“That’s really great.” Dawn shrugged. “I wish all of the people who hired me were like that.”
“Yeah. And I’d forgotten how funny he is. He keeps making me want to laugh and I have to hide it.” Being professional and polite was one thing but I didn’t want Raff thinking that I was forgiving him and that everything was going to be okay between us now. We were boss and employee, and that was it. Not friends. Not anything.
“Damn. Sounds like a dream boss. Except for the whole. You know. The history between you too.” Dawn paused. “Have you considered asking him about what happened and why he left a week later without a word?”
I shook my head. “I’m not ready to open that can of worms.”
I wasn’t a coward in many ways, but I was in this. I was scared of the answer. I was scared to hear Raff be dismissive and blow it all off or to say that he didn’t care about Trevor or me and what had happened. I was hurt enough already. Why would I want to dredge that whole thing up?
Dawn frowned. “I’m guessing that means you’re not going to tell him about our resident bundle of joy.”
Chelsea had no idea what was up with her father. She was only three years old, so I’d never seen a reason to really bring it up. She knew that she didn’t have one, but that it was okay, because all kinds of families existed in the world. My parents had bought just about every ‘alternative families’ book under the sun, including books about gay penguins adopting a chick, a book about two divorced parents with kids becoming a blended family, and a book about a girl with a Black father and a white mother—all to hammer home to Chelsea that no matter what her family was made up of, what mattered was that they all loved her and were there for her. No one kind of family was better than any other.
I really didn’t look forward to the day she got old enough to no longer be satisfied just with that and wanting to know more.
“No way,” I told Dawn. “There’s too much risk involved. What if he tries to get some kind of custody? What if he’s upset and fires me? I’m not risking this job or my… bundle of joy, as you put it. I have no idea what he would do, and he’s got money and power. He could do a lot.”
“I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit,” Dawn countered. “I know that he hurt you, but Raff was never vindictive. I’m sure if you told him he’d be happy.”
“I’m not going to find out.” That was far too big of a risk for me to take.
Dawn nodded in understanding. “Well. I know that you don’t agree with me, but it’s been years. People change. And Raff was always a good person before his whole… weirdo disappearing act.” She waved her fork in the air for illustration. “Either way—I hope that you change your mind and rethink this.”
“I don’t think I will,” I admitted.
“Hey, you never know.” Dawn shrugged. “I’m just saying, keep yourself open to the possibility. He might surprise you.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. But I supposed I could appreciate Dawn’s willingness to see the best in people. After all, she wasn’t the one who’d had her heart broken and then watched her brother be betrayed. She could afford to be generous in spirit.
Dawn changed the subject to a new movie she wanted me to see, and I let her take the lead on the conversation. I wasn’t ready to dissect this topic any further. I’d been hurt, great, fun. I just wanted to move on. Not that it was going to be easy to do that with the man who’d hurt me working as my direct boss. I had to stare at his goddamn face every day.
All too soon, my lunch break was over, and I had to say goodbye. I hugged Chelsea fiercely. I wasn’t used to being away from her all day, I was used to having her with me all the time. She seemed to be having fun with Dawn, and so I didn’t want her to realize how much I missed her, otherwise she might get upset and start to miss me and then we’d have a huge mess on our hands.
It was for the best that she would learn to be independent and be with other kids. I had to find her a daycare.
I was so wrapped up in thinking about this as I got back to the office that I didn’t notice that Kelly was in the middle of a project. Maybe I should have. I had some stuff for a package proposal that Raff wanted me to make copies of for his team, so I headed for the copier machine.
I’d already started my copying when Kelly came up with her papers. “I need you to pause your work, I have to get this copied.”
Wow. I wasn’t aware that Kelly as so narcissistic. She’d seemed perfectly nice when I was first talking to her. Welcoming, friendly, all the rest. But this was hugely thoughtless. I was in the middle of doing my copying, what was this, middle school?
Okay, I had to be careful. I was the new girl in town, so to speak, and I was lower on the totem pole than Kelly. But I wasn’t going to be a pushover, either. I never had been. If I just let her do whatever she wanted now, she’d think she could keep doing that to me for the rest of the time I worked here. I was already frustrated with having to put up with Raff for six months, I didn’t want to spend that time being bullied by my other coworker.
“I’m sorry,” I told her, smiling politely. “I’m in the middle of the copying already, I’d have to fiddle with the machine too much to make it stop. You’ll just need to wait a minute.”
Kelly scoffed. “You realize that I outrank you, right, honey? My business is more important than yours.”
“But it’s not my business.” I kept my tone polite. “It’s Raff’s business, and he’s in charge. So, by your logic, my copying is actually more important than yours, since it’s for Raff.”
Kelly didn’t look all that happy about that. She huffed and looked away, apparently getting herself composed again, and then looked back at me. “Well. Raff might be the boss for now, but I’m not content to play second fiddle forever.”
