Personal Assistant by Cara North

he was alone, made
his own meals, his own bed. He wanted an assistant because it was getting to be
a lot to manage alone. He wanted an assistant because, if he dared admit it, he
didn’t want to always be alone when he wasn’t working.
            He
followed her into the house. She stood in his kitchen waiting for him to say
something.
            “Have
fun, Frankie.” He tried for a smile that failed.
            “Do
you want to come with us?” she asked.
            He
could tell she was worried about leaving him. Certainly this was a side she
hadn’t seen in the papers, in the movies, or on television.
            He
shook his head no, but the smile came easier.
            “I
won’t be out too late.” She laughed as she walked towards the hallway leading
to the garage entry. It wasn’t meant for him to hear but it got a laugh from
him nonetheless as she said, “I haven’t said that since high school.”

Chapter Six
            “Tell
me everything!” Shay practically assaulted Frankie when she arrived. “What is
Jo… ”
            Frankie
put a hand over Shay’s mouth and used her most serious tone, “Do not say his name
out loud.”
            “Why?
Is he Harry fucking Potter or something?” Shay asked after pulling Frankie’s
hand away.
            “I’m
pretty sure you have the wrong character,” Frankie laughed. They started
towards the line inside the theatre to get popcorn.
            “Whatever!
You know what I mean.” Shay pouted. “Tell me something. I made you apply for
the job, Frankie, throw me a bone here.”
            “I
got a good salary. I mean more than I made teaching which is kinda sad when I think about it.” Frankie shook her head.
She didn’t want to think about it.
            “Not
that, I knew that. Tell me how glamorous it is, Frankie. Tell me what it was
like to get that gown and those earrings. Oh my God when I saw you, I
immediately saw those earrings. Did you get to keep them? Who was the dress by?
Why were you wearing your glasses?”
            Shay’s
barrage of questions shot out like a machine gun full of bullets, too many at
once, too fast to dodge. None of them about Frankie, all of them about the
inside life of being Jonas Gunner’s personal assistant  and one side
comment of how she missed Frankie reminding her about appointments she kept
missing in her absence. It dawned on her in that instant she had been Shay’s
personal assistant for a while now and not getting paid for it.
            Frankie
had never been so happy to see previews in her life. Until Jonas’s upcoming
release hit the screen and his face, larger than life locked with another’s. His ex-girlfriend’s. That bitch who had stood him up. That whore who had shown up with someone
else. That hooker who had a nose job in high school! Frankie knew of
Ivy, when her name was Sara Milner. She was a few grades behind Frankie and
Shay, but everyone knew her. Spoiled, selfish, she got the lead in every play
because her parents had money and influence that Shay’s didn’t, at least not
that much. They hated her the moment she usurped Shay’s spot as diva
extraordinaire. Frankie looked over at her best friend sitting in the seat next
to her. Shay was smashing the popcorn container with her furious grip.
            Shay
whispered, “You should have punched her in the face. She needs a new nose job
anyways.”
            Frankie
sighed. She wanted to punch Ivy in the face for what she did to Jonas. She
really wanted to punch herself in the face because in that moment, she really
wanted to be Ivy. She wanted to be the one kissing him.
            The
movie played, it ended, and Frankie was all too ready to return to the
luxurious house she didn’t really live in, but was practically living in
anyways. She made a mental note to walk through the entire thing and learn her
way around it. She lived in an