Vaughn woke up to the sound of his intercom buzzing. He walked out to the hallway in nothing but his pajama bottoms and pressed the button after scratching his backside. “What?”

“It’s Saul, let me up.” The rich deep voice of his best friend said.

“Ever hear of calling ahead.” Vaughn asked as he looked at the digital clock that was over the intercom. “I’ve only been asleep for four hours. Come back in six more.”

“I have some news that you aren’t going to like.”

He should have known. Saul never came over to his apartment and always liked to meet on more neutral ground. His father would often times send his friend over to deliver bad news to him, because only Saul knew how to deal with his rage when it went into the red zone. He pressed the button to unlock the doors and went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

Today was the day that the maid service normally came, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. All of his mugs were stacked in the sink and he pressed his lips together as he tried to decide what he was going to drink out of. He certainly wasn’t going to wash the dishes.

His front door opened and a man in a black suit and tie with short brown hair walked into the living room. Saul was a thin, but tall man with eyes so dark that they almost looked black. The two had been in more fights than they could count, but it never stopped them from talking or even continuing their friendship.

“What happened in here?” Saul asked as he looked at the plastic covered window and the cracked coffee table.

“Bitch threw a ball through my window. Broke the statue that…” he cleared his throat to stop speaking, “just a statue that was given to me.”

“You mean the one that Dawn gave you, right?”

He didn’t answer him, “My fucking maid service has been cancelled because those stupid cunts can’t take criticism. Otherwise, I’d offer you a cup of coffee, but until I hire a new service, you are shit out of luck.”

“Don’t need any.” Saul frowned, “Things are about to get worse.”

“Oh hell, what now?” Vaughn walked over to the table and sat down.

“Your father heard about your assistant being fired. He says that he isn’t going to get you a new one.”

His head dropped to the table with a hard thud that made Saul flinch. “And why not?”

“He doesn’t want to be held responsible for the abuse that you unleash on the staff.” Saul walked over to the table and sat down beside him. “If you want an assistant you need to find one yourself and pay her out of pocket. She won’t be associated with the firm.”

His head slowly rolled to look over at his friend, “I’m not that bad. These girls…”

“And three guys.” He added.

“Fine, these assistants overreact to a little criticism.”

Saul shook his head, “Your criticism is nothing but insults and threats, you and I both know it. Just yesterday a woman down in finance put in a complaint about you saying something about hoping she died in an elevator crash.”

He sat up straight almost immediately, “That is not what I said!” He slammed his hand down on the table.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve always told you that your temper is going to get the better of you and now it has.” Saul looked at his friend who sat back in his chair.

For as long as he could remember, Vaughn had been this way. He wasn’t so much spoiled as he didn’t know how to handle other people. When those around him learned how to properly deal with him and had earned his respect, he was a nice guy. Vaughn was also exceptionally paranoid about people trying to get to his money, and it all began with Dawn.

She was a beautiful girl that had caught Vaughn’s attention the moment she walked into the room. He had been twenty at the time that it all occurred and still new to love and romance, but Dawn seemed to find his innocence sweet. She had said she came from a rich family and the two were inseparable for nearly a year. That was until one day that Vaughn asked her to marry him, she accepted and a couple days later asked for a loan until she could get a hold of her father. Vaughn was too trusting of the girl and didn’t question anything she said. He gave her a credit card and in the end, she ran off with over a million dollars in merchandise. No one had heard from her since.

Vaughn hadn’t been very personable even back then and had always preferred his small circle of friends. During that time, new people could be accepted, but now he only liked those around him that he trusted completely. The only time that he had dated was when Vera had pushed one girl or another on him. Saul felt bad for his friend and knew that there was nothing that he could do to heal him. This was Vaughn’s problem and all he could do was be there for him.

“You aren’t as upset as I thought you would be.” Saul patted his shoulder.

“I’m so pissed right now that I could fight an entire bar filled with people, but I’m too tired to gather up the energy.”

He smiled to hear Vaughn tell one of his strange jokes. “I’ll leave you alone. Call me if you have any questions. Vera is calling around, she’s using her business contact to find you an assistant. You need to be good to this next one though.”

