by Dawn Doyle
The fire in her blue eyes made his heart beat faster.
When she turned to leave, her light brown pony tail swished behind her and he got another whiff of her floral perfume as she moved.
When he mentioned Oli, though, he didn’t like the hurt that he saw in her eyes. Now that he felt really guilty about. He couldn’t stop himself saying it though. He had to do something to get her to stay and he knew that would be something to make her at least pause for a moment.
He felt like an ass for that but he was glad that she was staying. Even though she’d said that ‘maybe’ she would be back, he had a strong feeling she would.
After Nick had eaten and showered, he got out his phone to send a message to Ryan. He needed to warn him that Emily was probably going to rip into him too.
N: Word of warning Ry, Emily knows about me now. She’ll probably know you were aware of it. Just letting you know.
R: Dude!! What happened? Did she go bat shit crazy? Did she slap you? XD
N: A little crazy but no, she didn’t hit me. She wanted to, I have no doubt about that. If she says anything to you, tell her I swore you to secrecy.
R: But you did.
N: I know, but just keep telling her that.
R: I will but hey, I’m going to have some sexy time with my girl so I’ll talk tomorrow.
N: TMI!!
Nick really didn’t want to know about his little brother’s sex life or when it was happening. He took a deep breath and turned on his TV. Maybe some show or movie could help take his mind of how crap he felt at that moment. A few beers couldn’t hurt too.
He’d been drinking so he couldn’t take his sleeping pills. He didn’t do it often but he liked to have a break from sending himself into a chemically induced coma almost every night.
The nightmares came because he hadn’t drank enough to numb his thoughts completely.
Nick sat bolt upright.
He’d been looking for Ryan; he couldn’t find him. He’d been led up the stairs but, this time, he couldn’t see who it was. The events still played out like they normally did, but in the distance he thought he could hear Emily calling his name. He tried shouting for her, to help him. She didn’t come, she couldn’t find him.
He woke up suddenly and he was shaking, his body covered in a cold sweat. He had to get up and shower, before changing his sheets that were damp with perspiration.
Looking at the clock, it was only Five in the morning. Another early start for him then. At least that way he could get to the office before Emily, avoiding any confrontation in the lobby. Which got him thinking… He needed to have a chat with Mike.
Nick walked into the lobby of the office building and headed straight for the security desk.
“Hey Nick, how’s it going?” Joe asked with a smile.
Nick liked Joe. He was a tough guy but he was also well mannered and pleasant.
“I’m good thanks, Joe. I wanted to speak to Mike.” He said, turning in Mike’s direction.
“What’s up?” he asked a hint of confusion on his face.
“You asked out Emily.” Nick said as-a-matter-of-factly.
“Yeah. She turned me down.” He said with a sly smile. “I’ll try again soon. I’m letting her get used to me first.” He laughed.
“Don’t bother. Emily’s off limits.” He said, keeping eye contact with him.
“Are you dating her already?”
“No. She’s just off limits. Understand?”
Nick continued to stare at Mike. Even though he was a huge guy, slightly taller than Nick and a lot wider, Nick knew he could take him. He’d trained to fight since he was a kid and Mike’s only fighting skill was his weight. Mike knew that too.
“Ok. Well…uh… I’ll leave her be.” Mike said with a slight flush to his cheeks in embarrassment.
“Make sure that you do. She’s my assistant so I’ll find out if anything has happened.” He added before turning for the doors to the elevators.
Nick had wanted to pull Mike across the desk, just for mentioning asking Emily out again. There was no way he was going to let that guy near her. Not a fucking chance.
Nick contemplated his sudden protectiveness over Emily as he rode the fifteen floors to his office. He was still thinking when he saw Emily sitting at her desk.
“Good morning, Emmy.” He said, softly as he approached her.
She looked up at him with her big blue eyes, still filled with hurt, before looking back down at her desk.
“Good morning.” She barely whispered.
Seeing her expression made his chest hurt.
I’m such an ass.
“I want to apologize for the way I got you here. I admit, it was a ‘shit-head’ move…” he emphasized what Diane had said to him and she looked up as he continued “…but I wanted you here. I agree it wasn’t the best way to go about it but you wouldn’t have accepted it any other way.”
“Why do you want me here?” she asked questioningly.
“Because out of all the people who’d applied for the position, you were the best. I take my business very seriously, Emmy, and I wouldn’t have offered you the job if I didn’t think you were right for it.”
She continued to look at him as if trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.
“What can I do to make it up to you?” he asked with his hands out.
Emily looked back down at her desk as she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth.
“Stay out of my way.” She said, her accent softer than usual. Maybe so he understood her clearly that she wasn’t joking around.
“And my name is Emily.” She added, turning her head to look out of the window.
Nick could see that she wasn’t happy with him and he did as she asked, and stayed away from her.
