Chapter One

Katrina woke up to the sound of her alarm, opening her eyes. She yawned and rubbed her eyes with her hand. Sluggishly getting up from her bed, she went to her bathroom, brushed her teeth and washed her face.

Then she came back and sat on her reading table. She opened her laptop to check and ensure she had everything prepared for the new week.

Katrina worked as a Secretary for Lucas Evans.

"Lucas" she called. She was used to calling out his name at odd times when she was alone.

Lucas Evans, her boss and the man she fell for. She has been in love with him for almost five years now. She didn't know how the feelings started somehow between working together and going on business trips together. She had somehow come to love her boss a man way out of her reach.

Initially, when she had started working for Lucas, she had disliked him because he was arrogant and a big-time womanizer, but after working with him for six years, now she had managed to get used to his arrogant and bossy nature. He wasn't a nice guy but he wasn't all that unbearable either.

And he cared for his family maybe that's why she fell for him.

"Okay, enough Katrina, it's too early to start thinking of the boss." she scolded herself.

She closed her laptop after making sure everything she needed for the week. All the schedules and meetings were properly documented.

She knew her boss was someone who hated been disorganized and unprepared for appearances.

It was 6:15 am. She went to her bathroom and took her bath. It had taken her about 30minutes to bathe and dress up after which she hurriedly took a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread. When she was ready finally it's was just a few minutes to 7:30.

She took her bag, her laptop, and other stuff she uses for the office and rushed down the apartment to the parking lot for her car. She drived a Mercedes which her boss had gifted to her when he found out she went to work by bus. That was about three years ago.

It took her 30 minutes to get to work because of the heavy New York traffic.

She greeted her co-workers she met on her way to her office.

"Hi, Katrina, good morning, how was your weekend?"

"Hi, Jordan, it was cool, and yours?" Jordan is her best friend.

"Mine was great, I had fun, we were expecting you at Coral's birthday party but you never showed up." Jordan said.

"Yeah, I couldn't make it. I had errands to run over the weekend and I didn't get back till late at night. I sent her my wishes though." Katrina explained.

"Sucks to be Lucas' Secretary." Jordan replied.

"No, Lucas is okay, you just don't know him." Katrina said, defending Lucas.

"Yeah, you will defend him that's what you always do." Jordan said laughing.

"I am not defending him, I am just stating a fact."

"Whatever you say, lady." Jordan replied not convinced.

"I am serious."

"Yeah, I know you are. And I also know you like your boss." Jordan said with a knowing smile.

"Cut it out Jordan, I knew I should never have told you that." Katrina replied.

"Come on, I already figured that out, you know, anyway, are you going to his sister Lilac's wedding? she dropped an invite for everyone this morning."

"Of course I will be there, I can't miss it for the world, I forgot to mention it to you, I am part of her bridal train." Katrina disclosed.

"Really? And you were just telling me we have a lot of to talk but it seems we are falling apart now, you keep things from me?" Jordan asked looking at her with a disgusted look.

"It's not like that Jordan, and you know it."

"I am going the other way, so I will see you after work lady, we have a lot of to talk. You have a lot of explanations to make." Jordan continued flipping his non-existent long hair and walking away before Katrina could argue.

Katrina has known Jordan for almost fifteen years now. Since he moved into her neighborhood, they hooked up to each other immediately and have been best friends. They had gone to the same high school, and also the university. When they both graduated, they had applied to the same company, Jordan as a designer while Katrina as an administrative assistant. Luckily they both got taken.

Katrina rode the elevator to the top floor where her office was located. The top floor was mainly for the directors and also there was a hall for international meetings.

Opening her office door, she hurriedly dropped her stuff and went to check if Lucas was around already. He was always at the office before her no matter how early she came. But today seemed to be one of those rare days when she got in his office, he wasn't in it.

She dropped the papers she had printed out on top of his desk and made her way back to her office. Her office was a small room attached to her boss's office. It was like her own small world inside the big enormous office.

Just as she was about to sit down, she remembered she was supposed to get coffee from the company's cafe, but her talk with Jordan had distracted her and she had forgotten. The thought of going down back to get coffee didn't sound so appealing to her, so she opted for hearing a head full from her boss on how much she should know that he needed coffee to function and all.

On second thought, she decided to go get it anyway. Going back down to the cafe was better than been scolded on a Monday morning.

"Katrina," her boss asked when he entered the office.

