Learning to Trust: New Life (2 page)

Dinner that night was quiet, our only guests the people that were serving us. I had taken a bath in the afternoon, spending half the day in that beautiful jacuzzi tub, allowing my mind to wander aimlessly. I was giddy and curious, but still restrained.

"Something seems to be on your mind, Melissa," Roland said. "I can see those gears cranking."

"It's nothing," I blurted out, immediately regretting how obvious I had just made it that I was hiding something.

"Hmm?" He eyed me cautiously.

"I've just been a little bored," I admitted. "You're always busy. I used to keep my time occupied with my job. Obviously I'm not doing that here.
I didn't ever know it would be a problem because I've been working like a maniac for years.
"

Roland laughed. "You're getting ahead of me, my pet."

"What?"

"I
would
like you to be involved in one of my businesses."

"Really?" I said. "I mean, you've got an
opening
or whatever?"
Here I was, living the life of luxury yet excited about a
job
.

A smile broke out acro
ss his face. "Yes, there is an
opening
, my pet.
It's at one of my offices.
Would you like to manage it?"

"
Manage an office
?" I asked. "For what?"
My heart pounded with excitement. Once again, he was reading my mind.

"It's just a subsidiary of StarChem," he said. "Strictly distribution. You wouldn't need to get into the details, just ensure that the office is running
smoothly. You would be in charge. The current office manager quit just the other day."

"Wow, really?" I asked. "I hope you paid them good, Roland!"

"Of course I did!" he said. "It was something...family related, I reckon."

Even though Roland had primarily dominated our relationship, the thought of being a manager of something seemed to really appeal to me for some reason. I loved the idea of having power. This whole decision had been based on fantasy, right? I was indulging in things that I normally didn't have time for, the things that I basically didn't understand. Roland had changed
many
things for me and this fit perfectly, another piece in our puzzle. The picture was getting clearer for me.

"I think I want to, Roland!" I said.

"You mean that, pet? You will have responsibilities. It won't be easy."

"I can do it,"
I said, suddenly feeling small and wanting to defend myself. "I will do a great job, I promise."

"Okay," Roland said. He took a long sip of his wine. "You can make your own hours—and you must wear your collar when you are there. You are mine and everyone will know it."

I wasn't sure what to say at first. I normally only wore my diamond-studded collar when we were in the dungeon. "Who will see me?" I asked.

"Only my people. This is non-negotiable."

The collar still seemed silly to me, but it obviously meant a lot to Roland. If I really wanted to do this, I shouldn't let something like the requirement to wear a
diamond-studded slave collar
hold me back.
"I will do it," I said.

"Shall we start tomorrow? I'll be there briefly for your first day and then I'll leave you on your own after that. Frederic will train you in your duties. He is your immediate superior."

Yes, Frederic.
How could I forget?

I smiled. "Okay."

"I'll arrange a car for you at
ten in the morning
," Roland said.

"Thanks!" I said, unable to contain my excitement.

We went our separate ways that night, he to his
work area
and me to my room. I had my own gym upstairs to use, so I ran on the treadmill and took a shower before heading off to bed. I scribbled some of my suspicions and
ideas
into my journal, just cataloging all of my thoughts. Honestly, I didn't even fully believe a lot of what I was writing. Still, I wanted a record of it
, even though I'd probably be punished for such a thing
. I kept the journal between the mattress and the bed frame, hoping that it wouldn't be discovered.

It was hard to sleep at first. Tomorrow was my first day at a new job, but it was one that I probably couldn't even be fired from. And it wasn't really even going to pay me since Roland took care of finances like he had promised. Still, I was giddy and excited, unsure of what the future held—and that made it difficult to slow down my paranoid brain. I finally fell asleep after
two
and woke at
nine
, groggy and not amused.

The shower was lovely, and the coffee
was even better
. I was dressed to impress, clad in my best business casual, my very expensive collar gleaming proudly from my neck. I had no idea what to expect.

Outside was a limo, arriving right at
ten
. I half expected to find Roland inside, but it was empty. It was weird to travel in that huge luxury vehicle by myself. There was a full bar and I had to resist drinking, since that had sort of become my norm when Roland and I went out. The ride was about
twenty
minutes and took me to a part of town I didn't recognize.

There was a mechanical sound and the window separating my compartment from the driver's lowered. "Here we are, miss."

"Thanks," I said. I stepped out and noticed a pretty typical looking office build
ing. There was no big sign or anything, just
Vignette Distribution
in the top right corner.
Discreet.
I watched the limo drive away and suddenly felt really anxious. The doorway waited to swallow me, ready for me to walk inside and fulfill my
destiny
. Eh, who was I kidding anyway? This was probably just going to be dumb and uninteresting.

I pulled open the door to find a front desk. There were no chairs or magazines scattered around.
Apparently, they didn't anticipate many visitors, if any.
"Hi," I said to a very attractive brunette frantically typing away at a keyboard. I kind of felt intimidated.

