“Somehow I feel like you don’t mean any of what you just said.”
“Of course, I don’t!” Kevin yelled. “You’re now her boss. Her dad is a primary figure in the new company we just dumped millions of dollars into. You are not sleeping with this girl right now. That’s all there is to it.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to sleep with her,” I repeated almost to myself. “I’ll just work harder while I’m here. I’ll stay so busy it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s my boy.”
“I’ve just got to have the right mindset about this. We could conceivably be financially out of this company in eleven weeks. She could be done with her internship too. Then none of it will matter, and we can have all the fun we want.”
“Exactly. Just finish our analysis of the best way for Cook, Sparser, and Conner Buildings to start making money. We will get everything rolling with the changes and train staff on the upkeep. You and I will be out of this in no time, and then you can have your hot little blonde.”
“It’s a plan then,” I said with a newfound sense of confidence in my ability to resist the temptation that I felt around Anna. “As long as nothing goes wrong with our plan for their company.” I laughed.
Kevin didn’t laugh, though. Something always went wrong. Typically, it was manageable and nothing that would change the course of our projects, but you never knew what was around the next corner in our line of business.
“Are you two decent in there,” Anna said as she knocked on the door.
“Come in.” I laughed. “We aren’t decent, though.”
“I’m not done analyzing those documents yet, but since I have you two both here, I did want to show you something,” Anna said as she brought her tablet and placed it in front of us. “None of their projects have been profitable from the last ten that I’ve looked at.”
She handed the tablet to me, and Kevin came over and looked at it. From the spreadsheet she had, it looked like her father’s company had lost nearly ten million dollars over the last three years.
“How could this be?” Kevin asked. “We analyzed the books before the bid.”
“They have money,” Anna said. “They have lots of it from old deals, but from their current projects, it looks like they are losing money on everything they are building. They are bidding low so they can get the gigs, but then always going over budget and eating the difference.”
“Why?” Kevin wondered aloud, and Anna answered.
“I’m not sure, and I admit I really don’t know this business very well, but I believe my father is trying to get companies to hire them for second jobs. I’ve overheard him saying he has to build a level of respect before he can make a profit from the companies.”
“They already have respect,” Kevin said grumpily. “They would still win the bids if they put in reasonable quotes. People trust them. They basically have lost millions of dollars for no reason.”
“I’m just telling you what I think it is. You probably should talk to my dad,” Anna said as she backed away from us and toward the door.
“I think you’re right,” I added. “Your father doesn’t understand marketing today or the consumers in his industry. Big businesses love to take lowball bids, but they will always take the lowest bid from the best contractor. I think I will have to go talk to him.”
“Do you want me to keep working through these files?” Anna asked.
“Yes, we need the full picture. I’m going to send over the numbers that our accountant did before we made our deal. It might help you understand their numbers as well.”
“Sounds good,” she said and went back toward her desk.
“Hey, Anna,” I hollered, and she peeked her head around the corner. “You did a really great job on this.”
“Thank you,” she said with a sweet smile and then closed the door behind her.
“You did a good job on this, kiss, kiss, kiss,” Kevin teased. “Why don’t you buy her a cupcake and give her a trophy?” he continued.
“Oh, come on. She did a good job. Can’t I just tell her that?”
“I’m just messing with you.”
When Kevin left my office, I couldn’t stop myself from going out and talking to Anna. It was as if a force was pulling me toward her and nothing I did could hold me back. “Thanks for showing me this,” I said and handed her the tablet. “It is really good work. You seem like you were made for this business.”
“Thanks, Mister Hartley,” she said in that damn seductive voice again.
“You’re teasing me,” I said as I called her out. “You said you’d behave at work.”
“Oh, this is me behaving,” she said while she smiled up at me.
I seriously doubted this was Anna behaving. Everything about the way she was looking at me screamed seduction. She licked her lips and uncrossed and re-crossed her legs as she leaned back in her chair. It was as if she wanted me to take her right there.
“No, you’re not,” I said softly.
“Maybe you should bring me into your office so we can talk about it?”
For a second, I thought about it. I considered saying yes and having my way with her, but she was teasing me. She was taunting me to see if I could resist her, and I had to win this game. “No, like I said before, I’m really busy today. But thank you for your hard work,” I said and then headed down the hall toward the front desk secretary. I couldn’t stay at the office another minute. I wasn’t sure where I was going or how I was going to get any work done, but I knew if I stayed in my office I was definitely bringing Anna in there and playing with her. “I’m going to be out for a bit, so please forward my calls to my cell,” I told Zelda and then scurried out and away from the building as quickly as I could.
Chapter 8
Anna
By my fourth week on the job, I was one hundred percent certain that Jason was avoiding me. He would come into the office and stay occupied throughout the day; that was if he came into the office at all. Some days he worked from home or even at my father’s company. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Jason hated me, but I did know better. I saw the desire in his eyes when he was around me, and I thought he was avoiding me because it was getting more and more difficult for him to squash his desires.
