by Rachel Rise
Her face was beet red and it was obvious that she was having a hard time responding to the same question she gave me. But eventually, she had an answer, even if it was more cryptic than I was ready for. “I would say that should you offer me the job, then I’d have to think about it.”
I leaned back in my chair and slowly rocked. I watched her and her eyes met with mine, never wavering, never backing down, just steadfastly looking back at me. “Okay. Then consider this…” I began, “I would like to offer you the job.”
She bit her lip, looking confused and there was even a slight sign of her being sick. “Are you offering me the job because we slept together?” she asked.
I snickered, looking down at her resume that laid on my desk. It was a valid question. I could give her props for asking it. “I have two reasons for offering you the job.” He shrugged. “Maybe even three. One…you’re going to need a job. Two…you are qualified for this job and you come with great references from your employer.” She blushed and I continued. “And three…I think we could work well together.”
Not once did I say it had anything to do with her sleeping with me. I wasn’t a pig and I wouldn’t latch onto that one reason to hire her or anyone else. “Okay,” she calmly stated.
I nodded, waiting for her to say more. Instead, she stood up from her chair. I followed her lead. She stuck out her hand to shake mine. I looked down at it, then slowly obliged. “That’s it?” I asked.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
I would be patient on that. If she felt the desire to think about it, then I would give her all the time in the world. I reached for a card and handed it to her. My work and cell number are on here. Give me a call when you make up your mind.” She took the card from me, then turned away. I felt a rush of air escape me. “Charity?” I called out. She turned around as she reached my office door. “I mean what I say. You getting this job would be solely based on your merit.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Baxter.” She turned around and left my office. I sat down in my chair and couldn’t erase the smile off my lips. It was good to see her and I would do anything to give her what she wanted. I just hoped she believed that.
CHAPTER 25
Charity
S
o many thoughts went through my head knowing that Nolan was the man I’d be working for. My first instinct was to jump for joy at the thought of being his assistant because I was excited about where it would take me. Plus, I needed the job, so was I really in the position to turn down anything? However, I couldn’t erase the worrisome thoughts from my mind. For instance, I had thought about him so often that I knew I would easily fall back into wanting to be with him. On one hand, that’d be great and amazing and I would most likely love every minute of it. On the other hand, I wasn’t in the position to get into any kind of relationship, either romantic or purely sexual.
So, I felt like I was in a losing battle. Either way, I would risk losing myself in the process. Yet, as the days passed by and I contemplated my next move, my mind couldn’t get away from Nolan. A week went by and I wasn’t any closer to making my decision. So, when I received his call on my cell, I considered not answering. There was something about that ring, though. I answered the call against my own will.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Charity? This is Nolan.” It was so casual.
“Oh hey,” I answered, pretending to be surprised that he was calling me.
“Uh, hey,” He slowly said. “So, the reason I’m calling is that it’s been a week and I haven’t heard from you and I was hoping that I would have your decision by now.”
He waited and I sunk down on my couch, still thinking hard about what kind of decision I could give him. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, because I have,” I quickly responded. “I guess I really don’t know how to respond.”
“Oh!” His voice was distant on the other end and I wanted to reach out to him. “Well, I don’t want to rush you,” he stated.
“And I appreciate that,” I replied. I just wanted a sign. I closed my eyes and just sat there. His face popped back in my mind and we were at the coffee shop two years ago. It was so relaxing and I left thinking that I could honestly picture things progressing with him. However, life happened. I didn’t call him. He didn’t call me. And we were left with what we now had…a man looking to hire a woman as his assistant. Nothing would take away how I felt when I was around him though. “Okay…” I finally said. I took a deep breath. “I’m not saying I’ll take the job, but I’m not saying I won’t. Meet me for coffee tomorrow at noon and we’ll talk about it.” Go back to the last place it was that I felt complete being around him. It seemed like a logical plan. At least, that’s what I wanted to tell myself because the moment the words slipped out I tried to pull them back in. It was too late.
“Sounds like a great idea,” he said.
Whoosh! The air left my lungs. “Okay,” I squeaked out. We made the plans to meet up and I so desperately wanted to take it all back.
I hung up the call after saying goodbye and just sat there, unable to move, barely able to breathe.
I was stuck in that state of mind the rest of the night and when noon came around the next day, I was closer to knowing what I wanted to say to him. It seemed like it was the obvious reaction to please everyone. I drove to the coffee shop, the same one we last graced that day and parked my car.
I looked around for his Aston Martin, but couldn’t find it. I reached my door and that’s when I spotted him pulling into the lot. He looked as sexy as ever in that car, but I pushed those same thoughts away. I got out of the car and waited by the door. When he got out of the car, he waved slightly.
“Good afternoon!” I said, keeping things down to business.
