Chapter 2 — New Start
“Okay, you’ve totally got this, Liam,” he gives himself a pep talk as he finally leaves the house and gets into his car, “Come on, baby. Please don’t do this to me,” he prays when the engine sputters and the car doesn’t start, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he groans, slamming his head against the steering wheel when the engine doesn’t even make any sound when he tries to turn the key again.
He eyes the only other vehicle available for him to drive—his sister’s family-friendly minivan, “Fuck me,”
It doesn’t look like he has any other choice really if he does not want to be late on his first day of work. Liam is not about to waste his money on cab service just because he does not feel like driving his sister’s minivan. As long as the vehicle does its job of getting him to his workplace on time, it should be fine.
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On his way to work, Liam gets stuck in a traffic — just a light one, but it still has him on edge. His eyes keep flitting between the clock and the GPS on his phone which is set to his new workplace — the calculated ETA shows that he should be reaching there in about twelve minutes.
Checking the clock on the dash once again, he notes that he has to be at his new job by twenty minutes. There’s a good chance that he might not be late, but still, he is nervous.
It has been a while since he went in for a new job. Liam had been working at the same company for the past six years, and he was actually doing pretty well, on his way to procuring an important position in the firm. But of course, his ex-fiancé happened to be working in the same firm, and he was Liam’s senior. That was how they met in the first place.
Liam had thought it to be one of the best things to have ever happened to him. He couldn’t have been any more wrong. It didn’t feel right working with him after they broke up and so Liam left. It was easier anyways; Liam didn’t feel like driving an hour just to get to work where he would see his dickhead of an ex-fiancé every day.
He isn’t sure how the whole thing would have worked now anyway with a restraining order and all.
Fortunately, his phone rings right then, before his mood can turn any sourer thinking about the man that he should have left way behind him.
An instant smile makes its way on his lips when he sees a very familiar name, flashing on his phone screen, “Katie, hey,”
Katie, or Kaitlyn, is one of Liam’s closest friends, and the one who he is supposed to thank for his current new job. She runs an HR firm that specializes in placing temps. Since it had been a sudden decision for him to switch jobs, she came to his immediate aid.
Since Liam have been looking after his sister and her kids as well, he decided that he would take up a temporary offer while looking for something permanent and worthwhile.
“Hey, Liam,” her chirpy voice fills the car, “Just checking in with ya. How you feeling?”
“I’m on my way to the office right now actually,” Liam tells her, “And… I don’t know. I think I’m a bit nervous,” he admits, grimacing, removing his foot lightly from the brake and then placing it back on the pad when the cars in front of him stop moving once again.
“There’s noth–,”
Liam feels a sudden jerk, his head snapping forward and then back, “What the–,”
“You okay, there?” Katie asks from the other end of line.
Looking at the rear mirror, Liam sees that someone has hit the back of his sister’s minivan.
“No. I think someone just ran into me,” he groans, “Great, just great. I’ll call you back later, kayh,” he ends the call, and turns on the hazard light.
Unlocking the seatbelt, he hops out of the car to inspect the damage caused, but before he can even get there, he hears a deep, raspy voice.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You just stopped!”
Liam scoffs, putting a hand over his eyes, as the sun hit him right in his face, “We’re in traffic. What else do you expect me to do?”
He turns to this very much rude stranger who hit him and has the audacity to make it into Liam’s fault, and holy shit. The stranger can be rude, but there is no denying how intimidatingly attractive he looks.
The stranger snatches the sunglasses off his face and cards his fingers through his hair, pushing them back. He has one of those short at the sides, long top hairstyles—Liam has always envied men who could pull off that hairstyle since he never could, and also has inevitably been attracted to them. His hazelnut eyes with speckles of green that are very much visible, thanks to the sun, are trained on Liam and only when he takes in the hardness of the stranger’s gaze, Liam is pulled back into reality.
He internally slaps himself — this is definitely not the time to be ogling over a stranger. But damn it, he does really look like he just sauntered off a fashion magazine or something.
