Belle was always late to work. Which meant she never had her boss's coffee ready by the time he made it to the office, and Mr. Gold could never start his work day without a hot cuppa Joe. After Belle spent almost all morning preparing his coffee, it only gave her a few minutes to work on his schedule before Mr. Gold requested it. Many times she became so flustered that she mixed up times and Mr. Gold would sometimes arrive extremely early for a meeting or far too late for his business appointments and on some occasions, he didn't show up at all because she scheduled the wrong date.

Mr. Gold could not understand why his assistant was so unorganized. Her resume was perfect. Belle had been a secretary for bigger law firms then his and all her references said she was the best assistant they ever had. When Belle first started working for Mr. Gold she was exquisite and showed efficient time management skills, so she began lagging behind in her work, Mr. Gold assumed she was just having a bad day. But then that day turned into a bad week, and soon it had been a month, and she still showed no signs that her administrative abilities were improving, and in fact, they became worse.

He couldn't bring himself to let go of her. He didn't know what her home situation was like, so he wasn't sure how bad she needed this job. Mr. Gold also loved her bubbly personality. Lunch was the only thing she got right. She always prepared him something from home. Belle was a fantastic cook, and every time he finished her meals he often wished there were seconds. Belle, being the angel that she was, always gave him what she hadn't eaten from her own plate.

They would have the best conversations together, always making fun of the other people in the law firm. She was also very curious and thirsty for knowledge, so any chance she got Belle would ask questions about a particular case. He would often find himself laughing at her dry sense of humor, and he loved that her jokes and remarks would, at times, be inappropriate when they were alone. It just made their time working together that much more fun.

There was one other thing he couldn't deny about her. Belle was gorgeous, absolutely stunning, a 30 something-year-old woman who had the most beautiful blue eyes which compelled him to stare into them. He would become easily distracted by them a lot, and not to mention her curvy physique. Repeatedly, he had to thank his lucky stars for his desk. They hid his boners well whenever she would walk into his office. The little skirts she wore with thigh high legging, and black pumps made it impossible for him not to stare. Mr. Gold frequently wondered if he should just ask her out, but in these days, workplace relationships were frown upon, including at his firm. So he was just left to wonder.

Recently, Belle's lateness was becoming a problem for the whole firm. Gold narrowly won his last case, and Mr. Gold's law partner, Regina Mills was beginning to see the problem. She had come to the conclusion that it was his assistant's record keeping skills that almost lost them their first case. Regina gave him an ultimatum, fire Belle, or she would buy out his shares in the firm, thus ending their ten-year partnership and she would gain all their shared clientele.

It was more of a threat than a request, and Mr. Gold didn't take kindly to threats, no matter how good of friends he was with Regina. But he had to consider that they did almost lose an important trial because Belle forgot to include some vital documents. How long will it be before they did lose a case because of Belle's negligence? Mr. Gold felt it was wise to just put his feelings aside for his assistant and let her go.

"Ms. French." He called over his phone's intercom.

"Yes, Mr. Gold?" Her heavenly voice answered.

"C- could you come to my office for a moment?" He asked nervously.

"Shall I bring a refill on your coffee with me?" She offered sweetly.

"No, just you," He remarked, a little bit too casual. For Christ sake he was trying to fire the woman, not ask her out on a date, so he clears his throat and tries to clear up the misunderstanding. "I mean- no coffee, just come to my office if you would, please."

"Of course, Mr. Gold. I'll be right there."

The time it took for Belle to arrive in his office, Mr. Gold began mentally rehearsing Belle's termination speech. He didn't want to be too hard on her, but he also wanted to give her good explanations to why he was firing her. If he had it any other way, Belle would still have her job because honestly, her beautiful presence around his monotonous office made up for her lack of secretary expertise. But he was given no choice, it was either fire Belle or lose his livelihood. Mr. Gold would undoubtedly miss her.

Belle walked into Mr. Gold's office, wearing a captivating smile. Her blue eyes were shimmering with hope, and she looked utterly radiant. He knew this would be unquestionably hard for him, but after seeing her glow, he considered that maybe he was making a mistake.

"You wanted to see me Mr. Gold?"

"Yes, Ms. French." He said, clasping his hands together on top of his desk. "Would you mind having a seat?"

Belle took her seat, crossing her legs which made her skirt rise a bit revealing her thighs. He lost himself for a moment while gazing at her legs, and it wasn't until she spoke was he able to snap himself out of his trance.

"About your schedule, I was able to clear some things up to make room for the staff lunch in next week." She said, with a soft smile.

"Uh- that won't be necessary. You see Belle, as much as I feel you're doing an excellent job here at the firm, there are still some things I can't overlook."

She leans forward as if she were intrigued. "What type of things?"

"Well, th- that is to say." He stammered, trying to remember his lines. "Your tardiness, for example."

"Okay, that's one thing. What else?"

"Um- uh, let's see." He continued nervously. "And your record keeping and time management skills have fallen quite a bit as of lately."

"Hmmm. Perhaps you should fire me then."

"And there's also your-" He stopped, having just realized what she said. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Perhaps you should let me go. I'm obviously not capable of being your assistant." She explained leaning back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest

"Well no, that's not what I meant-"

"Don't be silly Mr. Gold," She said getting up from her seat, strutting closer to him in her black heels. "That's exactly what you meant."

She strolled around his desk while Mr. Gold turns himself around in his swivel chair, his eyes following her every move. Belle stepped closer to him and took a seat on his lap as Mr. Gold watched her curiously. His hands stayed on his chair's armrest, afraid to move them or risk touching her in an unfitting way. His mind was going a mile per minute trying to figure out what she was up to.

"Do you know how long I've been playing bad secretary just so that you could fire me." She said raising her skirt up before wrapping her arms around his neck and playing with the end of his hair.

"And why on earth would you try to get yourself fire Ms. French?"

"So that I can do this." She said, closing the gap between them and placing a very sensual kiss on his lips.

Mr. Gold couldn't keep his hands still any longer. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling Belle onto him making his chair recline back.

"Well in that case." He said, opening her blouse hastily, popping the buttons of her shirt until her mid-drift was completely uncovered, exposing her breasts underneath a black lacy bra. "You're fired Ms. French."