“Fuck you.” He mumbled as Saul headed back out to the front door and shut it behind him. “Could have called to tell me that shit.”

Vaughn sat on the couch as he stared over some applications that the office had sent over. Even though he was paid well for his work and his father even gave him an additional allowance, he didn’t want to pay the price for a fifty thousand dollar a year or more for an assistant. Most of the good ones wanted more and there was no way on earth he was going to suffer another bad one.

He had called his father after Saul had left and his father said that it was only for a year. After that he would sign the assistant on, but he had to keep the assistant on for that entire year. Pressing his lips together, he continued to search through the applications.

“All at once, doesn’t it?” He mumbled to himself as he tossed each rejected application onto the table. “Bastard old man, just talked to him for two hours yesterday and he didn’t bother to mention this to me.”

He continued to mumble while he thumbed through the file. Most of his curses were directed at his father, but he threw in a couple at his sister, Saul, and even the girl who had broken his window.

“Universe is out to get me.” He tossed down the file when his cell phone rang. “What?”

“Monday is coming quick, how will you do without an assistant?” Vera asked him with humor in her voice.

“Why are you bothering me? I’m trying to get work done.”

“I just want to rub your face into it, that’s all. Can’t a sister rub her brother’s face into his own misfortune? A misfortune that he brought on himself, I might add.”

He soon heard his front door open and knew exactly who it was. Only his sister had access to his apartment. He had given it to her when she was designing the place and she had decided not to give the security card back to him. He hung up the cell phone as he heard her about to say something else, mostly because he knew she was about to appear in front of him.

Vera started to giggle the moment she walked into the room and saw him looking over the applications. “Saul told me, but I didn’t believe it.”

He looked up to see his sister dressed more casually than he was used to seeing her. Black slacks and a red shirt that showed more cleavage than was necessary for his sister. “Dressing like a whore today?”

She looked over her outfit before looking back up at him with a grin. “My poor brother.” She ran over to sit next to him.

Vaughn was surprised that she hadn’t said anything about the broken window, but he had been known to break things in the past. If she had noticed it then she probably figured that he had done it himself.

She grabbed his face in her hand when she sat down and pulled it toward her. “Did Saul tell you that I have been looking all morning for a girl to fill the role for a while?”

“Yes.” He said between lips that were being pressed together by her hand.

“No one wants to work for you.” She released his face with laughter, before she stood up. “Now, where do you keep the wine?”

“I don’t keep alcohol here.”

Her eyebrows came together as she turned back around to face him, “What?”

“If I have alcohol in the house, I drink it, so I don’t keep any here.” He began to flip through the applications again. “None of these are worth their price.” He tossed it down on the coffee table.

Vera had made her way into the kitchen and was looking through his refrigerator. “They are the only ones who don’t know anything about you. All the others have heard horror stories.” She stood up and looked at him over her shoulder, “Only a slave or loved one would put up with your crap, and I say that in the most loving way.” An eyebrow raised slowly, which told Vera that he just had an idea. “Uh oh, what are you planning?”

“Slave, eh? You just gave me an idea.” He stood up from the couch and went into his office to dig through the trash.

Vera followed him in, “What are you doing?”

“You’ll see.” He continued to search through the trashed paper. “Where is it?” He asked himself. “I thought I threw it away… maybe it’s still on my cell phone.”

Vera followed her brother back into the living room and watched him search through the information on his phone. “What are you looking for?”

He waved his hand at her to silence her, “No. Did I throw it away in the kitchen? I don’t usually throw paper away in there.”

Vera shook her head as her brother walked past her. She didn’t know what he was up to, but she wasn’t going to miss this. She loved watching his diabolical plans crash down on him and this time she was going to be there from the beginning.

Walking up and down the sidewalk between where she knew the stores and small restaurants were Third Street, Adrienne tried to find the coffee shop. The shopping area here was a little more upscale than where she was on the other side of town. It would have taken her less time to go to the guy’s house than to get here.

“Excuse me, miss?” She stopped a woman in a short skirt and carrying a small fluffy dog. “Is there a coffee shop around here?”

