Five.

"The board wants to have a meeting about the department directors." I looked up from my game of computer chess to gaze at Richmond. He was looking down at a file, his body reclined back in his seat and his ankle crossed on his right leg. "Elias. He says most of them are screwing the secretaries, and we need to fix it."

I scrunched my nose. "Did he actually say that?"

"He implied it." He sighed, setting the file down and looking at me. His piercing blue eyes stoic as usual. "Thing is, if he brings up the matter with board, I'll be seen as incompetent, seeing as I'm the one who hired the bastards."

"What do you want to do?"

"I need to get rid of the worst ones, before the meeting, so that I don't get fired." I frowned.

"Mr. Bradley and Mr. Brandon wouldn't let that happen." I assumed so, since they seemed awfully fond of Richmond.

His brow rose. "They have no power against it, kid. If they get out voted, I go. No argument about it." He ran a hand through his shiny hair.

"So, what do you want me to do? Assuming, that's why you're telling me all this." I sat up straighter. I'd had nothing to do all morning, besides my usual coffee run and scheduling his meetings, my morning wasn't productive and I was itching to get something done.

He reached into his desk drawer, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes– he went through more cigarettes in a day than he went through his files. He got out his lighter and cupped the cigarette to his mouth. I didn't bother to remind him of the fact that the building had a no smoking rule. He wouldn't care.

He blew out a puff of smoke. "Just schedule a meeting with Delano."

"From marketing?" He nodded. "Why?"

"His latest project was terrible. That's what you'll tell him."

"So you want to chew at him—"

" —I want to fire him. The faster I can get rid of him the better." In the short time I've worked here, I've come to understand just how much Richmond loved his job, and just how good at it he was. He was a valuable asset to this company and the Crawford twins knew that. Yet there were still members of the board that didn't like him being there, I didn't understand why though, he got all his work done on time. He was harsh to the employees, but that was just because he wanted everyone to put in as much work into the company as he did. As long as people did their work, he didn't have a problem.

I nodded, picking up my ipad and walking to the door. Before I could pull it closed, I looked up at him, he was watching me. "It's almost lunch, do you want me to order something for you or…?" I trailed off, he's never accepted my invitation for lunch and I'd long since stopped asking. I don't know what made me ask this time.

His gaze fluttered around the room. "I'll join you and miss Murray." He cleared his throat. "If that's okay." He added awkwardly. I bit back my smile.

"Of course it is. It's good to get fresh air." I said, more for his sake. "We're thinking about Thai today. Is that okay?" He blew out a puff of smoke and nodded. I grinned and left the room.

I walked the now familiar route to the marketing department. Most people being polite enough to say hello and others avoiding me or completely ignoring me. Richmond had a bit of a reputation for being, well, to put it bluntly, a dick. But like I said before, he only did that because he expects people to do their best at the company. If someone does a good job, Richmond has no problem acknowledging it. The same goes the other way around, if someone does a bad job, Richmond has no problem pointing out exactly what he thinks is wrong. Me being Richmond's assistant apparently was as good as me being blacklisted.

Somehow, I didn't mind that so much, most people were civil and others just ignored me. There was no harm being done anyway.

I knocked on Delano's door. The door opened and Delano's eyes widened when he saw me. He fumbled with his tie and tucked in his wrinkled shirt. I raised a brow, confused. Then a voice came from inside his office, followed by Tracy, our downstairs secretary, walking up behind him.

Delano hated anything that had to do with Richmond. I frowned. Really, how many people in this building hated the guy?

Tracy went pale when she saw me, her smudged lipstick painting her cheeks pink. "M–Mr. Elliot! What are you doing here?" Delano asked, tearing my attention away from Tracy.

I smiled at him, as nicely as I could. Delano was a pudgy guy, with a receding hairline that honestly had seen better years. He was my height, maybe a few inches taller, but Tracy towered over him in her heels.

"Richmond has scheduled a meeting with you today at four thirty." I told him. He frowned, his mouth tightening.

"I've got other obligations, Elliot. Tell him I can't make it—"

" —Mr. Richmond isn't an obligation he's your employer." I cut him off, his hands curled into fists and Tracy slipped past him and down the hall. I sighed. "It's compulsory, Mr. Delano, you have to be there whether you like it or not."

He scoffed. "He has it out for me. He wants me gone, we all know that. Selfish bastard." He sneered. "Tell him I'm not to go, I've other meetings to attend with my team. He needs to reschedule."

I clicked my tongue. "Okay." I turned to leave but Delano reached out and clutched my arm, stopping me from moving any further.

"Wait, wait! Where are you going?"

I looked at him blandly. "I'm going to tell him what you just told me, Mr. Delano. I'll tell him to reschedule." His jaw tightened.

"I was just ranting."

"Ranting?" He nodded.

