by Claire Adams
“Your dad said you have an MBA; what sort of work do you hope to find once you’re settled into town?”
“I’m not sure. I used to think I wanted to work at a big company, but my last experience didn’t turn out so well. Maybe I’ll check out some smaller organizations, or even a consulting firm. I have no idea. Do you know how long you’ll be needing me?”
“I have no idea,” I laughed. “Apparently I’m really bad at hiring people, but I’ll have you help me go through some applicants, and it shouldn’t be too long. Did you have a time frame of you wanted to finish up here by?”
“No, I’m good through the spring if you need me. I’d like to take it easy and really think through my next career choice.”
The way we were talking back and forth was already comfortable to me. I wasn’t even afraid of flirting with her because she seemed really good at her job and I needed someone like her around. Maybe I was being naive, but I really thought I would be able to keep our relationship on a platonic level.
“I might end up needing you that long. Do you have a place to stay or are you staying with your father? By the way, these are the offices of my architecture team. They are working closely with your father on our new Breckenridge project.”
“I’m staying with Jessica right downtown here; she’s the one I was with at the club. And I don’t really talk to my father much about his business stuff; you’ll have to fill me in on the project.”
“Do you know what it is we do with your father?”
“Sort of. You were a snowboarding guy and went in with him on a resort, and everyone kept asking about you, so Daddy wanted to work with you again. Then you guys started branding his resorts as only carrying your products for sale, and he rents your equipment there, too. Now you two are inseparable, like two peas in a pod. But do you work with other clients still?”
“See, you know pretty much everything you need to,” I joked. “A large part of my business is still on the retail and pro-snowboarder side of things. I’m enjoying exploring the resort side, though.”
We arrived back at my office and went inside. I propped the wooden door open and motioned for her to sit in the chairs near my desk.
“Why a wooden door?” she asked. “I mean, I really love the glass walls; it’s open and irreverent. But why the wood door?”
“You know, that’s the one thing about these offices that drives me nuts. The design team thought it would be too much glass if we didn’t have some sort of accent doors. I fought them, but in the end, I gave in. I regret it.”
“Do you often give in to other people's desires?”
Her voice tone deepened, and I watched as Emmi crossed her legs slowly and watched me as I tried to respond to her. I swallowed hard at her word; desires. I did like giving in to the desires of sexy women, but I couldn’t exactly say that to her. She was my partner’s daughter and 100 percent off-limits. Giving in to desire was a certainty about my life. But did she mean it like that or was she just making a comment about the design team? Maybe she wasn’t trying to be seductive at all and was simply asking me a question? I didn’t know her well enough to know the answer to this.
“I usually try to analyze the feel of my team and negotiate where I can,” I said, to be on the safe side.
“Yeah, that’s what good bosses do. But if it had been up to me, I would have told them to do the glass doors too,” she said, with that soft grin that I was growing accustomed to looking at.
“Hey, boss, meeting in 10,” Rosa said as she walked passed my office.
“That’s Rosa; she’s the head of the architecture department.”
“Architecture?”
“It’s not really called that, it’s our structural design elements division. But I like architecture better. We are getting more and more involved in the design elements of the properties because your dad is trying to pull out and be more of a money man. The problem I run into is that I don’t know hotels as well as he does. Something that might seem cool to me might be a horrible idea for a hotel. Anyway, that was Rosa, and she and her team are amazing.”
Emmi grabbed a notepad from my desk and started taking some notes. I wasn’t exactly sure what she as writing down, but she looked busy, so I let her write and didn’t keep talking. She was beautiful though, and I couldn’t stop looking at her. She had the slightest grimace on her face while she wrote, and it slipped away when she lifted her head and looked at me. I could only hope that she was going to be happy working with me and that my bad habits didn’t turn into too much for her to handle.
“What would you say were the top five things that your previous assistant did for you?”
“Wow, top five?” I asked as I searched the long list of things I knew Margery did for me. “She did so much I wouldn’t know where to start. And as you’ve already learned, she also did things that I didn’t even know she was doing for me.”
“Did she get you coffee in the morning?”
“Yes, usually.”
“We know she got you towels for the bathroom,” Emmi laughed. “Did she do other errands for you, like picking up your dry cleaning?”
“No, I do my personal things.”
“How about meetings? Did she prep you for them a few hours ahead of time, or right before the meeting?”
“Well, it depends on the meeting. If it was important, we usually talked about it in the morning.”
“Can I come with you to your morning meeting?” Emmi asked as I got up to join the architecture team meeting.
“No need to join this one; it’s going to just be the team and I discussing changes to the project. Take some time to get settled in, and we will talk more in an hour or so.”
“Okay.”
She looked disappointed but quickly pressed a smile across her face. She took the notebook with her to the desk in front of my office and sat down as she continued taking notes.
“Relax and make yourself at home. If anyone calls, just take a message, and I’ll get back to them. You’ve got to push the line button next to where it’s blinking to actually answer the call; they won’t be there if you just pick up the receiver.”
