by Lia Lee
I was flattered that he thought of me as a pillar to lean on. I had always been a fixer, a nurturer, and taking care of people and their needs was what I did best. Maybe it was one of the reasons I fit into the secretary role so well even though I had earned an MBA.
“Well, whatever happens, you know I’ll be there.” It sounded a lot more amicable than I would have liked it too – we were toeing the line of romance now – but whatever happened between us, I was his secretary first and foremost, and I had to do my job.
“I have to get going,” Noah said. “Are you staying later?”
“I just need to fax one more thing then I’m done,” I said.
Noah nodded, walking around his desk. He stopped in front of me. My breath hitched in my throat at his closeness, and Noah lifted a hand, stroking my cheek with the back of his fingers.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said.
“Mind what?”
Noah put his hand on my neck and leaned in for a kiss. Maybe I should have pushed away. Maybe I should have stopped him after he had told me that we shouldn’t be doing something like this again. But I was hypnotized by the feel of his lips on mine, how delicate his hand on the back of my neck made me feel, and I melted into his kiss instead. When Noah broke the kiss, he smiled at me. He looked calm and collected when I felt flush and out of control.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Elena,” he said and turned towards the door.
I watched him leave. Butterflies erupted in my stomach when I thought about him kissing me. But at the back of my mind, a small little voice was screaming. What if someone found out about us?
Chapter Seven
Noah
There was no way I was going to be able to work this close to her every day without losing my mind or doing something drastic. With my logical mind, I knew I was headed for disaster. When I had said to Elena that we shouldn’t do it again, I had meant it. We had fucked, and it was exactly what I had wanted, but it had also been a colossal mistake. I didn’t regret it, but now that we had done it, I couldn’t stay away from her.
I tried to distance myself from Elena. Everything about her was a temptation, and if we continued to do this, we would get into trouble at some point. The best thing was to stop before it was too late. But it was harder than it looked. Not only was I attracted to Elena like a magnet, but she was also my secretary. I couldn’t stay away from her even if I wanted to. My hormones and my work wouldn’t allow it.
Still, I tried my best. I sent her out on errands, gave her a lot of paperwork to keep her busy, and invented phone calls to keep away from my office as much as I could. I let her work late alone and came in as late as I could in the morning. Two days later, my new habit was driving me insane. I wanted to spend time with her. I wanted to see her away from the hustle and bustle of the office. But if I did, I would risk losing control again.
The phone rang, and Charlie from marketing was on the other end of the line.
“We have feedback about the meeting on Monday,” he said.
I smiled. “That’s great news.” I had been waiting for feedback, and I was optimistic. The meeting had gone well.
“I’m afraid the news is not as great as you hope,” Charlie said. “We ran the ideas we came up with on Monday by the team, and it looks like it’s not plausible.”
I shook my head, trying to figure out what he was saying to me. “What do we need to change?”
“The whole thing, I’m afraid,” Charlie said. “The plan fell through. We’re going to have to start from scratch.”
My stomach turned to stone. We couldn’t afford to lose more time on the marketing. We had done our research and tested the market. The product was almost ready to be released. We had to start marketing in advance so that by the time the product was available to the public, they knew what they would be buying.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, I can’t answer that. That falls down to the timeline development team.”
I slammed the phone down into its cradle. It was better than saying all the ugly words that had come to mind to Charlie. A part of me wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault, but a bigger part was angry enough to accuse him. It wasn’t very professional of me, but to hang up was the best way out. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. What the hell was I going to do now? It was so easy for Charlie to say that he was sorry, but it didn’t make a difference. He wasn’t the one that had to save the company He wasn’t the one that had developed the product that had become the center point of everything. He didn’t have to impress investors.
My chest tightened, and I struggled to breathe. Stress knotted like a fist in my stomach, and I felt like I was made of lead. I didn’t know what to do. All the other plans that the marketing department had come up with were old, used too many times. We had only come up with one idea that worked. I knew for a fact that they would have approved any of the others, it was what they were used to. But if we stuck with old ways, we would get an old response. But this product was new and breakthrough and needed something spectacular.
I picked up the phone again and dialed Elena’s extension. “Can you come into my office?” I asked and put down the receiver before she could answer. A few moments later, Elena opened the door and closed it behind her.
“Is everything alright?” She asked.
I shook my head. “Marketing just dropped the plan. We’re fucked.”
Elena walked toward the chair opposite me and sat down. “What are you going to do?”
I pushed my hand into my hair and took a deep breath, letting it out with a shudder. “I don’t know. I was hoping you and your brilliant MBA skills could help me out.”
Elena nodded slowly, her eyes sliding across the room as she was thinking.
“Actually, I do have an idea.”
The phone rang, interrupting her. “Hold that thought,” I said, picking up.
“Noah, it’s Diane,” the nanny’s voice sounded over the speaker, and she sounded stressed. She didn’t phone me at work unless it was an emergency.
“What’s wrong?” I asked immediately worried. I had asked Diane to come for the day because I had kept Lilly home. She had been sicker than I’d liked the past couple of days, so I’d kept her home from school.
