Who did he mean? Darla? I recalled all of the things that she did mention. Most were insulting, and none of them were particularly helpful.
I muttered, "It must've slipped her mind."
Jaden gave a low scoff. "I doubt that. And just so you know, she'll be filling in for you, too."
"Darla?" I stared up at him. "What do you mean?"
"When we travel," he said, "she'll be manning your desk."
At the idea of Darla sitting at my desk, possibly going through my things, and generally making trouble, I tried not to frown. "Oh. Well that's good."
In reality, I should've been jumping for joy. Without Darla, the office might actually be a reasonably pleasant place. But I couldn't begin think about that now, because the other half of his statement was belatedly hitting home.
When we travel?
Meaning him and me?
Yikes.
I'd known this from the job description. And yet, the thought of going anywhere with him was deeply unsettling.
Still, I tried not to dwell on it – not that day, nor any other day that week. I never did say anything about the coaster, because I knew all too well that its only purpose was to get a rise out of me.
I refused to give Jaden the satisfaction.
Instead, I responded with a little surprise of my own.
It was a flyer that I'd spotted at the grocery store. It advertised a cooking class for beginners – kids in particular. The illustration showed a cartoon child in a chef's hat, proudly holding a sandwich that was nearly as tall as him.
It was silly, really, but not any sillier than the coaster.
Late that Friday night, I placed the flyer directly to the left of Jaden's computer, similar to where he'd placed the coaster for me.
I felt myself smile. Two could play at this game.
I wasn't even sure what game we were playing, but as I soon learned, it was far from over.
Chapter 34
We did this for several weeks. Every other Monday, I'd come into work and find something completely ridiculous – and vaguely insulting – on my desk. There was that flyer for an anger management class, a sandwich recipe book, and this latest surprise, a Scooby Doo Christmas ornament.
As far as the ornament, I had no idea where Jaden had gotten it. Christmas was still months away, so it was impossible to believe that the thing had been an impulse purchase, made at the store while picking up something else.
No. This was premeditated.
Standing at my desk, I gazed down at the thing and felt an annoying smile tug at my lips. I knew exactly why he'd selected this particular item to torment me.
On the day we'd met, when I'd been rampaging through his house in search of my friend, he'd made a bunch of sarcastic comments referencing Scooby Doo's gang of amateur sleuths.
He'd called me Velma. Of all the characters, she was probably the smartest, but not terribly attractive. At the time, the description had only half-fit, because on that first fateful day, I'd been stupid and unkempt.
But Velma? She was almost never stupid.
Still, the comparison wasn't flattering, at least in the looks department.
And why did this matter?
It didn't. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself.
It's not I like cared whether Jaden considered me attractive. By now, he surely realized that I was no idiot, and really, that was the most important thing, right?
All modesty aside, I'd proven myself to be a perfectly competent assistant. I had a way of anticipating what he wanted and giving it to him long before he thought to ask.
As far as jobs went, this was the best one I'd ever had. There were only two problems. The first problem was that everyone avoided me like the plague, and the second problem was Jaden himself.
The first problem, I could deal with – and hopefully solve at some point. After all, I knew exactly why people were avoiding me.
It was because of Darla.
Although she didn't work for the company full-time, she was in the building way too often. Whenever I thought I was making a new friend, I'd eventually spot that person talking to Darla in some quiet corridor. And then, all too soon, they'd be giving me the cold shoulder just like everyone else.
I could only imagine what she was telling them.
But this, even as oppressive as it was, wasn't the thing that kept me awake in the deepest parts of the night. It was that second problem – my complicated feelings for my boss.
He drove me crazy in every possible way. He was blunt, sarcastic, and a total jackass. Unfortunately, he was also smart, insightful, and the most intriguing person I'd ever met.
Plus, he had an unexpected thoughtful streak that made it nearly impossible for me to truly hate him. There was the time he'd sent me home – with pay – because he'd overheard me coughing up a lung in my office. There was the time he'd given me a ride home when I'd accidentally locked my keys in the truck. And of course, there was that time he'd returned my cell phone rather than leaving it sitting on my office desk.
Unfortunately, he was also the guy who'd sabotaged my friend's job prospects and seemed to take a particular delight in driving me insane.
He was a mess of crazy contradictions, which in turn, was making me a little crazy myself. Even after a couple of months, I still didn't know what to make of him.
It didn't help that I was always fielding phone calls from women desperate to get his attention.
At first, I'd simply tell these women that they should try his cell phone if they were calling about a personal matter, at which point, they'd either inform me that they didn't have the number or that he wasn't answering.
Like the good professional I was, I never gave out his cell number, no matter how much they begged. This was, after all, part of my so-called extra responsibility of – as he'd put it – keeping people off his ass.
See? I was doing it for him.
Not me.
Really, I was.
As far as these female admirers, I didn’t know whether they were women from his past or women who wanted to be in his future. Regardless, as time went on, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed at all of them, including Morgan.
