Wow the response to Chapter 4 was much more than I expected. Thank you for the feedback to everyone who wrote a public comment or privately emailed me. I hope my response on my profile and on the comment page was sufficient to ease anyone's concerns. I hope you enjoy Chapter 5. The last chapter is written, but I am still revising with my editor. Enjoy!
Nadia arrived at work at 7:30 am. She awoke that morning feeling better about what she needed to do. It was quite clear to her that Ben Morrison thought he ruled her, but Nadia VanZant could not be ruled by any man.
After going home quite embarrassed last night, she sat in bed and formulated a plan. If Ben wanted to make their business relationship about power games she certainly knew how to play those. She figured that Ben would continue to use her for her looks to gain new clients and get his ideas passed, so she intended to also get her own agenda done at the same time.
If she got close enough she could find out all kinds of information that would benefit her in forming her own marketing agency. Information like how much they paid Ben, so she could undercut it, or what their main needs were, so she could find ways to meet it better than he could.
She had also decided that she was done messing around with Ben. Somewhere over the months she had been sleeping with him, she had started to build up this idea that he really cared about her. After all she had started staying the night more at his house than she did at her own. When he left with Liz last night though her mental picture frame of them being together had been shattered. It was time for her to let go of her idea that they were together, and accept that she had been nothing more than his fuck buddy.
All this had been on Nadia's mind last night, and so this morning she was a woman on a mission to turn the tables around so that she was the one using Ben instead of the vice versa she had been living in.
When Ben finally arrived at the office, Nadia was already busy looking over the negotiation deals he had lined up for the week. She had placed a cup of coffee on his desk, which she had spit in, and had been waiting for him to arrive so she could give her much practiced apology speech.
"Good morning Mr. Morrison, I am truly sorry about last night. I won't make excuses for my tardiness, but I promise you it will not happen again," Nadia said with a tone of complete professionalism.
"I'm certain it will not. I gave you a fairly simple job, and I just expect it to be done well," Ben replied after taking a sip of his coffee.
Nadia smiled inwardly as he sipped his coffee. She realized she was being a little childish in her revenge, but it felt so good.
"Well I can assure you I intend on doing everything I can this summer to prove that I can do this job very well. I started looking over all the negotiations you have lined up for this week. I was planning on doing some research on who the key players will be, and what other agencies the companies are working with so we can do some benchmarking. Is there anything else I should be working on?" Nadia asked as she began gathering the papers she had been working with.
She wondered if he would challenge her about the work she was doing. Originally she had thought about being secretive about it, but then she realized that technically she would be doing his work for him so how many objections could he really have.
Ben was momentarily speechless. He hadn't expected Nadia to come in with such fervor to work this morning. He had basically expected her to be whining with excuses about last night. Even more surprising was that she was doing the work he had planned to do himself today. It was certainly not what he had hired her for, but he wasn't passing up the opportunity for some cheap labor.
"Um no you can work on that, and I'll expect to review your results by tomorrow at the close of business. I'm sure you'll need some help so feel free to ask Liz for anything you need," Ben said while still appearing completely collected.
"Thanks but I think I can handle it. I promise to have them on your desk first thing tomorrow morning sir," Nadia said with a smile while heading towards the door.
She was actually smiling because her plan was going just as she had hoped. This would be her chance to get some research done on who he was working with and how she could use the information to her advantage.
As Nadia walked out of Ben's office happily, she made sure to say good morning to Liz as she walked past her desk. She really only spoke to her because she didn't want Liz to think her leaving with Ben last night had affected her in the least.
"It's actually a great morning for me," Liz said with an "I know something you don't know" smile on her face.
"O well that's good," Nadia said about to continue on her way to her desk.
"Well I mean who could have a bad morning when you spend it making love with Ben Morrison. O but shhhh don't tell anyone I told you. Office gossip seems to spread so fast around here," Liz said hoping Nadia would take the bait.
From the look on Nadia's face she could tell she did. It was a momentary look of sadness, but she definitely noticed it.
"That's good for you. I hope you used protection though I heard he'll sleep with anything," Nadia said before walking away.
Liz sat back and laughed to herself. She knew that little tid bit of information would keep that new girl away from her man. She hadn't wanted to use protection, but Ben had insisted on it. That was ok since she had heard from somebody how a turkey baster could be used when she did want to have his baby. However right now she needed to keep her awesome figure so she could get him back into bed.
Nadia had been a little hurt at the thought of Ben being in bed with his trampy secretary, but she couldn't let her know that.
"That slut probably has probably been sleeping her way to success since she was in high school," Nadia thought while laughing to herself.
They deserved each other as far as she was concerned because she was too done with Ben Morrison.
**********
The next few weeks seemed like a blur to Nadia. She spent long days and sometimes even nights at the office learning as much as she could about Ben's business. She was determined to leave this internship with enough information to tank BGM. However she had actually begun to like her job. Instead of having to sneak to work on all the things she wanted to, Ben had actually been encouraging her to do whatever she wanted.
As she diligently worked, Ben couldn't help but be impressed by the in depth reports she continued to turn in. On top of that work, she also came to work looking stunning every day. The way she mesmerized his clients at meetings with her amazing looks and humor had landed him so much business he didn't know what he was going to do when she had to leave. It was clear that Nadia had become extremely valuable for his company.
The only thing bothering him lately about her was that she hadn't called to come over, and it seemed whenever he would invite her over after client meetings she always had one excuse or another. It wasn't really much of a concern though since Liz seemed to offer up her services daily.
"Wow Nadia this report on L'Oreal's marketing spend over the past ten years is impeccable," Ben said while walking into her office one morning.
