by Claire Adams
“Thanks again,” I said as we reached the door.
I leaned in to give him a hug, though. It was so natural and just what I would do on a date. But we weren’t on a date, and I shouldn’t have hugged him.
Declan didn’t wrap his arms around me though. Instead, he placed his hands on either side of my cheeks and gently kissed each cheek, as he had done with Mrs. Braxton. My whole body froze at the touch of his lips against my skin. The heat radiated through me and I couldn’t get away from him fast enough. This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t feel like this around him.
“Thanks again for a fun night,” I said loudly as I opened the door and rushed into Jessica’s apartment.
“See you on Monday,” I heard Declan say from the other side of the door.
Chapter Nine
Declan
There was a lot of work that had to get done the week after Valentine’s Day. I had planned my trip to Breckenridge at the end of the week and needed to finalize as many of the project details as possible before I left.
Before Emmi showed up for work on Monday morning, I already had a sense that things would be different between the two of us. We had shared a fun evening and made a big difference in the donations for the Boys and Girls Home. I couldn’t wait to tell her all about my conversation with Maryanne late Sunday evening.
Right at 8 o’clock, Emmi walked off the elevator and got settled into her desk outside of my office. She went straight to work listening to her voicemail and looking through her email; she didn’t say a thing to me. This was the first sign that something was wrong.
I stayed at my desk for most of the morning as I finished up some much-needed work. I emailed Emmi with a list of things I needed done for the day, just like I normally did. But this time she didn’t turn around at her desk and acknowledge what I had sent her. Instead, she emailed me back to tell me she’d take care of it.
The new distance between the two of us was especially clear to me when lunch came around. Emmi knocked on my door, stuck her head in and let me know she would be going out for lunch.
“I’ll be gone for lunch. I’ll be back in an hour,” she said flatly.
“Okay. Is everything alright?”
“Yes, I’m just trying to stay caught up on the work we have. I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Wait,” I yelled after her as the door closed. She stopped though, and slowly opened the door to see what it was I had to say. “I wanted to give you the final numbers from the fundraiser. I talked with Maryanne last night, and she was really excited.”
“Oh, yes. How did she do?”
I walked over toward the door, so I could be closer to her, but I sensed that my close proximity was making her uncomfortable. I took a step back as I relayed the good news.
“She said they had donations or promissory notes for over five million dollars.”
“Wow, Declan. That’s so amazing for them.”
“I told her it was all your idea and she insisted on sitting down with you to pick your brain about other ideas you might have.”
“I’d love to help out. Give her my number and we can set something up,” Emmi said as she turned to leave for lunch. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
Emmi wasn’t being rude; she wasn’t being disrespectful or anything like that. But there was something off about the way she was behaving. Something distant about how she was interacting with me.
After she returned from lunch, I knew I needed to talk to her and clarify what was going on. I’d said a few inappropriate comments during the charity event, and I couldn’t have those weighing heavy on her. I had nothing but respect for Emmi, and I didn’t want anything else from her. Sure, I had thought of her in a sexual way; what red-blooded man wouldn’t? But nothing would happen between us.
“Emmi, can I talk to you for a minute?” I said as she got back to her desk.
“Of course.”
She walked into my office, and I left the door open as we sat down in the sitting area at the back of my office. I made a point to sit in the chair across from her and not next to her on the couch.
“Is there something I’m missing here?” I asked. “There seems to be a bit of tension between us.”
“No, not at all.”
“I really appreciated you coming with me to the event last night, and I hope I didn’t offend you with some of my behaviors and comments.”
“No, it’s alright. I had a great time.”
“Okay, then what’s going on here? I’m not crazy, am I?”
“I just felt like I was leading you on a little and wanted to make sure I was being as professional as possible.”
“You weren’t leading me on at all. I just act before I think sometimes. I’ve got ADHD; it’s just part of how I do things. I’m very sorry. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a great evening though, and that was all because of you.”
“I understand.”
“I hope you do. I’m not one of those bosses that tries to seduce their employees. I really am not like that.”
“I believe you.”
“So are we still in this weird, uncomfortable place?”
“Probably,” Emmi laughed. “I don’t know. I would really like to be able to share my ideas about things around here, and you don’t seem interested at all. I was really hating on you up until Thursday night. I know I’m new, and you don’t know me, but you were very dismissive when I made suggestions the other day.”
I took a minute to think about what she was saying. Normally, I didn’t let many people give their opinions unless I trusted them. My employees were some of the very few people that I knew and trusted. Emmi should be one of those trusted people since she was an employee.
“What kind of ideas? I’m sorry, I don’t remember you making a suggestion.”
“When you were talking about the floor plan for the resort in Breckenridge,” Emmi said as if I knew what she was talking about, but I still had no idea. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t.”
