Chapter 1

"My breath hitched in my throat as he turned around to face me. It was none other than my ex-boyfriend, with a smirk plastered onto his face. My breathing increased as I saw him after so long. Yes, I still had a space for him deep down. In all that time, I couldn't forget him. I was tremendously happy, and my heart had a past guilt in it. I missed him. There wasn't a single day that I didn't think of him. Every night before sleeping, I always remembered when we were together, and everything was going well until I left.

"You're late," he said.

I stared at him, not wanting to look anywhere else.

"I... Landon... I'm sorry about what..."

He raised his hand to stop me. "Of course, you are, but as I said, you're late. Also, it's ill-mannered to call your boss by his first name in this country, so I hope you'll be careful next time." He stood up and walked behind his chair.

"I will take care, sir." I was relieved to see how he didn't want to talk about our past.

"You're one of those employees who were sent here for further training, so I am going to make sure that you are trained well enough and learn a lot before you leave," he smirked.

"If it's about..."

He took several long strides and stood right in front of me, cupping my chin with so much force that I thought it would leave marks.

"Are you that desperate to talk it out?" He looked intensely into my eyes. "Do you even remember me? Do you really remember what we had?" He squeezed my ass with his free hand as he said that.

"I said I'm sorry."

"No, you aren't." He abruptly let go of me, almost pushing me away, "but I'll make sure you are." He went back to his chair and sat down, rolling a pen between his fingers and staring at me while I tried to fight back my tears.

"So, is there anything you want me to do or...?"

"The first thing you need to do is dress like the whore that you are."

I couldn't believe my ears. Mom called me a whore all the time; I thought I'd be used to it. But hearing that word from his lips felt like a whiplash.

"I already hate your existence as it is, and these clothes that you're wearing make it even more loathsome. So I will personally see to it that you're dressed the way I want. You can wear an overcoat when you're not in front of me. The second thing is that you need to do everything I say. Third, never be late. If you fail to obey anything I say, I'll fire you right away, and you won't get a recommendation letter from here, meaning your five years of service will go down the drain, and you won't be able to find another job. Got it?"

I nodded.

"Answer me, damn it!"

"Yes, sir," I almost choked on my tears.

"How pathetic. Get out of my sight now," he shouted and turned his back towards me. I dragged myself out of his office, unable to believe that this was the guy I used to love.

Back in my small office, I almost collapsed into my chair. My heart ached as if someone had stabbed it. Yes, I deserved all that he was saying to me, all that he had done and was going to do to me, but it still hurt. I wished I had never met him in the first place because all I had gotten out of knowing him was pain. I wanted to resign, but those loans weren't going to pay themselves, so I had to do exactly as he wanted. I couldn't let my mom work herself to death paying those loans.

The phone on my table started ringing, and I picked it up.

"Get me a coffee in five minutes," he said and hung up.

I ran out of the office, frantically searching for the coffee machine. When I asked the receptionist, she told me that the boss usually got his coffee from a nearby café. I rushed over there and asked for a popular type of coffee to go. I had never bothered to ask the boss what he preferred. I took the cups and hurried back to his office, trying not to spill them. When I arrived, I knocked and entered, placing both cups on his desk.

"Macchiato," he sipped one and tossed it in the nearby dustbin. "Cappuccino," the second cup followed. "You didn't tell me..."

"You never bothered to ask. I always take an Americano," he replied.

"I will get you an Americano," I nodded and left. I ran to get the correct coffee, but the elevator was occupied, so I had to use the stairs. I caught my breath outside his office, knocked, and placed the coffee carefully on his table. He was staring at his laptop screen, ignoring my existence. Finally, he reached for the cup and took a sip.

"Cold," he said, and that cup went into the bin too. "You're useless," he shook his head.

"I will get you another one," I said.

"No need. Just leave," he replied.

As I was about to leave, he called me back. I gulped and turned around.

"Here, take these," he pulled out a few cash bills from his wallet and waved them towards me. "For the coffee."

"I stood there, gaping at him. How much more was this guy going to insult me?

"It's... it's okay," I said.

"You do whatever I tell you to do, or I'll fire you, remember?"

I closed my eyes, thinking about how I only had six months left on this job. As I reached for the bills, his hand intentionally brushed against mine. Why was this man still capable of making me melt at his mere touch?

"Thank you," I said through gritted teeth and left.

I wasn't hoping for any special treatment from him after whatever I had caused him, but there was still a little hope that one day he would forgive me.

As soon as I got to my apartment, I changed into my sweatpants and threw myself onto the bed. What a hell of a day it had been. I was used to working hard, but it was mostly physical. He had worked me out emotionally too, and I was so tired I couldn't even cry. I just tried to sleep, but even that was too much to ask. Someone started banging on my door.

"Who is it? Alright, I'm coming! Coming!" I hurriedly went to open the door.

Two women entered, put down their stuff, and out of nowhere started taking my measurements. They talked really fast to each other, and I couldn't understand one word, let alone how harassed I felt.

"Hey, do you mind telling me what's going on here?" I asked, swatting away the hands that were roaming all over me.

They didn't seem to care, not about what I was saying and definitely not about how I felt. After they were done, they left abruptly, only to revisit me after two hours. I was never going to have an hour of peace here, let alone a day.

As I opened the door again, two men entered holding huge boxes. The women followed.

"Where is the wardrobe?" one of them asked. I showed them. The men opened the boxes, and only then did I notice that they were full of dresses.

"These are your office dresses, okay? All the dresses and details of how to carry them are in this catalogue," one of the women said, handing me a thick book. Then they arranged all of the dresses, shoes, and bags neatly in my wardrobe and left without a word.

So, this was his doing. He had sent me those dresses. And I was supposed to wear them. I opened the catalogue, and the first dress made me swallow hard. This must be a joke.

It was the most revealing dress I had ever seen. How was this an office dress?

The next one turned out to be even more revealing, and I said out loud, "Oh, hell no!"

Next.

"How can he even think I would wear something like that?"

No matter how much I looked, there was no dress I wanted to wear. All of them were really pretty but really uncomfortable for me*.

I snapped shut the catalogue and threw it away. I would wear whatever I could grab the next day. It was my last thought before drifting off to sleep,