by Katie Dowe
Grimacing, she called him, deciding to get it over with.
“Nicole, hey. I’ve got some excellent gumbo in the pot. I thought we’d go spicy tonight.”
Nicole winced.
“Ah, Fred, about that…”
She could hear it – she could just hear how everything became frigid when she started saying it.
“Nicole, you said you had an early day today, but you’d be done on time.”
He sounded petulant. That was the one thing she had always found quite annoying about Fred. Sometimes, he could whine like a manchild.
“I know, but I had a meeting that overshot its mark considerably, and I’ll have to work late to make up for it. You know what Anderson is like, Fred. I can’t just take off. I swear the man is forever looking for an excuse to fire me.”
Nicole started gathering everything up, tucking the phone between her chin and her shoulder to leave her hands free.
She should’ve brought her headset.
“Nicole, this is the third time you’ve canceled in two weeks.”
Nicole found herself getting quite irritated.
“I know that, Fred, but you work lunch. I don’t expect you to ever be able to make it for breakfast, do I? I know you need to prep, so I don’t mind that, ever. I can’t just let my work slide. This is a huge account, Fred. I can’t risk messing it up. I just can’t.”
Now he would sulk. Nicole knew he would sulk. After the petulance came the sulking.
This time, she caught herself comparing him to Max and his charm. It wasn’t a very favorable comparison.
“I suppose you’ll be busy tomorrow, too.”
Nicole nearly dropped her file and had to flail to handle everything.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“You know what, Nicole? You give me a call when you finally have the time to spare to talk to your boyfriend. I have other things to do now.”
Nicole gritted her teeth when she heard the click and the line went dead. She could practically see him flouncing off.
After the petulance, there was the flounce before the sulk. She’d forgotten about that. However could she have forgotten.
“I don’t have time for this shit,” she muttered, pushing her phone into her bag and dashing off.
She really didn’t have time for any such shit. She needed to get to work, and she had a ton of work to do.
Jeff was waiting for her when she got back.
“Well, what was it like? Tell me everything. Don’t spare a single detail. Did you check out his ass?”
Nicole laughed. Jeff always wanted to know all about asses. She wasn’t sure if he was gay or bisexual, but he had never hit on her, so she had never considered it any of her business.
“I did. It’s a very fine ass,” she told him, and Jeff closed his eyes in happiness.
“Now, what about the rest of him?”
“You do know it was a business lunch, don’t you?”
Jeff waved his hands as if he were waving away a silly and rather pesky problem.
“Oh, business. You were gone for over two hours. Business never takes that long. Besides, I know Noel. He would’ve taken care of whatever details you needed before the meeting.”
That was news.
“You know Noel? How come you didn’t tell me that?”
Jeff grinned, striking a pose that she figured he thought was mysterious.
“I have many secrets. I shall never reveal them all. So, how was lunch?”
Nicole considered.
“It was pretty great. He agrees with me about the ale, by the way. Beer should have flavor, not flowers. It’s ridiculous.”
“Nicole!”
Nicole nearly tugged at her hair and screamed when she heard her name being shouted by Derek Anderson.
“I guess I’ve got to go and be drawn and quartered,” mumbled Nicole and got up, making her way to Anderson’s office fairly resentfully.
“Mr. Anderson, I just got back from the…”
He didn’t even let her finish.
“I just got feedback from the client about the aromatherapy copy. They want changes. You must pay more attention to the brief, Nicole. This is shoddy work.”
Nicole gritted her teeth again. It felt like they’d be ground down to stubs soon at this rate.
“Mr. Anderson, could you please forward the emails to me? Perhaps this time, I can send the finished layout to Jessica, and she can send it to Ms. Donaldson? I’ve been told that that’s how she prefers to work.”
The man looked sulky, almost like Fred, thought Nicole before she shook her head, trying to get that thought of her head.
“I want to be marked on everything.”
Or you’ll throw your toys out of the pram, thought Nicole, wishing she could throw something at his stupid head.
“Of course, Mr. Anderson,” she said, instead, and walked away before he could dump more on her.
Nicole sat at her desk and shooed Jeff away when he came for more gossip. She had work to do. She needed to undo everything the silly man that her boss was, had done to the creatives, fix them all, and send them to Jessica.
Thankfully, she had her raw copy, so she didn’t need to do it all from scratch.
After a couple of hours, she surfaced, and saw that she had mail.
Maybe it was Fred, telling her he was sorry he’d been such an ass, thought Nicole, and opened her inbox hopefully.
But it wasn’t. It was Max.
Hello Nicole,
I hope the questionnaire didn’t disappoint you, and that your dinner date is going well. Tomorrow evening, I’d like to take you to my pub. We’re very casual there, so if you want me to pick you up directly from work I’d be happy to do so.
I’m looking forward to talking to you. I also found a first edition of Mansfield Park in my collection today, and it reminded me of you. We’re thinking of putting up a few more bookshelves at the pub. Since you’re an expert in the field, perhaps you could give us your opinion.