“Ugh!” Emmi said as she stormed out of my office. But just as she took a few steps out of the office, she turned back and stood in the doorway. “You’re so self-absorbed, I don’t think you even see everything that people do for you. You’re relying on them instead of building your own skills.”
“Sometimes,” I said without arguing.
“Ugh!” Emmi yelled again as she turned and sat at her desk.
I stood in the doorway and waited for her to turn around and talk to me again. She was stubborn as heck and didn’t turn around for at least two minutes.
“So what are we going to do about this?” I finally asked.
“About what?”
“The tension here. I’m not going to change much; I’m a jerk sometimes. I don’t trust many people, and I really want to work on all those things. But the reality is, I probably won’t and I’d like to keep you working with me.”
“I’m not going to quit. I was just thrown off by how you were on Thursday and Friday.”
“I was different?”
“Oh, yes!” Emmi said as her eyes got big. “You were a totally different person.”
“I didn’t feel different.”
“You were, and I let my guard down. I’m having a hard time working with the other dude now,” she laughed.
“How about I wear my flip-flops and cargo shorts to work tomorrow? Would that help?”
“Maybe.”
“You want to know what I think is going on here?” I offered.
“What?”
“I think we connected as friends and you're not used to actually liking your boss at all. You hinted before that you’ve had horrible bosses and maybe it made you uncomfortable that we had a good evening?”
Emmi rolled her eyes and put her head in her hands as she contemplated my point of view. There was no denying that there was sexual tension between the two of us, but we hadn’t acted on it. Everything had remained rela
tively professional during the evening.
“Maybe that’s what it is. But I want things to stay professional and for us to be friendly. Can we have both?”
“Of course. And I’ll try to listen better when you make suggestions. You’re right, I have a hard time making decisions sometimes and I typically only trust a few people to invest their ideas. I think you are a smart woman and I’d love to consider your ideas when you feel like you have expertise in something. You proved it on Friday night; you obviously are very skilled and knowledgeable.”
“Thanks,” Emmi said softly.
“I’ve got a planning meeting tonight for the Breckenridge project. We are having budgeting issues since we are basically building two resorts. I know this isn’t your expertise, but you are welcome to join the meeting if you’d like.”
“You’re right, I don’t think I can add much to that, but I’d enjoy coming to the meeting. At the very least I could learn something from it.”
“I’m feeling a little better about this. You know your dad is by far my favorite person and I want to make sure you’re happy here.”
It was the truth. Teddy and I were partners on so many projects, and I wasn’t about to lose Emmi as my assistant. If she had been any other woman, I wouldn’t have cared about her comments, and I probably wouldn’t have let her keep working with me. But Emmi was different; I wasn’t going to do something stupid to ruin the relationship I had going on with Teddy. I wasn’t going to let things be anything but professional, and I was more than happy to let her share her opinions, even if I didn’t use any of her ideas.
“Alright, well, I have a lot to catch up on here. I’ll see you in the meeting later,” Emmi said as she turned back to work.
“Sounds good. I’m glad we straightened this out.”
The air between us was a little lighter after this conversation. Things weren’t normally this complex between me and my assistants. I so used to Margery and the ease of which we communicated.
When 4 o’clock rolled around, I grabbed Emmi as we walked to the meeting. This was a budgeting meeting, and again, Teddy wasn’t going to be there. We needed to make some big decisions about the total budget. My palms were sweating as I pushed the door open to sit down with the group. I couldn’t put off this decision. My money was tied into this, and we had to get the final financing information settled before we broke ground on the larger hotel addition.
My stomach churned with the anxiety of making this decision alone. But it was a little bit of a relief to know that my entire staff was really well-trained and I could count on their opinions.
“Okay everyone, let’s make these decisions,” I said as we sat down at the large conference table.
Emmi pulled out a notepad and started to keep herself busy by taking notes. It was a great idea, and I probably should have had someone taking notes in every meeting. My memory was horrible and at least with some good notes, I could look back to see what had happened during a meeting.
“Declan, first off I want to show you the numbers for the remodel. I think they are quite a bit different than what we had originally discussed,” Rosa said as she looked down at the table and slid her report over to me.
I took a minute to review her report, and it was devastating. Not only were the estimates nearly triple what we had thought they would be, she didn’t even include the themed suites like we had planned.
“What is going on here, Rosa? This is bullshit,” I yelled. “This is our whole budget for the project. The remodel and the new hotel addition. What the hell is going on here?”
“Calm down, Declan,” Emmi said as she put her hand on top of mine.
Everyone in the office looked at her and then toward me. Their glares became intense and judgmental as smirks washed over their faces. This was the first meeting I’d allowed Emmi to come to, and in that one swift movement, she had undermined my whole reputation within the company.
“Go back to your desk,” I said sternly. “I don’t think we need notes for this meeting after all.”
