What the Heart Needs

by Jessica Gadziala

  “What’s with the crack leg,” Tad asked, motioning to her rapidly tapping leg while he reached into the refridgerator for his daily yogurt.

  “I am running behind.”

  “Oh, yes,” Tad smiled. It was an odd smile, as if he knew something she didn’t and wasn’t about to fill her in about it. It was the kind of smile high school cheerleaders had when sitting at their table in the cafeteria and gossiping. “And this is a very important meeting. Very important people and all. Better get while the getting is good, Hannah-Banana,” he said and sauntered back to his desk.

  Hannah filled the three cups and hauled it back to the office, trying her best to not scald herself with the hot mugs or spill any of the contents, silently thanking her years of server experience for the inhuman ability to withstand the heat through the ceramic. She opened the door with her wrist, and pushed it open with her shoulder while looking down at the cups.

  Then ran right into something solid.

  She yelped as the contents of three steaming hot coffee cups spilled down her chest and arms. She tried as hard as she could to hold onto the cups but the fell to the ground with a sharp cracking noise followed by whooshing sounds as the pieces scattered around the floor.

  Elliott jumped up from his desk immediately but did not go to her. The look on her face prevented him from going over. She had that look, that look like if one wrong word was said, she might start crying. He had nothing but wrong words.

  She just stood there frozen for a moment, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open as if she were silently saying “oh”, but nothing came out. Then, in a flurry, she dropped to her knees on the floor and started pulling the broken ceramic pieces into a pile in front of her, ignoring her soaked shirt and the burns which were surely forming on her skin beneath.

  Hannah couldn’t keep a thought in her mind for more than a second. She was an idiot. An idiot! She needed to look where she was going for chrissakes. She made a complete fool of herself in front of not only her boss, but his associates. She actually ran into something. They must have thought she was a complete klutz.

  What did she run into?

  Just when the thought formed into her mind and she thought to look up and see, a man knelt down in front of her, grabbing her ands and stilling their frantic cleaning. It was then that she realized she ran into a person. This man.

  The other Mr. Michaels.

  The younger brother.

  He looked nothing like Elliott. He had light brown hair and laughter lines. His eyes were a darker blue and his face wasn’t as sharp as his brother’s. His cheekbones were prominent, but softer. His lighter eyebrows, less severe and his mouth seemed perpetually turned up at the edges. He was wearing, she almost laughed, blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a grey blazer on top and an absolutely out of place tie. He was even wearing sneakers.

  EM must have been furious. That thought was almost enough to make her smile. Almost.

  “Well,” he said, his voice calm and sweet, “only employees of my brother would give themselves third degree burns and cuts on their hands at the mere sight of him.”

  Hannah made a sound in her throat, something close to a laugh and a snort and a groan all at once and she dropped her gaze away from his so he wouldn’t see the tears threatening to spill over. It was then she realized he had her hands in his.

  Just as she started to try to pull them away, he held them tighter and pulled her to her feet. “Well now,” he said, turning her toward the door. “why don’t we go get you looked after and make some new coffee. I’m sure they can do without me for a few minutes. I am just here for beauty purposes anyway.” He smiled and she laughed.

  He steered her out of the office, holding onto one of her arms and guiding her toward the kitchen.

  “So what might my brother’s new victim’s name be,” he asked.

  “Um… ah… I’m Hannah.”

  “Hannah. Lovely. A palindrome. So, my dear Hannah, how long have you been working here? I havent seen you before, but that doesn’t say much as I try not to show my face here unless under the threat of termination.”

  “This is my second day.”

  He laughed deep in his throat in a mocking, yet not unkind way, “You must feel really awful right about now, huh?” Without waiting for her to answer, he stepped closer and picked up her arm, rolling up the sleeve to reveal her skin. “Does it hurt,” he asked.

  “Yes,” Hannah answered honestly, looking at him as he bent over her arm. He was, well, he was every bit as lovely to look at as Tad kept insisting. And probably every bit as charming.

  “Well, I am afraid there is not much to be done. It has to come off. Wait here, I’ll go grab my saw,” he gave her a grave look then smiled. “But here,” he said, turning on the faucet and pulling her arm under it. She pulled away immediately. “Yeah, I know its cold. But you will fell a little better for a bit if you just let it take the sting away.”

  They stood there in silence for a few moments. Her arms took turns under the running water and the other Michaels brother standing entirely too close, just behind her hip and looking over her shoulder. He was tall. Like his brother.

  “Quiet, aren’t you,” he asked when the silence drug on and on.

  “Not usually,” she answered, turning off the tap and drying her arms carefully with paper towels.

  “I see,” he smiled, “this is not the first time a woman has been struck silent by my magnificent good looks. Don’t be embarrassed. It is only natural. I am, well,” he laughed, making his speech much more humorous than arrogant, “I am just… beautiful.”

  Hannah laughed. “And very humble it seems,” she quipped, making him chuckle.

  “Alas, humility has never been a strong suit of mine.” He looked at her for a long second. “I imagine you never figured when you were getting dressed for work today that you would be starring in your very own wet t-shirt contest.”

