Her Greatest Mistake

by Eve L Mitchell

  “Why the big sigh?” Aiden asked me softly as he ran his thumb along the back of my neck. I startled as much from his voice as I did from his touch. Did I seriously forget he was here? He crouched down beside me, so he was eye level with me.

  “I didn’t realise I sighed,” I lied. I met his look and then looked away. “You’ve been away?” Seriously? Stalker much?

  He straightened but not before I caught his smile. “Miss me?”

  “I was making conversation. If you’re going to be you about it…” I picked up a file from the pile.

  His large hand landed on top of the file. “You’re grouchy when you miss me, I like it.”

  I glared at him. “You’re so insufferable.”

  “I know, you told me. Lots of times now.” Aiden smiled at me again. “Get your coat.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Coat, Jemma. Get it,” he ordered me again.

  “You can’t order me about! I don’t work for you,” I hissed at him as I rose from my chair. Violence was not the answer when dealing with difficult situations; the best way to deal with conflict was to talk it out—amicably. I was a firm believer in this. Violence solved nothing.

  Aiden leaned down towards me and enunciated his words very slowly, “Get…your…coat.”

  I kicked him. Hard. I froze. He didn’t flinch. My foot hovered halfway between the floor and his shin, poised. Like it too wasn’t sure that it had actually just kicked him. Was I going to kick him again? I quickly put my foot back on the floor. I looked up at Aiden. He was simply watching me. Waiting. I looked back at him. Then I turned, ready to bolt, aaand that’s what he was waiting for. He grasped my arm before I was half turned and tucked me into his arm.

  “Knew you’d run.” His smile was tight as he walked me quickly across the floor, like a Neanderthal man. We met Nadine and Ben on the way back, and Nadine’s eyes widened fractionally at me as we passed—she must have seen the exchange. “Which coat’s Karate Kid’s?” Aiden asked as he passed.

  Nadine stammered out, “The mauve one.” Still too stunned by my actions to utter a word, my inner voice snorted in amusement at the thought of the caveman trying to identify mauve. Of course, Aiden wasn’t to be thrown off however and effortlessly plucked my pale purple coat off the rack.

  Bastard.

  In the elevator, he started to bundle me into my coat before I shrugged him off and angrily pulled on my coat. It was then that I noticed we were going up, not down. “What’s going on?” I demanded.

  “You kicked me?” He was calm, collected—I was instantly on edge.

  “You’re being insufferable,” I defended myself.

  “You work for a lawyer, do you not know any other words?” Aiden commented snidely as he glared at me.

  I rounded on him in outraged exasperation. “Did you just call me stupid?”

  “I’m sorry, would you prefer I use my feet to convey my frustration at your childish behaviour?” He took his beanie off and ran his hand through his hair. I did not note how thick and full his hair was, I was not jealous of his fingers as they ran through his hair, nor was I disappointed when he pulled his beanie back on. “What?” he snapped.

  “You’re an intolerable, overpowering, impossible, unbearable, unacceptable, overwhelming and completely oppressive male. Do you know that?” I asked as we reached the top floor.

  He regarded me quietly. “I’ve been told.”

  I felt instantly guilty. The elevator doors opened, and I paused before I followed him out to the fire exit doors to the roof. “Aiden…”

  “What?” He half turned.

  “I…um, sorry.” I shrugged as I studied the wall.

  “Jemma.” I looked up at him, his smirk was back. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re insufferable?”

  My eyes narrowed on his back as he exited, but my scathing comeback died on my lips as I realised we weren’t alone. Richard, Mr Adams and a few other occupants from the building stood on the roof.

  Richard smiled at me as we approached. “Oh good, thought you were going to leave us up here to freeze. You didn’t bring your notebook?” He glanced at my empty hands in confusion.

  I cast a quick look at Aiden, who was pointedly ignoring me, and returned my attention to Richard. “Sorry, I didn’t know why I was to come up here,” I murmured softly.

