What A World

“Leslie?” Hearing her name faintly over and over again, Leslie Caddel pulled the rose gold earbud from her ear as she looked to her right to see Oliver Adler—her boss—peering over her shoulder. “What are you doing, Mrs. Caddel?” He asked, mockingly, he was aware of what she was up to.

Leslie has always had a “thing” for her boss, but she chose to ignore the small feelings since they only worked together. All they had was a professional relationship, nothing more. Plus, it doesn’t look too great when a boss goes for his assistant. Even if it didn’t matter, Leslie would never believe that a guy like Mr. Adler would ever fall for her. She always thought of herself as the kind of “nerdy” girl, especially with her black, rectangular glasses. Mr. Adler was more of a muscular guy and didn’t seem to take notice of Leslie whatsoever. Little did she know, Oliver noticed every small thing about her. He had taken a liking to her ever since she walked into the office building for the very first time, asking the front receptionist if they were hiring. He remembers that she wore blue jeans that hugged her legs, a small, white crop top with a jean jacket. It made him chuckle at the thought of it due to how professional this entire building was. The receptionist almost kicked Leslie out because of her outfit, but Oliver insisted on giving her a chance. He was glad he did.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Leslie tried to speak, “I-I…” With her boss inches away from her face, she was unable to think straight and had inexplicable thoughts of the two of them closing the small amount of space in between them. She cleared her throat. He was an extremely good-looking man. He even had a gym in his huge office across the hall from her. His suit fitted his toned body very well along with his dark, curly hair that settled on the top of his head. His emerald green eyes watched her closely and noticed every sudden movement she made.

Oliver smirked at his small assistant in front of him and snatched her earbud from her hand. She tried to take the earbud back, but he was too quick and placed it in his ear before she could grab ahold of it.

I’ve waited way too long

Yeah, I know you’ve changed

You have a different face to me

I guess that I was wrong

I’m the one to blame

And that’s a shame, you see.

Before Oliver could hear the rest of the depressing song, Leslie took the earbud back and glared at him. She shoved the earbuds into her handbag after unplugging them from her small phone and shoving that in as well. He found her beyond adorable—especially when she scrunched her nose or glared at him. That’s the reason he mostly teases her, other than the way her cheeks turn bright red. “C’mon, Leslie. It was just getting good!” Oliver smiled at Leslie as he threw his hands in the air. She rolled her eyes, grabbing onto her belongings.

“We have a meeting we need to get to, Mr. Adler.” The short girl stood up from her seat.

Even when she stands up, she’s at least a foot shorter than me, Oliver thought to himself.

“We best be on our way.”

Oliver smiled at his assistant and noticed her outfit when she stood up. She wore an off-shoulder crop top with a solid, black mini-skirt and the black, strappy-stiletto heels that she always had on. “Alright, Ms. Caddel.” He began to follow Leslie to an elevator, ignoring the disapproving eye contact with any of his coworkers.

Oliver's day began just as every other day did: arguing with his wife, coffee, feeding his dog, and arguing with his rival. Peter Wikter is one of the best company owners and the "scariest" man in all of Germany, of course not to Oliver. He could have anyone removed from the world without a trace in an instant. He was an extremely over-powerful man. Oliver hated the man’s guts, for so many reasons, but the main reason is that he just recently started “talking” to his assistant, Leslie.

“Oliver?” Oliver stopped walking and looked to his left to see his mother. “Can we talk?”

“Ma’, I have to get to this meeting—”

“It’ll just be a second,” she gave him the pleading look as if she were a dog begging for food at the dinner table.

Looking over at Leslie, Oliver sighed when she nodded in approval for him to talk to her. Before he left to go to the small room to talk to her, Leslie mouthed the words: Make it quick, please.

Oliver’s mom, Meghan Adler, had Oliver at the age of 19, and when his father abandoned her, she struggled a lot to give him a good home. Oliver ended up living with his mom and his step-dad, Gunther Müller. Meghan met Gunther about twelve years ago and they were inseparable. Oliver had never seen his mom happier. All up until Gunther got a heart attack in the kitchen. Oliver got home from work around 4 pm to see his mom balling her eyes out and gripping a piece of paper. He quickly rushed over to her and begged her to tell him what had happened that made her so sad. All Meghan said was: Gunther’s dead. You need to take his place in the mafia. Then she stepped out of the room. Oliver was left alone in the big living room trying to process what his mother had just said to him.

“I think Peter’s trying to get through to you by using Leslie.” Meghan sighed as she let the words out quickly. “And I was told he’s waiting outside of the office building to ‘surprise her’. That’s why I came over here to tell you in case something bad happened.”

Oliver quickly rushed out of the room without saying a word. He walked to the elevator, dragging Leslie with him by her arm.

Leslie winced at the slight pain from Oliver gripping her arm a bit too hard, and said, “Mr. Adler, what are you—”

The elevator doors opened in the lobby. After riding the elevator in silence, Oliver dragged Leslie outside, ignoring everyone’s Hey, Mr. Adler! and Leslie trying to stop him. Just as they stepped out of the front doors to the office building, Oliver spotted Peter standing against a limo with flowers in his hands. Before Leslie was able to see Peter, Oliver grasped onto her waist, bent down, and kissed her out of nowhere.