  “Oh, for god’s sake,” she blurted out, remembering her choice of a thin white work shirt for the day.

  “Oh no no no. No, don’t worry darling. I have a plan,” he said, stripping off her jacket and loosening his tie, making her truly worry for a second if he thought she was about to have a quicky with him in the office kitchen. If, perhaps, he was the rake everyone accused him of being.

  But he stepped closer, encouraging her to put her arms in the sleeves and he buttoned her up. Then he took his grey tie and wrapped it around her waist, pulling it tight so the lapels wouldn’t accidentally pull open.

  “Don’t you know Elliott likes his women with flesh on their bones?”

  Hannah snorted, “Luckily, I couldn’t care less what type of women he prefers.”

  James shrugged off the topic, “Well,” he said, stepping back and eyeing her up. “it certainly isn’t high fashion but it is better than seeing your bra.”

  “Always a plus,” Hannah agreed, turning back to the cabinet and grabbing three new mugs.

  “You haven’t even asked me my name,” he informed her, reaching for the coffee pot and pouring three fresh cups.

  “That’s because your name precedes you, James,” she told him with a smile.

  “Ah, yes, my reptuation tends to make me a topic of discussion around these parts.”

  “Or perhaps it is your absence that makes people talk,” Hannah suggested.

  “Easy girl,” James laughed. “I don’t know if my brother can handle an assistant who has a mind of her own.”

  “He will learn to adapt,” she said, defiantly.

  “Elliott? Adapt? Oh, gorgeous, you have some learning to do it seems,” he said, taking one of the coffee cups from her.

  “Oh, wait. I need to grab a duspan and broom.”

  James chuckled. “It’s already cleaned up,” he told her.

  “How do you know that,” she asked, following him back to the lobby.

  “Because… it’s my brother.”

  --

 
He wasn’t ashamed to admit that it was irritating to see how easily James interacted with his new assistant. The way he joked with her to overcome her embarrassment, the way he took charge and got her out of the room to take care of herself, the way he obviously prevented her from crying, the way he put his own jacket on her so she would not have to walk around the entire day with coffee stains and a see-through shirt. Next to all of that, he felt clumsy and inadequate.

  They came back into the office with a hushed sort of amusement. There was a light in both of their eyes and James winked at her commensurately when she handed out the coffee and then excused herself.

  When the door closed at her back, Elliott spared his brother a quick glance and said simply, “No.”

  James lips quirked up on one side. “We’ll see,” James said looking at the closed door. “you never know.”

  --

  Hannah leaned back against the door and breathed deeply a few times. Tad walked past her, reading the top sheet in the pile he was holding and said without ever looking up, “That’s a look,” and kept about his business.

  She knew she would never let herself live that entire episode down. It might have been the single most humiliating thing she had ever had happen in her adult life. It was the thing she would have rolling around in her mind at night when she was trying to sleep.

  She made a mental note to dry clean James’ jacket and tie, and went back to work to try to put the whole incedent behind her.

  About an hour later when she got back to her office, she found something sitting on top of her desk. It was a plain white shirt, folded neatly on top of all the paperwork she would have to eventually file away. It was almost identical to the one she had been wearing earlier which was likely ruined. But this one was of a finer material and a designer label. It was even in her size. She would have to make sure she sent a “thank you” note to James along with his drycleaning.

  --

  He hope it fit. He was usually a decent judge of those kind of things and she was somewhat on the thin side to him so she was likely to fit in anything he picked out. But, for some reason, he wanted it to fit her the way she would have it fit if she picked it out herself. He made sure there was no note, hoping, perhaps, she would assume it was from Tad or one of the other office women… or even his own brother.

  But he had to make the purchase to ease himself of some of the guilt he felt in assuming that if he wasn’t such a demanding, intimidating person, she wouldn’t have been in such a rush and would have taken her time and looked where she was going and not ruin her shirt and burn herself. He needed to make amends somehow, even if she never knew it was from him.

  Besides, he couldn’t have her walking around the office in a man’s jacket with a tie as a belt. And, especially, not his brother’s jacket and tie. People were already going to talk about them. He had heard the laughter from the kitchen when they left to make more coffee. It had irritated him. Hannah seemed every bit as serious and sober as himself, but the fact that James had so easily gotten her amused proved otherwise.

  Or proved that she was attracted to James. His brother had always possessed a knack for charming even the most taciturn of women. Maybe it was because he had all the time in the world to pursue anything in a skirt because he hardly ever showed up at work. Except on days when he threatened to terminate him if he refused to show up to an important meeting. Like the one they had had earlier with the slimy snake of a CEO to a company they were trying to acquire. James had a much stronger tolerance for the backhandedness and B.S. they were sure to hear from the impossible man. When Elliott was all but ready to grab the man by his neck and throw him from his office, James sat there, hands steepled in front of his mouth, lounged back in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk.

  “We understand you concerns, Alan,” he had said, sending a look to Elliott that only a brother could interpret as ‘hey look, I know he’s a total tool, but we need him so keep your cool.’ And, perhaps, ‘I know you think I’m incompetent, but I can handle this.’

