Six ◑ The Tour

"I still can't believe you got the job," Agnes said as she watched Lucille brush some brown pigment onto her eyelids. "Not that I think you can't do it, of course. It just seems surreal."

"It does, doesn't it?" Lucille smiled her own reflection in the mirror, her eyes shining brighter than the string of lights that decorated the frame. "I won't be able to do extreme mind tricks for the entire year because of the stunt I pulled with the Paradigm Publishing bosses, but I think it's worth it. They're so convinced that I myself can hardly believe they're that easy to manipulate."

It was true. Three days had passed since her interview on Thursday, yet she still couldn't quite process how easy it had been, how smoothly things were working out so far.

On Friday, the three bosses had met with her again to discuss her pay and her contract. She'd gotten a pretty good deal on both ends, and while talking with them, she'd come to learn that her job would require her to spend lots of time working with the manager.

Apparently, the branch's marketing team had suffered a lot of losses since the change of leadership. To fix this, she would have to 'coordinate' closely with Cade Landon to execute his vision.

William and Erin had said all of this with grim expressions like they were delivering devastating news, but these statements were nothing but wonderful gifts to Lucille.

More time with Cade meant more opportunities to set his stupid career on fire. Literally or figuratively, whichever would come first.

When Lucille had shared this to Mia, the young woman had freaked out big time. She'd started to curse and cheer over the phone, almost busting Lucille and Agnes's eardrums.

"Oh, my God!" Mia had kept exclaiming, her frantic movements audible. "You really did it! This is amazing. A marketing executive have a say in the business decisions Cade will have to make. You will know what he's scheming, what his prospects are . . . and you can ruin it all."

"That's the plan," Lucille had agreed. "Ruin it all. Screw him over."

Fast-forward and there she was on this Monday morning, getting ready for her first day as a marketing executive and her comeback as a proper witch. She was sitting in the closet room in front of her mirror, polishing every feature to blind everyone from the fact that she knew jack-shit about her job.

"I'm kind of scared," Agnes admitted, sitting beside her and playing with her brushes. "I know you can always take Cade Linden easily, but what if he catches you before you can take a crack at it?"

"I doubt that." Lucille applied a coat of mascara on her lashes. "I studied the thing in the weekends remember? Publishing, marketing, yadda, yadda. I think I'm up to date. Or at least I know the basics. Everything else I'll have to improvise. If all else fails, I can always torch their boring building."

Agnes laughed. "I'll bring the gasoline. But seriously, good luck, Miss Lucille."

"Thank you." She smiled, stood, and straightened her loose maroon slacks. "Now it's time to go."

Lucille didn't want to admit it, but she was actually looking forward to this whole thing. Especially the 'ruining' part. She couldn't help feeling a buzz in her stomach as she drove to Paradigm Publishing. Even though she knew that nothing but drabness would follow her throughout the day, her excitement peaked when she arrived at the building. So much so that when Cade Linden showed up at the lobby to welcome her, she swooped up and cheerfully kissed him on both cheeks.

"Good morning!" She kept her hands on his shoulders as she held him at arm's length. "How's your weekend?"

Cade's brown eyes flitted warily around the room to check if anyone had seen that. Only Justin was here, and he was doing his best not to look. A sigh of relief escaped Cade, but his cheeks were burning red. Lucille was glad to see that beneath that mask of calm, her simple gesture flustered him.

Oh, this would be the most fun she'd have in years.

"I'm good." He cleared his throat and gently eased his way out of her grip. "So, uh, are you ready for the orientation?"

Lucille's good mood popped like a bubble. "The what?"

"Orientation," he said. "It will help you understand the company immensely."

"An orientation?" she repeated feebly.

"Yes." Cade produced a bunch of pamphlets seemingly out of nowhere and handed it all to her. "These are our employee manuals. All the things you need to know about the company is there, including our values, our mission and vision, and employee benefits. Should you have any questions, feel free to approach anyone from the Administrative Team. They take care of our wages and leaves—basically everything concerning your employment. Now, let's take a tour."

"A tour?" she echoed incredulously.

"Yes," Cade said with a small smile. "Let's go."

