That morning I was sipping on my second cup of hazelnut coffee of the day when I arrived at my desk. I settled in and made sure I had everything I needed before firing up my computer. I reviewed the calendar for the day and picked up the phone.
One of the perks of my unconventional hours was being able to handle time differences far more smoothly than many other people. And since Paris was nine hours ahead of San Francisco, when I needed to call our sister company, my early arrival worked in my favor. Getting to the office and hopping on the phone when many of my colleagues were still asleep meant being able to catch the Paris office in the middle of the afternoon rather than when they had already gotten off for the day.
The phone call connected on the second ring, and a familiar lilting voice answered in French.
“Good morning, Celeste,” I said.
As soon as she heard my voice, the secretary switched over to English.
“Good morning, Amanda,” she said.
I started to continue on the conversation in English, then stopped myself.
“No, let’s try it in French,” I said. “I’ve been working really hard on my lessons, and I want to practice.”
If it had been anyone else who answered, I wouldn’t have tried that, but Celeste and I had formed a friendship over the years since the sister company started. She was the one who’d encouraged me to learn French. This way I would be able to more effectively communicate with our Paris office.
It hadn’t been long since I started taking the lessons, so the practice was valuable.
Once I had the meetings, conference calls, and online webinars put into place, I got off the phone with Celeste. She said something to me in French, wished me luck on my lessons, and we said we would speak soon.
After our conversation was done, I switched my focus to local vendors and clients. There was another list of arrangements that needed to be made that would fill out Tom’s calendar for the next several weeks. Sometimes it could get overwhelming trying to juggle the sheer volume of demands on his time. It was a good thing that I was ultra-organized.
When I’d first started working for Tom, he was a mess. I would never say that to his face. Or, maybe I would, but I would make sure he thought I was teasing him. He was completely unorganized and had no idea how to keep himself on track.
I later found out this was his first company. Rather than being like so many others and starting out business ventures very small and gradually building them, he had jumped right into what turned out to be a tremendous success. He was still climbing that ladder, but the only way he was going to get anywhere was if he didn’t miss all of his appointments and drown in his paperwork first.
That was where I came in. I made sure his calendar was kept up-to-date and organized so he knew what he was supposed to be doing and when. I kept his day structured. I even took on the role of being his companion for lunch and listen to his ideas and plans like I had the day before.
I hesitated to go so far as to say he and I were friends. If I convinced myself that we were friends, it would break down the professionalism between us, and I didn’t want to do that. It would blur lines I couldn’t allow to be blurred. This job meant the world to me, and I wasn’t going to do anything that could even come close to risking it.
He was kind and polite to me. He recognized my hard work and was appreciative of everything I did for him. Yet, we also had a comfortable rapport that let us talk and have fun together when we weren’t working.
I had no intention of us ever stepping outside of that professional bubble. I wasn’t going to be inviting him out to do karaoke with me over a few beers or anything. But it was nice being comfortable at work and enjoying what I did.
And one of the most important things I did was create a to-do list for him every day. Separate from his calendar that kept track of his meetings, conferences, and other obligations, this list broke down his day into all the individual tasks he needed to do to stay on track.
At first, it felt inappropriate to try to manage his disarray. He didn’t hire me to be his life coach or his handler. I was his secretary, but I couldn’t stand seeing how inefficient he was and listening to him get flustered over things he forgot to do.
Hence, the daily to-do list was born. He went from being all over the place to staying focused, and the difference was noticeable immediately. After that, the list was there to stay.
I had already breezed through the better part of my morning tasks when my colleagues started to arrive. Tom strolled into the office at exactly nine as he did every day.
After giving him a few minutes to settle into his office, I grabbed my tablet, his day planner, and a pen and headed in. I rapped my knuckles on his partially open door before peeking inside.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Good morning, Amanda,” he replied. “Come on in.”
I updated him on the Paris team and showed him all the meetings that I’d set up. They were recorded both on the shared, mutually accessible calendar on my tablet, as well as actually written down in his day planner. As much as I appreciated technology and the efficiency it offered in many of my tasks, I was still a paper-and-pen type of girl.
“Thank you,” he said. “This all looks fantastic. I have no idea how you’re able to accomplish this much at this time of day.”
“Coffee and the sleep routine mentality of a giraffe,” I quipped.
I could feel him looking at me strangely as I walked toward the door to his office. I looked over my shoulder at him. “They only sleep for about twenty-three minutes a day.”
“Oh,” he said. “Fun fact of the day.”
I smiled at him and headed back to my desk. Putting the tablet and a planner aside, I opened a document on my computer and took out my notepad. It was time for me to create my own to-do list. I generally made a couple of these lists for myself a day.
As soon as I finished the list, I buried myself in work. There was so much to do I barely came up for a breath until Landon showed up beside my desk.
“Hey, Amanda,” he said. “Do you know if he’s busy?”
I laughed. “Is he ever not busy?”
“Fair point,” he said. “I guess my question is do you know how busy he is?”
