Chapter Text
She watched intently as the windshield wipers rocked vehemently back and forth. Back and forth. People told her that it was always cold and rainy in England, but she rolled her eyes. She was from New York, after all. she was raised in New York. It was cold and rainy there too-she could handle it, she told them. Or that’s what she had thought before she landed in this ocean of a country. She glanced quickly at the clock on her dashboard, noticing that she was already five minutes late.
“Great,” she mumbled, tapping her fingers impatiently on the top of the steering wheel. “I’m going to get fired before I even start my first day on the job.” She had been lucky to have had found a job in the first place. She had been in London for the past three months, searching, waiting for anything- any position to open up when finally, luck tipped its hat to her. She was to be an assistant to a local, esteemed novel author. What was his name again? Perfect, she had forgotten her boss’ name before she had even started. She had never heard of him before, but apparently he was equivalent of Nicholas Sparks. He wrote stories of women’s fantasies- of men that were too good to be true.
“I wonder if he’s married?” she thought to herself- the windshield wipers still droning in the background; the rain pitter-pattering steadily against the windows. “Oh, shut up, Cersei. He’s probably gay,” she rationalized, flicking her turn signal on as turned into the lot of her new office building. After three months, she had finally gotten used to driving on the right side of the road without any hesitation. Those first few months, however, well, let’s just say she received more honks and slander pointed towards her then she had in her entire life. And that’s saying a lot. She did live in New York her whole life, after all.
Wrestling open the umbrella against the blustering wind, she shut her car door and skirted her way across the blacktop, only sighing in relief when she reached the overhang. Walking into the building, she felt the warm air rush to greet her and experienced a sudden rush of comfort. But that was short lived as she walked down the stark, narrow hallway. The walls were plain- an intimidating white. The air seemed to get colder with each step she took and she suddenly wondered if it was the climate, or just her paranoia.
She gripped her jacket a bit tighter against her body and approached the door that read. “Ace Books,” the name, “Oberyn Martell,” underneath. Martell! That was it! Oberyn Martell. It’s cool name. She thought. Opening the door, she was met with more blank, white walls and a large desk in the middle of the room, surrounded by many tiny cubicles. A woman sat at the desk, her face concentrated on her computer, her fingers pecking away at the keyboard. She hadn’t even heard her come in.
“Hi,” Cersei approached the desk slowly, “my name is-,”
“Oh! You must be Miss Lannister!” The woman checked her watch and Cersei mentally prepared herself to be reprimanded for being late. “I was so worried you weren’t going to show! We haven’t had the best of luck with Mr. Martell’s assistants lately, but I’ll fill you in on that later,” This woman was talking so fast, Cersei thought she was going to run out of breath any moment.
“Oh, I’m being entirely rude! My name is Catelyn,” she extended her hand and Cerseitook it gratefully. Maybe she could be Cersei’s first friend she made in England.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” she started, feeling the need to explain being tardy on the first day of work. “There was a lot of traffic and the rain,” she paused, collecting her thoughts, “I’m still getting used to being over here quite honestly.” Catelyn nodded sympathetically and reached out to place a comforting hand on her arm.
“Ah, yes, you’re American ,” No I’m british, but I never actually lived in this country, suddenly feeling a bit nostalgic about New york and missing his parents and only brother Jaime, who’s married to Lyanna now and staying in Newyork with her parents, she was lost in her thoughts for a moment. “From what part may I ask?”
“New York,” Catelyn’s eyes glistened and a smile appeared on her face.
“Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there! It’s seems like such a fascinating place!” Cersei smiled a crooked smile- yes, interesting to say the least.
“Let me introduce you to everyone,” she gestured at the surrounding cubicles and Cersei mentally prepared herself to remember as many names as she could.
“Everyone!” Catelyn shouted, and Cersei jumped back, surprised by her booming voice. Heads began to shoot up from their little boxes and Cersei had to smile. It looked like a scene from the whack-a-mole arcade game. “Everyone this is Cersei Lannister, Mr. Martell’s new assistant,” Smiles were thrown in her direction and she smiled shyly and gave a little wave. She hated attention. “Cersei, this is everyone!” she said and smiled back at her.