“I know how to answer a phone, but thanks.”
“Okay then, the break room is just over there. Feel free to grab any of the snacks or make yourself a coffee. I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Sounds good.”
She went straight back to looking at her pad of paper as she wrote down some more notes. It seemed odd that she needed to take so many notes when I hadn’t been talking about anything important, but I wasn’t about to ask her what she was writing down.
As the design team and I were going through their ideas, it looked like we had some unique rooms for our lodge. Of course, I needed Teddy to take a look at them, and we still needed to go on site to make the final designs, but what we had was promising. Rosa and her team were amazing at listening to what I had to say and bringing it to life.
“Mr. McMillan,” Emmi said as she knocked and then opened the conference room door. “There’s a woman on the line who insists she talk to you.”
“Emmi, like I said, please just take a message, and I’ll call people back.”
“I know what you said, but she keeps calling and is insisting I put her on hold so she can talk to you.”
“Then let her hold,” I said, trying to hide how annoyed I was. “I need to finish this meeting.”
“Okay, but she’s not going to hang up until she talks to you.”
“I understand that.”
“Don’t you think it would be quicker to just talk to her and tell her you’re not interested in her than it is to have her calling here interrupting your day like this?”
I stood up and walked out of the room and closed the conference room door behind me. How dare this girl talk to me like that in front of all my staff. I didn’t care if she was Teddy’s daughter; it was rude and disrespectful to say something like that. I took in a deep breath before I responded.
“Emmi, I’m a simple man. I don’t have many rules. But I do ask that the rules I give you are followed. Please take a message or let her hold.”
“It just seems cruel to drag her along like—”
“Emmi, this is not appropriate. You don’t know me, and you don’t know who that woman is. I asked you to take a message. Please go do it.”
“Okay but, I just thought—”
“Please don’t add your thoughts to my personal life.”
“I’m sorry,” she said and reluctantly went back to her desk.
Even though I was pissed, I couldn’t help but smile as I turned back to walk into my conference room. That was the girl I had met the other night at the club. It was nice to know I had a woman who could think for herself, even if it was going to drive me crazy. Margery had driven me crazy when we first started to work together, but it was her straight thinking that kept me in line, and I was forever grateful to her for that.
I wasn’t ready to let Emmi know her free thinking would be allowed, though. There had to be some sort of hierarchy of power between us. She needed to know that I was the boss and not her, even if her father and I were friends.
Chapter Six
Emmi
“Can we go get some drinks?” I asked Jessica the second I walked into her apartment at the end of the week.
“Bad day?”
“The whole week has been bad, but it could have been worse. At least he’s able to keep his hands to himself. But yeah, it sucked.”
“Want to wait for tomorrow? Or is it a drinking-on-Thursday sort of night?” she asked as she pulled off her business clothes and slipped on a dress.
“Tonight, for sure. But do we need to dress up? Can’t we just go in our jeans?” I whined.
“I’m a club marketer, Emmi. I can’t be seen out on the town in jeans and a T-shirt; that’s not very professional. I’ve always got to look that part. Here, slip this one on and let’s go.”
She threw a bright blue dress at me, and I rolled my eyes and pulled it on without arguing. I knew Jessica, and it would take me a half an hour to argue my way out of wearing that dress. That was 25 minutes longer than I wanted to wait to get a drink.
We walked across the street to a hip bar call Sand. The reggae music and Caribbean-style drinks were exactly what I needed that evening. I didn’t even care that I still had one day of work left for the week; I had to relax a little.
My body tingled as I sipped from my strawberry daiquiri. Fruity frozen drinks weren’t my typical drink, but the music and atmosphere were irresistible. It was as if we were transported to an island bar with the warm breeze of the ocean swirling around us. I wasn’t sure how they made the bar feel so realistic, but it was fantastic.
“We should take a cruise,” I gleefully announced as I sipped my drink.
“Yeah, it’s normal for someone to want to take a weeklong vacation after only working for four days. What’s going on there? This job was supposed to be a piece of cake. You’re just an assistant, not even close to your stratosphere of work level.”
“Jess, he’s working me to death. I can’t understand how his elderly assistant every kept up with him. He’s definitely got ADHD or something like that. He can’t stay focused, constantly loses things, and has an ego the size of California.”
Jessica rolled her eyes and laughed at my description of Declan. We were used to men like him who ran companies. We’d talked about it before and knew exactly how these guys got to the positions they were in: charisma. Of course, there was more to it, and my last boss had been much worse. At least Declan had a brain.
“It’s weird, though. I kind of like the guy, even though he’s totally exhausting.”
“Like him?”
“Not like that. He’s interesting and straightforward. I think he actually appreciates everything I’m doing there, and that’s a huge change. Maybe I’m just so exhausted because I'm not used to actually working this hard.”
“You do like him. Oooh, Emmi this is going to be fun,” Jessica teased.