“It’s Lilly. She has a fever, and I can’t get it down.”
The room felt like it was shrinking around me, closing in on me. “What’s her temperature?” I asked.
“One-oh-four,” Diane said.
“Shit,” I said, already standing up. “I’ll be right there.” I put the phone down and looked at Elena. “Lillian has a fever. I need to go. We’ll talk about this, later.”
Elena jumped up and followed me out of the office. “I’ll make sure everything is covered, here.”
I muttered thanks before I left, riding the elevator down, cursing it for not going faster. Everything felt like it took too long. The traffic was heavier than it should have been, the traffic light too long, and the rules that I had to obey held me back. When I finally reached home, I was panicked. Diane opened the door before I reached it.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Still the same,” Diane said. “I’ve been putting wet cloths on her forehead, keeping the fan on, but it’s not going down.” I nodded, rushing past Diane into the house and to Lilly’s room.
“Daddy,” Lilly wailed when she saw me, her voice cracking at the end.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here.”
She started crying. Nothing hurt except her head, she said, but she was listless, and I needed to get help.
“I’m taking her to the ER,” I said.
“I thought you might. I’ve already packed a bag.”
I picked Lilly up and carried her to the car with Diane in tow. I strapped Lilly to her booster seat, and Diane got into the car with me. She was as invested in Lilly as I was, and I was grateful to have her with me, two people connected through a common interest.
The trip to
the hospital felt as long as the trip from the office. When I finally parked in front of the ER doors I grabbed Lilly and ran through the doors with her, leaving Diane to close the car doors and park the car for me. I would thank her later. Right now, my baby girl needed help.
Nurses flocked to us, taking Lilly from me and putting her into a bath. They put her on a drip for dehydration and worked until her temperature was down. I watched helplessly from the sidelines as they worked on my little girl, trying to save her. Kids got sick so easily, and they dehydrated fast. They ended up in the hospital with very little effort. It was times like this that I struggled to be a single dad. I never knew what to do. Cheryl had somehow known what to do when Lilly had been a baby, or at least she had known how to be strong and handle the pain when she hadn’t known what to do. Maybe it was something that came with being a mom that dads neverreceived.
Whatever it was, I wished someone would be by my side today that would have the knowledge and the strength to get through this, who I could trust to take the reins.
It was hard to be strong all the time. Alone.
They finally brought her fever down. It wasn’t completely gone, but she could take Tylenol now, and the nurses disappeared as less of them were needed. Eventually, it was only one nurse and me in the room. When she checked Lilly’s fever one more time, she smiled at me.
“You don’t have to look so worried. She’s recovering,” she said. But she didn’t understand what it felt like to stand on the precipice, looking over the edge where I stood to lose Lilly. She was the only thing I had in my life, the only thing worth my while.
“Mr. Fuller?” an older woman said, walking into the room. Judging by her white coat and the stethoscope around her neck, she was the pediatrician. “I’m Dr. Connelly. I’ll be taking care of Lillian while she’s here,” she said. I liked her. She hadn’t picked up a chart once. Usually, doctors had to read the charts before they knew what they wanted to say to the patients. “It’s very straightforward to diagnose. Lilly has the flu.”
“But her fever was one-oh-four,” I said.
Dr. Connelly nodded. “It’s not unusual for children to spike like that. Their immune systems are still developing and constantly put under strain when they’re around other children. Schools are a breeding ground for germs, and it’s not always easy for their little bodies to fend it off.”
I opened my mouth, but the doctor stopped me, somehow knowing what I was going to ask. “You shouldn’t keep her away from it all her life. It makes her strong. But you don’t have to worry that something serious will happen to her, either. You did the right thing, bringing her when you did.”
I nodded. “How long will she be here?”
“If she gets better by tonight, we’ll let her go tomorrow. We’ll watch her.’
I nodded again. Whatever it took to get her better. I had all the money in the world and all the time in the world. Nothing could rip me away from her now that Lilly needed me so much. The company suddenly didn’t matter anymore.
When I was sure Lilly was sleeping soundly, I walked out into the hallway, trying to breathe. This was okay, I told myself. We were going to be fine.
My phone rang, and I answered.
“Fuller.”
“Who is this new girl?” the husky voice sounded in my ear.
“What the fuck, Nicole,” I said and hung up.Seriously? A new girl? I wasn’t even sure how she could have known if no one else did. At least, that was what I’d hoped. I put my phone away and chose not to think about it. My daughter was in the hospital. The last thing I needed to worry about was how my ex-girlfriend knew about Elena and why she was stalking me.
Chapter Eight
Elena
Noah wasn’t in on Thursday. I hadn’t expected him to be. Lilian meant the world to him, and nothing else mattered other than his little girl when he’d received the call yesterday. It was admirable that a single father cared that much for his child instead of letting other people take care of her.
I spent the morning postponing meetings and taking calls for Noah. I wanted to set it all up for him so that he could slip seamlessly back into work after he returned.
