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After Cyrus left, Mila cleaned up. Maybe she was taking work away from some of the cleaning staff, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave a mess in the kitchen.
Then, she jumped in the shower and got ready for the day.
Since she had nothing else to keep herself occupied, Mila decided to check out the resumes in Cyrus’s office. Then, maybe she could help him find a decent assistant.
When she walked into the office, she was taken with how gorgeous it was. Cherry and oak wooden shelves lined the walls. The bookcases were stuffed with books, pictures of Cyrus’s life, and fun little techy toys that looked important but could break under the slightest whisper.
Cyrus’s huge desk was not wood. It was the only modern piece of furniture in his office. It somehow worked. The juxtaposition between natural and industrial balanced out smoothly.
Mila sat in the wingback, green-leather chair and rolled it toward the desk. Piles of paper were strewn over the top, but Mila quickly found a folder of resumes.
As Mila shifted through the papers, she placed them in two piles. One stack was for the good candidates. The other didn’t seem right for an assistant and didn’t have enough experience for the deeper level projects that Cyrus may have … not that Mila knew exactly what he would need, but she did know that it would be a high-pressure job.
After about thirty minutes, the good-candidate pile was winnowed down to roughly fifteen instead of the two hundred or so that were sitting there.
Once Mila had that stack separated, she tapped them together and found a paperclip to keep them organized. Then, she wrote a note on a neon green sticky for Cyrus to look at them and placed the other pile underneath with a separate note explaining the pile.
When that was finished, Mila looked at Cyrus’s desk and decided she could clean this up too.
In order to organize things, however, she had to read through them, and not every document had a title. Throughout the day, she worked her way from a mountain of paper to neatly stacked and formulated bundles. And Mila had color-coordinated each one. It would be helpful for the new assistant.
When she was almost down to the actual desktop, she found information about Cyrus. She bit her lip, and her hand flew over her mouth. The document was a declaration of Cyrus’s parents’ death. Then, she saw another letter that mentioned he was searching for them.
Her fingers fumbled over newspaper clippings, telephone numbers, and other sources, mapping out what happened to his parents. Mila’s eyes skimmed the information and were so entrenched in reading it that she didn’t hear the door open.
“What are you doing?” a voice cracked through the silence.
Mila looked up to see Cyrus staring at her. Anger was cast over his eyes. His shoulders were slumped. His fists clenched. It looked like he’d dropped his briefcase.
“I-I was cleaning up your desk.” Words tumbled out of her mouth. They tripped and fumbled over her lips. “At first, I was looking through the applications for your new assistant. Then, I thought about how messy your desk was and created a system. And lastly, I found these.” She splayed the papers out in front of her and stood. “I’m so sorry about your parents. I didn’t know or realize.” Mila walked around the desk toward Cyrus. “Is there anything I can do to help with the search?”
Cyrus stormed past her. He looked at the desk. “I did not ask you to do this. You should have stayed out of my office.” He whipped around to her. “I don’t know who you think you are or what you did tohelpme. But you were not needed or wanted in here.”
Mila flinched at his words. “That’s a shitty attitude.”
Cyrus stepped up to her, closing the gap. Mila glared at him. She refused to break eye contact. “What is shitty is that you pried into my personal life.” His voice raised. “You should not be in here.”
Mila crossed her arms over her chest. She would not back down despite the fear pulsing through her veins at how Cyrus puffed himself up and the anger built in her chest as he tried to intimidate her. “If this is the way you’re treating your fated mate,” she spat the words out. “I want no part of it. Maybe it had been a mistake to come in here, but it was an attempt to help.”
Mila spun on the ball of her foot and stormed out of the room. She would not stay where she was intimidated or in fear. She went to her room and packed her clothes.
“I’m out of here.” Mila punched in a number for a taxi. “I need a ride to the airport.” She would worry about the flight once she got there but was positive she could find a ride back or even pick up a flight as a working attendant if needed.
TWELVE
CYRUS
The moment Mila left the room, Cyrus began to deflate. His breathing slowed, and his fingers uncurled from their fists. Even his polar bear huffed and sank in disappointment.
Defeated from anger, Cyrus walked over to his chair and slumped into it. He leaned his head back and rubbed his chin as he tried to wipe away the frayed edge of his raw nerves.
“Sir?” Luca’s voice cut through the weighted silence.
Cyrus swiveled to Luca and sat up straighter. “Hello, Luca. Can I help you?” Cyrus sighed with the question. Nervousness began to nip in his gut. Did he overreact?
“I heard yelling, sir,” Luca responded.
“Oh. Yes. Well … I found Mila in my office. She came across paperwork about my parents that I didn’t want her to know about. Although, now, I’m not sure why I would keep it a secret from her.”