Orientation? Tour? Fucking booklets?

Lucille knew that working here wouldn't exactly be a blast, but she didn't anticipate it to be this deathly.

She opened her mouth to ask just why he'd subject her to this torture, but she didn't get to begin the question. The moment he finished his sentence, he turned around and gestured her to follow.

The interior of the building was . . . well, it wasn't even worth mentioning, really. It looked like any stereotypical office, just desks, cubicles, and lots of papers. She found herself dragging her feet as Cade gave her the 'orientation'. Hand to heart, she tried her best to listen, but his voice was lulling her to sleep. Once or twice she had to pinch herself just to get that extra boost of energy, otherwise she'd be snoring on the floor.

The only thing that kept Lucille awake was the employees she was being introduced to. None of them looked particularly enthused about her presence. In fact, some of them were even wearing expressions of malice, which they shared with each other through conspirational glances.

The glances they kept exchanging were subtle and quick, but they were enough to convey one message: they knew something that she didn't, and this particular something was very, very juicy.

Well, Lucille would find out soon enough.

All of the departments in the office had people like this, right from the Acquisition and Production Teams to the Design Administrative Teams. The knowing looks, the stabs of malice, the clear dislike aimed at Cade.

Cade didn't notice. Or perhaps this was such a common occurrence that he didn't bother anymore. He just kept on walking, kept on introducing her to people that she would later on forget.

However, out of all the departments, the worst would probably be the Marketing and Public Relations Team.

Lucille expected to get at least a lukewarm welcome here, but instead she got stiff smiles and sneers, narrowed eyes and scoffs at full magnitude. This passive-aggressive air was enough to charge the atmosphere with tension, which was impressive since there were only four people in the department.

"Good morning, everyone," Cade said. "This is Lucille Saint-Claire, our new marketing executive. Lucille, this will be your assistant, Shanry Grace."

He pointed at a timid, thirtyish woman with dyed blue hair, who raised a hand as a greeting and immediately looked away.

"That over there is our social media manager Clifford Lopez, and the PR assistant Rosie Lang," Cade continued, now gesturing at a handsome Hispanic man in glasses then at a petite black-haired woman. "Over there is Martin Schultz, the PR executive. He's been taking the marketing task when the position got vacated."

"Good morning," Lucille said, and the other three mumbled back a greeting before shaking hands with her.

Only Martin Schultz—an old, pudgy white-haired man with a neatly trimmed beard—didn't follow suit. His gray eyes were roaming around Lucille's face, but she had a feeling that he wasn't really acknowledging her presence.

He turned to Cade and sneered. "Another eye-candy? Really, Linden? Is this the best you can do?"

Cade's hands balled into fists, but his voice was as calm as ever. "Please, Martin, behave appropriately."

"Hmm." Martin smiled at Lucille. "Sorry I won't bother with the formalities. I know you're not going to last long here—"

"One more word and I'll report you straight to William," Cade snapped. "Don't try me."

Ooh, tension. Lucille was basking in it, even though she was the cause. Hell, she was basking in it BECAUSE she was the cause. She would have happily goaded them into breaking each other's necks, but she remembered that she had a role to play.

She put a hand on Cade's shoulder to stop him from saying any more, then she approached Martin and held out a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Schultz. I hope we could work and behave as professionals."

Martin shook her hand gruffly. "Good luck with that."

After flashing a loathing look at Cade, he got up from his seat and stalked out of the room, which was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"Let's go to my office," Cade told Lucille. His smile was tight. He looked distressed. "I have a few things to run with you."

His office was in the same floor as the marketing team, located at the far corner. It wasn't as spacious as she'd expected, but it was noticeably cleaner and grander than the other areas. At least his office was enclosed, with an actual couch set and a table with a few file cabinets lining one section of the wall. The blinds were pulled back from the giant windows, but the only view they offered was the walls of other buildings.

Cade sat behind his desk, while Lucille settled on the leather seat in front of him. He began to rifle through a pile of papers and gave a sheaf to her, his face still scrunched up from the encounter earlier. "I'm sorry about Martin. I'm so embarrassed."

"Don't be," she replied. "It's okay, really. I just didn't expect that kind of tension between you two."

