Unexpected Charity
She’s late to work.
She is so late in fact, that she considered just not showing up at all. Her late night yesterday having been spent stressing about finding enough space in her apartment for everyone to have a spot to sleep at the slumber party. But that wasn’t in Nicole’s nature, to just not show up to work when things needed to be done. Plus, rent was due soon, and even though Black was kind enough to even pay her anything at all while she worked off her mother’s debt to him; she could only get paid if she actually worked.
So there she was, clumsily bursting through the front door, heels clacking against the wood floors while she still adjusted and fiddled with the buttons of her blouse. As if being late wasn’t already bad enough, her clothes were actively working against her; the buttons of her blouse slipping out of place, her office skirt kept riding up with every step. Even her hair wasn’t cooperating, the long tresses wanting to snatch and tangle on everything it touches. Trying to put it up was a nightmare of its own this morning.
Speaking of nightmares…
Black’s voice could be heard from across the main office, and wouldn’t you know it, there he was. He was standing at Nicole’s desk, having picked up the phone in her absence, and he sounded utterly bored with whatever conversation he was having. But as soon as he laid eyes on Nikki, he perked up, and her heart dropped.
She was in so much trouble.
“Hey, Bertie, my office manager is here, call me back, would you?” Black’s dismissal was just as unceremonious as the way he proceeded to hang up on him. Even though he was smiling- which was strange for him- Nikki couldn’t help but feel her heart begin to flutter in her chest. She knew just how much he hated when Ezra was late, and Ezra and him were friends… kinda… So she could only imagine how upset he might be with her, as someone working under him to pay off her mother’s debt.
As if it couldn’t get any worse, Black beckons Nikki with a flick of his fingers.
“Come into my office for a moment, Nikki.”
And she had no choice but to follow, clutching her bag to her chest to cover up her ill-fitting blouse, the sound of her clicking heels fading as she stepped onto the plush carpeting of Black’s office.
“Could you please close the door behind you, Gatita?”
Oh god. She was in such deep shit, she could just tell. Her hands shook as she dragged the door behind her, forcing herself to breathe manually. The habit of holding her breath when she was scared has always been a nasty one to kick. Nikki pressed her back to the door, trying to hold her knees together so that they didn’t wobble under her weight.
Black sauntered over to his desk, pulling open a drawer and pulling out a cigar box and a box of matches. As he bit the end of the cigar and flicked the match, Nikki’s nose twitched at a familiar scent; over the vaguely sweet scent of tobacco leaves, was the pungent aroma of weed. He dragged the flame into the blunt with a few puffs before finally being able to take a good pull off the wrap, inhaling deeply. Smoke billowed out from his nose as he exhaled, making him appear almost dragon-like.
“That’s better,” He scoffs, shaking his head with a wry smile. “Fuckin’ Bertie. Can’t stand that uppity lil’ shit. I dunno how you can handle listening to that lil’ fucker yap in your ear the way he does.”
Nikki nodded, swallowing around the dry lump in her throat. God, how she wished she could bum a drag off of his smoke right about now.
“But I didn’t call you in here just so I can talk shit about Bertie with you…” He puffs on the blunt once more, letting it hang from his lips as thick, white smoke swirled out with every word. “...Tell me Nikki, how come you were so late today? I’m more than happy to ignore being, I dunno, five, maybe ten minutes late.”
Nikki clung desperately to her bag as she watched Black’s massive form lean languidly over his desk, those glimmering red eyes of his casting a red haze over the smoke.
“But nearly two hours? You know better than that. What happened, Nicole?”
Nikki could feel herself blanche at the question. She knew the answer, and she knew just how stupid she would sound if she actually said it out loud. But she also knew that she couldn’t lie to him; she found that out quite quickly when Black caught her on the spot once, early in her employment to him, and called out her faster-than-usual heart rate at the time. It was both embarrassing and humiliating.
He raised a brow at her prolonged silence, looking her up and down through the haze.
“...Ah, I see now.” He shakes his head, pulling the blunt from his lips to ash it into the ashtray on his desk. He beckons her with a flick of his fingers like he did before. “C’mere, I promise, I’m not gonna bite.”
Oh, how she wished he wouldn’t do that. But she was helpless not to obey, so she did just that. It took a considerable amount of effort to pry herself off the door, and even more so to attempt to walk without a tremor in her step. Black’s eyes following her definitely didn’t help her already defeated confidence, but she finally made it over to stand by his desk, every step feeling like a thousand miles.