  “You followed the tradesman up to the roof without any idea why?” Mr Adams scoffed beside me. I bristled at the implication while flushing at realising how bad it sounded.

  “I didn’t give Jemma a chance; I was in a hurry,” Aiden said briskly as he passed us and called the others together to form a huddle. “Okay, thanks for freezing your asses off up here, sorry that took me a bit longer than I expected,” Aiden began, and I felt myself flushing, but he didn’t look at me. He pulled out an iPad from his jacket pocket. “As you know, the refurbishment works of the upper floors for Litton Enterprises will take an estimated three to four months. We’ve mainly been just clearing the dead space so far. The reason I have you on the roof is because I want to show you why we need to start the roof repairs, and if we start here,” he began and then led the group over to the corner and kicked at the flat roof covering, on which even my untrained eye could see the signs of wear and tear and decay. “We may as well do the whole roof,” Aiden continued as he followed the area of failing covering along the edge of the flat roof.

  There were instant grumbles and protests at the thought of having to cover the cost of shared roofing works. I glanced at Richard, who was frowning as he followed Aiden with his eyes but not joining in the protests.

  “That’ll be costly,” I said softly.

  “Yeah, which is why he’s showing us now,” Richard replied, watching him still.

  “Because?” My eyes also followed Aiden, who was completely at ease in front of the group of men protesting about the roof repairs. He calmly deflected their objections and had answers for their questions.

  “Because he’s got an ace card to play, and he hasn’t played it yet,” Richard mused more to himself than me. Just then, Aiden’s eyes flicked to us both, and I thought I saw a hint of a smile as he motioned us over.

  “There are ten floors in this building, floors seven to ten are to be occupied by Litton Enterprises once the refurbishment is complete. The rest of you occupy the remaining floors. Malcolm Litton is a reasonable businessman.” Aiden’s voice was clear and slightly cold. I didn’t recognise the tone he used. I did note the scoff from someone when Aiden said reasonable and how Aiden ignored it and carried on. I felt myself frowning. “He is willing to prorate the costs of the roof repairs based on occupation basis.”

  “Meaning?” I glanced at the man who spoke. I had a vague recollection he was on the third floor and did something with financial services.

  “You pay a proportion of the costs, dependant on the space you occupy.” Aiden shrugged as if it were obvious.

  “That means the bank pays double everyone else,” the bank manager spluttered.

  “And Litton Enterprises pays four times as much as everyone else,” Aiden reminded him.

  “The roof covers him, and he wants the damn repairs,” the bank manager snapped.

  “Pretty sure the roof covers us all, Bob,” Richard spoke up. “I don’t know much about construction work, but even as a lawyer, I know water always runs down.” I smiled at his attempt to ease the tension, and it worked, as there were a few rueful chuckles.

  “So you’re okay with this?” someone else asked in the group.

  “I’m not okay with being outside still. Are we needed out here, or can we go inside?” Richard turned back to Aiden as he made a show of rubbing his arms.

  “Lead the way.” Aiden extended his arm out in a “lead on” gesture, and the group turned and trundled back into the building.

  I glanced once over my shoulder and met Aiden’s inscrutable gaze. I cast him a questioning look, and he flashed a smile but gave me nothing more. Once they had been directed down the service
stairs to the tenth floor, we assembled in the vacant floor. I looked around in wonder; it was beautiful. The building was old, yes, but this floor had some beautiful crown moulding that the lower floors had lost through many years of renovation.

  “What if we don’t want the repairs; do we all have to agree?” someone else asked, bringing me out of my quiet perusal of the floor.

  “Well, that would be unfortunate,” Aiden said softly.

  “But what would happen?” the speaker persisted.

  “Well, I would have to lodge the report I have that says the building is unfit for occupation and begin proceedings to get the building condemned, unless it’s completely vacated for refurbishment, including a full renovation and repair works.” It was perhaps the way his tone remained even, his countenance pleasant, that made the delivery more shocking.

