One Shot: When Rich Meets Bitch

Cady's POV

You may be fashionably late, but make sure you're worth all the wait

~CEO of Vinaigrette, Cady Hunt

A/N:

To all of you who're interested, I created a one shot for Cady. I think it's really different (I hope in a good way :P) from other things I've written, and it gives you insight on how Cady feels after everything she'd done to Day, along with how she's set herself up as a person for the rest of her life. 

Here's the cast for this part:

Gigi Hadid as Cady Hunt

Brenton Thwaites as Ben Coleman

-^-

"Miss Cady Hunt, Mr. Coleman is here to meet you," whispered Lola DuPont, my mousy assistant. Her wispy brown hair was flying across her face and had been thrown into a tight bun at the very top of her head. She was wearing a checkered black and white button up tucked into a pair of black jeans. Her large glasses obscured more than half of her thin, long face and her dark eyes stared from behind them.

"Merci, Lola," I said, before standing up from behind my desk that was currently scattered with papers. I was currently working for Mrs. Azaria deLaphro, one of the founders of the popular magazine Just a Splash. I was hoping to earn myself enough credits here so that I could branch out and form my own company, Vinaigrette. As silly as it may sound, I still felt incredibly guilty for what I'd done to the Winters girl so I'd named my company after her favorite salad dressing. Also the very word vinaigrette sounded très chic. "Can you hand me my makeup kit?"

"Yes, Miss," Lola replied, nodding vigorously before hurriedly passing me a red, suitcase like contraption and turning me around to face her, before she applied a quick coat of my essentials like foundation and a touch of red lipstick to make sure I looked professional without overdoing it.

"How long has he been waiting?" I asked, checking my thin flick of liner in the mirror.

Lola shrugged. "Possibly fifteen minutes."

My gasped softly, but smiled a millisecond later. Of course, I needed to give him the impression that I was impeccable with my timings, or I was just fashionably late. There could never be an in between.

I got up and smoothened my red dress that dipped down low around the neckline and flared across my thighs. It was definitely worthy of the assistant director of Just a Splash, and I was proud of my style choices, especially to meet the famed Mr. Coleman.

I stepped out of the room, trying to throw out the vibes of being effortless and nonchalant in front of Ben Coleman.

I'd only seen him in papers; his dazzling face always captured the cameras more than his products. He was the young CEO of the famous new startup Virtual Access that sold electronics, and we'd offered to sponsor the event along with makeup options for their advertisement.

I spotted him immediately. He was wearing a crisp black suit with a white buttoned down shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves, his gray eyes trailed towards the watch that adorned his wrist. His relatively long, tousled hair was slicked back and it allowed me to assess his sharply defined, chiseled jaw and high cheekbones that cast a shadow across his face. His eyebrows were dark and his features pale, and he was definitely intimidating with his impressive height of over six feet and well-built body without being overly buff.

I coughed to catch his attention, and he raised his face from looking at his watch to see me, and I could see his eyes widen perceptibly as he saw me. I grinned, knowing I had that effect on most people when I met them for the first time, especially now with all the products I had in line.

I walked towards him, feeling more confident now as I allowed my red, strappy heels to make clicks against the ground. "Nice to meet you, you must be Benjamin Coleman," I said, smoothly, before leading him towards my office.

Although he'd definitely looked interested two seconds ago, he now looked almost bored as he surveyed me like one would check out a dress off a mannequin. "The pleasure is all mine," he said, standing up straighter. It was a good thing that I'd been born to a tall family, so my own long legs stretched out so that I didn't look that much shorter than him. "And you are?" he asked, as we walked into my large and spacious office.

I had a flat screened plasma TV, a long desk with a laptop and three velveteen red sofas and a small coffee table in the center. A large window sat behind my office chair and light poured through.

"Cady Hunt," I said, turning towards him again. "You've come here to ask about the advertisement, haven't you? I'm going to be in charge of the whole event, so if you wouldn't mind, could you run me through the themes?"

He didn't answer me. Instead, he just continued to blatantly stare at me like I wasn't even talking to him, but some sort of poster he'd found in his room that he hadn't seen in a while, raking across me with those light eyes of his.

"How old are you?" he asked, his voice so silky that I had to hold my chair so I wouldn't swoon.

"Twenty one," I said, thrown off. "How about you?"

At that, he shot me a bemused, cocky smirk. "You don't know?"

At that, I placed a hand on my hip. Of course I knew how old he was, it was scattered across every newspaper in sight. However, my pride and ego were both too large for me to admit this fact to him so I refrained from doing so. "With all due respect, sir, I'll have you know that I don't have enough free time to make it my life mission to look up your biography. I'll ask you again only if you feel the need to answer, else we can proceed to matters of actual importance. How old are you?"