That sounded like a threat, to be honest. Not to me, but to Raff. What kind of crazy inter-office politics play had I walked into? I just wanted to do my job, and work up enough experience to move somewhere that didn’t have me working with my unfortunate one-night-stand every day.
“You should get on the right team,” Kelly continued, her voice getting a bit sweeter. “While the getting’s good, because there are those of us who are… ambitious. You seem ambitious yourself. I’d think about what kind of role you want to have long-term in this company and who you think can get you there.”
Kelly walked off—without copying her things. Great, now she didn’t even want to copy them after all? I wanted to roll my eyes.
I took everything out of the copy machine, thinking about what Kelly had said. Did that mean that she wanted to try and steal Raff’s job? Or what? I didn’t know. Should I be warning Raff about Kelly’s ‘ambition’? I didn’t want to get too involved in something that wasn’t my business.
On the other hand, I didn’t want to work for someone like Kelly. Raff had screwed me over, but he was a good boss and I enjoyed working under him.
Hmm.
5
Raff
I smiled at our client through the video call. Kelly was on my left and Cass was on my right, making notes for me. We tried to do in-person conference calls when we could but sometimes, like when our client was in Italy, we had to make do.
Parker was also on video chat. He tried to be hands-on when he could, especially for such an important client. Furio Ricci was an Italian businessman who was well-known in the Italian fashion world for his leather on shoes and purses, as well as making fine menswear jackets out of the material. He would be a lucrative client to have for the firm.
“I want to expand my operations naturally,” Ricci said. “I want people to feel like this is the next, natural step for them.”
“We’ll definitely help with that,” I assured him. “We’ll look at partnering you with some other companies and creating a partnership with them, so that you can sell your merchandise in their stores, like Nordstrom or Saks.”
“We can do some pop-up shops in malls,” Kelly added. “Generate excitement and buzz.”
“Good idea,” I murmured to her.
Kelly nodded at me.
“Don’t you think that maybe we’re rolling things out too quickly?” Cass asked.
I turned to look at her, surprised. So far, Cass had been silent during this meeting, just scribbling down notes so that we could have everything ready to consult back to later.
Cass blushed a little, apparently not expecting the attention focused on her.
“Um.” She then cleared her throat and sat up straighter. “Part of the thing with your brand is that it’s very exclusive. It’s something that you want people to buy because—because the key to consumers is not only trust. It’s that they feel they’re missing out. Of course, they’ll buy your brand for quality and style once they trust it, but you have to get the first people to buy it to build up that trust to start out with.
“And people don’t go for trust right away. But they do go for exclusivity. They go for what’s new and what only a few select people can get access to. If you spread out through all of these stores and pop up shops, you’re not going to be exclusive enough. But if you roll out slowly, and you make it so that you can only get your stuff in a few places for a limited amount of time—then people want it because it’s limited and only a select few people, the special people, get to have it.”
Cass sounded completely confident as she outlined her points. And she was right.
“Cass has a good point,” I added. “I didn’t consider that.”
Parker and Furio nodded over the screen. “I’m impressed,” Parker said.
Furio smiled. “Who’re you?”
“I’m Cassidy,” Cass said. “I’m Mr. West’s executive assistant.”
“Excellent choice in support,” Furio said. “I appreciate people who know that the people who assist them are just as important as the big man in the chair behind the desk.”
“Thank you,” Parker replied.
I wanted to thank him as well, but, I hadn’t chosen Cass. Parker had to take credit for that. Even though I wanted to because hey, she was my assistant, and she was pretty damn amazing.
Still, my strange rush of possessiveness should be ignored. It wasn’t my place to feel this way. Cass was just… my assistant. Nothing more. I shouldn’t be feeling this odd surge of heat at the thought of someone else… ‘claiming’ her. That wasn’t even what Parker was doing.
I ignored my own stupid emotions and focused back in.
“I think that it would be best if you brought a team to Rome so you can get a feel for my business on the ground,” Furio suggested.
“Excellent suggestion, and we’re pleased to know you trust us with helping get your business to American clients,” Parker replied. “I think this would be an efficient use of their time.”
“Kelly and I would be happy to come,” I said, as Kelly nodded next to me and smiled.
“What about Cassidy?” Furio asked. “Will she be accompanying you? She is a part of your team, after all.”
“Cassidy is a part of the team, yes,” Parker said, his tone friendly enough that Furio probably couldn’t hear the slight shade of placation in it. “She’ll be there as well; won’t you, Cassidy?”
Cass looked… concerned. Her face was a little pale and her expression was off.
“I’d love to have you there,” Furio continued, smiling directly at Cass.
The growl that rose up in my throat was sharp and I had to swallow hard to keep it down and stifle it. It wasn’t my place to feel possessive over her, but I didn’t like the way he was looking at her. This was a potential coworker, or as good as. He could get his damn wandering eyes off of her.
Furthermore, Cass looked worried about something.
“We’ll have to get back to you about our travel plans,” I told Furio. “Figure out exactly when we’re going to be able to come and see you.”
I smiled, and we made our goodbyes and ended the call.