“He’s right in the middle of a conference call. He’ll be taking his lunch at his desk.”
“Ah,” Landon said. “That answers my next question.”
“Which was?” I asked.
“Whether he had eaten lunch yet.”
I laughed. “Yes, he has.”
I knew that the two men had been close friends for a long time. They worked extremely well together, but also still talked to each other like guys just hanging out. This was good for Tom. It helped to keep him from getting too serious and bogged down with his work. Not that that didn’t happen occasionally anyway.
“Have you had lunch?” Landon asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “It’s been a really busy day.”
“Well, then you deserve a break. Come on. I don’t want to eat by myself.”
As much as I would have just kept right on working, I probably did need at least a little bit of a break. I finished up the last bit of the tasks I was working on, then grabbed my purse, and we headed out.
Landon took us to a little deli right up the road where we often had lunch. It had some of the best boxed lunches in the city.
On my way up to the counter, I ordered a boxed lunch for Tom. He had eaten his little microwave cup of soup, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted to make sure he had enough food to get him through the day. I ordered what I knew was his favorite because I had ordered it for him to be delivered to the office multiple times before.
Landon and I headed back to work, and I went into Tom’s office. He was still on the phone, so I crept over to his desk quietly and set the little white box down on it.
“Roast beef and swiss,” I mouthed. “Chocolate cupcake.”
He gave a little swoon and mouthed a thank-you, then
gave me that endearing smile that made my heart melt. I pushed the feeling away, not wanting to even indulge it for a second, and headed for my desk again. There was still a lot to be done before the afternoon was over.
3
Tom
I snapped awake to the vibration of my phone on the nightstand beside me. It was set to not use the ringer before 5:00 a.m., but the vibration rattling on the wood was nearly as alarming. It took a second to orient myself and reach over to grab the phone off the charger and pull it toward me. The sun was still not up yet, so the room was pitch-dark, and my eyes nearly clenched shut at the brightness of the screen as I read both the time and the name on the display.
Three forty-three.
Mason.
“Yeah,” I said, not knowing an actual greeting.
“There’s been a fire Tom. The bar burned down,” Mason said, his voice shaking.
I blinked in the darkness for a moment. What the hell did he just say?
“Tom?” Mason asked. He sounded panicked and distraught. Suddenly, the cobwebs of sleepiness were gone and replaced by my own panic.
“Christ, yes, sorry. What happened? Is everyone okay?” I asked.
There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. I knew that sound. My brother was trying to control his emotions. He always tried to keep his head cool, especially when he spoke to me. I knew how much he looked up to me, and yet, he was the one I left de facto in charge of the family bar. He might not have known it, but I admired him just as much as I admired anyone in my life.
“No one was inside. But Tom, they think it was arson. Someone burned down our fucking bar,” Mason said.
“Dammit,” I said, beginning a string of swears. They were the only words I could think of that seemed appropriate. “I’m glad everyone is okay. Tell everybody I will get down there as soon as I can. I’ll let you know when I land.”
Mason mumbled a distracted goodbye and hung up. I understood the feeling. Someone burned down the bar—our bar. The bar I’d bought for my brothers to run in our hometown, to make money to care for our parents and keep the family together, safe, and employed while I went off to pursue this career. It was my way of taking care of them while I was gone.
And now it was gone.
Arson.
I was so freaked out I didn’t know what exactly to do first. I got out of bed and paced for a moment, trying to get my head to clear. Suddenly, the solution popped into my mind. I had someone who could clear my schedule and make sure the ship sailed smoothly here while I went home. Before I even processed the thought fully, my thumb hit the call button, and I raised the phone to my ear.
“Hello?” came the groggy voice on the other end.
“Amanda, I’m so sorry to wake you up, but I need you,” I said. There was silence on the other end for a moment.
“Tom?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m heading up to the office. I need you to meet me there in a half an hour. It’s an emergency. Can you do that?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. Is everything okay?” she asked. There was genuine concern in her words, but I didn’t know how to answer it.
“No, not really. Just meet me at the office, please.”
I drove to the office in a daze, and when I parked the car in my spot by my private elevator, I saw her car was already there. When I opened the door to my floor, she was standing behind her desk. Her hair was in a messy bun above her head, but she was dressed as professionally as I gave her time for. She seemed to have been putting on makeup when I came in, and she snapped a compact shut and tossed it on the desk.
“Tom,” she said, looking like she wanted to come around to me, but hesitating. “What’s going on?”
“Apparently someone burned down my family bar. No one was hurt. The bar was empty. But everything my brothers worked for is gone. Everything I worked for with them, gone. The police are sure it was arson. I need to get home right now.”
“Of course,” she said.
“I’m going to write an email to Landon when I get to the airport, but I want you to be ready. I will be leaving him in charge, and that means taking on some of the things we had on my schedule for this week. I’ll need you to help him out. The meeting on Wednesday I’ll videoconference for, but other than that I’ll need you to walk Landon through my schedule.”