“Like I said, it’s not like that. I’m just getting adjusted to a boss that doesn’t try to grab my ass every day.”
“So are we going to the club this weekend to blow off some steam?”
Going to the club every weekend wasn’t really my thing at all. It wasn’t even Jessica’s thing either, but with her job, I could see how it would be important to get out and socialize with that crowd on the weekends. I also could see that I was going to get tired of that lifestyle within a few weeks and was going to have to pace myself a bit.
Sitting at home ordering takeout and watching a movie was more my pace for a Saturday evening. But everything in my life was switched around lately, and as much as I was trying to keep up, it was exhausting.
“I’d love to stay home this weekend and sleep. I feel like it might help me feel a little more caught up.”
“Oh, you can sleep all day long, and we will go out.” My phone started ringing and interrupted her. “Who is that?” she asked with a huge smile.
“Probably my dad. I promised I’d call him this week and haven’t done it yet.”
Sure enough, as I looked at my phone, it was my father. I’d been so busy all week that I’d kept putting off talking to him. I knew I needed to take the call, so I walked back toward the restrooms as I answered.
“Hi, Daddy, I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
“I know you’re busy, sweetheart. Declan says you’re doing a fabulous job.”
“Oh, he does?” I laughed. “He hasn’t told me that. Most of the time he just barks orders and expects me to get things done before he’s even finished a sentence.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. He’s just a fast thinker and blurts things out when they come to his mind. You’ll get used to it.”
“Dad, you know I’m not staying in the job for long, right? I can’t work as someone’s assistant forever. I have an MBA. I need more of a challenge.”
“Emmi, everything in life doesn’t need to be a challenge. Sometimes good things come from stepping back and just enjoying something different. You sound tired, though.”
He hit the nail on the head. The emotions of moving, the stress of constantly trying to keep up with Declan’s demands, and being in limbo was exhausting. Stress wasn’t my favorite thing in life, and I really didn’t have good skills in dealing with being overwhelmed. Typically, my way of dealing with stress was to work harder and harder until I got everything possible completed.
“I am tired, Daddy,” I said as I felt my voice crack.
“He’s treating you okay, isn’t he?”
“Oh, yes, Dad. He’s professional. There’s just been a lot going on this week. I’ll try and get over to see you this weekend.”
“It’s okay. I feel better after catching up. You call me if you need anything.”
“Love you.”
“You too, sweetheart.”
Talking to my father was just what I needed to refocus myself. Life didn’t have to be so worrisome. I deserved a good night out with Jessica and a few more of those delicious daiquiri drinks. Almost as if she had read my mind, there was a fresh drink waiting for me when I returned to our table.
“How’s Dad?”
“He’s good. Man, I’m really glad I’m out here and really glad we came out. This is exactly what I needed today. A little bit of a reset to get me through the week and insight to see how friggin’ awesome my life is.”
“It’s true. You’ve got me as a best friend. Life doesn’t get any better than that.”
We laughed, and I gave her a big hug. Finally, I started to feel relaxed and enjoyed myself. It probably didn’t hurt that this bar made me feel like I was on vacation. I couldn’t imagine anyone would stay agitated after an hour sitting there.
“I’m getting drunk tonight,” I announced to Jessica. “This is the best feeling.”
“Another round,” Jessica asked the waitress as she walked by.
“These drinks ar
e dangerous. They taste so delicious you forget how much alcohol you’re actually drinking.”
“I know. I could drink pina coladas every day and not get tired of them. Maybe we should actually take a long weekend to Mexico; that might be fun.”
“Now that sounds like a good plan. Beach vacations are the only kind. I don’t know how people can actually enjoy the cold. Like Declan has built his whole business on snow equipment. That sounds like torture to me. I might actually have some time off next week because Declan needs to go to that new building site.”
“I heard he started out as a professional snowboarder. Is that true?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t talk about his past or anything like that. He’s caught up in the day-to-day business. He and Daddy are building a new resort in Breckenridge, Colorado. That’s pretty much all anyone is talking about.”
I quickly sipped the remaining contents of my third drink and felt the warmth of the alcohol rush through my system. Then I grabbed the fourth and started in on that one. Most of the people in the bar were young professionals blowing off steam from a long week. I already knew this was going to be my favorite after-work hangout.
“Is your phone ringing?” Jessica asked as I started to realize a buzzing noise coming from my purse.
“It’s Declan. I’m not answering it.”
I pressed the decline button and went back to sipping my drink. All while Jessica looked at me with a questioning glare.
“I’m off the clock. I don’t need to answer.”
“But you probably should.”
“I know. But I’m literally drunk here. I can’t talk to him. I’m not good at talking to guys when I’m drunk.”
“Ha, yeah. I remember you professing your love for our teaching assistant during grad school. That was hilarious,” she said and then stopped to look at my purse while it continued to vibrate. “Maybe it’s important?”
“I'm not used to anyone right now. I can’t answer,” I said as I sent the call to voicemail again.
But soon a text message popped up from Declan.