The tan blonde pulled her sunglasses down her nose and looked Adrienne over. She was wearing jeans that had holes in both knees and a bright green tank top. Her auburn hair was pulled into pigtails. To say she looked out of place in this area was an understatement.

“Antonio’s Café is around the corner over there.” She pointed toward the end of the street at the corner.

“Is that the only one on this street?”

She pressed her lips together as she thought, “I think there is another one down that way near the movie theater. I can’t think of any others.” The woman pointed down the other side of the street.

“Thank you very much.” She turned around and headed to the nearby coffee shop first.

Stopping in front of the door a group of suit dressed men walked out with coffee cups in their hands. When they had gone through, she attempted to go in, but another group of well dressed members of society began to leave.

Inside the coffee shop, Vaughn looked out the large front windows at the girl who kept stepping aside to let others leave. She had obviously been on her way in when a group of girl’s pushed past her and the stupid girl didn’t hold her ground or push forward. He exhaled in annoyance and turned to look around to see if the other customers were watching her.

The shop was decorated with the old memorabilia from the local college and high schools. Vaughn didn’t care for the decorations nor the coffee that the shop sold, but he figured this might be a place that the girl he was meeting would feel more comfortable in. She had to patronize places like these.

A backpack was slammed onto the table and the red head sat down across from him in the corner of the shop. “Did you wait long?” The sound of resentment was clear in her voice, and she didn’t care about his answer.

Vaughn placed his elbows on the table and folded his hands to the side of his face. “Is there a problem?”

Adrienne couldn’t believe this man, “I had to take a bus all the way over here from the other side of town!”

“You said you were at the shopping district, I assumed you meant here.” He shrugged as he took a drink of his coffee, “No need to cry over split milk, you are here now. Are you going to buy yourself a drink before we get down to business?”

The annoyance level in her mind was rising. After making her come all the way across town, he wasn’t even going to purchase her a coffee. Standing up, she opened her backpack and pulled out her wallet. Her eyes went over to the menu as she went over to stand in line. There were no prices next to the menu items, which surprised her a bit.

“Medium mocha with extra chocolate please.” She told the cashier when she got to the front of the line.

The woman nodded her head and didn’t bother to correct her with the proper term for the large cup. “Twelve sixteen, please.”

“Twelve sixteen for a cup of coffee?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Adrienne looked over her shoulder at Vaughn, who was across the room and staring at her. Mumbling cuss words under her breath, she pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the woman. “This better be the best damn coffee that I have ever tasted.” She told the woman as she was handing her the change. She stepped to the side to wait for her coffee.

“Miss, you can go sit down, we will bring it to you.” The woman told her, prompting Adrienne to twist around and head back to the table.

“Ok, can you tell me why you’ve brought me out here now?” She spoke rather bluntly and knew she should be more polite to the man that she owed ten thousand dollars to. However, from the moment she first spoke to him up until now he had been nothing but rude.

Vaughn picked up his briefcase and opened it. “You did say that you wouldn’t be able to pay me back the money in a punctually acceptable time, didn’t you?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Tell me briefly, what your job experience includes.” He looked up at her over his opened briefcase.

“My job experience?” She looked up at the woman who placed her mocha in front of her. “Why do you need to know that?” She asked after nodding a thank you to the server.

“Just tell me.”

Adrienne licked her bottom lip nervously, “I have only worked at fast food restaurants mostly. I am working on my bachelors in business administration, and I plan to continue on to get my MBA while I work from that point on.”

Vaughn raised an eyebrow as his mind screamed, “Jackpot!” He looked down into his briefcase than back up to her after he composed himself. “That’s not much experience, why aren’t you working in the proper field?”

“I don’t want to.”

He frowned and pressed his lips together briefly, before pulling out a piece of paper from his briefcase. Adrienne took the paper when it was offered to her and began to read it over.

“I need an assistant and a maid.” Vaughn said bluntly, “I figure with what you owe me, working for me during the day and cleaning in the evening, you will have paid me back in a year.”

