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A Shot of Arrogance ~ Chapter Two
Crossing my legs, I lifted the pair of sunglasses off my eyes and put them down beside me. I squinted slightly as I sat up on the sun chair before observing the still swimming pool in front of me, debating whether I should go in or not.
The sky was a pale blue colour, without a cloud in sight, allowing the sun to burn confidently onto the world. There wasn’t a sound to be heard. That was one of the things I loved about living in a rather isolated place; it was peaceful.
I stood up and removed the soft pink towel from around my waist, revealing my newly bought polka dot bikini. I wasn’t supposed to be by the pool right now, I was supposed to be meeting with my father and another one of his husband suggestions at ten o’ clock. For many reasons, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.
I'd suggested plenty of other things to my father on how to sort out the mess he'd gotten my family into. I'd pointed out that selling some of the items in the house would help, but he said that we were in way too deep for that to help. I suggested that my mother should have gotten a job, I even suggested that I could get a job. I also mentioned the most obvious solution. Selling the house. My father didn't even want to know.
He didn't want others commenting on how we'd downgraded ourselves into another house. Even the thought of selling anything made the hair on his neck stand up. I shut my eyes for a few moments. All my father cared about was his damn pride and look at where it had gotten us. Lying to all of our friends and at the edge of bankruptcy. I really did need to inherit everything, didn't I?
I forced myself to stop thinking so negatively. What had happened had happened, there was nothing I could do about it. Glancing at my phone, I noticed that I had to meet my father in fifteen minutes. A quick swim in the garden pool wouldn’t hurt, right? It might help wash away my thoughts. I grinned to myself as something entered my head. If I swam until five to ten, I wouldn’t have the time to make myself presentable... and if I accidently turned up ten minutes late, I would certainly not come across as reliable... Then again, I was awfully warm. I had no choice really but to swim. Oh, what a shame.
With a satisfied grin on my face, I threw my towel back onto the sun chair and fastened my bikini strap. Grabbing my brush from my bag, I tied back my hair before reapplying some waterproof mascara. I wanted to look somewhat presentable when I met up with my father, just not look as though I gave much of a crap...
I placed my brush into my coral coloured bag and began to make my way over to the pool. Flicking my fringe off my face, I stretched my arms out in front of me and bent my knees, preparing to dive into the water.
“If dad’s suggestion is another whiny midget,” I thought out loud. “I swear I’m go-”
Suddenly, I felt something firmly push me on my back, and before I knew it, I had splashed into the cold water of the swimming pool.
Forcing my head to the top of the water, I opened my mouth and began to breathe as though I was on the verge of death.
“Tori!” I heard a horribly familiar voice laugh. “You seriously need to stop talking to yourself! It ain’t good.”
Finally controlling my breathing, I looked up to see a grinning, sandy haired boy looking back at me. Oliver Poynter.
It had been just over a week since Oliver had been hired as my assistant. I still saw no point to it, but I’d given up on arguing about it with my parents. To my annoyance, the day I met him hadn’t been a one-off. Oliver was always loud, cocky and annoying.
Gritting my teeth, I hastily scrambled over the edge of the pool, cursing under my breath as I did so. Once I was on the dry ground, I shot up, ran over to the deck chair and wrapped my towel around me. Without saying another word, I grabbed my phone from my bag and began dialling my father’s number.
“Whoa, calm down!” Oliver held his hands up and began walking over to me “what are you doing?”
“What am I doing? Are you serious? What are you doing, more like!” I stopped dialling on my phone and looked up at him, “I’m calling my father to have you arrested, that’s what I’m doing!”
Oliver began laughing as he lay down on the deck chair beside me. Once he realised that I was dead serious, the cocky grin was wiped off his face.