"Oh, hello," she said. "Roland told us that you'd be coming by. You must be his new
girl
."

"What do you mean?" I said. The way she had said
girl
really rubbed me the wrong way. Was I just another conquest or something for him?

"The new office manager," she said, still acting like she was hiding something. "He said there would be someone new. We don't ask a lot of questions."

"Oh, okay," I said. "What do I do now?"

"You've got to wait for Frederic or Roland to stop by," I guess. "That's your office over there." She pointed down the hall to the big suite that was surrounded by windows and closed blinds. "I'm Andrea, by the way."

"Marisa," I said. We shook hands mechanically, fulfilling the obligations of etiquette.

I walked by a number of people as I went, employees that seemed fully absorbed in their tasks. Printers printed and phones rang, sounds typical of an office. I stepped inside to my
new home
and
the first thing I noticed was the
clean slate
. My desk was empty aside from a fancy laptop, my shelves bare and undecorated. I was going to make this place a little more inviting if I stuck with this.

My desk chair was very comfortable, a high-back leather one that probably cost a fortune. In fact, it was one of most comfortable chairs
I had
ever sat on in my life. I sat there for a while, just thinking, waiting for somebody to show up and tell me what the hell I was supposed to do. There were no missed calls or texts on my cell phone. Had Roland forgotten my first day already?

About
fifteen
minutes after I arrived, I heard a knock on my door. I quickly turned, realizing that I couldn't even pretend that I was working because there was nothing to do. My light was still off too. It was Frederic.

"Ahh, Marisa," he said, his accent so sweet and smooth. He approached me and leaned down to kiss my hand.

"Hi, Frederic," I said. "Where is Roland?"

"He's a little unreliable sometimes, I hate to say," Frederic said. He frowned.

I felt a slight tinge of sadness.
Had he really just forgotten about my first day?
"He didn't forget, did he?"

"No, no. But other
obligations
required his attention."

"Oh, okay," I said. "What am I supposed to do here?"

"Marisa, have you ever been a manager?"
He eyed my collar. "Roland
will be happy that you're
wear
ing
—"

"No," I confessed,
abruptly answering his question and preventing him from saying
anything further about my excessively lavish piece of jewelry. It was entirely
unlike me to wear such a thing, especially in a public place.

"It doesn't matter. When you're here, you just need to verify that everything is done at the end of the day. Check the shipping manifests and make sure all of the numbers are correct, okay?"

I didn't know what he meant at that point, but still I
nodded
yes
. "Okay."

"I'll show you around the office then."

Frederic introduced me to everyone there. The gender line was drawn seemingly right down the middle. There were maybe
ten
pe
op
le total, five men and five women, six
when I was in the bu
ilding. I guess it was even again when
Frederic was there.

He showed me where everything was, giving me a list of responsibilities to complete each day. ”As long as all of this gets done," he said, "business goes on as usual. We ship all around the world, Marisa—and you'll help to make sure that happens every day."

Once again, I was intimidated. Still, I did my best to stay confident and composed. "Al
l
right, Frederic," I said. "Will you check up on me during my first days here?"

"Of course, my dear," he said. "I wouldn't leave you totally alone with this sort of responsibility until you were ready."

"Who worked here before me?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. "Has Roland brought girls here before or something?"

Frederic looked like I had caught him off guard, his fingers fiddling with his
perfectly
styled light brown hair. "The last manager was a man, but there have been women before."

"Why did the last guy leave then?" I asked.

"I can't tell you much, but he just didn't see eye-to-eye with Roland. That happens sometimes. It was dealt with accordingly."

God, as suave as Frederic was, he was kind of like Roland as well. He was methodical, carrying out conversations like he had spent all ni
ght impeccably planning them
. Maybe that's why he was so close to Roland.
Dealt with accordingly,
huh? That sounded pretty serious to me.

"Oh," I said, shrugging my shoulders. Once again, I wasn't going to assume.
Roland had captured my trust, so why would I think that firing an employee was a big deal?
He was
a businessperson
, someone that dealt in billions
,
when the most I ever knew prior to meeting him was tens of thousands.

They were apparently shipping barrels of chemicals, some of them to automotive plants and others to farms and food production centers.
I was just verifying that the number of barrels was the same and whatnot, and initialing a sheet.
I would check pallets once a week,
spot-checking
to ensure that the number of barrels on the manifest list matched the physical number.

Honestly, the whole thing seemed
somewhat
remedial, really.
Someone—well, the
owner
had—decreed my superiority over everyone else in the office, even though they knew what was going on
ten
times more than I did.
Responsibility and accountability still seemed appealing after my several months of relaxing.
We would
just have to see what happened.

I'll confess, I really liked Frederic, maybe to the point of having a little crush on him. He treated me really well just as Roland did
. I appreciated that he stuck with me that whole first day, ensuring that I understood each step of the process.

"You're just the manager though," he said. "You're verifying that everything actually got done. It still gets done even if you don't do your job. But without your job, we might have bigger problems later."