Rosa and Lilian

"Who is she?" Lilian asked as she looked in the direction that Rosa had went.

"She is Alessandro's childhood best friend. She has always been narcissistic. You have to be careful with her, she is obsessed with him." Constanza warned.

"Obsessed?" Lilian asked.

"Yes obsessed, all the females in Alessandro's life including his past secretaries have all being victims of her." Constanza replied.

"I will be careful." Lilian assured her. Inwardly she smiled to herself, She was the queen of plotting, if this Rosa girl wanted to plot against her, she would have to teach her a lesson.

They finished lunch and Lilian and Constanza went back to her office while Vera went back to her salon.

They got to her office and Lilian changed into one of the outfits they had bought and did some light makeup.

"There you look so beautiful." Constanza gushed over her.

"Thanks for all your help." Lilian said.

"You are welcome, let's get together for lunch some time, okay?"

"Okay, I look forward to that."

Lilian bade her goodbye and left the office. She headed to the car where Giovanni did a double take when he saw her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You look very beautiful, miss Howard."

"Thanks Giovanni and I would appreciate it if you called me by my name"

"Okay, you look beautiful Lilian"

"Thanks, shall we head back to the office now?"

"Of course"

Giovanni opened the car and she entered inside.

The car drove off, soon they were at the office.

"I will see you later Lilian." Giovanni told her.

"Okay."

Lilian took a deep breath and walked into the building. Everyone was immediately attracted to her, she looked very beautiful and confident. They failed to realize that this stunning woman was the cleaner who had cleaned their floors for a month.

She went to the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. As the elevator door was about to close, someone suddenly held it.

Rosa stepped into the elevator. She looked surprised to see Lilian.

She stepped in and the elevator door closed behind her.

"You are Lilian right? I just saw you at the mall right?" she asked.

"Yes, we met earlier" Lilian replied.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked

"I work here." Lilian answered.

"You work here?" Rosa echoed.

"Yes, I am Mr Romano's secretary."

"You are Alessandro's secretary?" she asked.

"Yes I am."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier, he is my best friend." Rosa further questioned.

"I didn't think it was that important."

"Why would you........." the opening of the elevator doors as they got to their destination put an end to any other questions Rosa would have asked.

Lilian immediately bolted out to prevent any further questions from Rosa.

She walked to the office briskly and Rosa was behind her.

She knocked on the door lightly and the door swung open. She entered inside and Rosa followed her.

Alessandro looked up from the documents in front of him.

"Hello Lilian, you look nice." he complimented her.

"Thanks Sir."

"Alessandro, didn't you see me?" Rosa said with a whine and a pout that looked too cringey to Lilian.

"Hello Rosa, I was just about to say Hi" Alessandro said patiently.

"But you should have said hi to me first." Rosa insisted.

"Alright, I am sorry." he apologized.

Lilian vaguely wondered if she had ever been that cringey. No wonder, people hated her, she thought to herself.

Rosa passed her to sit down on the chair.

"I didn't know you had a new secretary." she told Alessandro.

"Well Lilian here has proved herself and I decided to employ her."

"Or is it because she is a werewolf?" Rosa asked.

"Werewolf or not, I would have still employed her. And you know better than to use the word 'werewolf' carelessly." he scolded Rosa.

"I am sorry."

Alessandro looked at Lilian who was standing by quietly.

"Your desk is outside Lilian, you can go sit down, I will send for you later to explain your responsibilities." he told her.

"Yes sir." Lilian replied.

"Lilian, can you get me some juice." Rosa said to Lilian before she left.

"Okay," Lilian replied and was about to leave.

"Won't you ask me what kind of juice I need?" Rosa asked.

Lilian swallowed her annoyance.

"What kind of juice do you want?" Lilian asked.

"Grape juice would be okay." Rosa replied smugly.

"Okay." Lilian turned to leave.

"Won't you ask me what temperature I want the drink?" Rosa asked, stalling her again.

"What temperature do you want it?" she asked.

"Cold but not chilled, understood?" Rosa asked.

"That's enough Rosa." Alessandro said, a note of warning in his voice.

"What did I do wrong? I just wanted her to be sure of my drink" she asked in a coquettish voice.

Alessandro ignored her and looked at Lilian.

"Just get her a glass of juice" he told her.

"Yes sir." Lilian replied and left.

After Lilian left, Alessandro continued doing his work, ignoring Rosa who was seated in front of him.

"Alessandro you are ignoring me." she whined.

"I am not ignoring you Rosa, I am working, you understand that I need to work right?"

"I know but I am here now and you aren't paying attention to me, I won't even take much of your time."

"Fine, how may I help you?" Alessandro said and closed the file in front of him to focus on her.

"How was your day?" she asked him.

"Fine, how was yours?"

"Okay better now that I have seen you."

"So how is the project going?" he asked her.

"Fine, we are currently in the finishing stages."

"You know that I am proud of you right?" he told her.

"And I am the one who should be thankful to you for conceding that contract to me." Rosa said.

There was a huge contract which Rosa's father's company and Alessandro's company had been competing for. Alessandro had gladly given the contract to Rosa because of their friendship and she was deeply grateful for it.