"I'll be there." He said. "But, you've got to know what this meeting is about. What does he want from me?"

I shrugged. It wasn't in my best interest to say. "I don't know, sir. My only instruction was to tell you about the meeting." He frowned. "If that's all, I need to go." I looked pointedly at the hand he had on my forearm. He let go, and I smiled, before taking my leave.

I took the private elevator to my floor and walked to the office. Richmond was standing in front of the floor to ceiling windows. He barely twitched when he heard me come in.

"Is it done?" He asked, not tearing his gaze away from the window.

I nodded, setting my ipad on my desk. "Yes, he'll be here at four this afternoon." I looked at my watch. "It's almost twelve thirty. We have to get going before the lunch rush." I told him, he nodded, putting out his cigarette in the ashtray on the small desk by the window. He put his hands in his pockets and stared expectantly at me.

I checked for my wallet and phone and walked out of the office, Richmond following behind me. We met Jessica in the lobby, by the doors. She raised a brow when she saw Richmond but thankfully didn't comment.

The restaurant was two blocks away, so we'd just decided to walk. If Richmond had a problem with it, he didn't mention it. He didn't say anything until we were seated in the cramped booth of the small restaurant with our menus.

"How do you know about this place?" He asked, looking around, he was seated across from us. The restaurant was a small shoe in a box type of place. It took someone telling you about it for you to know it, but it had the best Thai food I'd ever tasted.

"I used to come here for lunch a lot. It was closest to campus." I said, he nodded, and picked up his menu.

"I sometimes forget that you just graduated." He murmured, his eyes on his menu. Jessica nodded in agreement, nibbling on a breadstick.

I shrugged, grabbing a breadstick. "I went into school a little later than I should've."

Richmond set his menu down. "Why?"

"Didn't have the money." I said, taking a bite of the bread stick. "I'd been saving up a lot, but I didn't have a lot of money to rent out an apartment or pay for boarding fees on top of the tuition fees."

He leaned back in his seat, staring at me. I shifted in my seat, not used to having his attention on me for so long. "How did you go through school then?"

I cleared my throat, ignoring how uncomfortable I was under his scrutiny. "I worked for two years. Still didn't make enough, I was lucky when a friend of mine told me about some program that would help with the tuition fees. I wrote to them, and they gave me a test. I passed, and here we are." I sipped my water. "It was all just good luck."

Richmond narrowed his eyes, the he shook his head. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a silver flask. He took a sip of it. Jessica and I shared a look.

" Are you drunk, half the time you're at work?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. Richmond scowled.

"Of course not." He raised his flask. "This just takes the edge off."

Jessica opened her mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it, she shrugged instead. "I don't think I want to know." She said.

Richmond snorted. "You don't." He took another large gulp of whatever was in the flask just as the waiter approached our table.

He greeted us with a smile, and asked for our orders, Jessica went first. "Just the spicy shrimp soup and more water, thanks." She said, handing him her menu.

"I'll have the spicy chili and basil fried rice and a water, thank you." I said, handing him my menu. He wrote it down and looked expectantly at Richmond.

"I'll have what he's having thanks." He gestured to me. "Only, can I get a glass of wine?"

The waiter frowned. "I'm sorry, we don't have wine."

Richmond sighed. "A beer then." He muttered.

The waiter nodded. "okay sir, what type? We have–"

" —the strongest one you have." He cut off. The waiter blinked, his cheeks tainting pink.

"Uh, okay sir. Coming right up." He said, scribbling something down before scurrying off.

I turned to Richmond. "You could've been nicer." I told him. He shrugged, reaching into his pocket to pull out his pack of cigarettes. Before he could pull one out, I snatched it from him. "There's a no smoking rule."

He sighed, running a hand over his face. "If I knew eating lunch with you, would be like this, I wouldn't eaten on the side walk." He drawled, giving me a bored look.

I shook my head. "It's house rules." I pointed at a sign behind him, that clearly spelled out the no smoking rule.

He didn't waver, only rolled his eyes."Rules are merely a suggestion." He retorted and Jessica snorted.

I glared at her. "Don't encourage him." I snapped. She rolled her eyes, nibbling on another breadstick. I turned to look at Richmond. "Ignoring the rules will have us kicked out."

Richmond leaned on his elbows, and licked his front teeth. "Give me my cigarettes, Sam." He demanded. I gulped, he never used my name. Ever. He had a bored look on his face, like he couldn't care less, but just the use of my name and the way he said it, made me cringe.

"No smoking." I threatened weakly. He shrugged.

"I'm not a child." I placed the pack of cigarettes gingerly in his hand, afraid he might snatch my wrist of something. He took the cigarette pack and thankfully pit them back in his pocket, along with the silver flask. I smiled triamphantly.

Jessica eyes both of us. "Huh."