by Karen Booth
“I always do. Is there anything else?” Shayla asked.
“No. Thank you.” Matt hung up the phone and dared to open one of the emails. It very plainly stated that there was great concern about Matt’s assistant and perhaps Matt needed to quietly have HR arrange a severance package so Ms. Gonzalez could move on with her life and stop causing the company undue bad publicity.
Matt didn’t even have a chance to look at the rest of the messages before Nadia was in his office. “Did you see?” Just like that day at The Opulence, she had her phone in hand, and thrust it into his line of sight, confronting him with the ugliness of tabloid news. “My sister has already seen it. She said people in her dorm asked her about it. It’s only a matter of time before my parents see this. They made me look like a gold digger, Matt. They made me look like a ditzy blonde. I don’t know what to do.” She sank down into the chair opposite his desk and stared at her phone again, flicking at the screen and shaking her head.
Matt pushed back his chair and rushed over to Nadia, taking her phone from her and placing it facedown on his planner. “Don’t look at that anymore. Nothing good comes of it.” He perched himself on the edge of his desk.
“This is just going to keep happening. It’s not going to stop. It doesn’t matter that I work hard or that I’m smart. They can paint me any way they want. They can make me look like an idiot beauty queen with designs on a very wealthy and powerful man and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“I’ve already talked to Shayla. I’ll call my lawyer if that will make you feel better. Nothing stops something like this better than a lawsuit. These tabloids are cowards, deep down.”
“Shayla can’t put out every fire there is, Matt. I already promised her she wouldn’t have to do this again and now it’s happening all over again.”
“What do you mean you promised her it wouldn’t happen again?”
Nadia sighed deeply and looked up into his eyes. “After The Opulence. That first morning after your emergency trip to Miami? When I told you that one of my coworkers had given me a hard time? That was Shayla.”
Matt felt his jaw go so tight it was as if it was wired to his skull. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll get it straightened out.”
“No. Matt.” Nadia scooted forward on her chair and placed her hand on his arm. “I don’t want you to talk to Shayla. She might not be my favorite person, but she has a hard job and we both know it isn’t fair she has to deal with this. She should be concentrating on the good things the company does, like the Sasha project or the retreat. She shouldn’t have to spend her days fighting off pulpy stories like this.”
“She’s my employee. She’ll do whatever I ask her to do.”
Nadia shook her head. “That’s not very fair. She’s worked for you for five years. I think she’s earned better treatment than this.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Nadia.”
“I hate to say it, but this time it might be best for us to stay away from each other, at least for a little bit. Maybe permanently. And I feel like the writing is on the wall. I can’t work for you anymore. As much as I hate to say that.”
“What do you want to do? I can transfer you into another division.”
“You know how that’s going to look. Like you’re just finding a way to keep your girlfriend around.”
Girlfriend. “I’ve never heard you refer to yourself like that.”
A look of panic crossed her face. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. That was presumptive. I know that what we had was just casual. You were very clear about that.”
“No. No. I like it. I like the idea of you being my girlfriend.”
Just then there was a knock on Matt’s door. It was Shayla. Matt waved her in. “Can you and I talk in private for a moment?” she asked.
“Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of Nadia.”
But Nadia was already getting up from her chair. “No. No. It’s okay. I need to get back to my desk, anyway. We’ll finish this conversation later.” She scrambled out of the room, closing the door behind her.
He turned his attention to Shayla. “Do you have an update on TBG? Are they taking down the story?”
“Actually, no. They are refusing to take my call. And I don’t know if you’ve taken a gander at your email, but the board is pretty up in arms over this whole thing and they’re all coming to me, demanding an explanation.”
“Well? What are you telling them?”
“That it’s not my fault a tabloid decided to run a story about one of the wealthiest men in the country having an affair with his beauty-queen assistant. Matt, you pay me the big bucks to keep your company in the best possible light. That means telling you things you don’t want to hear. She has to go. It’s the only way forward. It’s the only way you salvage the company and its future.”
Matt didn’t even want to think about it. It made him sick to his stomach. “A leave of absence. Paid.”
Shayla folded her arms across her chest. “Obviously this is not my call nor my area of expertise, but this isn’t really a professional infraction on her part. It’s more a case of being a liability. You can’t give a liability a leave of absence. You have to get rid of it. Or her, I should say.”
Matt felt as if his heart was about to turn in on itself. He couldn’t believe those words were coming out of her mouth. He couldn’t believe the choices he was being confronted with today. “I’m going to need to talk to HR about a severance package.”
“Do what you have to do, but I’d do it quickly if I were you.”
Matt looked through his glass wall at Nadia, who was typing away at her computer and talking on the phone at the same time. He wanted to give her more, but he wasn’t there yet. She’d been right all along. They’d had their fun. If only he’d listened to her weeks ago when she’d said they had to go back to nothing more than a professional relationship. This was his fault. And he had to fix it. Somehow.
