by Claire Adams
Mel smiled. “Of course.”
“Why? I mean, why wouldn’t he just hire someone already fashionably suited for this business and this city?”
She laughed. “‘Fashionably suited,’ that’s cute. I like that. To answer your question, Chloe, you were simply the most qualified for the job. Logan’s more interested in your brain. It’s my job to worry about the other things.”
We’d gotten off the elevator and passed through the lobby. The large, black car waiting for us looked like it probably cost more than I’d make here in a year. It was huge inside and as soon as we slid in, Mel reached into a little refrigerator and pulled out a couple of tiny bottles of champagne and two cartons of orange juice.
She winked at me and said, “You can’t really have girls’ day out without mimosas.” She fixed us each one, and I took one of the flutes. I wasn’t much of a drinker, but I didn’t want to seem completely ungrateful. Mel held her glass up and said, “To spending Logan’s money.”
I laughed and said, “Here! Here!”
She giggled. “You’re learning,” she told me with a wink. The car drove us to the center of Manhattan, and I was surprised when I climbed out and saw that we were in front of a hair salon. I looked at Mel.
“My hair, too?”
She gave me a gentle smile and went over to pull open the door. I stepped in and felt instantly out of place. It was one of those posh salons where everything looked brand new and soft music played in the background. There was a full-service coffee bar and even a pastry cart.
The girl at the desk was perfectly coiffed. She had short blonde hair with about fifteen different colored highlights in it and dark-blue eyes that almost looked too blue to be real. Mel smiled at her, and then turned to me and said, “I was just thinking since we’re doing this, we’ll do it up right. A few highlights around your face and maybe some layers.”
I wanted to tell her that I liked my hair just fine, but rather than argue with her, I smiled and said, “Okay, sure.”
She went over and spoke to the girl at the desk. I heard her mention Logan’s name and then I saw the smile on the blonde girl’s face in response. I wondered if she knew him or if it was just his looks and reputation that made her face light up like that. Then, I told myself it wasn’t my business. The less I knew about Logan’s personal life, the better.
“Okay, Chloe, let’s go to the back.” I followed Mel past about eight stations of very nicely-dressed women having their hair cut, washed, or highlighted. The conversations were lively and animated, and I needn’t have worried about not fitting in because no one seemed to even notice me. When we got to the last station, a woman a little older than me with red hair that stood up in ten different directions greeted us.
“Hey, Mel! How are you today?”
“I’m great, Nat. Chloe, this is Natalie. She’s the absolute best hairdresser in Manhattan.”
Natalie giggled and held out her hand. “Mel is too kind; I’m only in the top five best,” she told me with a wink. “Welcome, Chloe.”
“Thank you. It’s nice to meet you, Natalie.”
She had me sit in the chair and asked what we were doing. Mel didn’t let me answer. Instead, she said, “Let’s put some layers in it to give it some lift and maybe some light brown to platinum highlights.”
“We can do that,” Natalie said. “Let’s go over here and wash it first.” Mel followed us around and made conversation with Natalie. For that, I was thankful. I was feeling slightly overwhelmed and wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold up my end.
It took Natalie a little over an hour to transform me, but I had to admit that Mel knew what she was talking about. The layers made my hair look fuller and the highlights went well with my skin tone. I liked it.
After getting my hair done, we went next door to a nail salon so I could get a French manicure. My mom liked doing my nails and she had done them for me from the time I was old enough to want them painted until I left home. I’d never had a professional manicure, but I liked it. I didn’t care much for the pedicure, though. I thought it was just too weird having a stranger touch my feet.
The driver took us to an upscale mall once we were done at the salon. He dropped us near the entrance to Sephora. As soon as we walked in, a sales associate was directly in our path. “Can I help you, ladies?”
Mel smiled at her and said, “We’re looking for a few things for my beautiful friend here. She doesn’t usually wear much make-up, so we don’t want anything too wild; maybe some subtle, pale shades, like pinks or peaches.”
“Of course,” she said looking me over. “You have beautiful skin. That’s probably thanks in part to not layering make-up on it the way most of us women do. Come with me, and I’ll show you what we have.”
We were taken to a counter near the middle of the store where she had me take a seat on one of the tall stools. Then, she proceeded to show me things and let me try samples. When all was said and done, Mel was putting over five hundred dollars of make-up and skin products on Logan’s credit card. It still didn’t make sense to me why he would do all of this, but I had to admit I was having fun.
By the time we spent another four hours or so shopping for clothes and shoes, I felt more exhausted than if I had worked all day. The driver dropped Mel at Moreau Industries building. It was almost six in the evening, and Mel told me I should go home and start fresh in one of my new outfits and make-up in the morning. It had been a long day, so as anxious as I was to really get started at work, I agreed and the driver took me home.
I was slightly embarrassed for him to see just the outside of the place, but when he insisted that he help me take up my bags, I was mortified. I really hoped he didn’t share what this place looked like with anyone.