  There was a beat of silence, and then the outburst was far more pronounced and exuberant than that of earlier. My eyes were wide as I looked at Richard. A small smile graced his lips as he watched, I had seen it many times.

  “And there it is, the ace.” Richard smiled at me. He leaned forward and caught Mr Adams’s elbow, who had remained quiet throughout. He turned and nodded at us both and then made his way to the exit.

  “Richard?” Aiden asked, having missed none of the exchange.

  “I expect you have cost estimates of all the works?” Richard asked.

  “Yes, everything’s detailed and available for you all. I have all the quotes for the work and available for your consideration. We have nothing to hide; this really is the most cost-effective option,” Aiden replied.

  “Excellent. Well, I propose you give it all to Jemma. She can go through it all with you. She’ll be our liaison for the project. Gentleman.” Richard nodded his farewell and left me standing there open-mouthed, staring after him as he followed Mr Adams off the floor.

  I turned back to a grinning Aiden, the remaining men seemingly forgotten.

  “Well, this is an unexpected bonus.” He smiled at me as his eyes ran over me. I shook my head once and turned and followed after my boss. I needed to have a conversation with Richard—this was not going to be a good idea.

  “Richard, wait!” I called out as I hurried into his office. He had just taken his seat, and he looked up at me in surprise, as I came in rather breathlessly from legging it down the stairs.

  “You ok?”

  “No! What was that?” I pointed to the ceiling. Richard glanced at the ceiling before frowning at me.

  “Jemma?”

  “Upstairs, you want me to be the liaison. With Aiden? Why?” I stood there, waiting, trying not to appear desperate.

  “Because you’re my PA? Because I don’t have time for a contractor’s project, because I know your dad and brother are tradesmen and you will know if he’s bullshitting us? Because this is the kind of thing you can do in your sleep?” Richard leaned back in his seat as he assessed me. “Is there a problem here?”

  “No.” Yes. “No, it just caught me off guard is all.” I forced a smile.

  “I thought you and Aiden seemed to get on well?”

  Those damn lawyers—always trying to get more out of people. I forced another smile. “Yeah, no issues.”

  “I never implied there were issues.” Richard leaned forward.

  Bloodhound. I backed away. “You want a coffee? I feel like we need to warm up. It sure is cold out there, isn’t it? And up on the roof, wow, so cold. I’ll get you a coffee.” I turned and fled.

  Aiden was at my desk waiting. I saw him when I came out of Richard’s office and immediately detoured to the kitchen. Just running from everyone today, Jemma, well done. So subtle. I pulled two mugs from the cupboard and started preparing coffee. The soft nick of the door closing alerted me to the fact Aiden had followed me. I turned my head slightly as he leaned against the door and watched me.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing, making coffee,” I replied. “Want one?”

  “No.” He came towards me, and I cursed inwardly at the fact that I was backed into the corner. “Why are you being more weird than normal?”

  “I’m weird?”

  His laugh was humourless. He was now right in front of me. I watched the water drip into the pot.

  “Jemma, what is wrong with you, don’t you want to work with me?” His tone was slightly hard. “This is because of upstairs? Fine.” He exhaled harshly. “I’ll send you the spreadsheets and the quotes. I’ll send Ben down if you prefer; he can answer any questions you may have in regard to the work.”

  “Ben?” I looked up at him. His mask was back on. “I could do this with Ben?”

  “You’d prefer Ben?”

  “I didn’t realise Ben was an option,” I answered truthfully.

  “I didn’t realise you were considering options,” Aiden bit out. “Sure, Ben it is.” His grin was savage.

  “Why do I think we’re having different conversations,” I asked him quietly. He was watching me like a cat watches a mouse. I didn’t like being the mouse; I wasn’t sure I was prepared if he pounced.

