The Squiggly Career

My boss, Grant Conner, tells me that since the company has doubled its sales performance this year, he'll make sure to reward me nicely. I'm filled with anticipation, thinking that perhaps it's time he's giving me a raise. When everyone's having dinner at the year-end party, they are all discussing how much they'll get for the year-end bonus. "Allow me to toast to you, Shania!" Clare Randall, an intern who has joined the company for a month, shakily stands up to her feet while holding a full glass of red wine. Her cheeks were flushed. She was clearly drunk. "I feel so lucky, Shania! I'm just a fresh grad who doesn't know anything at all, and yet my boss has given me a six-thousand-dollar base salary! On top of that, I even get to learn from a wonderful mentor like you…" My hand trembles violently at Clare's words, almost resulting in me spilling juice all over the table. I've been working at this company for five years, and yet I've never received a raise before. But Clare's salary is twice my salary even though she's just joined!

Roxanne Rowan is a spiritual news editor. After an accident in the year twenty-two, Roxanne Rowan was able to see ghosts. She goes around trying to find a way to solve this ability. Her fear of ghosts makes her taciturn and closed off. During an encounter with evil spirits, Roxanne met Egan Griffith, the demon employee of hell. He has the task of catching the demons that are causing trouble in the living world to bring them to hell and punish them. According to the orders of the spirit world, if Roxanne wants to break the ability to see ghosts in her eyes, she must cooperate with Egan to catch the devil spirits. The contract is signed and many bad jokes happen. Roxanne's fate and secret are also revealed. She also realizes that demons come in two forms: disrupting people in the living world and trying to earn money in order to survive like a normal person. Every night, Roxanne has to lie in bed waiting for Egan to finish processing the documents for the company. She doesn’t think from an unequal partnership to rolling in bed so close together.

My contract with the company is about to come to an end, and I'm already planning to renew it. But a few days before that, my boss, Dustin Kline, requested that I lower the percentage of my bonus in the project. The reason he gave is that I'm still young. Even if I were to take over other projects, I'd also do a good job. Dustin even made empty promises to me just so he could get me to give the projects I'm in charge of to Sandy Richmond, the new department manager in the company. When I refused to do so, he threatened to not give me my salary in order to get me to comply. The next day, the company is reduced to a laughing stock at the product launch event. Our client thinks the company's technological skills are too weak to back up the big talk, so they refuse to pay the remainder of the contracted sum. When Dustin begs me for help, I just look at him in amusement. "I refuse to get manipulated by anyone in this workplace. You're more than capable of dealing with your own problems. I believe in you, Mr. Kline."

The intern secretly submitted a voluntary pay-cut application on my behalf. As a result, my salary dropped from $10,000 to $2,000. When I found out and confronted him, my boss and colleagues all defended him. "The company is not doing great right now. Oscar was just trying to save costs for us. Do you have to nickel-and-dime over this?" With my salary so low, I couldn't afford the special medication for my chronic migraines, and one day I passed out at my desk during an attack. But the intern snuck a video of me unconscious and posted it on the company's website. He even whipped up a detailed 100-page slideshow breaking down how I was slacking off on the clock and dumping all my work on him. Overnight, I was labeled a workplace bully. My boss gave me the cold shoulder, and my colleagues whispered about me. Even worse, some extreme "anti-workplace-bullying" activists tracked me down to my home, showed up with two cans of gasoline, and burned me and my parents alive. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that very day when the intern had submitted my pay-cut form. In this second chance at life, I would make sure everyone saw the intern for who he truly was.

I lifted my gaze to meet his unwavering one; his eyes were enigmatic, just like his dominant posture. He had an enviable and captivating physique, with well-defined muscles that accentuated the perfect cut of his suit. His greenish eyes, tan skin, and slightly curly hair, styled professionally, completed his look. He was truly a stunning man. “Finished admiring me, miss?” With a teasing tone, a charming smile appeared on his lips. The CEO was undoubtedly tempting. “Sir...” I cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure and searching for words to escape that uncomfortable situation. “The content is not appropriate to be read aloud; please understand!” “That, I will decide!” He leaned back in his executive chair, watching me calmly as he savored a sip of his favorite whiskey. “I'm waiting.” “I apologize, sir, but I can't do it. You can fire me!” I turned away, ready to leave the office hastily, when his strong hands gripped my wrist, about to pull the door handle. He carefully watched my reaction and then smiled. “Apprentice…” The CEO approached me seductively, causing me to step back a few paces until I was cornered against the wall. He surrounded me with his arms and brought his lips close to my ear, whispering, “There is so much potential in you; I will mold you!” Biting lightly on the tip of my ear, I felt a shiver run through my body. With the tips of his fingers, he traced the outline of my face with his nails before pressing his lips with his thumb, gently parting them. Moving even closer, he pressed his body against mine, making my heart race and my breathing erratic.

Savannah Tresscot is loud, sarcastic and not afraid to voice what she thinks about anyone. Not to mention that she can beat any sailor at a cussing competition. Plain on the outside but some serious secrets to hide, she’s totally not PA material. Yet, she gets miraculously hired by Synclair Group of Companies by a stroke of luck. Nathan Synclair is cold, collected and a hardcore businessman. Hot as on the outside but a complete mess in terms of organizing his life, he is the top industrialist in the country...in desperate need of a PA. His only option is the one who does not throw herself at him during the interview. And what better than a person he already knows, the creepy-nerd-turned-hot-graduate from his high school that he hadn't seen in years. So what happens when two completely opposite personalities meet and face their match? Will they be as aloof as they were back in school or will love give them a second chance? And can Savannah trust him with her deepest, darkest secrets, even though they might cost her everything she has worked so hard to achieve?