I unlocked the apartment door and with full arms, pushed the door in with my shoulder. The driver followed me just inside and sat the rest of the packages down. Lilliana came around the corner from the kitchen and stopped in her tracks. She stood there while I thanked the driver, and once he was gone, she said, “What the hell?”
I laughed. “My boss’ assistant took me shopping.”
She walked over and without being invited she started going through the bags. “Are you kidding me?” she said as she read the tags on the clothing. “He paid for this?”
“Yes. Mel said it’s about presenting a certain image.”
“He wants to sleep with you.”
I rolled my eyes and started gathering things to take them into my room. “Not everything is about sex.”
She laughed. “You are so naïve, Minnesota! Of course everything is about sex. Sex makes the world go round. This rich man wants you bad enough to spend thousands on your wardrobe. Girl, you are so lucky.”
“Lilliana,” I said with my arms once again laden with bags and boxes. “I am not here to sleep with a rich man. I am here to learn how to be a financial analyst, and I do count myself as lucky for getting this job. But, I am not having sex with my boss.”
As I retreated to my room, it was to the sound of her laughter. Just as I got there, I heard her say, “I’ve got twenty that says he’s in your panties by the end of the week. Oh! You did get new panties, didn’t you?”
I slammed the door.
CHAPTER SIX
LOGAN
“What about Abbott Cosmetics?” I asked Josiah. We had been in this meeting since eight a.m. It was almost eleven, and I still had six files in front of me. Somehow, the consulting department had become overwhelmed with work, and I’d called the executives together to try and figure out how we could spread out some of the projects to get caught back up.
“I was thinking maybe we could give that one to Chloe,” Josiah said.
Today was Chloe’s one-week anniversary with the firm. This past week, I had given her time to get acclimated to her job and had stayed out of it. Mel told me how good she looked in her new clothes and make-up and I was curious to see her, but I was still hesitant about going through with this whole getting her to
fall in love with me thing.
I was attracted to her physically. Even in her well-worn clothes and ponytail, I’d found her cute enough that I would have taken her to my bed in a heartbeat given the chance. But after spending some time with her the first few days she was here and getting a glimpse of how truly naïve she was, I just wasn’t sure I had the heart to do it. So, to Mel’s chagrin, I’d avoided running into her since.
“You think she’s up for that? She was hired as an intern for analysis. I’m not sure she’s up for consulting.”
“I’ve worked with her for a week now, Logan. She’s sharp, but not just sharp; she seems to have a good intuition when it comes to business. I know that’s hard to imagine because she seems so fresh off the farm, but she hasn’t just completed every task I’ve given her this week: she’s come back to me with some excellent insights and suggestions. I’m impressed – and you know that I am not easily impressed.”
I was not surprised to hear she was smart. My dad’s friend was a professor at the University of Minnesota where Chloe got her MBA; after Mel had already hired her, I found out he had sent a glowing recommendation for her that went on for two pages about her innate knack for looking at a spreadsheet and analyzing what was going wrong with a company more quickly and accurately than people who have been working in the business for years.
But, Josiah was right. For a young man, he was already hardened and cynical. A recommendation from him did not come easily. As a matter of fact, most of his employees complained routinely that he was too hard on them and didn’t appreciate any of their insights or suggestions.
“Okay, I trust you,” I said eventually. “If you think she’s ready for this. I have a lunch meeting with Jamie Abbott tomorrow at the Downtown Marriott. When you get back downstairs, send Chloe to my office and I’ll have her take a look at the file. If she thinks that she can help, I’ll take her with me tomorrow to meet with Jamie.”
It was just about an hour later when I was in my office with the Abbott file open and paper spread out across my desk. Mel had gone to lunch and had offered to bring something back for me, but at the time I wasn’t hungry, so I’d declined. Now I was suddenly so hungry that I could barely concentrate on what I was looking at.
I was reaching for my phone to have the receptionist order some food for me when there was a tap on my door. “Come in.”
The door was pushed open and I was looking at Chloe, but she almost didn’t look like the Chloe that I’d met last week. This Chloe was not just attractive, she was hot. My whole body was instantly on alert and responding to the sight of her.
She was wearing a burgundy, knee-length pencil skirt with a white blouse and a soft-looking cardigan sweater that matched the skirt. It was a conservative outfit, without much skin showing, but the way it fit her curves blew my imagination wide open.
“Hey, Chloe, please come in.” I stood up to be polite and hoped the loose tailoring of my slacks would hide the fact that parts of my body were growing as I looked at her.
“Hi, Mr. Moreau. Josiah said you wanted to see me.”
“Yes, please, have a seat.” She sat down in the chair in front of the desk and crossed her legs. I noticed the shoes then. They weren’t her usual ballet flats. These had a heel on them, albeit a much smaller one than the shoes she’d nearly broken her ankle in the night of the Halloween party. “Did Josiah give you the Abbott file?”
“Yes,” she said, placing the one she was carrying down on the desk in front of her. “I took a quick look at it, but I’m sorry, I haven’t had time to really go through it line by line just yet.”