“Hey, I’m going to be out of the office today; I’m just stopping by to check on a few things,” Jason said as he rushed past me and into his office.
He didn’t even give me the time to respond to him before the door closed. I couldn’t take it any longer. It had been weeks since our encounter at the club and since he’d even looked me in the eye. It was the last straw, and I had to talk to him about it. I wasn’t one of those girls who got emotional about guys. In fact, I broke up with most of my boyfriends. This wasn’t about emotions. I simply wanted to know what was going on. Was this avoidance just his way of keeping things professional? Did he want me to quit? What did he want?
I knocked on the door softly and waited for him to reply. It was a little weird to have to knock when I knew he had just walked in there, but I really didn’t know Jason all that well despite our make out sessions.
“Come in,” he said.
I took one step into his office and watched as he busily moved papers around on his desk. He didn’t look up at me and didn’t even acknowledge that I was in the room. I was moments away from yelling at him when I felt Kevin push past me.
“Hey, I really need you to look over this and get it back to me by noon,” Kevin said to Jason as I stood in the entryway.
“Did you need something, Anna?” Jason asked.
As both Jason and Kevin looked at me, I lost my nerve and just shook my head before returning to my desk. He did look busy. Maybe I was being too sensitive. Maybe this was what his normal work life was like. It made sense that he needed an assistant if he was normally this busy. I was second guessing myself and nearly all my interactions with Jason. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t
know what Jason was thinking.
Kevin and Jason spent nearly a half hour together working before Kevin left and went back to his office. Jason peeked his head around the corner and scared me half to death as I turned around at the exact same time.
“Oh, shit,” I said as I jumped back in my seat and raised my hand up to my chest from the startle of the moment.
“Sorry.” He laughed. His eyes looked into mine for the first time in weeks. Instantly, a sense of calm washed over me. His smile reassured me, and I lost my train of thought while I sat there staring back at him.
“You scared me,” I mumbled.
“Sorry, I just wanted to tell you that the spreadsheet you sent was amazing. I couldn’t have done it nearly that well. You are a natural. Thanks again.”
My words stumbled on the tip of my tongue as I tried to respond to him. “Um…” I stuttered. “Yeah… No problem,” I finally managed to say. This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for—the time for us to talk a little and just spend a moment in time for the two of us to connect. But my words just wouldn’t come out.
“Okay, I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks again. I’m going to email you a list of things for this week. Just do what you can, don’t worry too much about it.”
Just like that, he returned to his office and shut the door behind him. My hand still sat on my chest as I tried to think of what I should have said to Jason. My mind still so vividly remembered the night at the club that I wanted there to be more. When he looked at me, when he talked to me like he just did, there was a connection.
I had to talk to my friend, Lilli. She knew what older guys were like. She had a boyfriend that was around Jason’s age. I just needed to hear her opinion on things to see if I was over exaggerating or what was going on. Certainly, I’d never dated a guy who had the kind of responsibilities in his life that Jason had, so I wasn’t confident in any of my assessments of what was going on. I dialed my friend, Lilli.
“Hey, I need to see you, when will you be back in town?” I whispered.
“What? I can’t hear you. Why are you whispering?”
“When are you coming back to town?” I said a little louder, but I covered the receiver as if Jason was listening. It was a little ridiculous, and I knew it.
“Actually, we just arrived this morning. I was going to call you after I visited with my family a little bit. What’s up?”
“I can’t talk about it here,” I said as I kept a hand over the receiver and continued to talk quietly. “I’m at work, and it’s about Jason.”
Lilli and I had kept in touch while she was traveling with her boyfriend. It was easy to text her updates, but we hadn’t actually had a chance to sit together and gossip about each other’s lives. I needed a good conversation with her desperately. Lilli was my rock and always so helpful in calming me down when I got too wild.
“I’ll come over to your parents’ house tonight, and we can visit.”
“I’m actually living with Patrick,” I said, totally unaware that I hadn’t filled her in on that part of my life. I must have spaced it out. Lilli and I only lived a few blocks away from each other, and we were best friends for the last few years. She was a little older than I was, but I was by far wilder than Lilli. Even after she broke up with her crappy boyfriend and was staying out late partying with me and our friends, she still went to work every day. She couldn’t stop being responsible even when she was in her partying phase of life.
“Do you want me to come over there?”
“No, actually let’s have dinner with my parents. They have been begging me to come over for dinner, and I know they’d love to see you.”
“Perfect. I’ll come over around seven, does that work?” Lilli said as I heard some voices in the background.
“Yep, works for me. See you there.”
The rest of the day pretty much flew by as I stayed busy with the projects that Jason had sent me, and he stayed in his office for most of the day. When it was finally time to leave, I wondered if I should even bother him or if I should just leave like I’d done so many other days when he was gone. But I decided to at least say goodbye and get one last feel for what might be going on between the two of us.