  “I think you know exactly what you’re doing,” he said softly as he continued to study me. I looked at him in confusion. Suddenly his mocking grin was back. “I’ll send option B to you.”

  He left the door open on his way out. I stared at it for too long after he was gone. Nadine came through and stopped dead as she saw me looking at an open space like a zombie. She too shut the door.

  “Okay, so Mr Adams told me about the roof project and you’re heading that up. But what I want to know is, what is going on with you and hot hunk?”

  “What?” I was still confused about Aiden’s reaction.

  “Don’t ‘what’ me. Don’t deflect, don’t change the subject and don’t bullshit me. Spill it now. He just stormed out of here like he’s been told he can’t rip out four floors and rebuild, and you look like someone told you there are no more new books.” She took a deep breath. “Now, what’s going on?”

  Despite myself, I snorted out a laugh. “No more new books? That’s pretty dire.”

  “It was as severe as I could go without actually physically threatening you.” Nadine shrugged.

  “It’s a horrible thought,” I murmured in agreement.

  “Course it is, I don’t do things half-assed.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Right, so deflecting again, don’t think I didn’t notice.” She glared at me, and I failed to hide my smile. “What’s the deal?” She jerked her head over her shoulder, indicating where Aiden had left. The gesture was unnecessary, I knew who she meant.

  “We don’t seem to gel,” I lied.

  “That’s shit. I’ve seen you. Try again.” Her arms crossed.

  “He’s overbearing.”

  “You’ve dealt with worse.”

  “I shouldn’t have to,” I countered.

  “No, but I don’t think he would be once you addressed it.” Her head tilted to the side. “This isn’t it.”

  “I don’t like the way he speaks to me.” I looked her straight in the eye. “He reminds me of Tim.”

  Liar.

  Her face instantly softened.

  “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t think. He is a little bit brisk and patronising.”

  He really isn’t.

  “Yes, he is.” I nodded. “So I’m going to work with Ben.” Nadine’s softness vanished. “Cool your jets, you can keep Ben for your plaything.” I poured coffee for Richard and myself, then I added milk to both, plus one sugar to Richard’s.

  “He is cute,” Nadine muttered.

  “I’m sure he’ll be delighted to hear that. Come on, we have work to do.” We went back into the main office. I took Richard his coffee and then returned to my desk, praying that I could once again manage to push Aiden to the back of my mind.

  I hadn’t seen Aiden since the kitchen. That was two and a half weeks ago. Ben and I were working well together. He had come down later that same morning, asking for my email address, a
nd then I had been sent the proposals, the quotes and the timeframe. I had taken it all home and then on Saturday, phoned my dad. He had talked me through parts and labour, and then I had emailed it all to my brother Jeremy. On Sunday he had called me, and he had talked me through it. Basically, it was as I had thought: it was a legitimate roofing job. Both dad and Jeremy had said there were little margins in the pricing; where they would have been less on one, Aiden was less on something else. Dad’s main concern was the timing delays for weather in terms of material and labour. Jeremy wanted to know contingencies. I had lots of notes, and both were very pleased I had the majority of the questions already listed before they had broached them. I was a Leighton through and through.

  On the following Monday morning, I had handed all my questions and comments to Ben. He had answered mostly everything—those he hadn’t, he had responded to by midmorning. A full report had been given back to Richard before noon. He had told them to proceed and that I would remain the liaison with whomsoever I was most comfortable working with. Ben had shuffled his feet but had nodded. The internal repairs had started, and the construction team had erected scaffolding and covering almost overnight, it seemed. The roof repairs wouldn’t commence until the worst of winter had passed. They had four floors to remodel and refurbish; the project was a big one.

  “Are you going home to Boulder for Christmas?” Nadine asked me. She was at the window, staring out at the falling snow.

  “Yeah, Jeremy’s coming for me on Tuesday.” I looked up from my monitor as I had been preparing paperwork for an upcoming case for Richard.