Oh yeah. She was still in the picture.
She might've been fired from the job that I now held, but that didn't stop her from bounding into the office nearly every day and making the rounds – first to Jax and then to Jaden.
By now, I'd learned a little bit more about their family relationship, mostly from Morgan herself. Apparently, Darla had taken in both brothers when they'd been teenagers. Morgan was Darla's natural daughter, and had been smitten from the start.
The way it looked, she was still smitten. I didn't know how long she and Jax had dated, but I did know that she wanted him back. That much was glaringly obvious.
And while she was at it, she wanted Jaden, too.
I could see in the way she leaned over his desk, especially when wearing something low-cut. I could hear it in the way she laughed a little too loud when he said something funny. And then, there was the way she pouted a little too sexily whenever he informed her that he had to get back to work.
The sad thing was, Morgan was practically the only person – other than Jax and Jaden themselves – who was remotely friendly to me. I might've been thankful for her company, if only the conversations didn't consist mostly of her pumping me for information about Cassidy.
I knew why, too. Morgan was jealous of something between Cassidy and Jax. They weren't quite an item, but it was ridiculously easy to see that Jax was interested.
From Cassidy, I knew that they'd been running into each other at the coffee shop near our apartment. But I also knew that Jax didn't even drink coffee – and even if he did, he could get anything he wanted from a place a lot closer.
Cripes, he could even send out his assistant for whatever he wanted.
After all, that's what Jaden did. Even after all this time, I still didn't know if he sent me to sandwich shops on purpose to twe
ak me, or if he really did love them that much.
Regardless, I could recite most of the local sandwich menus by heart and had acquired my own personal favorites. Unfortunately, they tended to be the same ones that Jaden favored, which only made it more embarrassing whenever he happened to notice what I was eating at my desk.
Who knows, maybe he thought I was tweaking him by ordering the same thing.
I wasn't.
It's just that we had annoyingly similar tastes.
And I did love a good sandwich.
But it wasn't our shared love of sandwiches that had me lurking over his desk one Friday evening, long after everyone else had gone.
No. I was lurking because just this past Tuesday, he'd mentioned an extreme dislike of broccoli, and I'd found the perfect thing to get a rise out of him.
It was a broccoli shaped doggie toy – the kind that made squeaky noises when you squeezed it. The noise was surprisingly loud for such a little thing. It would drive him nuts.
I smiled as I set it in the traditional spot.
Take that, Broccoli-Hater.
In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder what he did with the stuff that I left on his desk. Did he keep it? Or toss it out?
I didn't know, because we never discussed it.
Still, I did this every other week, just like he did the same to me in return. By unspoken agreement, we alternated weeks, leaving something every other Friday for the other person to find on the following Monday.
As I tiptoed out of his office, I took one final glance over my shoulder. The broccoli was sitting there, completely out of place, like a proverbial turd in a punchbowl.
It would be the perfect thing to start out his week – whether with a smile or a quiet curse. If he was anything like me, he'd probably do both.
I'd just returned to my own office to grab my purse and cell phone when a sudden burst of female laughter made me pause.
The laughter had come from just outside the executive suite. I turned to look just in time to see Jaden walk through the suite's door, looking slightly irritated.
Even more unsettling, he wasn't alone.
Chapter 35
Accompanying Jaden was a stunningly tall brunette wearing a form-fitting red dress and matching red heels.
I knew who she was. Her name was Victoria Landers, and she was an account executive with the advertising agency that handled most of the Bishop Brothers' promotional campaigns.
She worked out of New York, but had flown here just this morning for a meeting with Jaden. I knew this because I'd been the one to schedule the appointment and to greet her earlier today when she'd shown up a full hour early for their one-on-one meeting.
But this meeting had ended hours ago, which told me one important thing. Whatever was going on now was more of a social call. As if to prove it beyond all doubt, Victoria gripped his arm and gave a little laugh as she said, "I can't believe I left it."
Jaden's reply held no trace of laughter. "Yeah. You and me both."
She gave him a playful swat to the arm. "Oh, don't be grumpy. This'll give us a chance to talk before my flight."
Something in her tone suggested that talking wasn't the primary thing on her mind. As if to hammer the point home, she leaned her head closer to his and practically cooed,"…unless you want me to reschedule?"
I stiffened. Reschedule what?
The flight?
That's what it sounded like to me.
The whole thing was beyond awkward. It was long past quitting time, and the only reason I'd stayed so late was to leave that stupid chew-toy on Jaden's desk. Now, he'd not only discover it early, but also discover it in front of an audience.
An audience of her.
And me.
I wasn’t sure which aspect bothered me more.
Until now, these little gift-exchanges had always been done in secret. It made it seem less strange somehow – like we weren't just a boss and employee, but something different.
Friends?
Sparring partners?
Or something more complicated?
I didn't know, and I hated the idea of finding out now, in front of someone who I didn't particularly like.