“Of course not, I just wanted you to have it so that you could familiarize yourself with it before our lunch meeting with Jamie tomorrow. He’s young, and his father recently died and left him at the helm of the company.
“For over thirty years, they held the number one spot in the manufacturing of women’s cosmetics in the States. Then, Mike died and Jamie was thrust into a position that, personally, I don’t think he was ready for. He’s stubborn, though, and he’s refused to hire someone from the outside to take over as CEO. The numbers are showing that is probably a big mistake and now he’s now asking for a loan, which I’m not convinced will help him.”
She nodded. “I will make sure to familiarize myself with everything before lunch tomorrow. Is there anything else?”
“No, except that I haven’t had lunch yet and I’m starving. Are you interested in joining me?” She looked hesitant, so I said, “You have to eat and I was about to have Mel’s receptionist order some take-out. If it makes you feel better, we can look at these numbers together while we eat.”
She smiled. “Okay, that sounds good.”
“Great. Do you like Indian food?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had it.”
“You like spicy foods?”
“I do, very much.”
“You’ll love it.” I called Rachel and asked her to order enough for two from my favorite Indian place.
Then, keeping to my word, I placed the spreadsheets on my conference tables and, armed with Chloe’s notebook and my highlighter, we went to work. By the time the food arrived, we at least had a list of questions we wanted to ask Jamie and concerns we had about the way the financial end of the business was being handled.
“Okay, this can all wait now until we eat. It’s already after two and I’m ready to chew off my own arm.”
Chloe laughed. “Me, too, actually.” We left the Abbott file where it lay and went over to the smaller table in the office where Rachel had left the food. I divvied it up between her plate and mine, and I watched her face as she took her first bite.
I waited for her to chew and swallow before I asked her, “So, what do you think?”
“It’s delicious. What is it?”
Laughing, I said, “What a trusting girl you are taking a bite without even asking what it was first.” She giggled. It was adorable. “It’s called Biryani. It’s saffron rice with chicken, and of course, lots of delicious spices.” She was already taking another bite.
“I like it,” she said with a smile.
We ate in silence for a few minutes, and then in an effort to get to know more about her, I began, “Was it hard leaving your family behind and coming all the way out here from Minnesota?”
“Yes and no,” she told me with a smile. “I love my parents and my older sister, but it was time for me to strike out on my own. I lived with them while I was going to school for financial reasons, but I’m twenty-four and capable of taking care of myself.” She took a drink of her water and said, “It was just time.”
“So, you have one sister; is she married?”
“Yes. She just turned thirty. She married her high school sweetheart when they were twenty-two and they already have three kids, all boys.” She smiled, but her eyes looked sad.
“Were you close to your nephews?”
She nodded. “Yeah, they just lived up the road so I got used to seeing them every day. They’re really something, those crazy boys.”
“How old are they?”
“Seven, five, and three.”
“Sounds like your sister has her hands full.”
“Yes, she does. You sound like you’re speaking from experience. Do you have kids of your own?”
“Oh no, no way. But, I have a brother and sister, and they both have kids. As a matter of fact, my sister’s oldest will be ten this weekend and talking about her reminds me I still need to get a gift. What do you get a ten-year-old girl?”
“What is she into?”
I shrugged. “She plays with dolls still, but she also loves video games. Oh! She loves to roller skate, too, but I’m sure she has all she needs there. Between my sister Whitney and her husband, and my parents and his, those kids are slightly spoiled.”
“My nephews have the same…problem?” she laughed. “Well, maybe get her something related to roller skating that’s not necessarily equipment.”
>
I raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Has she ever seen a roller derby game?”
I laughed. “Roller derby? They still do that?”
“Yes! I can’t believe you’re from Canada and you don’t know that. It’s big in Canada.”
“Really? So where would a person find a roller derby game?”
“It’s a bout.”
“About what?”
She giggled. “No, it’s not a game; it’s called a roller derby bout.”
“Oh, okay. Well, where would a person find a bout to watch?”
She pushed back her food containers and pulled up Google on her tablet. “Let’s find out,” she said with a smile.
I was so tempted to lean in and kiss her right then. She has no idea how pretty she is. She’s just so simply herself, and she has no idea how sexy that is. I think that makes her more appealing to me. She’s just so different from the women I’m used to.
“Here we go.” She tried to hand me the tablet. Instead, I slid my chair over closer to hers and looked at it with her.
“Gotham Girls Roller Derby.” I read the name aloud and then the rest of the webpage to myself. When I finished, Chloe hit the button that said “Schedule” and a list of bouts came up.
“Look, they have one the Friday after next. It’s their Thanksgiving weekend bout.”
“Wow, it really is almost Thanksgiving, isn’t it?”
She smiled sadly. “Yes, and I think that’s when I’ll miss my family the most. I’ve never been away from them over the holidays. But anyways, we were talking about getting roller derby tickets for your niece. What do you think?”
“I think she’d love it. I’m not sure if her parents are going to be free to take her that Friday night, though; they’re both doctors and work on-call a lot.”
“What? No, no, no; you have to take her.”