“Okay, look, I’m sorry!” he stood back up. “Come on though, you seriously overreacted. I didn’t even push you... I just gave you a little nudge. It’s my way of showing affection. You’re the one that had some kind of spasm and flew into the water. No offence to people who actually have spasms.” He paused for a second, “Hey, is that actually possible? Do people actually have proper spasms? Like, full on spasms? Is it a disease or something? You’re rich and stuff, so you’re smart, right? You should know about things like that.”
Completely forgetting about me calling my father, I threw my phone onto the deck chair. All that I could do now was gape at Oliver, confused and slightly worried.
Was my father drunk when he gave Oliver his job or something? What worried me even more was that Ella knew him personally. Lord knows what that did to her mental health.
“What is actually wrong with you?” I shook my head, still staring at the boy in front of me. “Do you have ADHD or something?”
For the third time in the past ten minutes, Oliver burst into laughter. “Nah, I’m dyslexic though. Don’t know if that counts.” He glanced away for a small, but strangely noticeable moment. I didn't think much of it . “You do realise that you’re quarter of an hour late for that meeting with your old man and your future hubby?”
I suddenly froze. He was right. It was gone half past ten now. My father was going to kill me. I wanted to be ten minutes late, not thirty.
Pushing Oliver out of my way, I grabbed my phone and dropped it into my bag before rolling up my towel up and placing it under my arm and took hold of my bag with the other.
“He’s not my future husband, okay?” I narrowed my eyes at Oliver before rushing towards my house.
“Now, don’t be so negative,” Oliver called, jogging behind me. “You aren’t going to tell your father about what just happened, yeah?”
“Depends,” I shrugged, “are you going to stop behaving like a five year old on cocaine?”
“Wow,” he smiled. “I didn’t know that posh chicks like you knew what cocaine is. I thought you lived on lobster and stuff.”
Shaking my head, I stood beside my back door, waiting for Oliver to catch up with me. A pile of rose bushes had somehow caught his full attention.
He looked up at me and turned his head. “Victoria... you do know how to open a door, right? You have to, like, turn the handle and then push.”
“Yes, I know. I’m waiting for you to open it for me.” I sniffed. “You may as well do something useful. You were actually supposed to be here an hour ago, in case you didn’t notice. Oh, and it’s Miss Kingston to you.”
“Yeah well, I was busy.” He shrugged, finally turning away from the ever so interesting rose bushes. “Do you want me to help you shower as well? I’d be cool with that.” He winked at me before opening the door.
“It’s not too late for me to ask my father to call the police, you know,” I threatened him.
I couldn’t believe this. Oliver was supposed to be my assistant, as stupid as that was, not some annoying child I was supposed to try and control. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and groaned. This was going to be a long day.
*****
“Victoria!” my father shouted as I walked into the living room. “You are forty five minutes late! I distinctly told you to be here by ten o’ clock. No earlier. No later.”
Sitting next to where my father had been seconds ago was a handsome, dark haired man. He was wearing a chic black and white suit. I had to admit, I was pretty impressed. Unlike the previous husband suggestions of my father’s, he wasn’t ginger, short, or wearing bright pink.
Realising that my father had just bellowed at me, I quickly turned my attention back to his red face. Biting my lip, I glanced back at the man sitting on the sofa, then at Oliver who was standing beside me, and then back at my father.
“Uh... Sorry, I...” I stammered.
“It wasn’t her fault, honestly. She was on her way to meet you when she foolishly slipped and fell into the swimming pool outside. Pretty unlucky, really.” Oliver interrupted me.
Foolishly slipped? If my father wasn’t in the room right now, along with a guest, I actually would have kicked that boy where it hurts. Hard. I was surprised that I didn’t do so right there and then.
“Who are you?” my father asked rather rudely.
That was odd. I thought that it was my father who hired him. Come to think of it, my father probably did hire him; he just forgot about him. That often happened with his staff. He didn’t know that half of them even existed.
“Ollie Poy- Oliver Poynter,” Oliver replied awkwardly. “I’m Vict- your daughter's new assistant, uh... Sir,” he nodded his head in my direction.