Well, guess she was gonna get the ear full whether she liked it or not. Preparing herself, she turned to face her boss, "Good morning sir."

"Morning Katrina, I bought coffee." he greeted smiling.

Wow, that's a first she thought. Lucas smiled on a Monday morning and also bought coffee for both of them. In all her six and half years of working for him, he has never bought them coffee because it has always been her job.

Too stunned to talk, she took the coffee he offered and muttered a thank you more to herself than to him.

He seemed to be in a happy mood.

"What about the stuff I told you to check about on Saturday?" he asked.

"I printed it out, it's on your desk." she replied.

"Good," he said, moving into his office. Katrina shifty followed behind him, coffee in one hand and her tab in the other hand.

"So what do we have this morning?" he asked as he sat down sipping his coffee.

"Not much." she replied dropping her coffee on the table and opening her tab to read out the day's schedule to him even though she knew he already knew more than half of it.

"By 10 am, you have a meeting with the directors, after that, you have a meeting with the designing team. By 3 pm, you have another meeting with the investors from Dubai. That's all for today. And also your mom called that she will send someone down to take your measurement." Katrina disclosed.

"Hmmm... Cancel every other meeting except the one with the investors from Dubai." he said in reply.

"Okay, sir. I will do that immediately." she answered.

"What about the measurement? " she asked.

"About that, I will call my mom."

"Okay, sir."

"I sent some files to your email, go through them and pick out the suitable one and print them out. I need it before the end of today." he instructed.

"Okay, sir."

"That's all, for now, you can go." he said picking up the papers she printed and scanning through them.

Katrina picked up her coffee and moved back to her office. She opened her email and saw that there were about four different pdf files. She clicked on the first one and looked back at her boss' office with a look of distaste.

"How does he want me to finish this before today ends?" she muttered to herself, glaring at the door that leads to his office.

There he was sitting prettily sipping coffee while going through the file she already printed. His office was transparent. Except he closes the bindings which were left open most times.

Katrina concentrated on sorting through the files which contain applications of aspiring graduates who hope to work in the company. Evans Corporation is a large-scale business that has been around for about 40 years now, it was founded by Lucas's father who retired ten years ago.

The company mostly deals with real estate and management but after Lucas took over, he had dived into another aspect—Hotel.

Since she had started working for him, he had acquired eight different hotels in eight different locations. His diving into other aspects had increased the company's output by almost a hundred percent.

He had great business sense and always knows what will profit him. So far since she started working for him, he has never run at a loss. The man was a business genius. He made more money for the company since he started as the CEO of the company than his father made for the thirty years.

His father currently lives in Arizona with his mother, always talks with pride whenever someone mention Lucas.

"I never regretted handing over my company to you, Lucas, you did a great job. I am proud of you, son." his father said.

Focusing more on what she was doing, Katrina didn't notice her boss left the office. When she raised her head, he was no longer sit on the chair.

"Would it kill him to at least tell me he is going out?" she asked herself.

It was 12:30. She had spent the past four hours looking through the applications and selecting the most suitable one and also compiling them. She was almost halfway done. She would work for 30 minutes other than go for lunch.

When she raised her head again to check the time. It was 13:20.

"Okay, time for lunch, lady." she told herself as she saved the work she had done and got up from her seat. She went into Lucas's office and he didn't come back. She closed the door and went out of the office towards the elevate. She has to be back in the office before 3 pm for the meeting with the Dubai investors. But for now, food was calling her name.

She is a food lover and never misses eating no matter how busy she is. She always squeezes in time to eat. Her motto is "food=life".

As she waited by the elevator, her phone rang. It was Jordan.

"Hi, Jordan, I am on my way down, already order for me, will you?" she said as soon as she answered the phone.

"I am sorry, Katrina, I'm calling to tell you I will be eating out with Kelvin, I am already out of the office."

"Oh! He is back! That's nice!" Katrina replied. Kelvin is Jordan's boyfriend, and he has been away for a couple of weeks.

"I am sorry, Katrina, I didn't know he will come back today, he just showed up out of nowhere." Jordan said with a sorry voice over the phone.

"No, it's okay, Jordan, have fun and say hi to Kelvin for me."

"Thanks, bestie, I love you." he said, the sorry sound wiping out of his voice.

"Love you too." Katrina muttered.

"Bye, see you soon. We still need to talk." he said and ended the call, not even giving her the chance to reply. What a friend. Katrina thought smiling.

"Okay, let's go get that lunch." she said to herself as she got into the elevator.