Liam’s daze is completely broken when the very much mesmerizing stranger opens his mouth once again, throwing his hands in the air, “Is something wrong with you? Are you drunk?”
Liam’s mouth falls open, but this time for a different reason — just because he looks like a runway model does not give him the reason to be a dickface, “I’m drunk?” he lets out a bitter chuckle, “You’re the one who fucking hit me. I should be the one asking you that,”
He huffs and walks towards the his car to assess the damage. Only then Liam notices the car of the stranger — he drives a freaking Porsche. Liam wonders if he might be a model after all. The dickface comes to stand at his side, arms crossed and Liam clears away his thought, back to assessing the damage. His sister minivan is pretty much intact, except for the light scratch on the bumper, but it looks like his Porsche has retained a bit more damage.
Liam turns to the man who stood a few inches taller than him with an eyebrow raised, and rolls his eyes, “Don’t give me that look. You are the one who hit me,” he asserts, before pushing past him, walking back to his car, mentally praying that his skin doesn’t betray him by showing just flustered he is becoming the longer he looks at the man.
“You were probably too busy on your phone to actually pay attention to the road,” Liam continues, as he leans across the seat and grab his phone from the center console, “I’m going to be late for work. Can we just exchange numbers for now and exchange all the other information later?”
The man huffs in return, shaking his head, “You likely don’t have an insurance, which is why you want to call me later so you can go get them while I drive around with a broken light,” he walks back to his car, and Liam tries really hard to not look at his ass.
He was wearing a rather fit trousers; it was hard to not notice, is the reason Liam decides to go with.
The stranger leans down and grabs his phone from the driver seat, and Liam exclaims, “Hah. So, you weren’t on your phone? Sure,”
Instead of denying that statement, he just curtly states, “I don’t have all day. Some of us have actual work to do. Just tell me what you want from me,”
Liam definitely doesn’t appreciate the snarky tone in his voice, but he doesn’t have the time to continue arguing either. The clock is ticking, and every second he wastes over this pointless conversation, he is aware that he is getting late for his first day at work.
“I don’t want anything from you,” he shoots back, and then in a lowered voice, he mutters, “Dickhead,”
By the way the stranger’s gaze snaps to him, Liam knows he heard him, but frankly Liam doesn’t care. He continues, “My car only has a scratch, yours is the one with actual damage. Besides, it wasn’t even my fucking fault,” he throws his hand in the air, exasperated, “But if you want, we can call the police and make a report about how you were on your phone while driving,” he raises an eyebrow challengingly, knowing that he’s won the argument.
His nostrils flare as he huffs, and fuck, Liam finds even that attractive, “Fine. Just give me your number,”
Plastering a smug grin on his face, Liam recites his number and then when he asks for his name, he says, “The guy you hit while you were busy on your phone,”
He lifts his hazel eyes to Liam, lips parted in disbelief.
“I’m sorry,” Liam dramatically places his hand on his chest, “Is that name already taken?”
He just shakes his head, muttering, “Unbelievable,” under his breath, and then tells Liam his number.
Liam stores it in his phone, and then turns to walk away.
“Aren’t you going to ask me my name?” he calls after Liam.
“Nope. Got it,” he throws him a sweet smile over his shoulder, “Dickface who doesn’t know how to obey road rules,” he turns to him one last time before getting back into the car, “Have a fabulous day,”
Damn, if only he could have met this absolutely enticing stranger under different circumstances. Sure, Liam is still somewhat heartbroken over his called-off engagement, but that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate attractiveness when it is especially presented so savouringly in front of him.
Rubbing a hand down his face, putting the handsome man but still a dick at the furthest corner of his mind, he looks at the clock and starts swearing once again, buckling in his seatbelt, and starting the car, “Fuck, fuck,” Liam looks at the rearview mirror and sees that the stranger has already taken off.
Liam is definitely going to be late for work — so much for a new start.