It was quite clear that he wasn’t used to speaking to someone like my father. I was just glad that he wasn’t speaking to him like he spoke to me. That would have been embarrassing for the both of us.
My father cautiously narrowed his eyes at Oliver. I couldn’t blame him; Oliver hardly looked like a committed member of staff. He was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, to begin with. Whether he had showered or not since then was beyond me.
“Don’t let it happen again.” My father turned back to me. “This is Richard Brooks,” my father gestured his hand towards where the dark haired man was sitting.
Richard nodded his head and smiled at me. “Hello there.”
“Hello,” I said politely back at him.
“Right then,” my father smiled, “I’ll leave you to it.”
Seconds later, he’d left the room, leaving Richard, Oliver and me on our own.
I wished that he hadn’t left though because the next few seconds were the most painfully embarrassing seconds of my entire life, and it was all because of my idiot assistant.
“I bet he’s fun at parties!” Oliver laughed as my father left the room. He jumped onto the leather sofa behind him. “Do you have anything to eat here, Tori?" My name is Victoria. "I am well hungry and I ain’t had food in ages. I’m going to turn rabid at this rate.” He paused for a brief few seconds. “Or just some coffee? I go nuts on coffee, it's great. I once jumped off my mate's garden shed when I'd drunk a load of coffee because I wanted to show him that I could do three back flips in a row. I failed. It was still cool though except for the fact that my mate had a go at me. Apparently, he doesn't appreciate it when I jump on his cat... You'd let me jump on your cat, wouldn't you, Tori?” Oliver sighed. "I'm tired..."
At this point, Richard was staring at Oliver very strangely. I rolled my eyes before turning to Richard and giving him an apologetic look.
“I’m ever so sorry, he’s new.” I turned to Oliver who was taping his fingers on the arm of the sofa. “Look, you call me Miss Kingston and nothing else, let alone some stupid little nickname. If you're that hungry, there are some biscuits on the coffee table. Eat them. Oh, and don't say a word unless I ask you to.” I whispered rather aggressively.
I was extremely surprised when he nodded before grabbing a biscuit from the coffee table. It became even more unbelievable when he was silent for the next two hours. Mind you, who was I to complain? He had actually shut up, that was all that mattered.
While Richard and I were talking, I often noticed Oliver opening his mouth, preparing to come out with some cocky comment. I was quick enough to shoot him a quick glare every time he did so, eventually causing him to stop trying. It clearly put him in a mood with me, but I was actually rather thankful of that.
Throughout the next two hours, I decided that if I were to marry, Richard would be an option. The thought of marriage still made my stomach churn, but at least I'd met somebody decent. Richard was charming, good looking, kind, and he seemed confident enough.
“Yes, I am the heir to my father’s business. He owns countless amounts of stores all around the UK and there is an especially successful store in Manchester. When I turn twenty one in four months, I will officially own the business.” Richard said proudly, which was fair enough. It was impressive.
“Wow, that is great and certainly interesting.” I smiled, “would you like something to drink? I just realised that I haven’t asked you yet. I’m awfully sorry!”
“Don’t worry, it’s okay,” Richard laughed, his grey coloured eyes squinting slightly as he did so, “and I will have one, please.”
He ran his hand through his hair before tidying the black tie around his neck. I was beginning to wonder why I was so adamant about getting married. I mean, Richard seemed like a good guy. Dark, tall, handsome, rich. Perfect.
I turned to Oliver to see him with his eyes shut, laid back onto my sofa. He was gently rubbing his head when I spoke to him, his eyes still closed.
“Oliver, get Mr. Brooks something to drink,” I said, smiling at Richard.
“Huh?” he muttered, opening his deep green eyes. “What?”
“Can you get Mr. Brooks a drink,” I gritted my teeth. “Please.”
Like he had done earlier, Oliver nodded. He stood up and walked over to the door, brushing past my leg. I was really beginning to like his silence now. In the meantime, Richard’s eyes had began to wonder around my living room.