  Sometimes he forgot that James actually had a higher level of education than he did. While he had been busy busting his ass working sixteen hour days to get his company on its feet, James had chosen to stay in college. Mostly, he stayed because he liked living on campus with the crazy parties and the abundance of women.

  And while he switched majors four times before he settled on (see: was forced into) business, he always kept an almost perfect GPA.

  The guy sitting next to him, who often came into work with cartoon characters on his shirt, actually had an MBA.

  In the end, they had secured the deal and James had shot him a look that screamed ‘I told you so’ as they shook hands with their unfortunate new business associate.

  --

  Hannah slipped into her new shirt, staring paranoid at the two doors of her office despite the fact that no one ever came in. It felt soft on her skin- much softer than the one she had worn. Thankfully, her bra had dried though it still smelled strongly of coffee, reminding her of when she worked full time at a coffeehouse and would swear she could still smell coffee in her hair even after shampoo and conditioner.

  Her arms and chest stung whenever anything brushed against them and had settled permanently to a bright, angry red color. Her skin had even blistered a little in spots, a fact she was choosing to ignore.

  It was just after lunch and she still needed to go grocery shopping for him, interview three housekeepers, file, fax, figure out who “Dan” was and call him to tell him they would have to reschedule.

  “Ding dong,” Tad said, peeking his head in the door and raising an eyebrow at her. “nice shirt.”

  “It was a gift.”

  “I’m sure it was,” Tad said, throwing himself onto the sofa and closing his eyes. “Sally is in a mood. I need refuge.”

  Hannah giggled. “Stay as long as you need.”

  “He’s every bit as delicious as I told you, isn’t he?” Tad opened one eye and looked at her. “Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know who I am talking about.”

  Hannah conceded, “Alright. Yes, he’s very charming.”

  “And gorgeous,” Tad added.

  “And gorgeous,” she agreed. “Oh, now that I have you here.. Who is Dan?”

  “Dan,” Tad repeated, turning his face fully toward her.

  “Yeah I’m supposed to call Dan and reschedule. He didn’t say what.”

  “Probably their court date,” Tad said with a frown. “Dan is his wife.”

  Hannah felt like she’d gotten the wind knocked out of her. He was married? How? Why? She shook her head. Why did it matter?

  “Yeah,” Tad said, looking at her intently. “It was weird. They dated casually for a while. She’s some kind of heiress, gorgeous and cold and she somehow got him to tie the knot. God only knows how she managed that,” he grimaced. “It lasted like three months. They are going to court to settle the terms of the divorce. Good riddance. She was a real piece of work.”

  “Piece of work,” James’ voice came from the doorway. “is someone talking about me?”

  “Oh, always James, always,” Tad replied.

  “Tad,” James nodded in his direction. “Working hard.”

  “Oh you know me,” Tad practically purred.

  James walked into the room, perching himself on Hannah’s desk and fiddling around with its contents. “Is it just me or is Sally a total bitch today,” he asked and Tad and Hannah bust out laughing.

  They stayed there like that for fifteen minutes, swapping witty banter and releasing stress before James stood up and announced, “Well I have to get going. If I actually stay here a full day, my brother might have a heart attack. Or, worse yet, start to expect that of me.” He turned to Hannah, grabbed her hand, and actually kissed it. “It was an honor sharing the shirt off my back with you, Hannah Clary. Maybe we can do it again sometime.” He looked at her long enough to notice her blush and smiled at it. H
e started for the door, “And Tad, always a pleasure.”

  “Oh, you know it,” Tad responded with a wink.

  Once Tad begrudgingly got back to work, Hannah sat, fastidiously typing responses to letters and getting the schedule in order. At her back, unbeknownst to her, it had turned dark outside. The office seemed to run on a different time than the rest of the world and it simply flew by with all the tasks that needed to be completed in a day.

  She had made the call to Dan and was greeted by an icy voice who was overly irritated at her for Elliott’s change of plans. Then she had spent two hours conducting interviews, then calling and cancelling the ones she had lined up for the next day because she had found the perfect candidate.

  Her shoulders hurt from being stuck at her computer for so long. And then something went wrong. She was in the middle of a two-paged letter when suddenly the screen went dark and she couldn’t get it to come back on. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and she could feel herself getting teary-eyed with frustration.

  “No no no no no,” she yelled at the screen, trying the few overrides she knew.

  “What happened,” came a voice from the doorway and she was too aggravated to even jump at the interruption.

  “I was typing a letter and it just disappeared and went black,” she said, waving a hand at the computer and forcing herself to fight back the tears.

  Elliott stepped into the room and walked up behind her. She felt the full line of his upper body against her side as he reached over and started messing with her keyboard.

  She had never been that close to him before. She could feel the heat from his body through the fabric of his clothes and smell the faint hint of spice from his cologne. Even hunched over, he was a head taller than her and she felt very small, almost fragile next to him. Which was a strange feeling for a woman who was five foot seven.

  “All you have to do next time is,” he started to say, making her snap back to attention. “is hit this and this button and it will come right back up. See,” he asked, then glanced down at her to see if she was listening.