Never Fall in Love With Him(3)

5

The next morning, I was still sound asleep when I felt something step on my butt.

I bet the cat was hungry again. I tried to shoo him away by flapping my hand in his general direction, saying, "Get off me, Bonaventure!"

However, Bonaventure stayed put, and this time, he even gave me a disgruntled kick.

Honestly, this cat would be the death of me someday. I sat up in frustration, ready to hash things out with the impatient feline.

That was when I saw Benjamin staring at me sullenly, and as for the kick I felt earlier, it came from none other than him.

I completely forgot that I slept in his living room last night!

But it was his fault for having such a comfortable rug spread out in his living room. It was even softer than my bed!

Presently, I scrambled to get up and quickly flashed Benjamin my signature flirtatious smile. "Mr. Jarrett!"

He curled his lips to form a half-smile as he gave me his signature unreadable expression. "Bonaventure, huh?"

Beads of cold sweat ran down my back.

Unbeknownst to most people, Benjamin actually had a rather tacky nickname, which was "Bonaventure."

In fact, when I first heard Benjamin's mother call him "Bonaventure," my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

Not long after, I picked up a tuxedo cat that was, for lack of a better description, as energetic as he was neurotic and made him my pet.

Earlier on the same day, Benjamin had given me an earful for messing up my PowerPoint presentation.

Out of pure vengeance, I named the stray cat Bonaventure.

That way, I could boss the cat around the house.

"Bonaventure! Come lick my feet!"

"Bonaventure, come drink the water I washed my feet in!"

How satisfying! How empowering! I felt superior!

I never would have thought that one day, this secret would be discovered by Benjamin.

Worst of all, I was the one who exposed it!

Cringing, I tried to save myself by lying, "I was talking in my sleep..."

He cut me off insouciantly, "So, you were asking me to get off you in your dream?"

His response left me tongue-tied, and my desperation led me to resort to flattery. "Here's the thing... In order to learn to serve you better, I went out of my way to adopt a cat and named him after you. I see the cat as my master of sorts, so that when I get home from work, I'll still remember that I am always at your service."

As my mind worked to come up with more excuses, Benjamin suddenly leaned forward and closed the distance between us. He was a good head taller than me, and this was the first time that I was looking at him from up close (last night's passionate kiss aside) while I was sober.

He had long eyelashes, and there was something about his eyes that reminded me of the deep sea. Suddenly, I found myself at a loss for words.

Just as I was asking myself if forcing a kiss on a man was tantamount to assault, I heard him say at last, "Juliette, you're really ugly when you lie, you know that?"

He did not give me any chance to respond before adding, "If you intend to continue working for me, you'd better be sincere.

As long as you do well at your job, I couldn't care less if you hate me, because frankly, I don't like you all that much, either.

Also, clean this place up before you leave."

With that, he straightened up and brushed past me toward his unreasonably large bathroom.

I... I was so angry; I could combust on the spot!

Did he seriously say he didn't like me all that much?

How could he not like me?

I was Juliette, his most loyal and trustworthy subordinate, the stuff of legends! One could not spell "Benjamin's best confidante" without my name!

If someone were to catch wind of Benjamin's dislike toward me, no matter the extent of it, then I could never show my face on the streets again!

Unfortunately, the harsh truth remained that my boss did not like me all that much. What was I supposed to do about that?

All I could do was follow his orders and clean up the rug that I slept on last night. I did not let even a speck of dust escape my wrath as I vacuumed the rug back and forth.

I even cleaned up his bedroom in the process.

When Benjamin emerged from his massive bathroom, his room was as spotless as a military dorm.

The windows were sparkling clean, the room was spotless, and even the bedsheets looked brand new without a single wrinkle in sight. Even the blanket had been folded up into a square with sharp corners.

I was fine with Benjamin not liking me.

After all, my sole ambition was to make myself indispensable to him!

Benjamin glanced around expressionlessly, and his furrowed brows smoothed out to indicate that he was pleased with my work. Then, he eyed me icily and asked, "Why are you still here?"

Proceeding with caution, I reminded him, "Mr. Jarrett, do you think I can take the rest of the day off? I stayed up all night taking care of you, and I'm exhausted."

"Of course," he agreed with a curt nod. "I'll just dock your wages and treat this as a medical leave."

