Shonee’s POV
After a subtle knock on the door, Avril’s voice seeped past the wood, inviting me to come in.
I pushed the door handle down, stepping into her luxurious CEO office.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Avril looked up from her occupied desk. “Have a seat. Vincent will arrive shortly then we can begin.”
“Wait…. what?” Honestly, I think my heart did a deadly somersault after hearing that last part. “Vincent is coming here?”
“Yeah. You didn’t think we were going to plan this whole thing without my fiancé’s input, did you?” She shot me a weird look and set down a blue binder with the words ‘Wedding Plans’ on the front.
My mind froze, unable to come up with a response. Great! Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
Another knock sounded through the door.
“Oh, that must be Vincent,” Avril said, which didn’t make me feel any better. I was minutes away from exploding with guilt, anxiety and terror.
 My oblivious boss gazed at me with a frown. “What are you standing there for? Sit down.”
Without much thought, I quickly perched myself on the nearest chair, praying that I could turn invisible as Avril called Vincent in.
The door creaked open, and I turned in my seat. If I wasn’t going to turn invisible, the least I could do was to avoid eye contact.
“Ms. Payne, hi. How nice to see you again?”
My ears perked up. Hold on…that doesn’t sound like Vincent.
And it wasn’t. The moment I turned around, my eyes landed on Vincent’s personal assistant, striding confidently into Avril’s office.
“Michael?” Avril’s eyebrows dipped low. “What the heck are you doing here?”
“Wow, straight to the point I see,” Michael chuckled, adjusting his tie. “Unfortunately, Ms. Payne, my boss couldn’t make it as he is currently in an important stock meeting, so he sent me here instead.”
“Oh no, no, no.” She wagged a manicured finger in the air. “Don’t feed me that bullshit, Michael! It’s a lie. I know Vincent never attends stock meetings; he has people who take care of that for him.”
“You’re right, Ms. Payne. But like I said, it’s an important stock meeting and he needed to be there himself.”
A believable story but Avril wasn’t buying it. Her jaw was set firm as she snatched her phone from her desk. “We’ll see about that.” Brewing in anger, she stalked out of the office, tapping on the device and bringing it to her ear.
“Oooh feisty,” Micheal turned to me with a smug smile. “I like your boss.”
“Too bad she’s taken,” I remarked jokingly. “You two would have made a terrific couple.”
“True, I am a stud after all.” He struck a dramatic pose and I laughed.
Knowing that Vincent wasn’t showing up sort of put me at ease.
“So, Shonee.” Michael plopped down in the opposite seat with a grunt. “Let me guess…Avril dragged you here against your will.”
“Guilty as charged,” I sighed, folding my hands across my chest. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
He nodded. “Typical. Avril has a way of roping people into her schemes. I've been a victim of that multiple times. Well… since we’re both here against our will, why don’t we get this over with.”
“You’re here against your will?”
“Oh yeah,” Michael confidently replied. “I’ve never really liked Avril. The first time I met her, she called me an idiot for not knowing the difference between Armani and Gucci. As if it mattered.”
I couldn't help but chuckle lightly.
“Since then, I’ve tried to keep my distance. But now that Vincent needs to marry her to keep the company running, so I don’t end up jobless…” He clasped his hands. “Here I am.”
I raised an eyebrow, intrigued by Michael's candidness. “You don't mince words, do you?”
“Nah, life's too short for that,” he said, then grabbed the wedding binder Avril had left on her desk. “Ok! Let’s see what we have in here.”
He began to flip through, eyes glazing over the content of each page. But the more he opened, the more his expression turned into one of worry. “Please tell me this is some kind of sick joke?”
“What? What is it?” I leaned closer and Michael turned the binder so I could see.
On one page was an endless list of entrée suggestions for taste testing. On the next page was an even longer list of appetizer and dessert suggestions. The page that followed had another list of Decoration Do’s and Don’ts and about five sketches of an engagement cake which Avril had distinctly stated should match the design patterns of her engagement dress.
“Damn…talk about intense,” I mumbled.
“I know right,” Michael replied. “Part of me is wondering why she even bothered asking for help if she’s going to control everything like this.”
A sigh left my mouth. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Grabbing a pen and paper, Michael and I began to waddle through the endless list of preparations. From decorations to food, drinks, invitations, programme outline, you name it, we worked on it all. Yet after what seemed like two hours of sitting and planning, we hadn’t even made it halfway through the binder.
“I think we need a break.” I set the pen down and relaxed in my seat.
“Totally agree with you.” Michael had now loosened his tie and looked a bit more wary than I was. “Lemme see if I can get us something from the cafeteria.” He picked Avril’s office line to place the order. “Anything you’d like?”
“Some pineapple juice would be fine.”
In the next few minutes, a server from the cafeteria arrived with our order and some freshly baked doughnuts.
I took my first bite, savouring both the sweetness of the pastry and my chilled glass of juice. We whiled away time by chatting about the wedding and all the ridiculous plans Avril had put in place. She’d even written down the specific type of chandelier the venue should have.
Frankly, if the word controlling was a person, it would definitely be Avril Payne.
As we exchanged stories and complaints about her…peculiarities, I found myself warming up to Michael. Looking past his initial forwardness during Vincent’s Birthday dinner, he wasn’t as bad as I thought. In fact, his straightforward attitude made our conversations really interesting.
“Mm,” Taking the last sip of his orange juice, Michael set his glass down. “I remember the first time I saw Avril ordering pizza. Vincent was working late in the office and Avril came over, wanting to show him that she was taking her new fiancée responsibilities seriously. So, when she discovered that Vincent had missed dinner, she decided to order him pizza. She picked up her phone, dialled in the number for the pizza place and asked, ‘Are your caterers products of a popular culinary school like Auguste Escoffier?’”
“Caterers?” I brought my glass to my lips.
“She meant the delivery guys.”
A laugh sputtered past my lips, accidentally dribbling some of my drink onto my white shirt.
“Ah!”
“Oh shit, lemme help you.” Michael quickly grabbed a box of tissues from a nearby side table.
“Thanks.”
Instead of handing it over to me, he yanked one tissue out of the box and started meticulously dabbing at the yellow stain right on top of my left breast. “You know…stains like these are less likely to set if you take your shirt off.”
Catching onto his idea, I immediately shot him a frown. “Nice try, Michael. But you’re not getting me out of my clothes that easily.”
“Worth a shot.” He shrugged, a smug smile playing on his lips as he continued to dab at the droplets.
I was just about to step away when, for some reason, my head turned towards the entrance.
Vincent, tall and intimidating, stood at the door, staring intently at his personal assistant, who had quickly backed away from my chest.
“Hey boss,” Michael greeted with cheeriness in his voice as if he wasn’t touching the top of my breast a minute ago.
The cheeriness in his voice must’ve made Vincent angry because his eyes narrowed to slits. “What the hell is going on here?”