flustered | Edward

[emilia lillian rivers]

She was always early. Emilia, while not particularly brilliant, was a go getter. She loved to be the first one in in the morning and the last one out at night, because while she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, she considered herself a very hard worker. That was why, when she was late on that particular Tuesday, she was very out of sorts. Her blond hair, usually tied back in a tight not, was down and fell loosely in waves (natural, of course) around her shoulders. She had barely even made it to work on time, and for someone usually early she felt like a complete mess.

Even her usually well put together outfit was a mess. Her tights had a run up the back of her calf, her belt had broken on her way to the office as she ran down the street, and her cardigan was missing a button. But even still, frazzled as she was,she still had to do her job. Grabbing Edward's coffee from the staff room she approached his office quickly, hoping he'd not taken it upon himself to get one in her absence. "Good morning Mister Carmichael, did you want your coffee now, or did you need anything else?" She asked, standing in the doorway after making sure he had nothing else going on. Emilia knew she was slightly breathless, partly because she was so flustered. She only hopped that her boss wouldn't notice, or at least wouldn't mention it. After all, she wasn't late often; she'd just had a rough morning.

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie had taken particular note of Emilia's absence when he'd arrived that morning, although admittedly not in a very boss-type-way. She was nearly always there before him - he'd never told her that she needed to be, she just was - and for one quick moment, he lingered by her desk, trying to remember if she'd told him that she wouldn't be in that morning or something. Surely he'd remember hearing that she wouldn't be there to greet him in the morning with her smile and his coffee and her eyes.

But he wasn't completely useless. Getting an assistant had been a painfully awkward necessity for him, and it had taken him a while to get used to it. He was used to his morning coffee routine, and suddenly having someone do that for him was weird. Just... weird. So he could get it for himself.

Unfortunately, the fact was that his assistant wasn't just an assistant; it was Emilia. She was Emilia. He didn't even really know her, but when she rushed in late that morning, Eddie found himself hastily chucking the coffee in his hand into the bin by his desk so that she wouldn't feel bad. Would she even feel bad? Surely he wasn't supposed to care...

"I make terrible coffee," he lied hastily with a slight shrug. "Nothing else required just yet, thanks," he hesitated, then added, "Your cardigan is missing a button," and stopped again, taking a second to note that her hair was different, "Are you okay?"

[emilia lillian rivers]

She couldn't help but to smile at his comment about his own coffee. She knew it wasn't true, Emilia knew that he had a hard time having an assistant at all. He was highly self sufficient. She hardly did anything but set his appointments and make calls - and coffee, of course. At the mention of her cardigan her smile faltered. Somehow, being around him for all of ten seconds had her forgetting about her rough morning, and she put his coffee on his desk, crossing the room in three strides (she had long legs, that was hardly Emilia's fault) to do so. "I had a rough morning," She explained timidly, doing her very best not to fiddle with the hem of the cardigan in question.

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie looked from the new coffee, back to her, and bit his lip a little nervously. People skills. That's what he needed. That's precisely what he didn't have. Had he known how to get to actually doing so, he wanted to ask her what had happened and make her feel better and possibly have her hugging him gratefully within the hour. But questions seemed too personal, and comforting was generally what he needed more than what he could give out when found in such situations.

"Uh... would you like some coffee?" he offered weakly, picking up the cup she'd just placed on his desk and offering it to her with a timid little smile. He tried very consciously not to get distracted by her fidgeting, which would inevitably lead to his gaze landing in unfortunate zones. Non-boss zones. "I hear it's the best in the office."

[emilia lillian rivers]

The compliment (was that considered a compliment?) had Emilia blushing as she fiddled with her hair, pushing the mass back over her left ear. "I don't know about best in the office. And you need it, since you just threw out your last one," She said quietly, though she was smiling again, a half smile because she knew she shouldn't have been that easily swayed out of her terrible mood. But something about Edward did that. "Are you sure you don't need anything else?" She asked him again, just in case he had remembered something else in the last two minutes. She hated standing there talking to him, because she felt like she was just staring at this handsome, talented man and wasting his time.

[eddie david carmichael]

"That's true, I do need it," Eddie grinned a little sheepishly, keeping his eyes on the cup as he brought it to his lips. It was a little difficult watching Emilia sometimes. Sometimes when Eddie caught sight of her, he wondered to himself why he hadn't hired someone who was chronically sweaty or ridiculously old or constantly mean. Granted, he'd have far less motivation to impress at all times, but life would be simpler. Emilia had his back as a great assistant, and it was difficult to properly distract Eddie from his work at all, but he privately felt a little emasculated by the way he felt whenever he looked at her. Inadequate. But inadequate in a different way to the way most attractive women made awkward, nerdy guys like him feel.

"Actually, I owled for some background on this Goshawk woman," he cleared his throat, handing Emilia a parchment of scribbled notes. One of the only places that Eddie could find steady social ground was in his work, "But apparently I'm not getting a reply until tomorrow, and I'm struggling to produce an outline with less than basics. Miranda Goshawk, wrote the Standard Book of Spells; don't know anything about her, do you?"