I... Screw you, Benjamin, you tyrant!

6

I ended up not taking the day off. Benjamin seemed to have a personal vendetta against me today, because he would not stop bossing me around.

For starters, he claimed that my conference materials lacked details and sufficient supporting data. As a result, I amended the materials and added in as much data as I could, only for him to criticize my work for being unconcise.

I was starting to think Benjamin did not do well at school, because he clearly had no idea that nothing could be extremely detailed and concise at the same time.

Could he make a report that was both detailed and concise at the same time?

By the end of the ordeal, I had amended the conference materials a good few dozen times before he finally nodded and pointed at the first set of materials I had submitted. "That one will do. It's not perfect, but it's doable."

What a bastard!

It was nearly 12.00 a.m. when I finally dragged my tired body and roughed-up spirit back home that night.

Bonaventure was so happy to see me home that he started caterwauling and zooming around the house maniacally, like he was making a point to tell me how I had basically neglected him for a whole day and night.

Despair filled me as I stared at the neurotic feline.

If one did not know better, one would think I was actually a slave to Bonaventure.

In retrospect, I should have gotten a dog instead.

I had refilled his food bowl, cleaned out his litter tray, and combed his fur, and it was only then that Bonaventure sat down in front of me and started happily grooming himself.

I stretched out my feet and said tiredly, "Why don't you cheer me up by licking my feet, Bonaventure?"

Bonaventure ignored me and proceeded to lick his own paws instead.

I refused to take no for an answer and pushed my toes up to the cat's snout, then said, "Come on, Bonaventure. Just a tiny lick will do."

He sniffed my toes this time, but just as I was getting my hopes up, the ungrateful cat gagged in disgust.

As it turned out, Bonaventure did not like me that much, either.

I kind of missed the moment when I picked him up from the streets and adopted him.

He used to cling to my feet and lick my toes like he was worshiping me.

How gentle and loving he had been back in those days.

But now, probably because I suffered severe exploitation from Benjamin, it had been a long time since I treated Bonaventure with the same love and affection as I had previously.

This probably explained why he was so aloof with me.

With that in mind, I reached out to pull Bonaventure into my arms. I realized that I could no longer wait around like this.

If I was complacent with my life as a corporate slave now, I would never be able to retire and live in a mansion with Bonaventure!

I had to make my move and become Benjamin's woman!

Determined to see this plan through to the end, I stayed up all night to strategize.

If Benjamin were to make me his girlfriend in name only, what could I do to help him win over Closetta, his first crush?

The first thing I pointed out was that Benjamin's current philandering ways would only drive Closetta further away from him. She might even start to question his character and think of him as a scumbag.

After that, I drew a simple conclusion from the extensive analysis I did on Closetta, which was that: "A young woman born with a silver spoon in her mouth would struggle with a common and obvious human weakness—the need to win at all costs."

Finally, I wrapped things up with the ultimate strategy: "Projecting myself, a plain and ordinary girl, as Benjamin's 'true love' in order to get Closetta's attention, then have Benjamin treat me far better than he's ever treated her in order to fuel her need to beat me at all costs. That way, she would go back to Benjamin and think she's won."

When that happened, I would essentially be "displaced" by Closetta, and she and Benjamin would finally have the true love they wanted.

To this end, Benjamin only had to pay me 1.5 million dollars.

The money meant nothing to him; it was the same amount he would have to pay to sleep with ten fake girlfriends, anyway.

If he paid me the same amount, I could help him win Closetta, his true love, over.

In other words, the deal I was prepared to offer him was value-for-money!

Then again, if I had to be honest with myself, I did not particularly want to see Benjamin happy.

It was not as if he deserved happiness.

However, I could ignore my dark and jealous side for the sake of money.

Having drafted out the strategy, I closed my laptop and went to sleep with Bonaventure in my arms.

At the end of it all, Benjamin would get his true love back, and I would get rich. It was a win-win situation.

The next day, I went against my belief of saving the trump card for last and handed my strategy to Benjamin.

I had already considered the possibility of failure.

But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I tried to give myself a pep talk.

If this strategy failed, I could always go someplace else and resume my life as a corporate slave. However, if the plan worked out, then my and Bonaventure's life would change for the better.

We would finally break free of the shackles that bound us to a proletariat life and gain a whole new world.