Be Mine Ch1

This is for Dan, to whom I owe more than can ever be repaid.

"Mr Regal, your new starter is here." The receptionist said into the phone before replacing it on the desk. "Take a seat, he'll be right down."

"Thank you" Nikki said, doing as she was instructed. She was feeling very nervous. It was her first day at Bischoff Advertising, a job she really wanted. She always wanted to get into this business, to be creative, to make money doing it. That in itself was the other reason she was happy to be there. She had struggled to find work for a while in the industry, and had been forced to wait tables by day and tend bar in seedy clubs at night just to make ends meet. Now her hard work was going to pay off. She recognised the man walking towards her from the interview she had the previous week. He was heading directly for her, so she got up, dusted off her brand new suit jacket and skirt and gave her best smile.

"Miss Bella, how delightful it is to see you again, how are you my dear?" Nikki felt herself go a little red in the cheeks, his English accent came across as sincere, and more than a little charming. If he wasn't old enough to be her father, she could see herself falling for those sort of charms. Nikki snapped herself out of her thoughts and shook the outstretched hand of her new boss.

"I'm great, thank you so much for giving me this chance. I can't tell you how much this means to me, I promise I won't let you down."

"I have no fear of that, none at all. But let's not waste our time with idle chit chat, we have much to do this morning before you join up with your team and make your contribution to their current project. You'll be thrown in at the deep end, the account you'll be working on is a six figure one."

"Six figures? For my first job?" Nikki was taken back, she thought she'd be put on some small time job, something with less consequences, until she'd proven herself.

"Of course, this is one of the biggest companies of our kind. We handle multi million dollar accounts for multinational companies, down to the little guys." Regal sounded proud of that fact.

"Yes sir, I know, I just expected to be assigned one of the 'little guys' right after getting hired."

"You're up for the job aren't you?" The question made Nikki stammer for a moment, suddenly worried she'd get fired ten minutes into her first day.

"Um...um...Of course sir, and I will put everything into it."

"That's the girl I remember. Now step this way." Regal ushered Nikki into a small room with a tv. She was then subjected to an hour of filling in forms about her health, her personal details and her contract. They then took her photo, and by the time she'd sat through two more hours of health and safety movies, her ID badge was ready for her.

"Right, that's lunch." Regal said at the end. That was a big relief to Nikki, who by this point felt her mind was turning to mush.

She went to a sandwich shop around the corner, got a coffee and a chicken salad sandwich. As she was leaving the shop she saw a woman looking at her intently, she made eye contact without thinking about it.

"Hi." The woman said, giving what seemed to be the genuine smile. Nikki smiled back, without talking, and since she hadn't been shown her desk yet, found a bench to eat. She soon had company at the bench, by the same woman as before. This time neither spoke, both sitting there eating. Nikki did notice though, that the woman kept looking at her, like she wanted so say something, but didn't. They finished their food and Nikki was the first to leave.

She stopped at the bathrooms before meeting up with Regal once more. "Right Miss Bella, time to show you to your desk and meet your team. You'll be working on the fifth floor. Shall we proceed to the lifts?" Nikki stopped herself from giggling at him using the word 'lift' instead of elevator, but walked in the direction he was gesturing. She knew a desk on one of the higher floors of the 24 that the company building had was unlikely, but she aspired to a corner office on the highest floor with a view of the city.

The elevator reached its destination and Regal led the way, through a well decorated office with plenty of space, workers not crammed into tiny cubicles. Again Nikki counted her blessings to have landed the job.

The desks were arranged so that workers were in groups of four at desks. She assumed that's how she would be working and that was confirmed when Regal stopped at a group of three with one desk clear.

"So here we are. I'll make the introductions and then leave you to get to work. These are your co workers. First this is Allen."

One guy stepped forward and shook her hand. "That's my name, but everyone calls me AJ." He then stepped back to allow their boss to continue.