And perhaps you would even help me choose the right books for the new shelves. After all, it’s a very important decision. It could make or break everything.
I’m not entirely teasing you. I would like your help, when you can tear yourself away from dinner dates, and work, of course.
You could let your firm bill me for hours, if you like.
I’ll leave you to decide if I’m teasing about that.
Yours,
Max.
Nicole read that a few times. She wasn’t sure what to make of it.
She really was very unsure if he was teasing her or he meant it. Was he just indulging her? But she had told him that she had a boyfriend.
He hadn’t said anything inappropriate. But he hadn’t said anything about work, either.
Which reminded her that she needed to go through the questionnaire. Resigned to burning the midnight oil, she ordered a small pizza and got to work.
She didn’t expect to be engrossed by the questionnaire, but to her surprise, she found, as she read it, made notes, and ate pepperoni and cheese pizza, that she wasn’t bored at all.
This project might be interesting, despite Anderson and his follies, after all.
*****
Nicole was not happy. She was tired, grumpy and still sleepy. She hadn’t managed to fit her workout into her morning. When you have to work till midnight, getting in a workout in the morning was a bit of a stretch.
A stretch was what she wanted, but it looked like she’d have to go dissatisfied.
Nicole didn’t look like her usually impeccably put together self when she got to work. Jeff took one look at her and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.
“Nikki, you look like something no respectable cat would drag in. What happened to you?”
Nicole barely glanced at him.
“Overslept. Didn’t have time for anything in the morning. I was here till about midnight, working on the flowery ale.”
Jeff nodded sagely.
“My c
ommiserations.”
“It wasn’t that bad, really,” said Nicole.
“Not for that. Anderson gesticulates madly, at you. I’m afraid you need to see him.”
Nicole wanted to scream. Wasn’t that just how her day would go. She really needed somebody to cut her some slack.
“Mr. Anderson, you…”
“I hope you don’t have any client meetings today, Nicole. You look disgraceful. We do have a certain image to uphold.”
And his stupid bald head was doing it perfectly, wasn’t it, along with his jackets that were one size too small, the sign of a stout man in denial. Nicole had to bite her tongue to stop from saying any of it.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Anderson. I was here till midnight. I overslept in the morning and had to hurry to make it on time.”
Nicole wasn’t sure how she managed to talk through her clenched jaw.
“Very unprofessional, Nicole. I have an approval for the aromatherapy campaign. Please get it over to production and make sure it’s not screwed up this time. Don’t make any changes to what the client has approved.”
One day, thought Nicole, she would punch him in his saggy face and walk out, the pasty bastard.
“Of course, Mr. Anderson.”
She turned to go, eager to get out of his face and get him out of hers.
“I hope you have the information I need for the Max Daniels campaign.”
He sounded as if he doubted it. Nicole had never missed a deadline, not in all the time she had worked there. The man was such a first class jackass.
“The brief, and all the information, is in your inbox,” said Nicole, and walked out without looking back.
She sat at her desk and tried taking a few deep breaths. Maybe she should try yoga, instead of just working out. Maybe that would help her more.
“He really is a bastard,” said Jeff, sympathetically.
Nicole shook her head, trying to find her center again.
“Well, he’s too old to change. I have so much work left to do. He will send me the basics of the flowery ale campaign soon. It will suck, and I will have to take it to Max, who will think I’m a complete idiot.”
Jeff’s eyebrows did a little dance.
“And does that matter? Tell me, Nicole, do you have a thing for the beautiful, half-Irish man?”
Nicole shook her head again.
“You know I’m involved, Jeff. You’ve met Fred. We’re doing well together. I think he might ask me to move in with him soon. He has already dropped a few pretty heavy hints.”
Jeff sat back and tried to look wise.
“Do you want to move in with him?”
Nicole shrugged.
“I wouldn’t mind living with him, I guess. We’ve been together long enough to take that next step. But, you know, I love my little apartment. I know it’s tiny and I know there’s barely enough space there for my books and me, but I don’t know how my stuff would fit into Fred’s place. His place is spacious, but he doesn’t like clutter. He rarely spends time at my apartment. He feels stifled. But…”
Jeff did look genuinely sympathetic now.
“You would feel stifled without your clutter and your books.”
Nicole nodded, grateful that Jeff understood that much.
“Maybe you should talk to Fred and find a compromise. Maybe you could find a new apartment together, something big enough to suit both of you. You could have your space within that, and you can have your life-giving clutter, too.”
Nicole smiled.
“Maybe. Putting the cart before the horse here, though. He hasn’t asked me to move in with him or anything. Anyway, to work, now. I have to go to production and get so many things done that my head is swimming. At least I know what Ms. Donaldson and Jessica want. Now that Anderson’s out of my hair, I can focus on doing a good job there.”
Jeff grinned.
“And I will take the nap that you look like you sorely need. Some of us need our beauty sleep. I didn’t get much last night. I had a hot date.”
Nicole laughed.
If it weren’t for Jeff, she really would hate her work. But as things were, she was so grateful for him.