He was looking at the stone fireplace at the back of the room when I continued speaking to him. In the next five minutes or so, I found out that his older brother had died several years ago, automatically making him the heir to his father’s car business. I also found out some lighter stuff like the fact that his favourite kind of music was soft rock and that he had a pet dog named Danny.
Once ten minutes had passed, I realised that Oliver still hadn’t returned with Richard’s drink. If Oliver wasn’t new, I would have sacked him a long time ago. I sometimes wondered if I needed to be a bit harder on people. The truth was that he should have, in fact, been sacked a while ago.
“Is tea all right?” Oliver suddenly appeared in the doorway, his face completely flat, “I don’t really know where anything is, so I wasn’t sure what I was doing.”
“Tea’s fine,” Richard replied as Oliver handed him a pale white mug.
“I got you some too,” he said, turning to me.
“Oh, it’s okay, I don’t want any.” I replied, not bothering to look at him.
“Can I have it?” Oliver sounded hopeful.
Honestly? Did he think I was that naive? He’d obviously made an extra drink on purpose, knowing that I didn’t want one, just so that he could have it. How dull did he think I was?
“No, just throw it away,” I replied, still not looking at him. “You had plenty of time to drink something before you got here. You were an hour late as it is. I tell you when to take a break and that is when you can eat or drink something. I'm sure you can wait ten minutes, Oliver.”
“Fuck you,” he suddenly muttered under his breath.
That was the point I turned to look at him, utterly frustrated. How dare he say that to me? If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t even have a job. He’d been told what the rules were. Did he honestly think that he could just decide how he wanted to treat me?
If he hadn’t annoyed me so much, I probably would have let him drink that tea. The fact that he scared me half to death the day I met him, pushed me into a pool, embarrassed me in front of Richard, and treated me however he wanted to treat me was the reason I didn’t allow him to drink anything. I was just so angry with him right now.
“Don’t speak to me like that!” I hissed at him in a tone that Richard couldn't quite hear. “You’re not here to have a good time, you know. You’re here to work for me and you will do as you’re told.”
Oliver simply muttered something under his breath and lifted his hand to his head, rubbing it again. He breathed in heavily as I continued what I was saying.
“Do you have any idea how lucky you are that I haven’t sacked you yet? If I were my father, you would have been out of this door within five minutes of you arriving.” I was beginning to raise my voice. “The least you could do is apologise!”
It didn’t surprise me when Oliver said nothing. Instead, he just carried on rubbing his head and gritting his teeth.
As the seconds passed, everything inside of me began bubbling up. Maybe I was being unfair on him, but I was just so annoyed. When Oliver shut his eyes, I'd had enough. “Oliver!” I shouted at him.
There was still no response. Oliver simply stood in the middle of the room silently and completely blank. If anything, it looked as though he was in pain. It was clear that he wasn’t planning on apologising to me.
“Oliver!” I practically screamed at him.
As the words left my mouth, Oliver stumbled slightly before suddenly falling onto the soft carpeted floor below him, the tea spilling all over my mother’s cream carpet as the mug smashed. There was a loud thud as he fell, which was shortly replaced by an eerie silence.
I froze. I’d completely forgotten about Richard until now. He quickly jumped off the sofa and kneeled down beside Oliver, gently tapping his face. Oliver’s left palm was bleeding slightly from where the mug had smashed in his hand and his eyes were completely shut. He was entirely motionless. It finally dawned on me that Oliver was completely out of it.
“Do you have a nurse or something?” Richard asked, still trying to get Oliver to wake up. It wasn’t hard to notice the anxiety in his voice.
I swallowed hard before slowly nodding. Before I knew I’d done so, I ran out of the room and up the stairs to find Ella. She wasn’t technically a nurse, but she was the closest thing we had to one.
And this chapter was definitely better than previous one. I loved it! Didn't I mention it before? other than few mistakes, this was a smooth read. You did describe more. I knew you would come up with a nice story.
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