"This is Seth." Another man, with hair like she'd never seen before, reached out and shook her hand.

Regal then turned to introduce the last person "And finally, this is..." But this last person was over to her before he could finish, not that this was their first meeting, Nikki remembered her immediately as the woman from the bench at lunchtime.

"I'm Stephanie." She exclaimed with obvious excitement as she ignored Nikkis hand, wrapping her arms around her in a hug like they'd been friends for years.

"Oh my god, it's so good to meet you! I thought you were our new teammate, I saw you with Mr Regal earlier, and they said you'd be starting today. I wanted to speak to you when I saw you at lunch, but I thought if I was wrong I'd have looked like such a fool! I'm so glad you're working with us, I've been working with all guys for so long. It's going to have another woman on board. Speaking of which your hair looks fantastic. Did you go to a salon before coming here? I need the name of your stylist that's for sure. Oh and your..."

"Stephanie, Stephanie..." Nikki desperately tried to get a word in edgeways. "I'm pleased to meet you too, I'm glad all of that at lunch makes sense now." She took one of Stephanie's hand and held it in both of hers, which helped to stop the verbal onslaught as Stephanie looked at her hand being held, then back at Nikki. She had now gone silent as she kept her gaze on the new addition.

"Right, back to it please, you've got to pitch for the new campaign in what, about a week?" Regal asked the team. Even though he knew the answer.

"Monday morning. 10:30. Don't worry sir, we're going to run some ideas this afternoon, been planning it for the new recruit to help judge which idea we are going to develop for the final pitch." AJ said, making Nikki blush that they had planned the after non around her.

"Sounds good, keep me posted. Good luck again my dear." Regal directed his last words to Nikki, then left them all alone.

"Right, well like AJ said Nikki, we need to run through our ideas. I know you might want to get to know your desk, but we need to go to a conference room to see how it plays out the way it would to the clients, so let's go." Seth said, beckoning her to follow him.

"Yeah come on Nikki, I'll show you the way!" Stephanie said with excitement, linking her arm with Nikkis and walking her down the corridors, until they reached one of several conference rooms in the building. It could sit twenty people easily, but after sitting herself down, she pulled a chair close to her and gestured Nikki to take it, and she did.

AJ set up a computer and projector. "Ok, so we are pitching for a statewide pizza place looking to expand. Very successful, will go national in no time. It's a television commercial for the new regions. Whichever ideas go down best will be filmed this week for the pitch to the execs Monday. We would like you to pick your favourite and we'll begin discussing it all from there, till we have our plan."

"Really, you trust me to do that on my first day? Thank you all." Nikki was touched.

"Of course, you're part of us now." Stephanie squeezed Nikkis hand and AJ began to read through his idea, before Stephanie did hers, and Seth finished off. Nikki thought that the two guys had great ideas, and thought it would be possible to make them both into successful tv spots, but Stephanie had out done them both. It was funny, it was memorable, it was creative and it would make people think of the brand if they wanted pizza.

"Wow, you're all really good at this, I'm going to have a lot to live up to." Nikki said, not wanting to alienate the other two. "But honestly, I think Stephanie's is the best one, the clients can't say no to that."

"Yes!" Stephanie shrieked, startling the other two. She threw herself at Nikki, giving her a big hug, nearly taking the two of them over in the chair she was sitting on. "Thank you, I knew you'd love mine, just knew it."

Nikki just laughed, hugged her back, but had a surprised expression. She was relieved that her new co worker was reacting so well to her.

"Whoa, you really wanted this one then, eh Steph?" AJ smiled at her reaction, as Stephanie went a little red.

"Shut up, you know I need it...I need a win I mean." Stephanie blushed and looked away. The others all sniggered.

"Course you do Steph." Seth couldn't help a little dig. "But we had better get on."