She nodded and then took a step closer. One hand reached up and touched me on the shoulder, and I felt my body give way. As much as I tried to stop it, I sagged against her touch, my head dropping down and my eyes clenching shut.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I took a moment before I opened my eyes again and met hers. The concern was written all over her face, and I forced myself to nod. I realized at that moment that Amanda was probably the only person in San Francisco who knew me a fraction well enough to show that level of concern other than Landon.
“I’ll be fine if I can get home and figure this out. I trust you and Landon will keep things going here while I’m gone. I need to grab a few things and head out, if you could get to work on the rescheduling and have it on Landon’s desk before he gets in,” I said. “Oh, and if you could make sure I get the first flight out.”
“Absolutely. If you need anything else,” she said and let the words hang there. I nodded and she turned to head back to her desk.
I crossed the room and went into my office. Filling a bag with some of the important files I thought I might need for work, especially the things I would need for Wednesday’s Zoom meeting, I zipped around my room as quickly as possible. Amanda came in after a few minutes to tell me I was booked on a flight in an hour. I didn’t have a lot of time to dick around, so I tossed the business papers I had for the bar into the bag and headed for the door.
“I’m headed out. I’ll update you later today. Thank you again, Amanda,” I said.
“Have a safe trip,” she called from her desk, looking up with a sad smile. I turned and headed for the elevator, carrying my bag in my hand and the weight of the world on my shoulders.
* * *
When I got to the airport, my flight was delayed by two hours. It was maddening. Not enough time to go home and rest before the flight, but just enough time to be bored and anxious while waiting. I almost pulled out my suitcase and got out my laptop, but I knew I was no good for all that. The email to Landon had been sent from my phone as soon as I got to the airport, and everything else was being handled already.
All I could do was wait.
When the plane finally taxied out, I dozed off and only woke when the wheels touched down in Astoria. As soon as I was awake, I was alert, and I only stopped for a quick burger at the airport to settle the growling of my stomach. I didn’t know when I would eat again, and I needed to set up a rideshare anyway.
When I finally got to the bar, my breath caught in my throat. Stepping out onto the sidewalk, I took in the damage. It was a wreck. The flames had burned it to near-nothingness, and smoke still billowed into the sky from various places. From around the corner, my brothers arrived, having apparently been taking note of the damage on the other side.
“Mason,” I said, pulling him into a hug. “Where is Ava?”
“She’s at home with the baby,” he said, his voice muffled by my shoulder. When he pulled away, I could see the red rim around his eyes. All of them were clearly upset, but none more than Jordan, who paced behind Mason.
“Catch me up to speed? Do we have any idea who would have done this?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you who,” Jordan said, suddenly exploding toward me. The intensity of his anger was disarming, and I squared up to face him. Jordan hadn’t been here long, having just gotten off active duty, but according to the others he had embraced the job and had been doing great.
“Jordan, not now,” Tyler, the second oldest behind me, said.
“Don’t you ‘not now’ me,” Jordan said back, his voice rising and his arms flailing. “You know as well as I do that it’s the truth.”
“
What’s the truth?” I asked. “Jordan, what are you talking about?”
His pacing stopped and he turned to face me head-on. His voice dropped to a gravel, and suddenly I saw the soldier that was hiding in the skin of my little brother. There before me was a man prepared to do anything and everything to defend his family.
“That son of a bitch Danny Jefferies,” he spat.
“Jesus, Jordan, that old man can barely bend over to tie his shoes anymore, and you think he burned down our bar?” Matt, the youngest, asked.
“He’s been scheming this for a long time,” Jordan said, his eyes wild and his feet starting to move again. He paced like a caged tiger as he spoke, and I instinctively moved between him and the road. Danny Jefferies was down the street from our bar, in his own run-down dive that he had owned for years. If Jordan was going to go flying down there in attack mode, he would have to get through me first.
“Do you have any proof?” I asked pointedly.
“Proof? He’s the only one with a damn motive, Tom,” Jordan shouted. “I don’t need proof. I know it’s him.”
“He’s been awfully jealous since Ava came to work here and we started doing the theme nights,” Mason said resignedly.
“Yeah, but jealous enough to risk prison?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, clearly,” Jordan said, gesturing to the smoking remains of the bar. “He hates that we were succeeding and he wasn’t, and he came up here in the middle of the night and started a fucking fire to clear out his competition.”
“Jordan, stop,” I said, and Jordan actually did. He paused mid-step and looked at me. He was still a soldier in so many ways. Maybe I could make that work to calm him down. The tone in my voice was commanding, and the gambit had worked. He stared at me like he was waiting for instruction.
I sighed and looked back at the remains of the building and then back to Jordan.
“We can’t just go accusing someone of arson without proof. I know you’re upset, we all are, but making up wild rumors helps no one. If Danny Jefferies is behind this, it will come out. But for right now, we all need you to calm the hell down.”
Taboo Boss: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 2