Leslie felt Oliver’s lips against her out of nowhere and was going to push him off her, but she liked it. Wait, no. She really liked it. His hands among her hips, pulling her towards him made her stomach fill with thousands of butterflies.

Oliver’s hands cupped her small cheeks as he slowly kissed Leslie. This felt right to him and he didn’t want to stop, but someone cleared their throat loudly behind the two of them. After he stopped the kiss, extremely slowly, he looked into Leslie’s lustful eyes; she was clearly wanting more. Oliver, regrettably, turned around to face Peter. Oliver was noticeably taller than Peter and more buff, but Peter had bodyguards and that’s all he needed.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Peter growled and shoved Oliver’s shoulder.

Leslie jumped in between the two men before Oliver could do something he would widely regret. “Peter?” She looked at Peter and noticed a fiery look in his eyes as if he were a bull ready to charge at his rival.

Peter shoved Leslie out of his way, causing her to fall to the ground. Oliver’s anger began to become too much as he pushed Peter, hard. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” Oliver walked over to Leslie to help her up and scanned her body for any cuts that could give him a reason to knock Peter out. Leslie was shaking from being frightened and Oliver was beyond pissed that Peter scared Leslie like this. He’s never seen her so terrified before. She shouldn’t be scared of him. “You are so fucking lucky that she’s not hurt,” Oliver said with a stern voice.

Peter’s bodyguards walked toward the three of them as people began to crowd around them. “Listen, let’s not make this a big—” One of his bodyguards began to speak, but was unsuccessful.

“It’s already a big deal!” Leslie nearly jumped as Oliver glared at the scrawny bodyguard as he yelled, “As a matter of fact, it’s already a big scene! Look at all these people standing around us. I wonder if everyone knows that Peter Wikter is a scum!” Leslie looked at the small watch on her wrist and noticed they were already ten minutes late for their meeting. “He shouldn’t have laid a finger on her.” Oliver despised men who hit or even laid a finger on women disrespectfully. Peter hitting women just made this whole matter worse.

“M-Mr. Adler, we need to get going right away.” Leslie struggled to speak after everything that just happened to her in the last 5-10 minutes. She just kissed her boss and liked it, almost witnessed a fight, and got shoved to the ground by someone she had just started taking an interest in. In all honesty, when she was pushed down, it did hurt, but she didn’t want to make the whole situation worse than it already was. She just couldn’t get her mind off of the kiss she and Oliver shared a few moments ago.

After Peter’s bodyguards took him back to wherever he came from, the crowd disbanded. Leslie and Oliver got into his favorite black Ferrari. Oliver always brought fancy cars to work; especially his many Ferraris that were inherited by his stepdad. The car ride to Lowell Schwimmer’s residence was extremely quiet and awkward until Leslie finally spoke up.

“Mr. Adler?” She looked over at him, his handsome face bloomed in the orangish light from the sunset. She’s never noticed him this way, not until that moment they shared. He took his tie off and unbuttoned one of his white dress shirt’s buttons all with one hand. The other is on the steering wheel.

Oliver looked over to Leslie, taking in her beauty before saying, “Yes, Leslie?” He pulled into the Schwimmer’s driveway and parked next to another car that was already there. He looked over to the car. It was an olive green Audi, and if he had to admit it, it wasn’t too bad of a car.

“Why’d you—”

There was a light tapping sound on the passenger’s window. Lowell stood, bending over to make sure they could see his facial expression: extremely pissed off. Leslie swallowed her pride, as the two of them quickly moved from their butts being attached to the seats of the car to their feet glued to the pavement.

“Wow! You guys are…early.” Lowell purposefully made himself sound as sarcastic as he could. “Why don’t you come inside? It is a bit cold out here…” He then mumbled, “I would know since I’ve been standing in the same place for almost 25 minutes.” The three of them began their short walk to the huge front door.

Lowell Schwimmer is one of Oliver’s closest friends and business partners. He is a good-looking man, happily married with two children of his own at the age of 38 years old. Lowell’s wife, Jenny, was beyond gorgeous and made Leslie feel small when she was around her, that’s why she always dreads these meetings with the Schwimmers.

As they walked inside the mansion, Leslie spoke up, “I’m sorry, Mr. Schwimmer, we got caught up in…” She thought of the kiss for a brief moment but shook it out of her mind. “We got distracted by someone making a scene outside of the office earlier.” She brushed the dirt off of her black skirt and gave an apologetic look to the tall man. He was noticeably taller than Leslie, but Oliver crowded over the both of them like a pine tree.

Lowell had treated Leslie like a little sister. “Ah, it’s alright. I was just worried something happened to you guys,” Lowell quietly sighed, lying under his breath.

All of a sudden, Leslie, Lowell, and Oliver turned their heads to the right where they heard heels clicking against the wooden stairs.