[emilia lillian rivers]

Distraction to awkwardness and terrible morning? Check. She looked at the notes, biting the inside of her cheek distractedly, and cocked her head to the side. "She also wrote a Herbology volume... I can't remember what it's called. And I think there's a creatures book out by her, too, but the name escapes me, too. Did you want me to run down to the book shop in Diagon Alley to check what they are? Maybe grab copies? They usually have about the author things in them, don't they?" Emilia asked, only looking up at her last statement, eyes shining with curiosity. She really looked up to Edward. He was so smart, and so talented, and for some reason had chosen her as his assistant. She felt so small next to him, because of his amazing abilities, but she never voiced that, feeling it wasn't appropriate to do so.

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie's immediate reaction was a straight up "No, I can do that myself", but he bit his tongue. She was his assistant, this was her job, this was what she was there for. She most certainly was not there for him to gawk at and attempt to charm (as if that could ever happen). That is what she was not there for. She was there to work.

But then, he still felt bad about sending her out when she'd only just arrived. She looked like she could do with a few minutes' rest. "No... no thanks... maybe later, if I'm still struggling," Eddie finally replied, scratching the back of his curly head of hair. "Which I probably will be. It'd be so much easier if she were a novelist. I can... I don't know, waffle about the influence of her books on me for a paragraph. I can talk about me and books. She's turning eighty soon, so..." he paused, then smiled apologetically, "You don't care. Sorry. You can, um... go sit down, if you want."

[emilia lillian rivers]

"I do," Emilia assured him, stepping closer and resting her hands on the back of the chair opposite his desk, "Care, I mean." She hesitated, then moved around the chair and sat, despite him not asking her to. "Can I make a suggestion?" She asked softly, not wanting to overstep her boundaries. Despite wanting to be a columnist like Edward was, she couldn't quite bring herself to be as forward as he usually was about his work. Besides that, it was well within his right to ignore her suggestion or be rude to her - though he never did either of those things.

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie's eyebrows jumped up a notch as he watched her take a seat, although he couldn't help but smile. Did that mean she was comfortable? Hold on, no, was she supposed to feel comfortable around her boss? Eddie wanted her to feel comfortable with him. Oh, Merlin, maybe he should have offered her a seat.

"Yeah, I... yeah," he mumbled, suddenly very worried that she was going to suggest something brilliant and he would look stupid and, not only would he fail to impress her, but he would only find himself more impressed by her. Not that he wanted to impress her. He just wanted to be a good boss-type-figure, that was all. That was all. "Suggest away! I mean, within reason. Please don't make me cry or anything."

[emilia lillian rivers]

Make him cry? Oh Merlin, she hoped she wouldn't! But he was smiling, even though his eyebrows were all hitched up like he wasn't particularly impressed. She shouldn't have sat down, but it was too late to back out of it now. She had to continue, to keep talking, and hopefully impress him enough that he would forget that she had just waltzed in like some sort of fool with her hair a mess and her buttons missing. "Well, Mr Carmichael, and I don't mean any disrespect, but why couldn't you talk about her influence on you even though she isn't a novelist? We used her books at Hogwarts - she still had some influence on you, I'd guess, even if it was in a different way. You might even want to owl professor Flitwick, he always insisted on her books being used, right?"

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie, again, found that he couldn't help but smile a little. "I'll tell you a secret right now, Emilia, and you have to promise not to tell anybody," he said quietly, shuffling the papers on his desk and not looking at her as though he was genuinely very ashamed. Which, quietly, he actually kind of was. "But Charms never was my best subject."

He shot her a half grin, not quite meeting her eye, then shook his hair from his eyes and picked up his quill. Personally affected? Learning, detail, written style. "You haven't made me cry... But I might have to credit you now."

Eddie stopped again. He glanced at Emilia, then bit his lip. Brainwave. Perfect. How hadn't he thought of it before? "Do... do you... I mean, do you want to... help? I feel bad that I don't give you much to do. Not that, you know... I mean, you're very good at... yeah. Just that, if this is something that you want to do, then... maybe I can get your name under a published article."

[emilia lillian rivers]

Her heart nearly burst. She adored her boss in a decidedly not employee only fashion and here he was trying to make her dreams come true. "I appreciate the offer Mister Carmichael, but you've already done so much for me and I don't want to seem like I'm taking advantage or that I'm ungrateful" She said hurriedly, not wanting to eagerly, and as such, selfishly, accept his offer. Besides the reasons she said aloud, she also felt that she might say something that would give away her feelings for him if she spent too much time working by his side rather than running his errands.

"And I'm sure you're not that bad at Charms," She added, since he always seemed very charming to her. (yay bad pun!)

[eddie david carmichael]

Eddie felt particularly unskilled at being charming in that very moment. He gulped drily, frowning pensively at his own notes. Had he done a lot for her? All he'd done was hire her, and that was nothing special - she was smart enough to get a job anywhere she might set her sights. Smart and hard-working and attentive and trustworthy and pretty and level-headed. Wait, no, not pretty. That would be an odd thing to put in a CV.

"I just don't want you" to realise that you could get a better job and leave me "to feel unsatisfied in your work," he explained carefully. "I mean... do you want to do... this kind of thing, in the future? Stuff for which you might need experience or a portfolio or something."

[emilia lillian rivers]

She felt so flattered. He wanted to help her. Here she was sitting there and turning him down when he wanted to help her! "I do, but... I don't want to put you out" She reiterated. Her writing wasn't up to par with his, and she didn't want to make him look bad by messing up his column. "I really appreciate the offer, really I do. But you don't even know that I could do it - I could just be completely terrible," Emilia pointed out. She didn't, she didn't think, but even still!