My firm tone of voice caught her off guard; she even looked a little scared of me as her eyes widened. She looked at me for at least 10 seconds before she slowly stood up, gathered her notepad, and walked out of the room. I’d expected a bit of a door slam since she looked extremely pissed off, but she maintained her composure. I turned my attention back to the group.
“Rosa,” I said as I took a deep breath and sat back down. “What happened? Why is this so expensive?”
“The building is so old that it will require multiple large updates to bring it up to current codes. The foundation is the most expensive, but there are large wooden beams that are too small throughout the building. Taking them out and putting new ones in will eat away at a large part of your budget.”
I closed my eyes and let my head rest in my hands as I took in the information she was giving me. This was devastating. This was a project-killing level of information.
“Can’t we get a waiver or something?”
“Would you want to?” Howard from our legal department asked. “The current codes are for everyone’s safety. What if there was an incident and we didn’t have the building up to current code? That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
“God, I hate you, Howard,” I mumbled but lifted my head to throw a smile in his direction. “But you’re right.”
“There’s more,” Stanley from the landscaping department added.
“What is it?”
“The property needs a retaining wall to protect against an avalanche. The risk in that location is very high. It could be used instead of the trees for the same cost, but it would look horrible. I suggest building the wall and then putting the trees in front of it, so that is what the guests see.”
“So basically double the projected costs?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Come on, guys. I really wanted to finalize all of this today.”
“I think we should go take a look at it right away. We can have the local inspectors visit the property with us and discuss our options.”
“We will put the project back several weeks if I don’t get this budget finalized.”
“You won’t have a project if you don’t throw a lot more money into it or figure out a way around some of these extra costs,” Howard added.
“You still up for going?” I asked Rosa.
“Of course.”
“Okay then, let’s get things moving and we will head out tomorrow. I need to see what you’re talking about before I can explain all of this to Teddy. I don’t want to give him a heart attack without a good reason.”
“I’ll gather everything you need to check out with the local zoning people,” Stanley said. “Make sure to meet with the head of city planning. They will give you the best information.”
“Okay,” I said. “Write down what I need to check into.”
I stormed out of the office and went straight to mine. Emmi was sitting at her desk and didn’t look up at me. Her shoulders were stiff as she tapped a pencil feverishly on the table.
“Come into my office,” I said sternly as I held the door open, and Emmi followed me in.
As I closed the door, I expected to see tears in Emmi’s eyes, but instead all I saw was fire. Her green eyes didn’t sparkle with sadness. Instead, they were filled with so much anger I thought she might actually start yelling at me.
“What was that all about? You invite me to come to a meeting and then push me out at the very first moment possible?” Emmi asked calmly, although her facial expression didn’t relay the same level of calmness. Her jaw was clenched, and her lips pressed tightly together as soon as she finished speaking.
“You touched my hand and basically insinuated we were having an inappropriate relationship, right in front of everyone in that room. In that one single movement, you undermined any credibility that I’ve built by not sleeping with my assistants.”
“Wow, you are full of yourself, aren’t you?”
�
��What are you talking about? Me, full of myself? I’m just trying to make sure my team doesn’t think I’m shagging the first pretty girl assistant that I’ve had in years that I’m not screaming at and firing.”
Emmi didn’t respond right away; it was unsettling how long she took to decide on what she wanted to say. She walked to the window in my office and looked out for a minute before turning back toward me.
“If I were fat and ugly, would you have kicked me out of that meeting?”
“What? Why would you ask that?”
“Because you are judging me based on my looks, just like every other rotten boss I’ve had in the past. If I was Margery and I’d said that to you in the meeting, you wouldn’t have acted like you did.”
“That’s different; she’d been with me for years. The team knows how much I respect her.”
“I get it; I’m new. You don’t respect me yet, and that’s fine. But think about it: if I wasn’t in this body, you wouldn’t have reacted that way in front of everyone. You portray the figure you want to me. You could have simply said, ‘stop’ or ‘thank you’ or ‘I don’t need your opinion’ and then continued on with the meeting. By kicking me out, you made it a big deal. That was your doing, not mine.”
She had a good point. I definitely wouldn’t have kicked Margery out of the meeting for saying or doing exactly what Emmi had done. But I had a long, built-up relationship with Margery, and the fact that she was older and married made it clear nothing was going on between us. There were a lot more factors involved in how I had acted than just Emmi’s looks.
“I get what you’re saying, but can you see it from my point of view? There was no need to touch my hand like that. If you had something to add, you certainly could have said it. The action of gently touching my hand was what threw me off.”
“You don’t like it when I touch your hand?” Emmi laughed.
“No, it’s not that. It’s that we were in a business meeting. You know what I mean,” I laughed.
“I get what you’re saying, and I’m sorry for that. It was a natural instinct when I saw you were getting upset. How did the meeting turn out? You left pretty early.”