by Ella Brooke
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she breathed.
The boutique was a beautiful place, with wood floors and white walls and open spaces so we didn’t feel cramped. Dresses lined the walls with changing stations and heated waiting areas for the bridal party. Marriage wasn’t in my new future, but if I got married, I would come here, too.
“I don’t even know where to start,” Beth said. “I’m not even sure what I want.”
“Can I help you ladies?” a shop assistant said. She was an older lady with a welcoming smile, and I turned to her.
“My friend is the bride, getting married in less than three months, and we’re looking for her dream dress. She’s not quite sure what style she wants.”
“I’m sure we can find something,” the lady said. “Why don’t you start over here and tell me if something catches your eye. I’ll find some dresses that I think will work with your body type.”
She disappeared again, and Beth turned to me. “Oh my God, Elena. This is really happening.”
I nodded and hugged my friend. “And it’s going to be the best day of your life. We’ll find your perfect dress.”
We started going through the dresses one by one. It didn’t take long before we figured out what Beth wanted. She gravitated toward certain styles, and it was all the shop assistant needed to get started on our long journey of finding the perfect wedding dress.
I sat down in the seats reserved for the bridal party, and Beth modeled the dresses to me. She looked stunning in each and every one of them.
“I don’t know how I’m going to choose,” she said after she tried on the fifth one. So far, they’d all looked amazing.
“A word of advice,” the shop assistant said when she checked in on us. “You don’t choose the right dress – the right dress chooses you. I know it sounds like some sort of stale gimmick, but I’ve been in the business for twenty years, and the women who are the happiest founded a dress that was nothing like what they had in mind in the first place. They all looked great, but when you know you know.”
Beth giggled. “It sounds a little bit like choosing a husband.”
“If that’s how you found Mr. Right, you’re one of the lucky ones. The fairytale happy ending doesn’t happen to nearly enough women out there.”
Beth turned back to the mirror, looking at the dress she was wearing. “Sad that it is true,” she said. “Do you think it will last forever?”
“I think you have the best relationship I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it will be easy, but if you can’t make it, none of us can.”
Beth smiled at me in the mirror and disappeared into the change room to try on another dress.
“How does Rick feel about everything?” I asked when Beth emerged again. “Is he helping you with anything?”
Beth shook her head. “To be honest, I’m not exactly letting him. I’m enjoying myself planning the wedding. But he’s as excited as I am, I think.”
“You think?”
“I mean, he’s excited. I don’t think he’s going to get cold feet. A lot of men seem to be scared about the idea of getting married, but it was Rick who asked to do it so soon. I think that’s a good sign.”
I nodded. “That’s a very good sign.”
The shop assistant brought out glasses of champagne, and Beth and I drank to a smooth wedding. The shop was filling up. Apparently, there were quite a few brides getting married soon. The shop assistant ran around, trying to control the chaos. We had a good time. It was nice not to have to focus on work for a while, forgetting about everything that was going on in my life and enjoying the moment with her. We hadn’t taken the time to have a girl date together. Usually, we went to a spa when we did, but this was a lot more fun.
“I think we should call it a day,” Beth said when she tried on the tenth dress that still wasn’t exactly what she was looking for. “Next time, we can go to another shop and start all over again.”
I nodded. I wanted her to have the perfect dress. Everything else we could get arranged closer to the time, but the dress was the most important.
“Let’s stop at a cafe and have something to eat,” I suggested.
Beth agreed, so we headed to Bistro Boudin in North Beach. The bistro had the most amazing pastries I’d had in a while, perfect after a champagne-and-wedding-filled afternoon. I felt a little dizzy after the champagne. My giggles were close to the surface, and I was having a fun time.
After we sat down and ordered coffee and a platter of snacks to share, Beth folded her arms on the table.
“So, how are you doing?” she asked. “Let this day not be about only me.”
I smiled. “It can be. You’re getting married.”
Beth pulled up her shoulders. “Your life isn’t standing still. How are you doing at work?”
“I’m doing well. It was a bit of a push this week. Noah’s daughter was sick, so he was out of the office for three days. I’m quite proud of myself. I managed to keep it all together in his absence.”
“That’s because you’re good at what you do. You really deserve a much better position.”
She was right, of course, but I was happy where I was for now. I liked working for Noah. And it wasn’t only because we’d had sex and I had a little crush on him, either. The work was fulfilling.
“And how are things between you and your boss?” Beth asked as if she knew it was what I’d been thinking of.
I pulled up one shoulder in a half-shrug. “It’s going well, I guess.” I didn’t want to say too much, to admit that I was starting to like this guy more and more. “I went to his place to drop off work on Thursday, and I met his daughter.”
Beth raised her eyebrows. “Getting quite personal, aren’t you?”
“It was work files,” I said. “What was I going to do, ignore his kid?”