He smiled, but I barely obliged by giving him a smile back. When he got to the door, he reached out to grab it for me, but I beat him to it. He eyed me, but stepped back and didn’t argue. We got inside and he offered to buy my coffee, I didn’t accept. Every time he made an attempt to make this anymore than business, I deflected it.
We took our coffees to a corner table and I sat down in front of him. I wasn’t the least bit unsure of where the conversation had to go, so I started it off. “I have done a lot of thinking. A LOT of thinking,” I said. He met my stare and simply nodded. “I think that working with you could complicate things.” His face fell, but his eyes remained locked on mine, even stating he understood my position, but I wasn’t finished. “It could complicate things, Nolan. I can’t just turn off thoughts of what happened between us.” I paused, waiting for him to state his response. When he didn’t, I went on. “I doubt you can either.”
He slowly shook his head. “Is that such a bad thing?” he asked.
I didn’t even give him an answer because it would only come out the wrong way. “I’m not the same woman I was back then,” I said. “I know that if this is going to work, then it has to be us agreeing to make things strictly professional. There can’t be any out of office relations.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “If you know what I mean.”
For the first time since sitting down at the table, I looked away from his eyes. I wanted to concentrate and they were only drawing me in, making me forget all words I wanted to pass onto him. The amount of time it took for him to respond to me was ridiculous and every time I thought he was going to say something, he stopped.
“I have to know that you’re in the same place I am. I have to know that if I work with you, then you will respect my wishes.”
His mouth hung open. “Well, I have my own stipulation,” he said.
“Meaning?” I asked.
He tilted his head and then took a drink of his coffee. He appeared to meticulously want to find the right words. “I will agree to this, but you have to first answer me a question.”
I frowned. “A question? What kind of question?” I asked.
“Two years ag
o, when we stood in this very parking lot, I got the impression that maybe things would work out for us. Then, we parted ways and I never heard from you. Why?” he asked.
I couldn’t believe he was asking the question. I didn’t owe him anything, especially an explanation, but it was out there. He wanted to know the answer and I would have to give it to him. It wasn’t easy though. Every time I attempted to start out with my story, I closed my mouth. I looked like either a person gasping for air or a fish with my funky mouth movements.
“I mentioned I had a boyfriend,” I started.
He nodded. “You did,” he quietly agreed.
“Well, we had been together through all of this. That night we first met…I was at the club because of a fight between Thomas and myself. If we wouldn’t have fought, then I would have never been there.” His eyes didn’t shift. He just remained stationary. “I didn’t regret being with you that night, but I did have a lot of guilt. And when I left the penthouse, I had gone back to Thomas and we had made up. Thomas was familiar and I didn’t feel any reason not to move past the argument and continue on with our future. Fast forward and we move in together.” I swallowed. “I never thought when I saw you that I would get any kind of feelings. It was a one-time thing and I was moving past that. Yet, there you were and it seemed like fate had different ideas.” I looked away from him, mainly surveying the coffee shop. When I looked back, he had a sincere look in his eyes that almost made me a puddle at his feet. I opened my mouth and no words came out.
“I don’t want to complicate your life,” he said, breaking into my spiel. “If you are happy with your boyfriend, then I can respect that.”
I heaved a sigh, then pressed on. “Two years ago I discovered something. I discovered that maybe my happiness wasn’t set on my relationship with Thomas and when I left here and you dropped me off, I was determined to set things straight with him.”
“And did you?” he asked.
I nodded. “I did. I told him the truth.”
He sat there in silence. It was like everyone in the coffee shop left at the wrong time because you could hear a pin drop. “So, did you break up?” he asked. It was in a tentative way. He didn’t look like he wanted to; it was almost like he had to.
I nodded. “We broke up that day. He moved out three days later.”
He processed those words and it was evident that he was confused by something. He was also eager to state his confusion. “Then why no call?” he asked.
I had been rehearsing that answer for the past two years, just in case I ever had the opportunity to reply to it. But being there in the moment and knowing what my rehearsed answer was, I also felt I had something else to say on it. So, I went with my gut. “Why didn’t you call me?” I asked.
He frowned. “What?” he asked.
“Well, you had my number so if you wanted to check up on me then you could have picked up the phone and called me. Perhaps I was waiting on you.”
He dipped his head in thought. “I suppose that’s possible and if that was the case, then my apologies. However, you have to understand that I was respecting your relationship, as I’m not a guy that wants to go after something or someone that isn’t mine. The decision was yours.”
I sat back and thought about that. I was amazed by the conviction in his words and it was like he, too, had been rehearsing responses to various questions. “I considered calling,” I finally said. I heaved a sigh and thought back to that day. I had considered calling him every day for at least the first three months. “I’ve said it before, Nolan. I’m not the person to go after a one-night stand and who knew what, if anything, would come of this. I needed to take some time for me. It’d been many years since I had done that.”