He rested his hip against the side of the desk, so as to not loom over her. He offered to take her bag, to which Nikki hesitated, before sheepishly handing it over to him, letting him set it beside his chair. Now she felt naked, folding her arms under her chest and looking away from Black’s intense gaze.
“Y’know,” He started casually, looking away from her so that he could watch the cherry on the end of his blunt flicker and glow. “You’re not in trouble right now. I’m not angry with you.”
Nikki gulped.
“Y-You’re not?”
Black shook his head again.
“Not in the slightest. I guess you could say I’m… curious." He stuck the blunt back to his lips, watching Nikki’s thick brow furrow in confusion. He thought she looked so cute when she glared at him like that. She looked like a wild cat, with those deep, dark brown eyes of hers, paired with that scrupulous stare.
“You’re typically so, well, punctual, mi gatita. What happened today to make you so late? I couldn’t help but wonder what could hold you up like that.”
Nikki hesitated, looking away. Her long, untamed hair fell over her shoulder like a veil, which came as a surprise to Black. He didn’t know her hair was quite that long, as she always puts it up. Why hadn’t she even done her hair this morning?
Now that he was looking at her, not only was her hair long and undone- falling all the way past her hips- her face was also bare; aside from the day-old mascara that gave her a raccoon effect around her eyes. Her blouse was also rumpled, the buttons straining over her chest in an ill-fitted fashion, and her skirt was hitched up higher than usual.
Before he could assume the worst that may have happened to her, Nikki finally sighed, hopping up onto his desk to seat herself.
“I, um… I have a friend, you see. H-Her name is Eleanor, and I recently found out she’s kind of in a pickle. So I, like, offered her a place to stay, right? Until she gets back on her feet, y’know?”
Black nodded along, relaxing a bit as he listened, leaning in a bit closer just so he could watch the way her long eyelashes fluttered as she spoke.
“Well, I decided to make a slumber party outta it! ’Cause I never, like, got to throw one myself, y’know? I thought it’d be fun and stuff. B-But I don’t have a lotta food, you see, and so I was asking for advice in the local city forum-”
“Mhmm.”
“And someone- This nice girl named Cara- offered a potluck idea. Like, people bringing food or drinks to contribute. She said she bakes sometimes, and offered to bring some food, so I invited her to the sleepover! And then someone else offered to make tamales-”
Black perked up at the mention of tamales. Those took a notoriously long time to make.
“Tamales?”
“Yeah!” Nikki chimed, seeming to forget her previous insecurities and worries.
“What kind?”
“A couple types. Verde, I think? Probably pollo or carnitas-”
“So Mexican style, then? Those are arguably the best, but I’m biased.”
“I’m pretty sure! But, anyway-”
Nikki shook her head, trying not to get too sidetracked from her story. Black took that opportunity as a chance to sneak in a little closer, close enough that he could smell the faint scent of vanilla waft off of her skin.
“Right, of course. So about the party-”
“Mhm. So since he offered, I invited him too. And then someone offered to bring tequila, which I thought would be fun! And then of course, Ezra wanted to come, and I could never say no to him!”
“Of course, naturally.” Black chimed.
“One thing kept leading to another, and now before I know it, a slumber party that started out between just two people, turned into… well, something way bigger than what my apartment can handle!”
Nikki brushed her long hair back with her long, manicured nails, huffing out a frustrated sigh. Her legs swung cutely back and forth off the edge of his desk, one of her heels dangling off the edge of her toe.
“I’ve spent almost all night trying to figure out what the hell to do! My apartment just can’t fit everyone, and now I’m going to have too much food than what I originally needed. I’m afraid of a bunch of food going unnecessarily to waste!”
Black nodded solemnly, his gaze dragging down to watch her try and kick her heel back onto her foot.
“So what you’re telling me is, you spent your whole night planning this party for your friend to lift her spirits-”
“Uh-huh…”
“And because you stayed up all night planning, you-”
“Missed my alarm… by almost two hours…” Nikki finished for him, that terrible frown disgracing her pretty face once more. “It sounds so stupid, I-I know. I’m so sorry, Black, really. I was just… I-I was just, so excited, y’know? I never got to have a party like this growing up, I just wanted to do something to, y’know… help somebody…”
When he looked up at her again, he wished that he hadn’t, because those sad eyes of hers were enough to break a heart as hard and as cold as his. Black sighed, exhaling a deep puff of smoke off of his blunt towards the ground. Damn her, she was going to make him soft.
