“Hey, guys!” Adrienne chimed as she stepped out of her last class for the day and found her friends waiting for her.

“What are you wearing?” Wade asked as he looked at the black shirt that had several rips horizontally across her chest and back, but a white long sleeved shirt underneath. Her pants had splashes of pink around the rips in them.

“My clothes.” She responded and looked down at them, “What’s wrong with them?”

None of them answered her and instead shook their heads, she knew that meant that they didn’t want to say anything that would hurt her feelings. Adrienne didn’t care though, she had always had her own style and was never afraid of people criticizing it.

“So, were you waiting for me?”

“No, we heard there was a weird looking chick in your class and wanted to see her. They say that the mere sight of her can cause you to vomit.” Bastian pressed his lips together as he watched her other classmates leave the room. “Weird though, because the only person that makes me want to throw up is you.” He looked down at Adrienne.

“It’s mutual.” She turned her frown from him to Lucien, “What’s up?”

“Are you busy today?” He asked. “Since we all have time, we thought we’d get something to snack on and then head out to the park. There are a few softball games being played.”

“By some hotties.” Darnell added.

“Hmm, go watch softball and check out hot chicks with my guy friends or go home and do what I want?” She held up both her hands and tried to balance them out. “Oh, it’ll be…”

“Come on.” Wade gently pushed her shoulder, “It’s better when you are with us.”

“Yeah, Bleu, you keep us in line.” Darnell whined.

“We’ve been waiting for you here for half an hour, shouldn’t we get something?” Lucien stuck up his bottom lip in an attempt to look like he was begging.

“Seriously though,” Bastian began, “We thought you would want to come, it’s fucked up if you don’t and we bought all that shit for you to eat.”

Adrienne sighed loudly in defeat and the guys offered out their victory of chuckles and smiles. “Fine, but I don’t want to be there all evening.”

“No promises.” Wade joked.

At that moment, her phone rang and she picked it up to see the word ‘Jackass’ on the screen. “Hello?”

“I have a list of chores for you on the fridge as well as my grocery list. You will find a credit card for your use on the counter along with your bus pass. Make whatever you feel is appropriate or purchase my dinner on your way home. I expect it all completed before I return home at seven.” Vaughn hung up the phone before she could even respond to him.

Lucien frowned when he saw the playfulness leave her eyes. She had informed him the night before of the deal made with the Weiss guy, and he had a pretty good idea what the phone call was about.

Adrienne held up her cell phone, “Sorry guys, but work calls me.”

“Work?” Wade asked.

“Ask Lucian and Darnell. I’ll see you guys later.” She waved at them as she began to jog toward the bus stop.

“If I ever get my hands on that guy…” Lucien mumbled, “Did you hear the way he talked to her? Like she is some sort of slave.”

“No, I try not to eavesdrop on other people’s phone calls.” Darnell shook his head and crossed his arms.

“So, we are short the ‘comic foil’, we will just have to pick on Wade for the day.” Bastian shrugged before putting his hands in his pocket and heading toward the parking lot. “Does the car work today?”

“Should I add no flirting with my neighbors to the list of rules?” Vaughn asked as he stood up from the couch as she entered into the living room.

Adrienne gave him a satisfying jolt of jumping back slightly, “You scared me and I wasn’t flirting with him.” She snapped as she tried to make her way into the kitchen. The time on the microwave showed that Vaughn was twenty minutes early. “Hey! Didn’t you say I had until seven?” She jogged back out into the living room, but he was no longer there.

Pressing her lips together quickly in annoyance, she went back into the kitchen and began to put the groceries away.

“What are you making?” Vaughn asked from behind her as she was knelt on the ground with her head slightly in the cabinet, trying to push the cans in order.

Upon hearing his voice, she smacked her head against the inside of the cabinet. “Shit.” She grabbed the back of her head, “Don’t walk up on people like that.” She mumbled, “I bought Chinese food. It’s on the counter.”

“My chopsticks are in the silverware drawer and the plates are above the sink. Prepare my dish.” He snapped and went back into the living room.

Adrienne frowned as she stood up. She could see him sitting on the couch reading a file. “I didn’t know what you liked. You looked like a healthy eater, so I got a lot of vegetable stuff. Bought myself some chow mein.”

“Eat it on the bus ride home.” He continued to read the papers inside the file.

“I didn’t have plans to eat with you, asshole.” She whispered under her breath, “Who would want to eat with you? This is why you live alone.” She continued to mumble to herself as she got the plate and chopsticks. “Food is on the table.”

Vaughn stood up and walked into the kitchen, he frowned when he looked at the plate that was clumped together. “This won’t do.” He turned her and Adrienne walked back to the table.

“What? You don’t like any of it?”

“Go through it and place all the meat products at the top of the ‘pile.’ Use some of the vegetables to garnish the plate. You have to make it look appetizing.” He spoke very pompously, then turned around and headed back into the living room.

She had almost giggled at what he said because she thought it had to be a joke, but he was quite serious. Shaking her head, she got herself another plate to put the meat on so she could find it all. She continued to mumble under her breath as she tried to think of different insults that she wished she had the courage to say to his face.

Vaughn could hear her muttering in the other room and he hid his grin behind the paper that he was reading. He knew that everything she said was a curse toward him, but he couldn’t understand and mostly found it amusing. This was going to be a very entertaining year for him, and he hadn’t even gotten started.

“Oh, I couldn’t do all those tasks today. My classes end at three and it takes me a while to get over here. I also have to wait for buses. I did what I thought was the most important.” She informed him.

“When I tell you to get things done, get them done. Otherwise you are not following the contract!” Vaughn snapped.