After lunch, Doug Thompson sauntered into Noah’s office. He had his hands in his pockets, and he didn’t look like he was there for business at all.
“I’m afraid Noah isn’t in the office today, Mr. Thompson,” I said.
“Call me Doug,” he said, “and I know. I’m here to take care of a couple of things for Noah. He called me and asked.”
I nodded. I was a little disappointed that Noah didn’t think I could handle it by myself, but I was only the secretary. Doug was in Marketing in a much higher position than I was. I may have had that MBA, but it wasn’t what I’d been hired for.
Doug walked around Noah’s desk and sat down in his chair. It irritated me, but I said nothing. He looked at the paperwork on Noah’s desk and shook his head.
“If Noah doesn’t do something about this business, it’s going to tank before the year is out.”
“That’s not true,” I said, defensive even though I knew he was more right than wrong. “He has the new product, and it looks promising.”
Doug smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Sweetheart, you haven’t been around long enough to know what Noah is like. He’s a terrific businessman, but he’s loyal to his customers.”
“That’s a good thing,” I said. I didn’t want Doug sitting in Noah’s chair, talking badly about him.
“It’s not if it’s crippling him. He’s so loyal he doesn’t want to push up the prices we set years ago. Do you know what that means? We’re working at a loss because he’s scared his fans will feel betrayed. He would rather lose money than lose clients and in the long run, that’s bad for business. This company was great when it started off. It was spectacular. But now? It’s a shadow of what it was because Noah is too scared to take that next step.”
I shook my head. “He gets more customers this way.” I didn’t like Doug, and I wasn’t going to let him shoot Noah down.
“He retains customers. You’re right. But he has competitors that beat him hands down because they’re moving onward and upward and adjusting their prices accordingly. They’re leaving him behind.”
I had nothing I could say to that because as much as I hated it, what Doug said made sense. I hadn’t known that Noah wouldn’t push up prices. If that was why he needed the investors so desperately, he wouldn’t get ahead. He would lose their money, too.
“Will you take care of this file for me?” Doug said, holding a manila file out to me. I took it from him and flipped it open. The folder contained forms that needed to be filled in for the new product.
“I’ll get this filled out,” I said, turning to leave the office.
“Work here,” Doug said and pointed at one of the chairs on my side of the desk. I nodded and walked toward the chair, sitting down. I read through the contents, filling in the forms where I could with the information I didn’t have to research.
After a while of working, I felt eyes on me. When I looked up, Doug was looking at me. I only glanced at him before carrying on, but I didn’t like the way he looked at me. When I stood up and moved around the office, I felt Doug’s gaze on me, following me around. I tried not to look at him. Sometimes, men look at women like they’re nothing more than objects of pleasure. Doug’s light blue eyes were filled with desire. I didn’t think he was going to do something, but he was thinking about it.
“I need to make a couple of calls,” I said. “I’m going to my desk.”
Doug nodded, and I left the office, glad to be away from his scrutiny. When I sat behind my desk, I blew out a long breath. It was ironic how uncomfortable I felt around Doug and how comfortable I felt around Noah when they were looking at me the same way. The difference was me. I didn’t want Doug, but I wanted Noah.
I desired Noah.
After work, I collected the information I had gathered for Noah during the day and c
arried it to my car. Instead of driving home, I headed in the opposite direction. I stopped at the store and picked up soup before arriving at Noah’s neighborhood. The houses were all large, the proof of money everywhere. I stopped in front of Noah’s gate and rang the intercom, looking at the camera lens that would show my face inside.
A moment later, the gate opened and I drove in. The house was breathtaking. A long, winding driveway led me through a luscious garden with a sparkling blue pool and a veranda on the side of the house. The lawn was immaculate, and even though it wasn’t fully dark yet, light shone against the house from between the plants bringing the whole garden to life. It was easy to see there was a lot of money here but Noah had always been very down to earth, and I respected him for that. I parked in front of one of the many garages.
“What a surprise to see you,” Noah said, coming out of the front door when I parked.
“I brought you work,” I said. “And something for Lillian.”
I held up the files and the soup. Noah smiled and that made his dark eyes warm.
“Come in,” Noah said and I followed him into the house. His shoulders were broad in the polo shirt he was wearing, and I forced myself not to look at his ass. I was here for business I told myself.
The house was as beautiful on the inside, tastefully decorated without any clutter. Beautiful paintings adorned the walls and shelves were filled with pictures of who I assumed to be Lillian.
“Do you want me to put that in the kitchen?” I asked, holding up the soup.
“No, let’s take it to her now,” Noah said. “I want to introduce you to her.”
I swallowed. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to meet his daughter, not after what we had done, but maybe I was making a big deal of it when it wasn’t necessary. So, I followed him down the passage and into the first bedroom.
The room was any girl’s dream, white and pink and filled with fairies and frills. In the middle of the room, in a bed that was much too big for her, Lillian was propped up against pillows, coloring. She looked up when I came in with deep blue eyes and dark brown curls that fell over her shoulders. Aside from her eyes, Lillian looked exactly like Noah. She was going to be a stunner one day.