I didn’t mention that I had taken Lilly soup or that I had been taken to her room, especially to meet her.
“Anyway, she’s a sweet girl. She has so much of him in her she’s like a little clone.”
Our food and coffee arrived and we fell quiet, waiting for the server to arrange it on the table. When we were alone again, I glanced at Beth. I knew she had something to say about this.
“You have to be careful, E,” she said. “You’re getting very involved with your boss and his daughter.”
“Noah,” I said. “His name is Noah.”
Beth nodded. “That proves my point.”
“What, because I told you his name?”
“Because you’re referring to him by his first name. You’re not calling him your boss which would be impersonal. I doubt you call him Sir.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know who does that anymore.”
“Everyone,” Beth said.
She didn’t look impressed with me, and I guess I couldn’t blame her. If the roles had been reversed, I might have given her the same lectures. I might have been worried about her the way she was worried about me. But this wasn’t what it looked like from the outside. I could see what she saw. There were countless stories about secretaries who had affairs with their bosses. But this was different. He wasn’t married, and we weren’t having an affair. It wasn’t a relationship, either, so it wasn’t wrong. At least, not in that way. It was a different story in the workplace.
“What if something goes wrong?” Beth asked.
“It won’t come out,” I said.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Beth said, shaking her head. “Keeping it away from the public eye is a good thing, but I mean if things go wrong between the two of you. It could end your career if it goes bad and he decides to fire you.”
I shook my head. “It won’t,” I said. “He would never do that.”
Beth made a face. “I don’t think you know him that well. And right now, you’re looking at everything through rose-colored glasses. I know it will look good because the two of you are good. You met his daughter. This week you were indispensable. But what happens next week w
hen he’s back at work and he’s over this fling you’re having?”
I shook my head again. Beth didn’t know Noah. She didn’t want she was talking about.
“I know you’re worried,” I said. “And I see where you’re coming from.” I didn’t add that I disagreed. “I promise I’ll be careful.”
Beth nodded. “I guess I’ll have to be satisfied. You deserve a shot at happiness, too.”
I smiled. Beth was on my side. She was only looking out for me and it was nice of her to do that. We changed the topic and the conversation was comfortable again, flowing. I didn’t feel like I had to defend myself.
When we finally parted, I headed home. Beth’s mind was filled with wedding plans, but despite being the maid of honor, I didn’t think about it at all. I had Noah on my mind.
I was excited to see him in the office in the morning. I enjoyed working with him, and now that Lillian was better, he would be himself again. I was glad he would be back in the office to handle everything I’d had to take care of the past week. And I wouldn’t have to face Doug again. I had dreaded it on Thursday and Friday. It would all go back to normal.
What Beth had said ran through my mind as well. She was looking out for me, worried about my well-being and my heart. But I knew what I was doing, and I knew Noah. I wouldn’t get hurt. I pushed what she’d said to the back of my mind. Nothing was going to go wrong. Nothing was going to fall apart. I was happy with my job and satisfied with my role, and for now, that was all I needed. Besides, I had seen what a good dad Noah was, how caring he was with Lillian, and I was sure that someone like that wouldn’t hurt me. Not in the way Beth was worried about.
Tomorrow, I would go to the office, and everything would be back to normal.
Chapter Eleven
Noah
Three days away from the office didn’t sound like a lot, but when I came back to work on Monday, I realized how much I do every day. Elena had postponed meetings and calls that needed to be dealt with; Doug had sent emails and faxes that demanded responses now, and I felt like I was drowning in administrative details.
One of the first messages that came through on Monday morning was from my investors.
“We need to meet as soon as possible to review your marketing updates.”
With Lillian sick, I hadn’t thought about work at all. Panicking about my personal life had trumped my career going up in flames, and I had no idea what I was going to do.
When I’d bought the company, I had promised loyalty to my customers. It was something I had learned from my dad. Loyalty changed everything, the human factor in a world that was becoming more and more artificial and automated worked like magic. Or at least, it used to. Something had gone wrong. My involvement with my fans and clients had painted me as the good Samaritan of the business world. I had been in the papers as the People’s Choice, the one company that the public wanted to invest in because they liked me as a person, not only by product. I had made the media because of my approach.
Now, I felt like I was being left behind despite my efforts to keep it personal. How did I explain how important the personal touch was to investors who only wanted to see number, profits, success? How did I prove to them that Saturn Intelligence would be worth their while when I was starting to doubt I could make it survive?
I picked up the phone to call Doug. He had had a little bit of insight into the company the past three days, and he had been with me for a long time. With his influence in the marketing department, I was sure he could help me out.
“You need to push up your prices, Noah,” Doug said without hesitation when I asked him. “If they want something to see, throw numbers at them.”
“I can’t do that. How am I supposed to promise value if I betray our customers like that?”
“God, you’re not friends with them, Noah. They’re getting value out of your product. Make them pay for it. You’ll lose the company if you don’t.”
