The CEO's Assistant

She wasn't sure where she was going or how to get there, she was just driving. Tears streaming down her face. 'Is this what it means to be part of high society? You get everything you want, except the one you want.'

Before she knew it, her car was stopped outside Charlotte's, the bar she'd had her birthday. She hadn't been back since then, scared of running into Julian. But now she was numb, she'd cried so much she couldn't feel anything. Walking into the bar, it was pretty busy considering it was weeknight.

"There really is no rest for the wicked." She laughed to herself, as she took her usual seat at the end of the bar.

"Usual?" The familiar voice of the bartender asked.

"Make it a double." Arianna didn't even look up to meet the woman's eyes.

"Jeez first you don't show up for weeks and suddenly you're back drinking doubles, who broke your heart?" She laughed as she poured the cola into the glass. Shocked Arianna looked up to see her blue-eyed bartender smiling down at her.

"How'd you know?" Arianna asked with a half hearted smile.

"Woman's intuition." She put the drink in front of Arianna. "But Ari, if you want some advice. If it was meant to be it'll always find a way, it might take time and maybe it won't happen when you want it to, but it'll happen when it's supposed to."

Arianna looked shocked, "Th...thanks Alice." She'd never seen this childish woman behave so m.a.t.u.r.ely.

~ ~ ~

"Damn it Juliette why couldn't you just stay out of it!" Liam yelled into the phone, after discovering his sister was the one who told their mother about Arianna.

"I didn't mean for this to happen." Sadness and fear filled her voice, shame covering her face. "I was just trying to help you."

"Help?" Liam pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, taking a deep breath. "Well look what your help did. Next time you want to help, don't!" He abruptly hung up.

Anxiously he started calling Arianna, but her phone kept going straight to voicemail. After about five attempts he realised it was hopeless. Was she ignoring him? Had something happened? With only one option left, he rang Joan.

"Hello." Joan voice was cold coated with a facade of indifference and calmness.

"Where is she?" Liam's anxious voice sent alarms off in her mind, Joan had assumed that Arianna had gone to Liam's.

"Isn't she with you?" There was a sense of déjà vu[1] in this panic.

"No!" Liam's gut told him, Joan knew about this arranged marriage, it could've been her idea. "Why would she be with me?"

"Well she..." Joan hesitated about what to tell Liam. "She went out and hasn't returned, I assumed she was with you."

"Don't lie to me Joan! What happened? Where is she?" Liam dominating voice echoed through the phone. Joan's eyes darkened, it had been decades since she was spoken to like.

"Now listen here you brat. She is MY daughter if you wish to speak to me like this I will make sure you two never see each other." Her voice became colder, the temperature surrounding her dropped. "Now I believe you have until tomorrow to say your goodbyes."

"I knew it! You did this, why?" Liam was radiating anger that could be felt throughout his entire manor. "You had no problem with us to start of with."

"That was before I discovered the truth about you. Did you really think I wouldn't find out? Did you think I would let my only daughter get involved with someone like you." The ruthless criticism that filled Joan's voice, suddenly softened. "What if she got hurt because of you?"

"That won't happen!" He wanted to defend his position.

"You can't guarantee that, she would become your greatest weakness. Are you truly naive enough to believe that your enemies wouldn't take advantage of that weakness, just to get to you." Joan voice now sounded more like a concerned mother. "If you really love her, don't let her be your downfall. She will just became the sacrifice that hardens your heart. Say your goodbye and let her be."

Before he could say anything the line went dead. Liam's face fell into his sweaty hands. Was she right? Would Arianna become a target for his enemies?

He knew the answer, but he also knew that meant that she could always be used as leverage as long as he loved her, so that didn't matter whether or not she was his or not. He could protect her though.

The question kept lingering... Was Joan right?

~ ~ ~

Back at Charlotte's.

Arianna was quietly sitting at the end of the bar, dejectedly look down at her drink, failing to drown out her thoughts in the loud music that seemed to just fade into the background. She was so focused on the bubbles in the drink, she didn't heard the heavy footsteps from behind her.

"This doesn't look better off being alone."

Arianna drunkenly looked up to see vaguely familiar guy. His handsome face expressed an arrogant smirk, as he leant against the bar. "Do I know you?" Arianna asked completely oblivious of who he was.

"W...what?" He couldn't believe she'd forgotten him. His arrogant smirk disappeared as he watched her ignore him.

"Now if you don't mind sir, could you leave I'd prefer to be alone."

He didn't recognise that arrogant woman he'd once met, she looked more like a shell of the woman she once was. His heart ached a little for the pathetic version of her in front of him. The arrogant smirk disappeared off his face as he sat in the empty sit beside her.

"There's no joy in being alone, how 'bout we just drink in silence... together." The handsomely arrogant stranger seemed to vulnerable now, perhaps it was the lighting.

"Whatever..." She drank the rest in one shot. "A...Alice one... m...more pl...please." She hiccuped.

"Me too, thanks." Alice heard his voice a looked at the man beside her friend, rather confused.

"I didn't realise you'd be joining us tonight..."

"Either did I." He turned to look at the drunk beauty beside him and a soft smile spread across his face.

"She doesn't even remember you, does she?" Alice's childish smile decorated her face as she looked over to her friend.

"Nope, that's probably a good thing."

"So why are you here?"

"Since that day I haven't been able to get her out of my head." He looked down at his drink, then the back up to the bartender. "I've tried everything to forget her, then she popped up in the news a lot."

"Well now is not the time, she's going through something."

"Maybe that's why now is the perfect time..." He was too busy staring at the absent-minded heiress, to notice Alice's dark blue eyes darken.

1 déjà vu - a feeling something has already happened or happened before.