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When Liam finally makes it to the office building, he checks his face and resets his hair to a somewhat presentable manner since he had raked his hand through his hair one too many times, absolutely stressed out. He checks his phone on his way and notes that he’s ten minutes late.
Great, just great.
He walks in the building and is let up to the thirtieth floor once he tells the security guard present why he is there. Patterson-Daniels Associates, Liam reads out from the board at the entrance and then makes his way towards the receptionist who smiles wide once she spots him.
“Hi. How may I help you?” she chirps.
Liam is compelled to return the smile, “Hello. I am Liam Spencer. I’m here for Chloe. I’m the new temp,” he explains and the receptionist extends her hand which Liam accepts in a shake.
“Oh, yes. Welcome. I am Rosa,” she introduces herself, stepping out of her desk, “Chloe did say you’d be coming by today. If you could follow me, please,” she takes Liam further into the building, presumably to Chloe.
“Chloe,” Rosa knocks lightly on the door of an office they’ve walked to and then gestures at him, “Mr Spencer, the new temp,”
Chloe is a tall, slender woman, a couple of inches taller than Liam himself, and although she definitely has the aura to appear intimidating, the kind smile on her face suggests otherwise.
“Thank you, darling,” Chloe stands up from her seat, and Rosa takes her leave, “Mr Spencer, a pleasure to meet you,”
“Just call me Liam, please,” he chuckles lightly, shaking her hand, “And I’m terribly sorry I’m late. I was unfortunately caught in a little accident on my way here,”
“Oh dear, are you hurt?” she signals at me to sit on the chair opposite her table as she goes back to her seat.
“No, no. No one got hurt,”
“Thank God,” she exclaims, and waves a hand at me, “And don’t worry about being late; Kaitlyn called in and said that you might be late,”
Liam mentally thanks his friend for her perceptivity.
“Now, I just need you to fill up these forms,” Chloe places a couple of papers in front of Liam, “And I will get your elevator pass ready,” she stands up once again, to go the cabinet in the corner.
Liam quickly gets to filling the forms and then waits as Chloe finishes her work before she returns to Liam, handing him a card. He accepts it with a small thanks, standing up, walking with Chloe as she directs them towards their boss’ office.
“Now, I should warn you,” she says with a grimace on their way, “We went through fifteen temps only the last month,”
“What?” Liam turns to her with a stunned look on his face.
“Mr Patterson is… um, well,” she smacks her lips, and then settles with a small shrug, “… quite specific,”
“Specific?” Liam echoes, looking for further clarification.
He is already nervous about working at a new place—maybe he should have just waited it out, instead of accepting a temporary job, who cares that it pays well, really well.
Right, he thinks to himself, this is probably why they’re willing to pay such a huge sum for a temp.
Instead, Chloe only nods with a tight smile on her face.
Liam swallows, trying to clear his dry throat. He is pretty sure that his palms are clammy from sweat. He feels like his armpits are starting to sweat as well; he is tempted to lift his arms to make sure that his shirt isn’t drenched through, but resists from doing so.
“Shall we?” Chloe asks once they reach a mahogany door, the shades seem to be drawn close too, so Liam doesn’t really know what he should be expecting.
The question is apparently only a formality because even before he can manage a nod, Chloe is already knocking on the door and stepping in.
Liam doesn’t even have the time to take in the sight before him before he hears a very rough, “What the fuck?” the very voice he heard not too long ago.
His head snaps up in shock as he registers the man before him.
“Are you fucking stalking me or something?” the dickface who hit him and caused him to be late continues, getting up on his feet, “Are you following me?”
He comes out from behind his desk, arms crossed—the desk that’s supposed to belong to his new boss.
Chloe stands between them absolutely mute, glancing back and forth cluelessly.
Liam lets out a loud exhale — he can’t believe this is actually happening. Completely ignoring the dickface (who hasn’t gotten any less attractive, Liam also manages to notice), he turns to Chloe, “Please don’t tell me this guy’s actually the boss here,”
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