Ch. 1 The New Boss

"Let's just hope you last longer than the others," the hiring manager muttered.

Seriously?

This lady couldn't have said that before you signed your contract?

You were speechless as you watched her file your already-signed paperwork for your new job as an assistant to a hero in the city.

What the hell did she mean by that?

You debated using your quirk, but.... No. You weren't going to do that anymore.

You'd put on your most professional clothes, wearing heels and a skirt, of all things, looking the perfect image of the put-together executive assistant ready to start her new job. But now, now, this lady felt the need to drop this little bit of info?

"What do you mean, exactly?" you asked.

"Your new boss is fairly well known for his... unique...style. Frankly, he can be a jerk. But you come highly recommended, so just do your job, keep your head down, and you should be fine," she said. Then she grimaced. "I hope."

You stared longingly at the signed contract you'd just turned in. It was still in the hiring manager's hands in the envelope.

You could probably wrestle it out of her hands, you thought, but wrestling an old lady in the middle of an office would probably not help you ever get another job in this city.

Besides, you wondered how much wrestling you could even do in this tight of a skirt.

Maybe you could hit it out of her hands with one of your heels. These heels felt awful anyway and it would feel good to throw something. Yeah, these shoes made your legs and butt look good, but they were so annoying to wear.

You sighed.

Just like that contract, your fate was sealed.

A job was a job though. You definitely needed the money, and this was the only opening the staffing company had where you could start right away.

You'd worked similar jobs before and surely you could handle this one, no matter what the boss was like.

In fact, you'd spent the past year working as a personal assistant in your town. You weren't completely unfamiliar with people who were difficult to work with.

But now you were unemployed, in a new city, and pretty much desperate. Beggars can't be choosers, right?

Between the down payment on your new apartment and basic things like food, utilities, and getting drunk at the bar down the street, you needed money and you needed work now.

The lady gave you the address for your new job and wished you luck.

Before you left, you asked, on a whim, "How long have his other assistants lasted?"

She gave you a look, maybe one of pity. "Most have lasted a day or two, sometimes a week. I've lost count." She probably saw the pained look on your face because she added, pretty unconvincingly, "but you'll do great."

You took a deep breath.

Awesome. Can't wait. So excited.

"Here, take these," she said, handing you some magazines. "I'm sure he's in these. Read up on the subway over."

You rolled your eyes when you noticed what they were. Hero tabloids, the kind of gossip magazines that printed pretty much any story, true or false. In particular they seemed to love stories about the handsome young male and female heroes and who they may or may not be dating.

And he's in these? No wonder he's a jerk. He's probably completely full himself if he's used to this kind of attention.

Long story short, you had zero desire to read these magazines.

You politely put them in your box of office supplies that you'd brought with you and headed out.

I'm going to be the best assistant this dumb hero has ever seen, you told yourself. If he thinks he can intimidate me or make me quit, he's got another thing coming.

---

As you rode the train to downtown, you got the feeling that someone was watching you. It was like a weird prickly feeling, but you didn't want to look around and risk coming eye to eye with some psycho.

The longer you were on the train, the more the feeling grew. Slowly you glanced over, trying to be as secretive as you could.

You were right, someone was staring your way.

Young guy. Probably near your age. Blonde hair, fitted suit and tie. Cute.

No, not cute, you thought, watching how he leaned against the pole and noticing how his suit jacket tugged around his arms where his muscles were.

Hot.

You didn't feel bad staring at him for a minute because, one, he was super hot, and two, you had realized that he wasn't actually looking at you, he was staring at your box of supplies.

You followed his eyes and realized that he must be looking at those stupid hero magazines the hiring manager had given you.

You caught his eye, his intense red eyes, and immediately he looked away.

But you were feeling extra bold since you had been working on psyching yourself up for this new job the entire train ride.

"Here," you said, grabbing one of the magazines and handing it up to this sexy stranger. "You keep staring at it. It's yours if you want it. I know I don't."

Surprisingly, he actually took the magazine from you and started flipping through the pages.

Not even a thank you... ? Just because you're hot doesn't mean you can't also be nice, but whatever.

Amused, you watched as he read through the gossip magazine, trying not to laugh to yourself as you heard him scoff a few times when he looked at a couple pages.

"I thought all girls like you were into hero gossip," he finally said.

"Girls like me?" you asked, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged.

"I could not care less about any of it. I don't follow it. I mean, I'll admit that the guy on the cover is cute," you said, pointing to the young man with red and white hair who was on the front of the magazine.

Right then the train lurched to a stop and the doors opened.

You watched as he crumpled the magazine in his hand and tossed it back into your box of supplies before getting up and walking out.

"Jerk," you muttered as you gathered your things and exited the train.

Standing in front of the high rise building downtown where you new office was, you were quickly part of the swarm of people on their way to work. Men and women in suits, some deep in calls on their cell phones, others just completely oblivious to the world around them, shuffled past you. This was definitely nothing like home.

For a moment you felt yourself starting to get lost in the noise and conversations. They started to get jumbled in your head but...

No, you told yourself. Tune it out. Get focused.

On the elevator in your building, you balanced your box of basic things for your desk, just in case. You didn't have a spare hand to press the button for your floor.

"Can someone please press twelve?" you asked.

No one moved. Maybe they hadn't heard you? Did they have earbuds in? Didn't look like it. Surely they weren't just ignoring you. You knew you were in the big city now, and supposedly people weren't as friendly here as they were back home, but damn, you didn't think they were this cold either.

"Um, twelve, please?" you tried again, a little louder this time.

"It's already pressed," you heard a gruff voice say to you.

Glancing over toward the voice, you were a little taken aback by the intensity of the red eyes that stared back at you. It was the man from earlier, the same guy who was so rude on the subway. The rude guy who apparently liked gossip magazines.

He worked here, too?

Great, you groaned internally. This day just keeps getting better.

"Oh. Sorry. Thanks," you mumbled.

Once you got off the elevator, you noticed that the guy from earlier was right behind you as you headed down the hall.

Just ignore him, you told yourself as you walked down the hallway, looking for your new agency, carrying your box of supplies. 

You were definitely not going to let some random dude make you nervous. No matter how hot he was. Not today. Today was going to be a good day. Today you were going to start a new job, a new life in this new city, today was going to be the beginning of something –

You dropped the box.

The carpet was just squishy enough, the box was just heavy enough, and your heels were just high enough that you couldn't maintain your balance. Combined with your nervousness, and how sweaty your hands felt, the box slipped right out of your hands.

As it fell, your pens and notebooks scattered across over the floor, your planner bouncing down the carpet a few feet away. Dirt from your little plant poured over onto everything else in the box.

"Son of a..." you muttered.

You heard someone laughing behind you.

This guy...

"The polite thing to do here," you said without looking at him as you crouched down as gracefully as you could in your skirt and started to gather up your things, "would be to help the other person. Since you apparently cannot be polite, you can at least not be rude by laughing."

"I'm not the idiot who thought wearing six inch heels was a good idea."

"I'm glad since you wouldn't look half as good in them as me."

You heard another laugh, this time a little quieter, as he walked past where you were on the floor. He tossed your planner back into the box as he walked by.

What an asshole.

"You're probably looking for Suite 1204," you heard him say over his shoulder. "It's right down here."

You finished putting everything back and stood up.

"It's that obvious? I guess you must see a lot of new people for this office. I hear the boss is a real pain in the ass."

"Oh yeah?"

"Supposedly," you shrugged and headed down the hall.

"It's that door right there," he pointed.

"Thanks," you smiled. He did not smile back. "You work on this floor, too?"

"I'm your new boss, dumbass."