The rest of the afternoon was spent planning how they would turn the idea into something they could have ready to show the client. Nikki found she was able to connect well with her new colleagues, especially Stephanie, who paid her ideas a lot of attention, would always look at her when she was speaking and was full of compliments for what she said, even if the consensus was not to use that particular idea. Eventually time ran out on the day.

"That's 5 o'clock" AJ announced, not that everyone else wasn't aware. "See you all tomorrow." They started packing things away.

"So how was your first day Nikki?" Seth asked.

"Better than I could have hoped. You guys have been so great, I'm going to love it here." Nikki got her purse and coat together, when she noticed that Stephanie hadn't gotten up. "You ok, Stephanie?"

"Yeah, fine." Her reply was unconvincing. "I, um, I don't suppose you fancy going out tonight, celebrate your first day?"

Nikki thought for a moment. "I don't have any plans tonight, so why not? What do you think guys?" She noticed Stephanie face rise and then fall.

"Sorry, I can't, I'm playing poker with some friends. Too much money to pass up. But it's a good idea, maybe next week, after the pitch?" Nikki nodded then looked to Seth.

"Yeah, I think I'm free." Seth said.

"But I thought you said you had a date?" Stephanie came back with, almost instantly.

"Oh yeah. Good job you're here Steph, she'd have been mad. And she works here too."

AJ raised an eyebrow. "Who is it?"

"That black haired girl in Human Resources. Paige. Third date tonight. It's going well."

"It won't be if you keep forgetting dates." Nikki said, more to herself but everyone heard it and laughed.

"Ouch, harsh but fair. You're going to fit in fine around here Nikki. Right I'm off, see you tomorrow." Seth and AJ headed towards the elevators.

"So, just you and me then, that's ok right?" Stephanie said, hope in her voice.

"Sure, bit of girl time. I'll tell you who did my hair of you like."

"Great, there's a great restaurant a few blocks away, Santino's. I'll meet you there about half seven?.

Nikki smiled. "I'm not sure I fancy Italian after talking about pizza all day, but if you say it's good, let's do it. Right then, I'm going to get out of here, you coming?"

"I've, um, just got to go to the bathroom. You go, I'll see you a bit later at the restaurant."

Ok, see you later. Nikki turned and left. Stephanie got her belongings and almost ran to the bathroom. She dropped them as soon as she was inside and began practically twirling as she started talking.

"Oh! Oh my god, oh my god! I can't believe it! She's got to be the most beautiful creature I've ever seen! And she said yes! She actually said yes! I've got a date with the sexiest woman that has ever lived! You must be able to see it?! I can't believe that I've gotten this lucky! I've really got to make sure that this date goes the way I want it to. I have to really sweep her off her feet, then I can make her mine forever. She has to be mine forever. If it's perfect, how can she say no? But she won't say no, will she?! I don't want to be without her by my side. At work, at home, and certainly not in bed. Oh don't look at me like that! She's got the greatest body of any woman. No offence meant, but she's a goddess. I'd be jealous of it if I wasn't the one who going to be able to touch it, kiss it, caress it, make love to it over and over again until time stops! Oh, this is going to be the greatest night of my life! She already looks great in a business suit, but, oh, the treasures that must lie underneath. And I'm going to claim them all, tonight. Tonight! Tonight is my night, no, it's our night. The night our lives begin for real. It's meant to be. She's meant to be mine. It's...

"Stephanie?" The voice interrupted Stephanie and made her annoyed. She stared down the person it belonged to.

"Paige, Seth has gone home already. Let me finish."

"Yeah, I know, we're having dinner tonight, and I wouldn't be looking for him in the ladies room would I? It's just, well..."

"Well, what?"

"Stephanie, who are you talking to?"

A/N: So that's Ch1. Thanks for reading it. Since it's gotten an M rating it's hard to find so I really appreciate it. And for anyone confused as to why it's M rated, stay tuned...

It's my first try at a story like this, I hope you'll bear with me as it builds up.

Their 'date' will be next, but does Nikki know what she's in for?