“What about my reputation?”
“Your reputation is worth less than your company.”
I winced. It was a harsh thing to say. My reputation was what had brought me this far. My reputation was the only reason I hadn’t gone under already.
“I’m not being a dick,” Doug said as if he knew what I was thinking. “But if you lose your company, your reputation won’t help the hundreds of people that work for you that will be out of a job.
I sighed. He was right. I would lose SI. But what would I lose if I became the same as every other company out there? Everything was so expensive nowadays it trumped the cost of living, and when things were tough, the first expenses they cut were those that crippled them. I didn’t want to be in that category. I didn’t want to be a faceless provider that took more than I gave, and it felt like the investors were pushing me into that.
“Thanks, Doug,” I said, ending the call. Talking to Doug hadn’t helped the way I’d hoped it would. When I put the phone back in its cradle I leaned back in my chair and swiveled toward the window. Maybe asking Doug hadn’t been the right thing to do. He was a good businessman, adept at his position in marketing, but he thought in terms of returns. He didn’t think about the human aspect, not in the way I did. He thought about how he could play them so that they bought. It was his job, after all.
I needed someone else’s advice. Someone who looked at it all objectively.
Someone like Elena. She was my secretary so she wasn’t so directly involved. And she had that MBA. I needed to ask her what she thought of it. She would be able to help.
My dad had had run own company, but that had been before technology had taken off. Customer service had been different back then, but he had still understood what it meant to give people what they needed and not only what they wanted. My dad had known half his clients personally, asking about their families when he ran into them. I wasn’t going to go that far with it – it was impossible with my extensive client base – but I had translated that loyalty in different ways in my own company.
It felt wrong to push up the prices of my services to make money. Of course, that was the point of a business, but so was keeping my customers happy. It didn’t seem to be working too well, financially. SI wasn’t doing well. But there had to be a way to make it happen without betraying my loyal fans by cheating them out of their money. And until I found out how to do that, I wasn’t going to budge on the pricing, no matter what my closest friends and business investors told me. They didn’t seem to understand the value of business the way I did.
I wasn’t going to pay out of my own pocket for the business, either. Lillian deserved the life I was planning on giving her. I had grown up in a household where we had to make sacrifices because my dad had used our money for his company. It had been the wrong way around – a business wasn’t supposed to take money but give it – and I refused for Lillian to have to make the same sacrifices. It hadn’t been fair on my family, and it wouldn’t be fair to her.
I maintained that there had to be a way to make it happen. And I would keep trying until I found it. As long as the investors stuck around. I was banking on that because it was my last resort. I had nothing else left. If this didn’t work, I was going to lose Saturn Intelligence. I would bounce back if I did, but SI had been my project from the start, and I would hate to lose it. And my employees; they wouldn’t bounce back. I was worried about them.
I picked up the phone and held it against my ear.
“Elena, will you come to my office, please?” I asked.
“I’m sending two emails, and then I’m there,” she said and hung up.
I waited for her to come. I needed her advice, and I hoped that she could help me. It wasn’t only about her business expertise, either. I needed her advice and support as a friend, which I had come to see her as.
I saw her as more than a friend, but that wasn’t something I was going to allow myself to think about right now.
“What can I do for you?” Elena asked when she walked into my office.
; “Close the door,” I said. “And you can take a seat.”
She did as I asked. When she sat before me, she looked concerned. I didn’t often ask for a private audience with her, not during work hours. Since we’d had sex, I tried to keep things as open as I could so there were no rumors.
“Is everything alright?” she asked.
“It’s the investors,” I said. “They want a meeting as soon as possible to find out what I came up with in terms of marketing.”
“What have you decided?” Elena asked.
“That’s the thing,” I said. “I haven’t decided anything. Lilly got sick and I was so stressed about her I haven’t even thought about the marketing again. I switched off. It was convenient, too. I have to admit.” I hadn’t wanted to think about how close I was dancing to the edge.
Elena nodded. “That’s okay,” she said. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”
“Yeah, I’ve figured out I’m going to postpone with them. I’m going to hold them off as long as I can until we’ve figured something out.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said.
“Why not?”
She shook her head. “If you postpone after they had to follow up with you, it will look like you’re stalling for time.”
“But I am stalling for time. I have nothing to show them.”
“So, tell them that you’re busy with something that’s not quite ready yet, and you’ll show them once it’s ready.”
I frowned. “That could work. You’re saying I should bluff.”
Elena smiled, and it was a beautiful smile. It would have made me forget all my worries if I was able. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Even the best of us do it.”
I chuckled. “The best of us. I like that. What am I supposed to tell them I’m working on?” I asked. I was asking my secretary to script the meeting for me, but she was onto something. Her ideas were good.
“A beta program,” she said. “The lab can make it happen, so why not?”