He laughed at this, his eyes twinkling as he sat down. His white shirt was rather translucent and tight, and I could make out the defined shape of his muscles. How he got the time to get in shape and work, I'd never understand.

"Twenty one, as well," he said, after looking at me curiously. "You aren't the same type of specimen I've ever encountered before, I'll have you know."

By now, he was really beginning to test my patience. "I'm not some sort of creature you'd use for your biology experiment," I snapped, trying my best to contain myself. "So no, you could have kept that thought to yourself."

He smirked and motioned for me to sit down. "Stop being so uptight. You've only just finished your college year, I presume, so it would be great if you could loosen up a bit. We are, after all, around the same age group, and it's rare that I find a pretty girl like you to talk to about business affairs."

If someone had told me this when I still lived in the US, I would have probably relished it. I would have been more sultry and probably kissed them for the money and looks. Now, however, I'd changed drastically and I really didn't appreciate it when people saw past my potential and only focused on my looks. I'd worked really hard to get into the position I was in, and it was really degrading when people threw it away with their own crass comments.

"Mr. Coleman, I'd appreciate it if you stopped voicing your opinions and stuck your long nose in your own business, along with actually sticking to what you came here for. I honestly do not care if you were the world's most influential man or a pauper, I'd not like anyone talking to me like this in my own office. You came here for one reason and one reason only, and that was to discuss the advertisement. So, respectfully, I'm going to ask you to stop pointlessly digressing and stick to the point. I, unlike you, evidently, don't have all day here to chit-chat."

His jaw dropped, and I could see he'd never been spoken to like that. "Do you know who I am?" he asked, the anger clear as crystal in his voice.

"Like I said before, sir, I could not care less."

His jaw ticked at my words, before he finally smiled a little. "Please, call me Ben."

I frowned at him, not quite knowing what to say to that. "Alright, Ben, is there anything in particular that you'd like to discuss for this meeting? We've been allotted an hour, so I'd like to make the most of it."

He looked at me thoughtfully, as if trying to memorize each aspect of my face with a meticulous precision. He trailed his eyes down to my dress, to my legs, to my shoes, before meeting my eyes again. "I'd like you to be my model."

That sentence took my by complete surprise, and I gasped loudly. "Excuse-me?"

"I like you," he continued. "Not as a human being, but as a figure to represent the company. You seem to have the same fire for your job as I do, and we need a model to advertise our brand. You're quite a gorgeous person and you carry an air of a condescending nature which I actually think would look quite good on our brand, which claims to be better than the best. You have spunk to you, and people will definitely look twice when they see your face on our billboards. We'll pay you double; it's a win-win situation, really."

I could hardly take it anymore. He couldn't just designate a random job on me out of the blue, it was hardly acceptable. He was acting immature and unprofessional, and he was obviously attracted to nothing about me but my looks, which he had made very clear after repeating the same thing over ten times. He had finally gotten on my last nerves and I was going to burst.

With all the shreds of patience I had, I whispered, "Please leave my office."

He looked taken aback, his eyes raised. I'd probably looked like every second girl who'd throw their self-worth at him just because of his money and ridiculously good looks, but I wasn't.

"Pardon?" he asked, as if he didn't get me.

"Do you not understand English?" I asked, rudely. "I told you to kindly leave my office."

He blinked at me and stood up. I proceeded to walk close to him, as if escorting him, but he pushed me back down onto my seat. "You'll be losing out on millions of dollars for the company," he said, whispering into my ear. I shivered at both the contact and the words. "You'll be fired at the mere age of twenty-one. Do you really want that on your track record, babe?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Alright, we've already reached the babe stage?"

He rolled his eyes. "My point is, I know the kind of person you are. I see bits of me in you. You're ambitious, and I'm guessing you want to branch out and start your own fashion line by using the good words that Mrs. DeLaphro puts in for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, Sweetheart."

"First of all," I said, sticking my finger out and pushing his chest away so that I maintained my own personal bubble. "I'd like you to stop giving me nicknames, it's highly unprofessional. Secondly, you are entirely right, but I also have the right to turn down offers that completely change what I've been working for. Just if you see an attractive business-woman with a nice body doesn't mean you jump in and tell them to model for you. Do you know how self-depreciating that is?"

He then blinked. "You're a lot smarter than you look, I'll give you credit for that." I glared at him in response, and he pinched my cheek.

I really loathed this man, and I'd literally just met him. How women found him attractive would remain a mystery to me, really.

"I look pretty smart, so that's not saying much," I said, smoothly.

He smiled at me. It was a wide, toothy grin that made my heart stop. Not because it was really handsome and made me want to reconcile, but because of the way his eyes glinted like he knew something about me that he preferably shouldn't have.

"I know what you did to the Winters girl."