* * *
Nadia did her best to keep her nose down and do nothing but work, but every minute of that morning had been painful. She couldn’t stand any more accusatory glances from her coworkers. And Shayla? The haughtiness she’d displayed when she’d left Matt’s office was unreal. Not that Nadia blamed her. If the roles were reversed, Nadia would’ve been mad and annoyed, too. This situation had been entirely avoidable—she and Matt knew what they were doing, and they had thrown all caution to the wind and done it anyway. She’d also had to sit there and not say a word when the senior members of the HR team had waltzed into Matt’s office and hunkered down with him. They’d even drawn the shades, as if Nadia didn’t feel like enough of an outcast.
Nadia’s phone rang and she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer it, but she saw Teresa’s name on the caller ID and realized she really needed someone to talk to. Someone who wasn’t afraid to be brutally honest, but who also had at least some of Nadia’s best interests at heart.
“Hey,” Nadia said, answering. She got up from her desk and wandered down the hall and ducked into one of the small meeting rooms, closing the door behind her.
“I saw the TBG story. I’m so sorry. They’re such bastards.”
“I know. I hate it. It’s awful. My younger sister saw it and I’m just bracing for the moment my mom or dad come across it.”
Teresa sighed. “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I really am sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
Nadia didn’t know where to start. “I have to quit my job, don’t I? There’s no way out of this. My reputation at this company is ruined. I will always be the woman who slept with the boss.”
“Oh, honey. I wish that wasn’t the case, but I don’t really see another way through this.”
The empathy in Teresa’s voice really struck a chord with Nadia, one that brought about more than a few tears. “I worked my butt off. I was on my way. And now I have
to start all over again just because I had a crush on my boss and I acted on it.”
“You had a crush on Matt?”
“Yes. For all fourteen months I’ve been here. It’s pathetic. I’m just drawn to him, I don’t know what else to say. Not that it matters. It’s all over now.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be the end for you and Matt, does it?”
“Without a job, I’m probably going to have to move back to Los Angeles. Nobody is going to hire me. Not in Seattle at least.”
“I’ll hire you. Right now. Today.”
Nadia managed a smile and swiped a tear from her cheek. “You’re sweet. And I know very little about event planning. I’m not artistic. I don’t have a vision like someone like you.”
“I can teach you.”
“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, Teresa. Don’t offer me a job because you feel bad.”
“Look. I’m not. Just think about it, okay? It’s not my place to talk you into it. Only you can decide what’s best for you. And that goes both personally and professionally. You’re an amazing, strong woman who got mixed up in a crazy situation. It could happen to anyone. The important thing is to come out on the other side of it even stronger and more amazing.”
“Wow. Thank you for the pep talk. I appreciate it.” She sighed for what felt like the millionth time. “I’d probably better go talk to Matt now. He’s most likely done with HR and I just need to do this and get it over with.”
“Good luck, hon. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.” Nadia hung up and walked back to her office. Indeed, Matt’s door was open again and no one sitting in the chairs opposite his desk. She couldn’t solve the questions of their relationship today, but she could undo at least some of the damage done to Richmond Industries. She could leave with her head held reasonably high. “Knock, knock.” She peered inside his office.
Matt had his chair faced toward the window and was looking outside. When he turned to her and she saw the look on his face, she knew that he was aware of what she was about to do. “Hey.”
“Can we talk?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
She stood before his desk, much like she had her first morning at work, the first time Matt ran through the things he wanted her to do that day. She could remember the way he made her both nervous and excited. She could remember the way he made her laugh like a teenager, and how the longing for him, something that came from the very center of her chest, sprang to life. “I’m going to go write my letter of resignation. There is no recovering from what happened today. I need to start fresh at another company.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand.” It wasn’t exactly what Nadia had hoped to hear, but she honestly didn’t know what she wanted right now other than to leave the building without crying again. “Do you know what you’re going to do for work?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. Chances are that I will end up moving back to Los Angeles to regroup and spend some time with my family. I’ll figure things out from there.”
Matt’s face fell. “We have a generous severance package for you. I need you to know that I fought for you in that meeting with HR. You got screwed in this situation and I feel horrible.”
“I don’t want the severance, Matt. It’s only a matter of time before that ends up in the papers, too. It’s best if it’s just a clean break. It’s best for everyone.”
“But what about us?”
Nadia closed her eyes. Matt’s pull on her was as strong as ever, but right now it felt like it might flatten her. “I’m not made for this world. And you and I knew this wouldn’t last. There’s too much pressure. Too many eyes scrutinizing us and waiting for us to mess up. I don’t want to live like that and I won’t. The reality is that this world doesn’t operate the way it should. Hard work doesn’t account for enough.” Nadia felt like she might crumple into a ball. Every word was true and agonizing. “Between what happened today and your brother the other night and me needing to be there for my family, it seems pretty obvious what the answer to that question is, doesn’t it?”