He remained in his office, Diane calling a couple of times to let calls through. She told him that she knew he’d apologized and said that she was proud of him for admitting his mistake.
He didn’t feel proud of himself. In fact, as the day wore on, he felt worse and worse. The image of Emily’s sad eyes haunting him all day. He’d expected a little argument and a bit of banter between them, but he never expected her to be upset that way.
I’m a huge ass!
To try and block her hurt from his mind, Nick dived into his work. Accepting a meeting in a few days time, with a guy that had come over from England, he entered it into his schedule. It was linked with Emily’s so she would be aware of it too.
He’d had a few requests from over the pond lately and he also had another meeting scheduled in four weeks time. There were others that he hadn’t accepted but the two he had, seemed worth at least a listen.
Unfortunately though, Nick had to call Brendan. He wasn’t going to invest. It was a shame as there was great potential, but the guy just hadn’t done his research before starting his business and Nick would be throwing money down the drain if he invested.
It had been a week since Emily had found out that Nick was her boss. He’d apologised for being a dick, ok he never actually said he was a dick, but he’d said he was sorry. Even Diane had apologised for him too, and herself for not realising he knew her and that she should’ve guessed when he mentioned Ryan’s friend’s fiancée being from the same area as Emily.
Emily didn’t blame Diane. She knew she was following what Nick had asked of her and because Nick hadn’t mentioned Holly’s name, Diane wouldn’t have known they were sisters anyway.
She’d spoken to Holly about it, telling her she wasn’t happy working for Nick. She didn’t know what to do about it but she wanted her own place, and finding another job could take months. Also, it may not pay as much as she needed for that to happen.
Holly suggested that she had two choices; leave the company and stay at home for a while longer, or keep working there and get her own place sooner.
“Come on Em. I think it’s time you put whatever went on between you, in the past. It wasn’t that bad either. I’m over it, Ryan is ove
r it, it’s just you that’s carrying it on. Nick’s actually a decent guy. He helped in my garden and he did a great job. He’s been really nice since then too. Give him a chance, Em. I’m sure everything will work out fine.”
Emily hated the fact that Holly was the voice of reason and made perfect sense. Holly also made her sound like a brat and she didn’t like that either because, if Emily was being honest with herself, it was true.
She had no choice but to swallow her pride and just get on with it, but thoughts of Nick made her feel…funny.
It unnerved her.
Throughout the week, Emily had gotten on with her work and Nick had, as promised, stayed out of her way and he hadn’t once asked her to get coffee or pick up his dry cleaning. He hadn’t even called her in the middle of the night about some report that was needed urgently. She knew a lot of assistants were granted those annoying tasks and she was actually grateful that she wasn’t.
Nick ran his company efficiently and things seemed to be done immediately and kept on top of.
That was what Emily liked.
The things she’d had to do were double check the reports submitted from the other departments. She’d been told that Craig, the last assistant, would quickly make sure that they’d been filled in correctly and then pass them to Nick for analysis. However, Nick had emailed her, asking if she could do that whilst he was going over new business proposals. If it meant that she was safe from running into him then she was happy to do it.
Working through the figures from the last month’s accounts, Emily noticed a few discrepancies with one of the investment deals. The numbers didn’t seem to add up.
Logging off her iMac, she stood, picked up her file and walked to the lift.
“Going out sweetie?” Diane asked as she passed.
“No. There’s something wrong with the figures for the restaurant in Northgate. I’m just going to accounts to see if there’s anything they’ve missed.
Emily didn’t want to call them up and discuss it, she liked to see with her own eyes, the paperwork they’d been working from.
“Ok Honey, let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks Di.” Emily said as she got into the lift and pushed the button for the tenth floor.
Emily approached a young looking woman, about the same age as her, sitting at the front desk to the accounts department. Her blonde hair swept up in a top knot and her red lipstick standing out on her pale skin.
“Hi. I’m looking for Jerome. He works on the account for Amantes restaurant in Northgate.”
The girl picked up the phone receiver and looked to Emily.
“Who shall I say is asking?” she said as she looked Emily up and down.
What is with these people and looking over me?
“Emily. I’m Nick’s assistant.”
The girl paused and stared up at Emily.
“You’re his new assistant? Wow, I’ve applied for that job before and he wouldn’t even give me an interview.” She said with a pout.
“Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that, sorry, but if you could just point me in the direction of Jerome’s desk, that would be great.” Emily was growing impatient with the girl. She just wanted to go and see the guy and fix the mess that he’d made.
“Oh, yeah, just go straight through and he’s the fifth on your left.”
“Thanks.” Emily replied before walking away. She could feel the girl’s eyes on her back as she did.
*****
It had been a few hours since Nick had asked Emily to look over the reports for him. She hadn’t said anything so he assumed she was still doing it. He needed to get something to eat so he got up to grab lunch.