I pressed the buzzer to his desk, but he didn’t answer. I waited for a minute and then knocked on his door again. He didn’t answer me, so I knocked a little harder. If he was on a phone call or something like that he might not have heard me. After waiting for a good minute, I finally decided to open the door and see what was going on.
To my surprise, Jason had headphones in his ears and was dancing around his office like a maniac, and much like I’d done for years in my own bedroom. I burst out laughing at the sight of him. His head moved dramatically with the music as his arms flung around in the air, and he looked more like a teenage girl dancing in her bedroom than an executive dancing in his office.
When he spun around again, Jason noticed me standing in the doorway. I was still giggling from the sight of it all and just couldn’t stop myself.
“Oh Jesus, how long have you been there?” he said as he pulled his headphones out of his ears.
“Long enough to see some pretty stylish dance moves.” I laughed. “I was just coming in to tell you I was heading home. But I can see you’re busy…”
“Shh, that was my dancing concentration work.”
“Oh, that’s how you concentrate?”
“I’m just getting a little fried from everything we are trying to get done right now. I thought it might help clear my mind a bit,” he said as he walked closer toward me.
I felt my heart thumping in my chest with his each step toward me. His blond hair was getting longer than he normally kept it, and Jason used his fingers to push it back and out of his eyes. The chiseled jaw line of his face was more relaxed than I’d seen in a while, though, and as he smiled at me, I couldn’t help taking a step closer to him.
“I’m glad you got a chance to relax.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long month. I swear I don’t normally work this hard.”
“It’s good I’m around to help a little then. I mean, if I’m a help at all. I don’t feel like I do all that much.”
“Anna, oh my God, you’re a huge help,” Jason said as he reached out and touched my arm gently. He quickly pulled away and even took a step backward before he continued. “I couldn’t have made it through this month without you. I truly appreciate all your hard work.”
Jason turned back toward his desk and literally sat on the other side to put as much space between the two of us as possible. He couldn’t stop looking at me, though, and I walked over to sit in the chair across from his desk.
“I’m not used to working this much.” I laughed. “This has been an exhausting month for me.”
“You’ll never want to work again after this,” he teased.
His laugh was husky, and his eyes lit up as he looked at me from across the table. There it was again, the connection I’d felt so surely the night at the club. It hadn’t disappeared—it was right there, but Jason had been purposely keeping it hidden.
“My father already thinks I’m going to quit this job at any moment. Let’s not give him any more ideas.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s never seen me work this much.” I laughed. “I’m actually going to go home and have dinner with him and my mother tonight. Maybe you’d like to come over?” I asked.
The words left my mouth before I’d even thought them through at all. I’d basically just asked the man who was in charge of taking over my father’s company to come to dinner. Not exactly the sort of dinner guest my father would have wanted, and considering how he’d been talking about Jason lately, I suspected my father wouldn’t be okay with him coming over for dinner.
“No, thank you. Rosie has a family function tonight and can’t help out, and Clyde is just a little grumpy when I get home late.”
“He’s five; I think they are grum
py any time it’s close to eating or sleeping.”
“Yeah, that’s about right.”
Jason’s whole body lit up as we talked about Clyde. It was clear that his son was very important to him. After a short conversation, I already felt much better about how I’d been treated over the last month.
“I’m going to get out of here. Have a good night, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Hey, let me know how your father is doing, would you? He’s still pretty agitated about the people we had to let go and the questions about his bidding practices. I have a really hard time reading him through, and he says he’s not angry.”
“He’s a hard man to read, but I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yep,” I said as I turned to leave.
“Hey, Anna,” Jason said soft enough that I wasn’t exactly sure he had even said it, but I turned around anyway. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
He looked at me for a moment and then turned his head back to his work without another word. I stood there for a minute before leaving and pulling the door behind me. If there ever was a case for someone sending mixed signals, it was the last month I’d spent with Jason. After weeks of avoiding eye contact and practically saying nothing to me except via email, now he was telling me he was happy I was there.
I couldn’t wait to see Lilli and have her help me figure out what was going on. Normally, I saw these types of things for what they were, but in this instance, I was just too close to things to really see.
***
“I’m excited to see Lilli,” my mom said as we talked and cooked dinner together. “How’s she liking that boyfriend of hers?”
“From what I hear, they are in love.”
“That’s really sweet.”
I wasn’t about to tell my mother about all the drama that had gone on around Lilli and her boyfriend. It was a story made for the soap operas, that was for sure. He was a rich investor who had convinced Lilli to be his fake wife while he got custody of his daughter back. It was by far the most unique story I’d heard of two people meeting and falling in love. But I suspected my mother would have a lot of judgmental things to say about it, not to mention what my father would say. He was already grumpy enough, and I didn’t need to rile him up with a story about the lies Lilli had told for her boyfriend.
The Deal Page 9