He shook his head vehemently. “No. It doesn’t seem obvious to me.”
“Matt. Please. Don’t make this harder for either of us. You and I both know that I will leave here and we’ll be sad, but you’ll move on. You’ll be happy and do amazing things and I’ll enjoy watching from a distance.” The vision materialized in her head. This was the end of the road for them. And it might kill her. “You’re not ready to get serious and I’m probably too serious. I’ve spent the last fourteen months pining for you and wanting you and wishing you would want me, too. And I got a glimpse of that. We had a few weeks that were amazing. That might be all I get, but I don’t regret it.”
Slow as could be, Matt rose from his chair and came around to the other side of the desk. “All that time you’ve been here, you were pining for me?”
Nadia playfully slapped his arm. She was desperate for any way to lighten the mood. “Of course I was. And that should tell you that you, Matt Richmond, will be just fine. You will find an amazing woman and get married and have kids someday.”
“No.”
“Yes.” She grabbed both sides of his face and forced him to nod in agreement. “I know you think you aren’t that guy, but you are.” She poked a finger in the center of his chest, right in the vicinity of his heart. “You are that guy in here. You just need to let him out.”
“Nadia. Don’t. Don’t leave.”
That was when the tears started and all she could think was that she had to get out as fast as she possibly could. “It’s okay. I promise it will be okay. I’ll come back to get my things some other time when you aren’t here. Just so it doesn’t have to be weird.” She popped up onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek, then turned and rushed out the door, grabbing her purse and making a beeline for the fire stairs. It would be easier to cry her eyes out there rather than in the elevator.
And that was exactly what she did.
Thirteen
Liam was having a crazy busy day, but he couldn’t stop looking at his phone, wishing it would ring. He was expecting a call from Teresa and, well, he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to hearing from her. Even more so, all he could think about was when he would next get to see her. They’d had a whirlwind forty-eight hours after the night they made love in her office, much of it spent in bed together. But then she’d had to go out to The Opulence to work on the retreat, and Liam was left wanting more.
There was a frantic knock at his door. His assistant, Duncan, poked his head inside his office before he could even call him in. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but it’s your father. He collapsed after a meeting in Portland.”
Liam hardly had time to absorb the news before he felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach. “Is he still there?”
“He’s almost home. I just got off the phone with his assistant. They flew him back on the corporate jet and they’re en route from the airport. He asked that you meet him at his house.”
“I don’t understand. When did this happen? They’re already sending him home? I thought you said he collapsed.”
Duncan shrugged. “I’m so sorry. That’s all I know right now. I called your driver and he’s downstairs waiting for you. I’ve rescheduled your afternoon meetings. Let me know if you need me to move anything for tomorrow.”
Liam collected his phone and stuffed it into his pocket, thankful to have an assistant who was so proactive. “You are amazing. Thank you so much.”
“No problem, Mr. Christopher. I just hope your dad is okay.”
Liam rushed through the office, trying to ignore the way people popped up from their cubicles with looks of horror or mumbled their condolences as he walked by. It was as if his father had died. Liam couldn’t bear to think of that. He had to get to him as quickly a
s possible.
He hopped into the back of the limo and his driver pulled away from the curb. Liam looked out at the gray day. Parts of the sky were black as coal. He really hoped that wasn’t a sign of things to come. His phone rang and he quickly looked to see who it was. Teresa. Her name brought a smile to his face, which sadly faded. He had been so looking forward to this moment and now a pall had fallen over it.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, leaning back in the seat and drawing in a deep breath.
“You sound stressed. Is everything okay?”
Old Liam’s gut reaction to this would have been to not say a thing, but the truth was that he wanted to tell Teresa. He wanted to tell her everything. “My dad collapsed. I’m on my way to his house.”
“Oh, my gosh. Liam. Is it serious?”
“I don’t know. I guess it can’t be too serious. They’re sending him home.”
“Call me as soon as you know something. I like hearing your voice. It’s the best part of my day.”
Liam smiled again, still surprising given the current circumstances. “I like talking to you, too. You’re a good listener.”
“When you talk. You are a man of few words.” Teresa let out a breathy exhale on the line. “I’m glad you’re going to see your dad. Please send him my best.”
Liam winced at that, and he hated himself for having that reaction. He was convinced that nothing had happened between Teresa and his dad. But there was still this voice in the back of his mind whispering to him that women had lied to him before. “I will let him know. Have you thought at all about when you can come back? Or should I make a trip up to The Opulence?”
“As much as I’d love to see you, things are so hectic right now. I’m hoping I can be back in a week.”
An entire week. Liam hated that idea, but he understood. “Perhaps we can go out for a nice dinner when you return.”