“A lovely looking bunch,” Cersei offered, and before she could mutter another word, a voice interrupted her.
“Catelyn!” the voice boomed, and Cersei watched as every head snapped quickly back down into there cubicles. “Catelyn! Get Michael back on the phone as soon as possible and make sure he has time to speak. Also, read through these files, find the errors and send the revised copies to corporate; they’re expecting them by this afternoon,” The man commanded, tossing a stack of papers onto Catelyn’s desk. “Also, call that little place on the corner and order that salad I like; I won’t be able to go out for lunch,” and with that, the door shut and the silence in the room was suddenly deafening.
“I’m guessing that’s my boss?” Cersei offered, and Catelyn smiled at her, almost sympathetically.
“Him at his finest,” Cersei watched as she made her way over to her desk and started leafing through the files he placed on her desk. “Yes, there’s something you should know about Mr. Martell,” Cersei braced herself for what she was about to say; he suddenly didn’t seem like the dream man she had envisioned him to be.
“He, ah, let me see if I can put this in the nicest way,” she stopped shuffling the papers, “He’s not really a people person,” she paused, collecting her words again, “He doesn’t like people,” she put it bluntly and Cersei bit her bottom lip. This job didn’t seem so appealing anymore. Catelyn sensed Cersei’s uneasiness and reached out to take her hand.
“You’ll be fine, dear,” she comforted, and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Cersei took a quick glance at his door and then back at Catelyn. “I think it’s about time you meet your boss,” Cersei didn’t want to; in fact, that’s the last thing she wanted to do. She needed to buy herself some time.
“Yeah, I’m a- I’m just going to use the restroom first. Three cups of coffee this morning,” she reasoned before following Catelyn’s directions to the girl’s room. She threw her purse down on the counter and rested her elbow’s against the edge, her head resting in her hands.
“God, Cersei, what have you gotten yourself into?” she asked, staring at her reflection through the mirror. She tucked a stray piece of hair back into her bun, untied her jacket and brought her hands down to straighten out her black pencil skirt. She could always leave now. She could run to her car, drive home and never look back. She would never have to deal with Oberyn Martell. But something was pulling her to stay, maybe it was Catelyn, maybe it was because she knew she had no other option of a job. Whatever it was, it worked. She picked up her purse off the counter and made her way back to the office after checking her appearance one last time. Slipping her jacket off, she hung it on one of the coat racks and made her way back over to Catelyn.
“Should I , just go in?” She smiled and nodded, motioning to his door.
“Cersei, you’re going to be fine. He’ll come across a little harsh at first, but you’ll learn how to deal with him in time,” Cersei flashed back an unsure smile. “I don’t know how long I’ll last,” she thought to herself before turning to face his door. She raised a hand to knock on his door, and after a long moment, her hand finally came into contact with the wood.
“What?” she heard him question from inside the room and she opened the door slowly. She stepped inside and noticed that he hadn’t looked up from his monitor. His fingers typed away on his keyboard, glasses perched on the edge of his nose as he stared through them, his jaw clenched, concentrating on what he was creating on the monitor. When he realized that there was a presence in the room he glanced up, then back down at his work, but then quickly back up to the doorway.
“Who are you?” he asked, his brows furrowing, his eyes raking up and down her form. Suddenly, she wished she were anywhere but there. She cleared her throat to speak and wiped her palms against her skirt.
“My, my name is Cersei Lannister,” she started, and she could tell that nothing was clicking in his head, so she continued, “I’m your new assistant,” she took a step closer to the desk and extended her hand. He looked at it as if it were lethal, but then took it lightly in his own hand.
“Right,” he offered, before returning his attention back to his work. His fingers started typing away on the keyboard again, and suddenly Cersei felt extremely uncomfortable. After a moment, he noticed that she hadn’t moved and glanced back up at her.
“Is there anything else you need?” he asked, stalling his typing for a minute, making eye contact with her.
“Oh, uhm, no,” she stuttered, turning to leave and right as she reached the door, his voice stopped her.
I see, you’re the one came from New York “You’re American?” he asked, as if he had just come to the realization. She felt her cheeks redden as she turned around to face him.