“I only had three hours!” She stood up from the table where she was separating the food, when he glared up at her, she dropped her head. “Sorry, I’ll do better next time.” She frowned as she sat back down at the table and returned to separating his food.

Vaughn laughed on the inside at her behavior, she was afraid of pissing him off to the point that he’d break the contract. That would add an entirely different level to the horrors he had planned for her.

Adrienne stepped out of the elevator as Brant’s door opened and he walked out in his jogging gear. His dark brown hair was held back by a head band that was meant to keep sweat from the eyes. She admired his lean muscular form of a runner, and that he was relatively handsome though a little too much of a pretty boy for her tastes. He looked like the type of man that a super model would date, not a tomboy who worked at a fast food joint. He smiled at her as soon as he saw her, and Adrienne returned the gesture.

“How are you?” He asked when they met halfway through the hallway.

“I’m fine. I just finished my final exams, so it’s a good day.” She didn’t know why she told him that, but she felt like she wanted to tell someone. Besides, if her day was going to end with Vaughn, she needed to get out all her talking anyway.

“College girl, eh?”

Adrienne nodded, “One more year and I’ll be done, well for now anyway. I want to get my MBA, but that will be while I am working.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“What is it that you do?” Adrienne asked innocently.

He gave a brief shrug, “Not much, but I do what I can when I want to.”

That wasn’t much of an answer, but she decided that he wasn’t really willing to talk about it. Then again this was a very expensive apartment and she guessed that Brant had to be a rich kid. His father probably let him mooch off his wealth, while he did whatever he wanted. After all, Brant had offered to drive her anywhere whenever she needed it.

“Well, I better get to work.” She held up her card that would allow her into Vaughn’s house.

“How long did you say that you would be working for him?” Brant walked backwards as she began forward.

“A year.”

He gave a nod, “Well that gives me a lot of time then.”

Adrienne cocked her head to the side, “A lot of time for what?”

With a wink, he smiled, “To get to know you.” His playfulness began to drain away when he saw some confusion on her face. Was she really so unused to being hit on? Maybe she wasn’t interested in men or maybe he came off poorly when they first met. He knew he came on too strong and had always tried to tone it back. “You don’t mind that I am interested in getting to know you better, do you?”

“No, I suppose not. I have lots of male friends, could always use one more.” She went to slide the card through the card slot, but Brant put his hand over it to stop her.

“I meant that I would eventually ask you out… on a date.”

Adrienne fought back a blush, “Well, I… Vaughn doesn’t want me flirting with his neighbors.”

Brant laughed, “You can just say no if you aren’t interested. I mean, it’ll bruise my pride a bit, but I recover quickly.”

“Oh no! It’s not that I am not interested, but Vaughn really did tell me…”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?” He winked again and laughed, “Don’t worry you don’t have to agree to a date with me right now. I’m patient, but maybe after work one day you can drop by. I keep late hours and I’d like to get to know you better.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He dropped his hand from the card slot, “The ball is in your court now then. I’ll be waiting for your answer, and don’t worry I’m the kind of guy that takes no answer as a no.” He smiled handsomely, “I’ll see you around.”

Vaughn chuckled to himself as he hung up the phone. His sister had called him to inform him that he shouldn’t send his assistant over with food for her. He wondered how Adrienne had handled it when she found out that he wasn’t there. Shrugging the thought off, he began to look over a report, but his mind quickly wandered to other ways that he could harass her.

Now that her classes were over, she was available to him every hour of the day and that included late at night. He had every intention of making use of those late night hours, and ensuring that time normally spent with friends was instead time spent with his toilet.

He had even purposefully taken home women that he knew were close to vomiting, and missed the toilet on purpose while urinating. Thoughts of sprinkling the walls with bacon grease after he cooked for himself came to mind. Ideas followed and he enjoyed the immature giddiness that he got from each one.

“Afternoon.” Saul said as he walked into the metallic office, and took a seat in front of Vaughn’s desk.

His inner smile quickly left him as Vaughn never displayed his happiness on his face. He knew that Saul was here under business due to the folder that he was carrying. “Can I do something for you?”

“Actually, I was going over your employment history and I noticed that you have accumulated over eighteen weeks of vacation time.”

He stared at his friend blankly waiting for him to get to the point.

“That’s nine years of constant work, it isn’t good for you.”

Vaughn blew him off with a quick snort and a wave of his hand, “I’ll take a vacation next year. There are far too many projects going on right now that I am needed for.”

“We actually waited to tell you until the last project was done. There is already someone lined up to take over for you while you are away.”

“I said that I’ll do it next year. Where am I supposed to go anyway?”

Saul pulled out several brochures from the folder, “Your father asked me to gather up as many trips for singles that I could find.” He stood up from the chair so that he could place them in the center of Vaughn’s desk, then sat back down. “He found out how long it’s been since you last had a girlfriend.”

“Vera.” He spoke her name as if it were a curse word.

“He’s really worried about your mental state. A man can’t work for nine years without any breaks.”

“I have weekends.”

“For all that’s good in this world, Vaughn, you do work on weekends too! I have rarely gone to your house and not found you working on something. You are thirty one years old, you should be thinking about getting married instead you are burying yourself in your work.”

“You know not everyone has to follow your standards for what a normal life should look like. I am so fucking sick and tired of people telling me what will make me happy, when I am content with my life now. I want for nothing!”

Saul licked his lower lip in frustration, “I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life or what is normal or will make you happy. I’m sorry if I came off that way, but you should really think about taking a vacation and soon.”

“Next year when things have slowed down.”

He knew he wasn’t going to be able to convince him and they would have to force the vacation on him. Standing up, Saul didn’t say anything to his friend and he exited the office.