As she went about, taking care of the million details that could go wrong and ruin a good campaign, she started wondering what Max was doing. Was he working on something new and exciting? He had agreed with her that the ale wasn’t the kind of thing he liked.
She was going out to dinner with him. That meant that she needed to get home and change. There was absolutely no way she could go out with him looking like she did. That meant that his offer to pick her up had to be declined, politely.
It was a business dinner, she told herself, firmly, when she found herself wondering what to wear. She would go home, iron a shirt, and wear something appropriate. It wasn’t a date.
That reminded her that she had canceled on Fred and hadn’t called him to smooth everything out. He should be done with sulking. She should call him.
But the thought didn’t give her that little flutter in the stomach that it used to.
Feeling guilty, though she told herself she had absolutely no reason to be guilty, Nicole took a break and called Fred.
“Fred…”
“Nicole, I’m in the middle of prep.”
Fred sounded annoyed. No wonder, thought Nicole as she noticed the time. It was the busiest part of his day!
“I’m so sorry, Fred, I’ll call you later.”
“Fine,” said Fred and hung up, curtly.
Nicole stood there, staring at her phone for a moment, before she decided to grab some lunch and take a break.
No matter what Anderson thought, she was entitled to some time to collect her thoughts.
*****
Max found his attention wandering, yet again. Noel was beginning to give him extremely funny looks.
Noel was more than just his admin. He was also a friend. Unlike what most people thought, Noel held real power in his brewery, far more than any silly VPs did.
“Max, what the hell is going on? I’ve told you the same thing three times and you don’t look like you took any of it in at all.”
Max grinned.
“Well, I met this woman yesterday. I’m taking her to the pub tonight.”
Noel raised his perfect eyebrow. Women often swooned over Noel, but unfortunately for them, Noel didn’t have much interest in women.
“The pub? Really? You don’t usually take anybody to the pub. It’s… Well, serious, when you take somebody to the pub.”
Max’s grin grew wider. He knew Noel would worry, now. He always worried about Max. He thought that Max could be too trusting, sometimes even a bit too gullible.
“It’s not a date.”
Noel looked confused.
“Then why do you have that ridiculous moony look about you?”
Noel didn’t beat around the bush with Max. He didn’t waste time with platitudes, either. They knew each other, and they knew that they didn’t have to soften anything up for each other. That was one of the reasons Noel was so important to the brewery. And to Max.
“It’s not a date because she has a boyfriend. She’s intriguing, Noel. She reads, and she knows her beer. She seems genuinely interested in learning more. She makes excellent conversation, and she doesn’t shy away from talking politics. She’s a very interesting woman.”
Noel shook his head. This sounded very unlike Max.
“Where did you meet this woman?”
Max knew that now Noel would be really annoyed.
“You know her. She’s the Anderson rep who met me last evening.”
Noel sat back, pursing his lips. He had noticed that the person he’d spoken to had sounded competent, intelligent and engaging. But still…
“Don’t worry, I won’t elope with her or anything,” said Max.
But Noel was worried. He’d never seen anybody distract Max like this before.
A distracted Max was an anomaly in his world. He’d have to see where this end
ed up.
Chapter 4
Nicole was a bit harried by the time she made her way back to her apartment. It had been a bitch of a day, though talking to Ms. Donaldson was always a pleasure. Sometimes, she got extremely pissed off that Anderson got all the credit for everything. She knew that it didn’t help that she was a woman. Jeff got belittled by Anderson, too, but at least he considered his work good enough to send directly to a client. At least, he did, occasionally.
Now, after a day of trying to wade through the mess that he had made, and putting everything from the questionnaire together for Anderson because he needed to be spoon-fed, she was beyond exhausted. All she wanted, to be completely honest, was to curl up in bed with a pint of ale. Preferably not the flowery ale.
But thinking of it reminded her of Max again, and Nicole wanted to see Max.
To talk about the questionnaire, of course, she told herself.
But there was absolutely no reason why she couldn’t talk about the questionnaire with the very handsome and interesting Max when she was wearing a really nice dress that showed off her surprising curves, was there?
If there was, she couldn’t think of any. At least, she refused to acknowledge any.
Resolutely refusing to admit that there might be any impropriety involved, Nicole chose an emerald green dress that looked perfectly nice until she put it on, when ‘nice’ became far too bland a word to describe how it looked. It didn’t cling as much as it skimmed, but it made her waist look tiny, and her curves look like they should be signposted with ‘danger ahead’.
Feeling a bit guilty about having chosen the dress, she didn’t pick the amber danglers she usually wore with it. She went with sober studs.
She had been to the pub, and knew what to expect. She knew that she would fit right in, at least with the color, and the dress wasn’t fussy. It was perfect.
She was so busy congratulating herself that she didn’t notice that her phone rang for a good while, buzzing in her purse. Fred had called, and she hadn’t answered. For once, she hadn’t even considered calling Fred. She was far too wrapped up in her evening with Max to do that.
It didn’t even occur to her until much later to check her phone, and find the missed calls.