Adrian Assistant, jewel crotan [best novels for beginners .TXT] 📗

silently referring to Adrian’s enraging mannerisms. I nodded as a scowl crawled its way onto my lips, and I frowned down at my lap.



“I don’t understand why he needs to continue doing that in front of me,” I said, incredulous. “I mean, I get it. California was something he was clearly trying to erase from his memory – but does it really take that many women to forget one kiss?”



“It does when the kiss affects you,” Allen said, his usually friendly expression darkening slightly. 

 

I frowned and bit my lip in confusion as I looked at him. “I don’t understand. What- oh my- Am I a bad kisser? Is that why he’s doing what he’s doing? To try and forget how bad the kiss was? Oh my God.” I groaned, feeling my entire face pulse in heat from the embarrassment.



“No!” Allen answered, a little too loudly, before lowering his voice again. “Are you crazy? Even if you were a bad kisser – which you aren’t, according to an anonymous yet obvious source – your face and body make up for it, trust me on that. Plus, you’re interesting to be around, and extremely funny – although you’re not on my level yet, so don’t get too excited from the compliment.” Allen smirked, winking.



I rolled my eyes and pulled my tongue out at him childishly, just as the waitress came back with our orders. She placed them in front of us and gave us a smile before she left, and I instantly shoved a piece of fries into my mouth hungrily. I looked up to find Allen smirking at me in amusement, trying to contain a laugh.



“Are you sure you’re hungry?” he teased, chuckling. “You don’t look too eager to eat.”



“Shut up, idiot.” I glared, smiling a little as I bit off half of the food in my hand.



He chuckled and began eating from his own meal, as we lapsed into a comfortable silence. I had taken three bites of my burger and was chewing it before he spoke up again. “Hey, there’s 20 letters in the alphabet, right?” he asked, frowning slightly in confusion at me.



I raised an eyebrow at the random topic, but bit my lip in thought. “No,” I replied, “I’m pretty sure there’s 26.”



Allen’s frown deepened, before his eyes lit up slightly. “Oh. I must’ve forgotten U, R, A, Q, T!” he said with a straight face, before breaking into a cheesy grin. I almost spit the water I had taken a sip of during his reply, all over the table, before swallowing it and erupting into a fit of loud laughter, the pickup line bringing tears to my eyes.



Once my laughter died down enough for me to form a response, I threw a chip at him. “You’re such a douche!” I exclaimed, still laughing softly at the joke. He chuckled and waggled his eyebrows at me, making me laugh even more.



Once my breathing became normal again, I replayed the letters he mentioned in my mind and frowned. “Wait, you only mentioned 5 letters,” I pointed out in amusement.



“I know. I’ll give you the D later.” Allen winked, making me choke on whatever was trying to travel down my throat. I banged my hand on the table and coughed a few times before taking a large gulp of water and swallowing it; bursting into another series of loud laughs. Allen chuckled at my reaction as I began to cry tears of laughter again, and threw another chip in his direction before laughing even heavier than before.



The door of the diner suddenly burst open, banging against the yellow coloured walls before the sound of glass cracking filled the now silent diner; making my laughter instantly die down as I turned around to look over to the person who made the commotion and cracked the glass door that I pushed open every day.



My blood froze in my veins.



“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TOGETHER?” Adrian’s deep voice roared as he angrily made his way towards our booth with his fists clenched to his sides. I couldn’t move. I just stared up at his angry expression as he towered over Allen and me, looking like he was about to explode.



“Adrian-” Allen began, but was rudely cut off.



“Don’t fucking ‘Adrian’ me, mate,” he snapped, “What the fuck are you doing with her?!” He glared furiously at Allen before his eyes briefly flickered towards my still frozen state.



“We’re just having lunch,” Allen tried again, “It’s nothing-”



“NOTHING?” Adrian’s voice boomed, growing louder and angrier by the second. “YOU’RE PRACTICALLY HAVING EYE SEX IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE STREET!” He grabbed a fistful of Adrian’s black Starbucks shirt, and roughly pulled him out of his seat, bringing them both face to face. “Why are you with her, Allen?” he asked in a low, deadly growl.



I watched as Allen’s jaw clenched before he pushed Adrian’s hand away.



“Because,” he replied calmly, glaring right back at his best friend, “certain assholes were treating her like fucking shit and wouldn’t get over their little bitch fit.”



My eyes widened in shock before they briefly flickered around the busy diner. Every single pair of eyes was on us – even the chef had stopped cooking in the small window and was peering over the tight space to observe what was going on.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Adrian snapped back, making my gaze land on his furious expression once again.



Allen rolled his eyes before resuming his seat on the red diner chair and plopping a piece of fries into his mouth while shrugging. “Anyway, where were we, Emily? Oh that’s right, I was going to give you the D.” Allen spoke up, and I watched as he tried to keep his expression neutral.