“Where’s Emily?” he asked Diane as he noticed she wasn’t at her desk.
“She’s gone to the accounts department. She mentioned something’s wrong with the accounts for Amantes restaurant in Northgate. She’s gone to speak to Jerome about it.”
“Ok, thanks. Well, I’m just going out to lunch, so I’ll see you soon.”
As Nick walked towards the elevator, the doors opened and Emily walked out holding some files. She paused as she looked up and saw him looking.
“Hi, Emmy. Is everything ok?” he asked, trying not to set her off. He’d been careful that week, not to get in her way as she’d asked. He still felt pretty shit about what he did to get her to work for him.
“Um…Yeah. There was a few discrepancies so I asked Jerome to show me what he’d done.”
“Are they ok now?” he was intrigued as to what Emily had found.
“Not yet.” She said as she glanced at Diane. Nick thought he saw a slight flush to Emily’s cheeks.
“Ok, well. I’m off to lunch. See you soon ladies.” He said with a smile before he left.
Nick wondered what Emily was doing with Jerome’s files. He wanted to go and ask him himself but he didn’t want to look like he didn’t trust her and was checking up with what she was doing. He would ask her when he got back. It was going to be a quick lunch today.
*****
Nick got back to their floor and both Emily and Diane were gone.
He walked into his office and there was a note on his desk.
Nick.
Gone to lunch.
Emily has emailed the revised account information to you.
I think you’ll be pleased.
Diane.
Nick logged back into his iMac and he checked his mail. Sure enough there was an email from Emily with accounts sheets attached.
Nick.
Attached are the revised accounts.
Emily.
He opened his mail and was taken aback with what he saw. Not only had Emily gone through, and amended the mistakes, but she’d gone back and revised the whole quarter.
He couldn’t believe it. He checked and double checked the figures she had entered. How could Jerome have messed up so bad? The figures weren’t out by a few dollars, they were out by thousands! He checked the bank account and the funds there, were the same as on Emily’s revised report. She had saved him from potentially getting into trouble with the IRS.
That’s my girl. Huh? My girl? Ok, my assistant can translate into my girl. I get it.
Nick smiled to himself as he sent her an email.
Thank you, Emmy.
You did a great job.
Nick.
You’re welcome.
EMILY!
Nick laughed at her name is capitals. Emily didn’t like him calling her ‘Emmy’. Well, he wasn’t about to stop any time soon.
Nick kept his door open and waited until he heard Emily and Diane coming back from their lunch break. He wanted to speak to Emily in person about what she had done.
“Emmy, can I see you for a moment?” he asked as he saw her approach her desk.
Emily glanced at Diane before walking towards his office.
“What’s up?” she asked in a clipped tone.
“I want to speak to you about the Amantes accounts.”
“They’re correct.”
“I have no doubt about that.” Nick gestured for Emily to take a seat opposite him, at his desk, and he turned his monitor towards her with the spreadsheet opened up.
“Jerome has been working on this account for the past six months when he started here. Craig would check everything was filled in correctly and then pass them over to me. I admit, I would only glance at them and just check the totals boxes.” Nick saw Emily shift in her seat and she began to pick at her fingernails as if she was nervous about something.
“The formulas on the spreadsheet were wrong, so I replaced them with the correct ones. The totals then came out with what I’d expected.” Emily wasn’t even looking at the monitor. She had her eyes fixed on her hands.
“The good news is, it doesn’t look like Jerome was planning on stealing from me. I checked the bank account and your figures add up to what’s there. However, if I’d been audited… “ Nick blew out a breath. If Emily hadn’t found the mistakes, t
hen when it came to submitting the tax returns, he could’ve gotten into a lot of trouble.
“I know he wasn’t.” She said, interrupting his thoughts. That time she made eye contact with him.
Her eyes sparkled as the sun reflected off them through the window…
“Jerome was mortified that he’d made a mistake. He was scared that you’d sack him and he started crying.” She added. “But it’s fixed now. He’s got a new spreadsheet and the formulas are locked so they can’t be edited.”
Nick was in awe of her. Not only had she spotted, and fixed, the mistake in less than a day, but she’d come up with a simple solution to ensure it didn’t happen again.
“Is that everything, or do you need me to open a window for you?”
“Huh…What?” he asked, with a confused frown.
“You know, just in case you wanted a faster way to the ground floor.”
Nick couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing.
“Emmy, you still haven’t forgiven me?” he asked, still chuckling.
“Ya think?” she spat as she stood and walked out of his office. “And my name is Emily!” she said before slamming his door.
Nick continued to chuckle. He already wanted to get her back in his office to ‘chat’ some more. Things weren’t going to be boring with Emily around, that’s for sure. He knew how to stir things up a little though. He sent her an email, just to annoy her.