“A year?” She looked up at him. “Look, guy. I have school during the day. Besides, doing both jobs I could earn that much in a matter of a four or five months.”

“When does your summer break begin?” He sat back in his chair.

“After next week.”

He gave a nod, “Then you can start and work through the summer, afterwards you can start online and night classes.” He folded his hands on the table confident that she would accept the offer.

Adrienne ground her teeth, “Even if that were the case, a years worth of work is worth more than ten thousand dollars, plus you haven’t provided proof to me that I actually owe that much to you.” She would have to remember to thank Lucien for reminding her of that.

Vaughn shut his briefcase, “I’ll be expecting your decision by next weekend. If you don’t respond by then, I will continue forward with the lawsuit.”

Her body froze at the word ‘lawsuit’ and didn’t move, even as Vaughn walked past her and out the door. Once he was gone, her body lost tension, “Son of a bitch. Trying to cheat me, I know a cheat when I see one!” She spat the words as she picked up her coffee. Taking a sip, she spit it back out. “Gross!”

“See you two later.” Adrienne waved from her door as her two friends headed down the stairs.

Darnell and Lucien looked over their shoulders and gave a brief wave. When they heard her door shut, they began down the stairs to the bottom floor.

“I hate this building.” Darnell announced as the stairs creaked underneath him. He wouldn’t even touch the half wood, half painted wall. “It’s hard to imagine that there is a neighborhood like this in the middle of the city.”

“It’s cheaper for her to live here than on campus.” Lucien defended her choice, even though Darnell wasn’t arguing against it.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t like it.” He snapped as they got to the end of the stairs and began to walk past the mailbox to the front door, and out on to the unkempt lawn.

“This Weiss guy is a real piece of work. I can’t believe he thinks he can bully her into working for him for a year for that much.” Lucien grumbled as he opened the squeaky gate and allowed his friend out first. Neither noticed the old woman in another apartment opening her blinds to see who was coming or going.

Once they were out on the sidewalk, they both began to journey toward the bus stop to get a ride back to the campus.

Darnell shrugged his broad shoulders, “Bleu is smart, she knows she is being ripped off, but she doesn’t want to pay out of pocket either.”

“Wade and I offered to help her pay for it, but she is being stubborn.”

“And that’s new because?” He asked flatly, “Miss Dorsey offered to help pay for half of her tuition, and her parents wanted to help too. She turned them down. She’s independent and doesn’t like to owe people anything. You’ve been her friend longer than I have.”

“I just wish that she wasn’t so stubborn that she couldn’t ask for help.” Lucien folded his arms as a cold wind blew, he knew he should have brought a windbreaker with him.

“She’ll ask when she can’t handle it on her own. It’s just her way, let her be.” Darnell sat down on the bench as Lucien looked at the bus schedule.

When he saw that the bus was just missed by a few moments, he cussed under his breath before he sat down next to his friend. “I don’t like it. A year’s worth of work for ten thousand dollars… what is this?” His eyes rolled up as he started to do the math.

“About eight hundred and thirty a month or around three seventy an hour, less then minimum wage.” Darnell quickly did the math to spare his friend the time. “I know and she knows it too. The three seventy is only for an eight hour work day too, which from the sounds of it won’t be the case.”

“It’s bullshit!” He snapped.

“Chill out, she knows what she’s doing.” He sat back on the bench and put his hands behind his head. “You’ve always been way too caught up in her life. I know you grew up together, but cut the apron strings or something.”

“Cutting apron strings refers to mothers.” Lucien snapped back.

“And you are like her mother.” His dark eyes turned toward his friend, “You nag her constantly. You call her four times a day to see if she’s alright or if she needs anything. For fuck’s sake, you keep buying her shit for her apartment and don’t think she doesn’t notice! Even Wade and I know that it hurts her pride when we do that so we don’t do it. Leave her the hell alone or ask her out!”

“Ask her out, what the hell are you talking about?” He felt his heart race in fear that Darnell had discovered how he felt about her.

“At least if she was your girlfriend you would have a reason to be this interfering and jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!”

Darnell pressed his lips together, “Whatever, man, whatever.”