“And I can admire that about you,” he said. “I have thought about you often, Charity. I won’t even lie about that.” The way he said that had me slowly backing out of my decision to accept that job. I had to be crazy to think it would work. “I will honor your decision to be strictly professional.”
It was what I came into the coffee shop to achieve. Yet, something had changed. I didn’t know if I could trust his words. The fact of the matter was, I didn’t know if I could trust myself, but I had to give it a shot. This was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up. I took a few more minutes to think about it, then put out my hand. He looked down at it before he slowly started to shake.
“You have a deal, Mr. Baxter.”
He held that same grin on his lips that had me biting my lower lip and nervous by just being around him. “Charity, my employees still call me Nolan.”
I smiled, realizing that I either made the best decision of my life or the worst. Either way, things were bound to change for me. Was I ready for it?
CHAPTER 26
Charity
I
was right about changes. They all were slow to happen, but they occurred. Things were winding down at my employer anyway, so it was no big deal for me to up and quit, with only a few days’ notice. Everyone seemed happy for me, but I could tell that Michelle and a few of my other co-workers were disappointed that I was leaving so suddenly. Of course, Michelle knew we’d be friends no matter what, so it wasn’t as bad as she first made it out to be.
It was hard packing up my things, though, and saying goodbye to everyone, but my outlook on the new chapter was a positive one. I basically went from my old job, straight to my new office.
Stepping into the building for my first day, I directly caught myself looking at Nolan’s picture on the wall. My desk would be out in the lobby, basically staring his picture right in the eye. I hadn’t really thought about that. I looked away, needing to zone my eyes elsewhere. I walked to the desk, where the woman wasn’t sitting. I caught a glimpse of the silver bell on her desk, so without thought, I tapped it. She came walking around the corner, a smirk on her lips.
I blushed. “Hello,” I said.
She nodded. “Hello!” She pointed to where I could put my purse and I did so, then geared up for the training. We were just getting into the computer system, learning about the various processing systems and how to access my emails, when Nolan came past the desk.
He stopped and looked at me. “Good morning,” he said.
I smiled back at him, ignoring the slight giddiness inside. Soon enough I would get past that…I hoped. “Good morning!”
He then turned to Francesca. “I trust you’re teaching Charity all the ropes before your last day.”
She grinned. “Of course, Nolan.”
He snickered. “Good!” He then nodded at both of us and said, “Good day!”
When he was gone, I glanced at her. “When is your last day?” I asked.
“Well, that depends,” she said. “I would like it to be the end of next week.”
My jaw dropped. That was only roughly seven days of training. I was worried, but I had to leave some amount of confidence inside of me. “Oh…okay.” I turned back to the computer, as doubt crept in. It was still too soon to panic; I’d only been there one day.
What I found out about working there, though, was that two problems were never all the same. So, after two days of working there, I was feeling that as long as I handled each case separately, then I was sure that I would be able to get through working there.
When I left on Friday, Francesca was already giving me props for learning quickly, but a part of me wondered if it was just because she wanted to make sure she was still on track to quit when planned.
As I was walking out to my car, I heard someone coming up behind me. “How’s it going thus far?” he asked me. I looked up at Nolan as he fell into step with me.
“It’s been two days, but I can’t complain,” I said.
He smiled. “Glad to hear that.”
The walk turned quiet as neither one of us knew exactly what to say. I felt uncomfortable, so when I reached the parking garage, I was grateful to escape him. “I’ll see you Monday, Nolan,” I called.
“Right! See you!” He tossed me a wave, then headed to his car, while I went to the second floor to get mine. I took a deep breath as I was able to breathe easier when he wasn’t around. I got to my car and quickly took off from there. I had the weekend to recuperate from the quick pace of training and I was ready to have a weekend of doing nothing.
Which is exactly what happened. Despite getting calls from Michelle and three other friends to go out and let loose over the weekend, I held my ground and just stayed in. It was a stressful couple of weeks that I had gone through and I didn’t want to pretend like I didn’t need some form of rest.
Plus, even with the weekend of binge-watching Netflix and doing some housework, I found Monday to arrive rather quickly. I didn’t anticipate when I got there that I would find that Francesca took the day off because she was sick.
In fact, I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped to the floor when I got the message from the HR department. I had only had two days of training and that was barely enough time to pull my thoughts together about the job. I didn’t feel I would be able to handle it all by myself.
When Nolan came in a few minutes later and spotted me at the desk, alone, and struggling with remembering how to log into my email, he hesitated at the desk. “Hey,” he said.
I looked up, panic was written all over my face. “Hey!” I then looked back at the computer and tried the password again, only to find that it was incorrect.
“Where’s Francesca?” he asked, concern was in his voice.
“Um…she’s ill,” I said.
He chuckled, which caused me to look up again. I didn’t think it was so funny, but then his face fell. “Oh…you’re serious?”
I would not joke about that. I nodded. “And I can’t exactly remember my password,” I mumbled.