"Well, he wasn't like that back then." Cade sighed. "When I wasn't the one who got the . . . never mind. Don't worry, they'll warm up to you."

Lucille seriously doubted that, but then again, she didn't care. "I hope so, Mr. Linden."

"Please, call me Cade." A more genuine smile crossed his features. "You calling me sir or mister makes me feel a bit too old. I'm only thirty-two."

"Are you married?" she asked innocently.

"No." He let out a short laugh. "And neither are you, so don't judge."

"That's right, I'm still on the market," she said, then she raised an eyebrow. "You really checked if I'm not married?"

"I also checked your hands for a ring," he said jokingly, then he cleared his throat, his ears turning red. "Sorry, it's just that I—you might have a boyfriend. I'm sorry for—"

"I don't have a boyfriend." Lucille leaned closer across the table. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Cade's eyes began to glaze over, but he snapped into attention and laughed awkwardly.

"No girlfriend." He scratched his cheek, fiddling with the papers again. "Anyway, here are the projects and objectives we need to achieve by the end of the year. We're launching six debut authors on October, and our aim is to create a big buzz. It's our task to organize an event for this."

Lucille found it amusing how he forced himself back to business when they were clearly flirting, but she just went with the flow and examined the papers. Proposals. About a dozen of them, all for that launching event. Yawn.

"Okay." She put on her best businesslike face. "I'll work on this immediately."

"Fantastic." Cade whipped out even more papers. "We also have other commitments. There's a career seminar series that we have to attend. We're also to create a curated list of books for the main office and another list for international distribution. Both will be based on marketability."

Fuck. More papers. "Perfect. I will go through these as soon as I could."

"Thank you." Cade sank onto his seat and rubbed his temples. "I hope we can make something work. Our launches have been lackluster, and it's all due to bad marketing. I'm really counting on—"

The rest of his words were cut as his phone started to vibrate on the table. He quickly picked it up, but his face went pale the moment he saw the screen.

"We'll talk again later," he told Lucille hurriedly before answering the call. "I'm at work. What do you want?"

He'd said this in a hushed tone, but Lucille heard every word. Still, she did as she was told. She stood and headed towards the door, only to find a handful of employees standing outside.

It wouldn't take a genius to know what these people were eavesdropping, but she merely ignored them. However, she was struck by the strange feeling of familiarity that she'd gotten when they stared at her. It was tugging some sort of a memory in her head, making her feel as though this had happened before, under a similar context.

Bothered now, Lucille went to the bathroom instead of her table. She locked herself in a cubicle, and she immediately realized that her heart was beating at an alarmingly high rate.

And it only raced more when she heard two women entering the bathroom.

She couldn't recognize their voices, much less know their names, but it didn't matter. What mattered was their conversation, and the fact that they were clearly talking about Cade.

"Can you believe his nerve?" Girl Number One asked. "He's just . . . argh."

Girl Number Two huffed. "The only thing I can't believe was their choice. I mean, isn't that Lucille girl just a socialite? What does she know about the company?"

"Nothing, of course." Girl Number One entered the cubicle on the right and continued talking. "But I bet you she knows Cade, if you get my meaning."

Lucille nearly cackled. God, there was nothing more entertaining than office drama, even if it did involve her directly.

"Ha. I see what you mean," Girl Number Two said. "It's why he keeps hiring bimbos."

Okay, now that was crossing a line. Lucille was no bimbo.

"How long do you think she'll stay?" Girl Number One flushed and exited the cubicle. "I'll give her two months."

"One month," Girl Number Two replied. "He'll hit and run, I tell you. It's a never-ending cycle. And yet he wonders why this branch is becoming a flop."

"Yeah, that's why Martin hates him so much." Girl Number One lowered her voice and added, "I swear, Martin got robbed of the manager position."

Aha! Lucille nearly whooped. That explained everything.

No wonder Martin hated Cade. No wonder the marketing thing wasn't working. It was Martin's personal vendetta, and this would be a perfect opportunity for Lucille to screw things over for good.

Wow, what a productive day. She already had four possible opportunities to ruin, and the morning hadn't even properly started yet.