My world stopped spinning. There was literally no way he could have found that out. Day never filed anything against me, and she didn't even tell anyone except for the whole group of friends. It wasn't in my report and if there were complaints of me cyber bullying someone, everyone's respect for me would drop below sea level.

"H-how?" I managed to croak, my eyes widening to the size of saucers.

He smirked, his lip curling slightly at the end. "Honey, I have my sources. The point is, you tortured an innocent girl. You nearly killed her. You harassed her on the internet and in real life with an anonymous persona. You are a disgusting human being, and I can let these facts leak."

I felt my palms become clammy, and my head felt like cotton had been placed inside. Of course, it was really easy to take him up on the offer of being a model. That wasn't what I was concerned about. What was torturing me was that somehow, Benjamin Coleman had gotten to know. If he knew, who else did? What faith did I have that everything wouldn't be found out?

"Oh, God," I said, my forehead beginning to dot with sweat. Ever since I'd done what I did to Day, I'd been self-diagnosed with panic attacks. My whole body began to shake and I felt like I was being submerged underwater, and I could see Ben talking next to me but I didn't know what he was saying. Everything was a blur.

"Cady? Are you okay?" asked Ben, but I couldn't see him. I didn't know what was going on. I was mortified that someone had seen me panicking, especially Ben, and that made me worse. I began gulping big mouthfuls of air like I was drowning. All of a sudden I felt a pair of hands on my back, pushing my forward gently and holding onto my shoulders tight. "It's okay, just breathe, I'm so sorry Miss Hunt," whispered Ben, his voice silky and calming.

I felt myself stop shaking considerably, and I placed my palm on my forehead. "Oh my, God, please don't let any of this go out," I said, seeing spots dance before my vision.

He pursed his lips. "I'd hate to sound heartless, but be my model." I felt anger bubble up within me, and I looked up and glared at him, pushing hair out of my face. "All of this will be between us. No one needs to know about anything."

I took a small gulp of air, before nodding slightly. "I'll do it."

He smiled. "Great! I'll contact you for more. I look forward to seeing your face as the cover of our products, Miss Hunt."

I smirked this time. "You'd look forward to seeing my face anyway, babe."

He winked at me. "Alright, we've already reached the babe stage?"

I grinned at him. "I really hope I don't end up killing you in the process, because it's looking like a really, really likely option at the moment."

He ran his fingers through his hair. "I'd say likewise, but you aren't worth getting into prison for."

I smiled in a sickly sweet way, before opening the door for him. "You may leave."

He walked through. "Don't miss me too much, Hunter."

I scoffed. "Hunter!? Really?"

He shrugged. "We're going to be seeing a lot of each other, we may as well give each other terms of endearments."

I coughed again loudly. "You're not endearing, and you don't evoke any such emotions."

He shrugged. "Give it some time. I'll give it to you in writing, you'll be falling at my feet by the end of this entire ordeal, babe."

I smiled. "If you're right, I'll be your permanent model. Not just for your dumb advertisement, but forever. Do we have a deal?"

If I knew one thing for sure, it was that I didn't want to be this guy's model. I wanted to branch out and start my business.

He smiled at me. "If I end up falling for you, I'll help you out with your company. I'll fund it and everything, and I'll even be your official sponsor."

I literally pushed him out. "I look forward to doing business with you, Benny."

He grinned widely. "Benny?"

I shrugged. "Endearing, huh?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Whatever you say, Hunter."

Before he could leave, my eyes widened. "How do you know about what happened to Day?" I asked, my voice soft so that no one else could overhear.

He shrugged. "I'll tell you that once I actually begin to trust you. Which may never happen, by the way."

My shoulders sagged. "Please don't tell a soul, my whole career hangs on that thread of respect that you may just sever in the process."

"You're so dramatic," he sighed.

"I'm really not." I was actually dead serious, really.

"Anyway, I have things to do and places to be," he said, smiling widely. "I'll see you same time day-after tomorrow at my office, alright?"

"Okay. Bye," I said, waving.

As I closed the door and watched him walk away through the stained glass around my door, I couldn't quite explain the mixed groan and laugh that escaped my lips.

I was in for an interesting time, wasn't I?

A/N:

GIF of Cady Hunt ^^

Does anyone want this to be a short story? Put your hands up! If I get a good response, I may just be able to write a little clip of Ben and Cady which will probably go on for 12 chapters, if not less?

Did you like this?

Thoughts on Cady and Ben?

ANYWAYYY... If I DO actually get a short story done, I may just incorporate Day and Dylan in as well. You know me and my magnets for drama, don't you?

KAYYY, I can't begin to describe how much I love you guys. You all have been encouraging me and leaving the BEST comments and everything, and it's really so motivating. Thanks again for absolutely EVERYTHING.

Love you all,

~Lexiiii