“Cassidy,” I said, “would you be able to come with me to my office and we could go over the notes for the meeting? We’ll have to pick a time to travel as well.”
I was careful to call her by her full first name instead of the nickname I’d always called her by when we were younger. I didn’t want anyone to feel like I was being unprofessional with her. And nobody knew that we’d known each other before, which frankly I thought was for the best. I wasn’t about to let Cass or me be accused of favoritism.
“Certainly.” Cass’ voice was a bit subdued, and I couldn’t help but worry. Cass was not a subdued person, no sir. She never had been. Sure, she knew how to be diplomatic, but she wasn’t a pushover.
I waved to Kelly and then led Cass into my office, closing the door behind us. “Hey.” I kept my voice gentle. “What’s going on? Can you not travel? Is everything okay?”
Cass gave me a firm look. “It’s none of your business.”
“I’m your boss and apparently our client wants you to come with me on this trip. That makes it a bit of my business. Cass.” I rested my hands on my desk. “I know when you’re upset, I spent a decade watching Trevor piss you off. Is something wrong?”
If Furio made her uncomfortable in any way, I was going to tear that guy a new one, client or no client. We could afford to drop him if he was being friendly with Cass in a way that she didn’t like.
Cass shook her head. “I just wasn’t expecting to go abroad suddenly, that’s all.”
“Well, I suppose. But we are an international consulting firm, so it can’t be too surprising that with your position you might have to do some international travel.”
“I’m an executive assistant. I didn’t think that I would have to travel with you, you’re the important one. Parker never mentioned anything about travel when he was talking about the requirements of the job.”
That was fair. “I understand that. But is this going to be a problem for you?”
I could handle being without Cass while I was in Italy, but I wasn’t sure how Furio and Parker would take it. Why was sudden international travel not a good thing for her? Was there something going on in her life that made her want to stay in the U.S.? Was it her parents?
Cass shook her head. “I’m all right. I’ll make it work. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to take care of booking our flights and typing up the notes from the meeting.”
She headed out of the office, moving just fast enough that I couldn’t stop her without making myself look like an idiot by lunging for her, but I knew that there was something going on.
In fact, I got the distinct impression that she wasn’t telling me something. But what could it possibly be?
6
Cassidy
I couldn’t believe that I would be heading to Rome soon. Rome! Italy! How could I possibly leave my daughter behind to go on an international trip?
Yes, Parker had talked about how his company had clients all over the world, but he’d never said anything to indicate that I might have to do some traveling. Perhaps he had thought that when he’d talked about his international work that I would put two and two together?
Either way, I was stuck. I couldn’t tell Raff the truth about my daughter without raising some awkward questions. I could go over his head and remind Parker about my daughter but then Parker might think I wasn’t fit for this job and that was the last thing I wanted. I liked this job.
In fact, over the past couple of weeks, I was warming even to Raff more than I’d thought I would. He was a good boss. He looked out for me.
And I needed this job. I couldn’t handle losing it, literally. It would be devastating for me financially. So that meant that I had to just… suck it up and go on this trip. Somehow.
Dawn was making dinner with Chelsea when I got in. Chelsea loved ‘cooking’, even though at age three that just meant mostly sticking her fingers in things and taste-testing. Trevor and I would always joke that someday she’d be on one of those cooking competition shows for kids.
“Hey you!” Dawn called as I took off
my shoes and jacket and walked in. “Must be nice to finally kick back and relax!”
“Mama!” Chelsea held out her arms and I picked her up, hugging her tightly.
We had just begun to get used to being apart all day. How could I handle being apart from her completely for a couple of weeks? Sure, before I’d had her, a couple of weeks hadn’t felt like long at all. But then I had this baby and now the idea of even just a day without her was hard to think about.
“What’s up?” Dawn said quietly, turning the heat off on the stove and starting to serve up dinner.
I sighed. “Go wash your hands before dinner!” I told Chelsea, setting her back down and kissing the top of her head.
“Okay, Mama!” Chelsea ran off to go to the bathroom.
I straightened up. “So, we’ve got this new client. A fancy Italian guy, makes luxury goods. He wants us to go to Italy to see his company on a ground-floor level while we discuss our plan to expand his business into the United States.”
“Wait, including you?” Dawn’s face lit up. “You’d get to go to Italy!?”
“Why are you so excited?” I asked, grabbing water for everyone. “I can’t go traveling right now! Not with Chelsea.”
“And why not? This is a great opportunity! When else are you going to get to travel to Europe?”
“But I can’t take Chelsea with me.”
“You don’t have to, she can just stay with me.”
I stared at my best friend. “Dawn, that’s a lot. A three-year-old? All day? For a couple of weeks? Are you sure?”
“Hell yes. I can manage it. She’s a great kid, and she’ll be in daycare for part of the day anyway so it’s not like I can’t get some work done in the mornings. I’ll just explain to my clients that things might take a little longer. It’s not a big deal.”
Dating My Brother's Best Friend Page 4
