, later?"

"Sure."

Great.... Just awesome! We were walking on clouds, our relationship going steady and private; no meddling mothers – Julian had cut out any talk with his mother, which wasn't the right thing to do, in my opinion... -, no reporters and no running into blinking cameras outside my apartment. Now, it would all be worse. If I wasn't feeling like an outsider during those first weeks at Pandora, being the girl screwing the CEO would be my death sentence, surely.

***

The other half of the cover of every gossip magazine in town was cleaning up his desk with surgical precision, as I walked in his office. He looked up and smiled at him. His smile was short lived and tense. Yeah, I wasn't feeling particularly perky tonight, either...

"I really hate magazines, today..." I mumbled, sinking into his couch.

"Me too, if you can believe it." He sighed, setting the last file in its right place, shutting down his laptop and walking to me "What about dinner at my place? We should lay low for a few days."

I nodded, getting up and following him towards the elevator. We rode to his place in a strangled silence, only muffled by the radio. Neither of us was especially excited nor in a good mood...

"I still cannot believe you got a TV." I chuckled as I turned the thing on his living room "You're giving in to the Man?"

"I don't understand that question, but I believe the safest answer is 'No'." He chuckled, taking off his blazer, tie and shoes, dropping next to me in the couch "My mother called to bite my head off."

"She worries about you" I assured him, massaging his nape.

"She worries about reputation, not my feelings" He mumbled, his lips pursed tight.

"She's your mother, Julian. Don't say that..." I sighed, leaning to kiss his cheek.

"Well, my mother says the press will portray me as a girlfriend stealer. Her own words, if you can believe it..." His chuckle wasn't amusing.

"Do you want to... deny we're in a relationship?" I asked, clearing my throat mid-sentence.

"Why would I want to do that?" He frowned, turning his face to meet my eyes.

"Bad publicity... You don't need any more of that. Losing your credibility, either..." I shrugged.

"G..." He frowned, his hands grabbed my legs and put them on his lap, caressing them "I don't want to deny a relationship with you, ever. That's silly talk, sweetheart."

"Well, I don't want to be denied, either." I assured him, shrugging and folding my arms over my empty stomach "But there are more important things than getting your feelings hurt."

"Don't talk like that." He made a weird face, contorted "You're not that kind of person, and I'm glad for it."

I smiled, for real this time.

"Look, we don't have to announce it to the general public. God, I cannot believe I'm saying this..." I chuckled "If people ask, we say yeah, we're together, so what? Do they need a memo, or something?"

"Is that your publicist's opinion?" He chuckled.

"It's my 'I don't give a crap' opinion" I nodded, with a grin.

"Aren't you starving? I'm starving" He moaned, leaning to kiss me quickly.

"I am. I haven't eaten for hours, and I got a criminal amount of work to get done by tomorrow morning."

Once in the kitchen, we both prepared a decent and fast meal, sharing it on the island.

"Thank you" He kissed my cheek mid-meal.

"What for?" I frowned, taking a sip of water.

"For not running away screaming and demanding exorcism" He smiled.

"Honey, there'll have to be more than crazy mothers and nagging reporters to make me run for the hills screaming" I chuckled.

"Yeah, that's why I'm thanking you." He leaned over and planted a sweet and long open mouthed kiss on my trembling lips, his hand holding my chin "Really, sweetheart, thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

***

"These are wonderful, Melinda." Cynthia was going through the entire photo-shoot on her laptop, back at Pandora "Really amazing. I love this one, when she's smiling with her mouth fully opened, eyes closed, like she was an underwater child."

"Thank you." Melinda smiled, brushing her long brown hair back "It was a team effort."

"Very good job. Georgia, get the photos to the designing team. This spread is done." Cynthia beamed "And we got our cover."

We left Cynthia's office and came face-to-face with Matisse. Her and Melinda eyed each other with palpable coldness, but sidestepped one another and kept going their way. Ouch, it was like Siberia around those two...

"Those two were real close friends."

I eyed the black girl in the desk in front of mine; her blonde friend was sitting at the corner of her desk.

"They were?" I gasped, frowning "What happened?"

"Jerry – Toledo, I mean – dated Matisse for a while. When Melinda got her promotion as Junior editor, Toledo dumped Matisse" The blonde girl whispered.

"Jesus, why?" I muttered.

"Melinda was just... the it girl, you understand?"

"So, they started going out?"

"Off the record" The blonde girl muttered.

"What do you mean by that?"

"They were having an affair." The black girl whispered, eyeing Matisse leaving Cynthia's office with more work in her hands "Behind Mr. von Hauser's back."

"What?!" I gasped.

"She cheated on him. It was a mess, actually..." Jamie – the black one –, winced "I can still remember Melinda coming to work puffy eyed, crying in the bathroom... Anyway, Mr. von Hauser – aka, your boyfriend –, caught them getting... friendly in Jerry's office."

Oh, God... Poor Julian. That must have been hell for him. His fiancée fooling around with one of his company's administrators...

"Melinda is with Jerry, now, right?."

"Yeah, they're together. I'm sure Matisse will make sure they don't get together for long" The blonde one, Kyla, snorted.

"How can you be so sure?" I frowned, watching Matisse going back to her desk.

"The two of them had a long friendship. Her best friend steals her boyfriend and her promotion?" Kyla chuckled "Nails and skin are gonna fly the day those two kill one another."

"Matisse was supposed to get to Creative Director?" I blinked.

"She lost the guy, lost the job, lost her friend. I don't know about you, but I'm sure most people would get cranky and revengeful" Jamie assured me.