“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Adrian roared again, making Allen burst into a fit of laughter.



I looked back and forth between Adrian’s furious expression and Allen’s laughing fit rapidly, growing even more confused at Allen’s behaviour. Adrian, on the other hand, didn’t just watch his best friend laugh. He punched him square in the jaw.



I let out a surprised gasp as I heard something in Allen’s face crack sickeningly. Allen stopped laughing and groaned in pain as the palm of his hand flew up to this jaw to cradle it soothingly. Neither of us had any time to react before Adrian turned over to me and lifted me out of the tight booth by my waist before throwing me over his shoulder.



“We’re leaving,” he growled as I squealed in mortification, still aware that we had everyone’s attention on us.



I looked over at Allen with an alarmed and apologetic look before slumping in defeat in Adrian’s firm grasp as he crossed the busy road and took me all the way back up into his office. My face was tomato red – both from anger and embarrassment – by the time we arrived into his office, and he carelessly threw me onto the navy sofa before his tall figure loomed over my awkwardly sprawled one furiously. “Care to explain yourself?” He scowled, glaring indignantly.



“Explain myself?” I repeated incredulously. “Who the hell was the one who just broke a diner door, punched his best friend, and dragged their assistant all the way back up into their office during her lunch break after speaking the same 5 words to her for the past two weeks?!”



“We have a meeting in 20 minutes in the conference room down hall,” he snapped, completely ignoring my indignant reply. “Be ready.”



My jaw fell open in shock, before I quickly recomposed myself. “Hey, I’m not done talking with you!” I demanded while scrambling out of my sprawled position on the sofa.



Adrian shot me a flat look before taking his seat behind his desk. “I’m done talking with you. So get out.” He turned his attention to the large computer screen in front of him.



“Adrian,” I began, clenching my fists in annoyance, “What the hell did I do to you for you to be acting like this towards me? Not only me, Allen as well!”



“17 minutes,” he replied, still focusing solely on the computer screen.



I let out a frustrated groan before stomping out of his office angrily, fed up with his immaturity. I opened the door to my office and came to an abrupt stop when I found Suzie sitting in the chair I had in front of my desk. Once she heard my door open, she turned around with the usual warm smile on her face.



“Hello, Emily, I’m so sorry Mr. Kingston cut your lunch short. He got… very angry once I told him you were with Allen. It was a bit frightening to tell you the truth…” She trailed off, frowning. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for! I have all the files you’re going to need for the meeting. I was originally supposed to go but Adrian insisted you go once I told him you were with Allen…” She trailed off once again and gave me a guilty look, and I frowned at the newly received information.



“Thank you, Suzie.” I smiled before pulling her into a hug in an attempt to comfort her. “It’s not your fault. Stop blaming it on yourself.”



She laughed softly before meeting my eyes. “How did you know?” she asked with a grin.



I winked. “That’s for me to know and you to dot, dot, dot.”



She laughed and shook her head at my reply, before handing over the files and leaving the room. I placed my bag underneath my desk before leaving my office and locking it behind me, before briefly scanning the files given to me on the way to the conference room.



Once I had set up the table for the meeting, I sat down in my seat and continued to read over the files. From what I was reading, the meeting wasn’t a crucial thing that needed to be running, and the topic was brief and wouldn’t impact on the company as much as other things would have.



“Oh good, you’ve done something right for once in your life,” Adrian comment sarcastically as he entered the room.



I looked up from the paperwork in front of me and glared at him as fiercely as I could. “If you’re going to be a sarcastic asshole the entire time you and I are in the same room together,” I replied smugly, knowing I was going to hit a nerve, “I’ll just get Suzie to take my place here while I go continue my lunch date with Allen.”

And I did. “What did you say?” he asked through gnashed teeth, glaring down at me.



“You heard me,” I shot back, keeping my expression neutral.



“You and Allen were on a date?” Adrian asked, and I watched as his jaw visibly clenched from anger at the statement.



I hesitated before nodding. Mentally, I scolded myself for bringing Allen into this. I didn’t want him getting hurt – again – and I most certainly didn’t want to come in between their friendship. I made a mental note to text Allen a long apology text after this meeting was over.



“Why the fuck are you hanging around him, Emily?” Adrian growled after he saw me nod, and I tried to shrug casually.



“I do what I want,” I replied.



He opened his mouth to speak just as two men and three women in suits entered the room, and he shot me a warning look.



“We’ll continue this discussion later, Ms. Johnson,” he muttered coldly, keeping his glare on me while the others took their seats around their table.



“There’s nothing to discuss, Mr. Kingston,” I replied, giving him an innocent look while slightly cocking my head to the side to feign confusion.



I watched as Adrian’s nostrils flared out in anger and tried to keep my smirk buried deep within me as four more people walked into the conference room and took their seats. Adrian walked