It wasn't that Victoria had been rude, exactly, but she'd obviously decided from the get-go that I was barely worth a hello. In contrast, she'd greeting Jaden like he was the juiciest morsel she'd ever seen.
Today was the first day the two of them had met in person. I knew this, because the purpose of today's meeting – in theory anyway – had been to give Victoria the chance to introduce herself as the newest member of the team handling the company's account.
The way it looked now, she was bucking for a more personal introduction after-hours. I bit my lip. Or maybe, that so-called introduction had already taken place.
After all, they weren't acting like two strangers. Plus, it wasn't lost on me that Jaden had been missing for most of the afternoon. His schedule had been empty, so I had no clue where he'd gone.
Basically, he'd just wandered off sometime around two o'clock, only to never return.
Until now.
Shit.
I should've realized that he'd be back. Even so, there was no way I could've anticipated him returning with a female companion. After all, he'd never done such a thing before, at least not in the time that I'd been working here.
Now, I wasn't quite sure what to do.
After first spotting them, I'd quickly sat down at my desk so it wouldn’t look like I'd been standing there, staring. Now, I was trying to look busy – shuffling papers and glancing at my computer screen, as if I weren't embarrassingly aware that she sounded like two seconds away from suggesting a quickie on his desk.
Oh, God.
His desk.
Would they do it next to the broccoli?
The whole thing – stupid or not – made me feel just a little bit queasy, and not because I wasn't a huge fan of broccoli myself.
In my mind's eye, I could practically see it – him bending her over the desk with her face next to that chew toy. Or maybe she'd be on her back, and he'd be driving into her from above.
Damn it. Why was I thinking of this? It's true that I'd thought of similar things before, but in all of those thoughts, it was me on the desk, with him treating me as something a lot more than his assistant.
I hadn't wanted to think those things, but no matter how hard I tried to squash them, those X-rated ideas kept popping up like gophers at a golf course.
Regardless, I wasn't planning to act on any of those impulses, even if they did keep the days interesting.
But this current situation? Oh, it was interesting alright, but not in any way that I enjoyed. When they passed my office, I gave a little wave, not that either one of them seemed to notice.
Together, they entered his private office without a single glance in my direction. With a little giggle, she shut the door behind them, leaving me with a clear view of absolutely nothing except the door itself.
This was a good thing.
Really, it was.
Because whatever was going on in there, I so didn't want to see it. I sure as heck didn't want to hear it either. With quick jerky movements, I grabbed my purse and cell phone, intending to bolt for the exit and not look back.
But just as I was passing his office door, I heard a sound that made me pause.
It wasn't moaning or groaning, thank God. Rather, it was the telltale squeak of the broccoli.
My face flooded with embarrassment, even more so when her laughter rang out from behind the closed door.
I should've kept on going, but suddenly, my feet wouldn’t cooperate.
I heard her ask, "What it this? A stressball?"
Jaden's reply, assuming there was one at all, was too quiet for me to hear.
"You know," she said in a sultry voice, "if you're tense, I can think of other ways to solve it. You know, I give great massages."
I almost scoffed out loud. Oh, she wanted to massage him,
alright. And I knew exactly which part.
His dick.
With her vagina.
Whether that ever happened, I had no idea, because a split second later, I was rushing for the door.
I pushed through it hard and fast, and never looked back.
Still, the images haunted me like a bad dream. All of this was so incredibly stupid. I was his employee, not his friend, and definitely nothing more.
He owned the building.
And the company.
And me, at least when it came to my paycheck.
I needed to get a grip, and possibly a new job – not because I didn't love the one I had, but rather because I was having a hard time dealing with whatever was going on.
Hours later, I was still irritated, even after a steaming hot bath and two bottles of my favorite beer – his beer, at least according to its brand-name.
Damn it.
Sitting on the sofa, I glanced around the place that I now called home. I loved the apartment, truly I did. And I loved the city, too. Still, tonight nothing felt quite right.
The apartment felt big and empty. And the city surrounding it felt cold and lonely in spite of the balmy weather. Cassidy was working, and I had no other friends here at all – mostly because everyone at work treated me like I was some sort of human disease, to be avoided at all costs.
This totally sucked.
On top of everything else, Stuart, my ex-boyfriend, had called my cell phone several times today, demanding that I call him back.
What a joke. He hadn't returned any of my calls, even when I'd been so desperate for information. The whole thing was beyond depressing.
But I didn't want to spend my time sulking or talking with my ex. It was a Friday night, which meant that I had two glorious days ahead of me, days without Jaden Bishop and all of his confusing behavior.
What I needed tonight, I decided, was a change of scenery – something different to shake off the gloom. Who knows, maybe I'd even make a new friend or two.
It was such a lovely thought that I pushed myself up from the sofa, threw on my favorite sundress, and ventured alone into a local nightclub just a short drive from the apartment – where the only real thing I found was more trouble than I'd bargained for.
One Bad Idea: A Billionaire Loathing-to-Love Romance Page 15