Uhm I lived there but “No,” she muttered and watched as he leaned back in his chair. He stared at her then, only for a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. His eyes scaled her body once again and she suddenly felt self-conscious. He took in her whole form. He watched as she crossed her arms across her chest. Probably a reflex.
Small was his first thought of her. Pretty was his second.
“Is that going to be a problem?” she asked abruptly and his eyes scaled their way back to her eyes. He had to remember what she was asking about and then he shook his head.
“No, no. I was just wondering,” she nodded curtly again. She turned to leave again, but his voice stopped her once more.
“Wait,” he called and she revved around to face him again. “Fix me a cup of tea,” he ordered and then turned his attention back to his work once more, leaving her completely forgotten at the door. She slipped through the threshold quickly and Catelyn looked up as she heard the door shut.
“Well? How’d it go? Do you want to quit yet?” Cersei huffed a bit and shook her head.
“He wants tea,” she told Catelyn. She pointed to the kitchen and Cersei made her way there. She had never made proper tea and wondered if it was different from the tea she got at Starbucks back in New York. She scanned the cabinets and found the teabags in the box. God, there were so many flavors. What did he want? She glanced back out of the kitchen to ask Catelyn, but saw that she was on the phone. She didn’t want to interrupt her and she was afraid that if she waited, it would be too long for Mr. Martell. She grabbed the herbal tea and brewed it, hoping that he enjoyed this flavor. She put the bag into the cup of hot water and watched as the clear liquid turned into a steaming cup of brown liquid. Squeezing the excess liquid out of the bag, she took the steaming cup out of the kitchen and headed back towards his office. She knocked once on the door, letting him know she was coming in. He didn’t look up as she entered and she made her way over to her desk, placing it next to him.
“There you are,” she told him, and started to back out of the room before she heard a loud, coughing noise. That couldn’t be good.
“What the hell is this?” she heard him boom. Oh God. She wanted to cry.
“It’s tea, Mr. Martell,” she told him, gripping the doorknob, wishing he would just let her leave.
“That is no bloody tea. That’s, I don’t even know what that is,” she went over to the desk and took the cup from him.
“I’m sorry, I can try again,”
“No, I don’t want you to try again. Are you trying to kill me?” she felt like her eyes were welling with tears.
“No, sir,” she watched as he wiped his mouth with a napkin and stared back at her.
You’re from New York right ? I shouldn’t have held such high expectations of you,” she felt a sudden surge of pride for New york where she lived her whole life rise up and before she could retort he continued his rant.
“Do you know how to do anything right? Are you capable of making copies? Because, you know, you have to do a lot of that. Do you know how to take notes because you’ll have to do that at meetings. Did they teach you how to pick up a phone and make appointments? Did they teach you how to do anything in the God forsaken country of yours?” Her blood was boiling. No one talked to her like that. Especially someone she had just met. She may appear tiny on the outside, but she had a fiery personality on the inside. What Oberyn Martell didn’t know about her was that she wasn’t afraid to fire back.
“Excuse me!” she exclaimed marching over and standing in front of his desk, arms akimbo. “No one, and I mean no one talks to me like that! How dare you speak to someone like that after they did was try to make you a decent cup of tea!” He leaned back in his chair, a small smirk appearing on his lips. “Do you think you can just bark orders at people and then diminish them when they do something wrong?! You’re human too! And I haven’t known you for very long, but I can already see that you’re not perfect. I’m sorry I ruined your tea, but there’s plenty more tea in the world! I’m sorry, Sir Martell, I will go make you more tea!” she turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Oberyn Martell bit his tongue and leaned up to rest an elbow on the edge of his desk. He liked this girl. He wasn’t about to tell her that, but he did. She was feisty. Something he wasn’t used to. Yeah, he thought to himself, he was going to keep her around. And besides, she was the best-looking assistant he had had in the past few years.
“Men make me crazy,” she muttered, storming past Catelyn’s desk once more and into the kitchen. Catelyn laughed and stood up to follow a muttering Cersei. She leaned against the doorway and watched as Cersei brewed another cup of tea.
“Oberyn Pain in my ass Martell,” Catelyn’s laughter filled the air as Cersei pushed past her once more with a steaming cup of tea. She watched as she busted open his office door and made her way right in.
Yeah, she was good for him. She was just what he needed.