Falling in love was not included in the contract Alice signed when she applied to be Billionaire CEO, Evan Sterling's personal secretary but it was a clause she had no control over. She had history with rich entitled bosses and she was cautious in her dealings with her new stuck up boss. Alice wasn't the only one who was moving cautiously, Evan had built solid walls around his heart after an encounter with his secretary turned lover ended badly for him and he wasn't about to allow history repeat itself. But fate had other plans for the both of them and with the right connection and acquaintance, Evan finds himself employing yet another secretary. A moment of intense attraction and a little too much wine lands Alice in yet another item that wasn't listed in the contract, Pregnancy. With not enough recollection of the encounter, Evan for fear of being hurt like before, locks Alice out of his life totally oblivious to the fact that she was carrying his child. Alice finds out about the pregnancy late and cause she couldn't tell Evan who had so abruptly switched back to the strict CEO, she leaves everything behind and leaves the firm. With Alice gone, everyone went back to having double the dose of the icy billionaire CEO. Evan hopes to find Alice and not only confess his love for her but to convince her to give him another shot at assistance and his heart. Maybe this glittery was actually gold.
Chapter 1 One
Alice James stared at the resignation later for the fifth time that day, it took her too long and way too much effort to finally secure the job she was resigning from that Monday morning.
As a representative of the language committee in one of the biggest firms in Miami, she was living her dream. The job gave good pay, she got quite the recognition and most importantly she could afford to settle her bills. But she had to leave and it was taking more effort than she thought.
Leaving her hometown to attend college in Florida wasn't one of Alice's best decisions but it sure was one of her bravest. The only child born to a school teacher and a farmer, Alice had a less sheltered childhood. She didn't get the barbie dolls or the fancy dresses but that didn't stop her from dreaming big. Moving to Miami was a big step for her and attending college on scholarship was one of the bonuses of being smart and dedicated.
Almost immediately after graduation, she applied for internship with Kings group and got accepted not long after. Her internship lasted for a year which was more than the required time but Alice was glad to be getting access to such a wide network of information and knowledge.
After her internship, she got employed by the Language committee and started work almost immediately.
It was a dream come true for her. Or so she thought. The apartment was empty that morning as Alice scrolled through TikTok finally settling on a brief writeup in the letter. Her roommate had told her to write an elaborate letter but that wasn't what she wanted.
The two bedroom apartment Alice lived in was occupied by herself and her long time best friend, Sheila Williams. Sheila was the first friend Alice made in Miami and they went from sharing a dorm room on campus to moving in together after graduation. Unlike Alice, Sheila went ahead to attend a culinary school after graduating with a degree in public affairs and was in the middle of establishing her own restaurant in upstate Miami.
"Previously on the Real housewives of Atlanta" the TV sound pulled Alice from her thoughts and she settled into the couch to watch her favorite reality show. Sheila wasn't exactly the best influence on Alice's life but she didn't mind, who doesn't like watching people live their lives?
Besides, Alice knew she would have really liked to have her own reality show but the thought of having people watch her every move wasn't appealing to her and so she settled on watching people live their lives instead. The apartment door sliding open moved Alice's attention from the TV to her phone and she saw it was past 7 in the evening.
As usual, she had spent hours binge watching the show. Sheila walked into the apartment with takeouts and Alice's face lit up in anticipation. She couldn't help it, Chinese food was her favorite thing after spaghetti and meatballs, that is.
"Hey pretty thing, how are you?" Sheila asked as she walked into the kitchen to set the bags down. She removed two plates from the cupboard and was ready to switch microwave on as Alce joined her in the kitchen.
"I'm good fellow pretty thing" Alice said with a smile on her face.
"How's the letter coming up?" Sheila asked with her head in the cupboard bringing out wineglasses. "Not bad" Alice moved to help Sheila set up the kitchen table. They both preferred eating in the kitchen unless they wanted to spend hours in front of the TV. Sheila took the Chinese packs out of the microwave.
"Not bad?" She raised an eyebrow at Alice. Alice smiled.
"Don't give me that look" she scolded, "I'm done, kind of". She set the forks down and moved to fetch the wine from their mini bar.
"That's not encouraging. Did you say why you wanted to quit?" Alice shaked her head and Sheila sighed,
"Sweetheart, you can't just resign from a company you've worked for since your internship for no reason" Sheila was making a valid argument but Alice wasn't in the mood to talk about what happened at Kings group. She had a reason why she was leaving Kings group and it definitely was valid.
"Can we do this later? I'm really starving" Alice made an attempt to change the topic and Sheila did a little tsk tsk but complied anyways. "We'll get back to it" she promised. "But for now, let's eat. I am starving too"
"To think a chef would always be eating" Alice teased and Sheila did a little head shake. They ate in silence with Alice's mind wandering back and forth towards the letter and the company. She was sad to leave but she would deal with it tomorrow, tonight she just wanted to binge watch Kakegurui.
Kakegurui was a weird japanese animation which was popularly called Anime, it wasn't the fact that kakegurui was an anime that made it weird but the fact that it had no fight scenes and was filled with gambling. It definitely wasn't just normal gambling, it involved high schoolers who gambled with everything in the school, from studies to as low as who was who. Sheila wasn't a huge fan of anime so Alice watched it alone.
"You've been watching without me!" Sheila shrieked as she turned on the TV. They usually watched the reality show together but Alice was way behind and she started watching to meet up with Sheila but ended up getting ahead.
"I was behind" Alice protested as she sat on the couch next to Sheila. Sheila looked sincerely hurt and Alice planted a kiss on her cheek and promised they'd go back to where she stopped and so they did.
It was past 11 when Sheila finally dozed off and a very exhausted Alice slept off too without watching her anime. Alice's alarm rang exactly 6am and she rolled over to turn it off and to get ready for work. She was already in the bathroom when it dawned on her that she was supposed to submit her resignation letter. It was resignation day.
As she was signed as an employee of the company a year after her internship, she was assigned to the language committee and she was content working as the speaker of the committee until the secretary of the Chairman of the Language committee resigned a year after Alice joined the committee.
The language committee comprised of individuals who were outstanding in dealings with businesses and clientele that needed to be addressed in their various languages.
Alice had studied language and culture in the university and focused on Spanish. During her internship in the company, she took a business course that centered on Spanish and English.
With the Chairman's secretary resigning, Alice got a promotion that left her ecstatic.
The secretary of the Chairman gets direct access to all the action and that was exactly what Alice was aiming for. There was no interview or requirements, the chairman himself appointed her.
How could something so good turn to something so bad? It didn't take Alice long enough to find out not all that glittered was gold.