“That’s so like you,” Black muttered, flicking some ash into the ashtray as he crossed his foot over his ankle, leaning into her space. “Only you could be so excited to give something you don’t have.”
“I told my friend that we sometimes collaborate with the local charities,” Nikki huffed, picking at the pilled lint on her rumpled skirt. “And that you might be able to help her get some work- which, you might- but when it comes to the party? I’m at a total loss. I think I’m gonna have to tell everyone not to come…”
Oh, god, such a sad face she was making. It made his chest tighten to see her like that.
Black took one last puff of his blunt before he set it down in the ashtray, letting it smolder there. Then he stood up straight, his knee bumping against hers as he snagged one of her skewed buttons on her blouse.
“Well, there’s no need to do any of that,” He began, unbuttoning one of the pearly buttons from her shirt and sliding it into the proper slot this time. “I’ve been holding onto an empty venue for a while now, and I think you’ve just given me the perfect excuse to use it.”
Nikki would have protested, but she couldn’t help but lose the urge to as she watched his fingers work, her face suddenly feeling warm. Since when did it feel so hot in here?
“I-Is that so?”
“Eeeyup.” He finished fixing her blouse all too quickly for her liking, as he suddenly dipped down to sit on one knee beneath her. “You said you don’t have enough room, and too much food? Well, instead of wasting the effort… why not put it into charity?”
Nikki held her breath when she felt Black take hold of her heel, sliding it back onto her foot.
“Ch-Charity?”
“Right. A food drive, specifically.”
The strap that was supposed to hold her heel onto the back of her foot had been left undone, Black taking the small strip of leather and threading it through the shoe buckle. Perhaps it was because of those long nails of hers that her blouse was nigh-undone and her heels only halfway worn. Not that Black particularly cared about her state of disarray; however, it was a nice excuse to enjoy her space.
“You said there’s already plenty of food to go around, right?” Black continued, his hand sliding up to hold her ankle delicately. “So, why not just give the food away to people who need it? I’ll sponsor the event, and host it at that event center I’ve been holding onto. And you get to bring all the people you want, for the sake of a good and charitable cause.”
When he looked up, he couldn’t help but smile at how intensely red Nikki had turned. She was beet red all the way up to her ears. Not just that, but he could hear the way her heart fluttered in her chest, how her breath stalled in wait for what was to come.
“Y-You would… You would actually d-do that? F-For me?”
“Nikki…” *His hand slid up a little further, caressing the back of her calve, where her skin was especially soft. “I think you underestimate just how much I would do for you…”
She blinked several times, her eyes becoming somewhat bleary with tears, but she couldn’t help the smile that plastered itself over her face. The look of doom and gloom disappearing as a new light gleamed from her eyes.
”There we go.” Black thought to himself. “That’s my girl.”
“Oh my god!” Nikki exclaimed, throwing her head back in pure glee. “Wow, holy shit! This is, Th-This is just-”
The door to Black’s office suddenly opens, and in comes Ezra, barging in on their moment.
Nikki’s temporary glee becomes abject horror as she realizes the position her and Black- her fucking boss- are in; Nikki, seated on his desk, with Black knelt down practically between her legs.
She pushes off the desk clumsily, stumbling on her heels as she hurriedly tries to pull her still rumpled skirt down to a more appropriate length, fumbling with her long nails to tuck her blouse into her skirt in an attempt to appear more professional. Her hair is still a mess, falling down the span of her back and over her shoulder in her attempt to escape any wrong assumptions about what she and her boss could have been doing alone in his office.
“S-So!” Nikki sputtered, too embarrassed to even look at Ezra right now. “Wh-When do you wanna host the charity then?”
It was easy to forget just how huge someone who’s eight-feet-tall really is, but seeing Black stand up to his full height while he angrily glared at Ezra was a chilling reminder.
“Friday, twenty-hundred hours.” Black answered, refusing to break eye contact with Ezra.
“G-Great, okay, I-I’ll, um… I’ll let everyone know…”
Nikki rushed past Ezra, covering the part of her face he could see with her hand as she passed by. God, please don’t let Ezra tease her with this later. There’s no way she could ever recover from this.
Operation: Slumber Party was finally A-Go.
