The annoying voice at the other end of the line belonged to an assistant at the airline, and she definitely didn’t grasp the meaning of the core part of her job description. She wasn’t assisting. She was fucking pissing me off.
“Yes, sir. I understand that. She’s been out of the office, but I’ll be sure to pass your messages along.”
Fat chance of that happening. It seemed like my messages from before I’d even gone to Fiji hadn’t even been passed along yet. “Yeah, you do that.”
I ended the call with a frustrated grunt. Obviously, our HR department was a fucking mess. What made it worse was that any time I thought about human resources, I thought about Lindsay. I’d never even found out which company she worked for, but wherever it was, any department she was a senior member of would be much better run than ours was.
My mother walked out of her house smiling until she caught sight of my expression when I got out of the car. She rushed over to me, cupping my face in her hands and fixing me with her worried stare.
“What happened? No one should come back from a week on an island looking like that. Are you okay?”
“I wish people would stop asking me that,” I snapped before remembering who I was talking to. Smiling sheepishly, I pulled her into my arms and hugged her. “Sorry. I’m just really annoyed.”
“I’d say.” She ushered me into her kitchen. “Sit down. Tell me about your trip, and then tell me what’s got you so riled up.”
Just being in her small but familiar space calmed me down some. The magnets I’d brought back from all the places I’d been were stuck to her fridge, and the scent of roast chicken always seemed to be present.
I sat down on the closest stool, watching as she rummaged around for two tumblers. She came back to me carrying the glasses and a bottle of whiskey.
Fuck, I love my mother.
After I filled our drinks to the brim, I pushed one over to her and picked up my own. We clinked them together, each taking a long drink while she waited patiently for me to spit it out.
“Thanks for this,” I said finally. “I was really hoping you weren’t going to offer me tea.”
She made a disgruntled sound. “Who do you think I am? You’re not wearing a face that says you’re in the mood for tea.”
“Well spotted.” My mother read me better than anyone else. She definitely wasn’t the typical mom either. She never had been. “We might need another bottle. That one looks pretty empty.”
She pursed her lips. “Do I really have to ask you again who you think I am? There’s another bottle in the cabinet. Now quit stalling and tell me what’s going on.”
“You sound just like Kavan did. He even used those exact same words.”
Her eyes shone with satisfaction. “I knew I liked that boy. It’s good to know I’ve rubbed off on him.”
“You sure did.” Between my mom and Shira, the guy was becoming way too… something. I didn’t like it. “I’ve already had to sit down and tell him everything.”
“Tell it again,” she said firmly. “Everything this time. I know you well enough to know that you’d have left out some details when you spoke to him.”
I shrugged. “He wouldn’t braid my hair. I might’ve left out some stuff as his punishment.”
She smacked my arm. Hard. “I’m assuming from that statement that what you left out pertained to some of your feelings. Here’s a heads-up, honey. Women don’t have to braid each other’s hair to share those. We drink wine and bitch about you guys because you’re too scared to admit you even have any feelings. We feel what we feel, we tell it like it is, and then we can move forward without being burdened. We have the ovaries to admit what we’re feeling without turning into broody messes.”
She hardly took a breath and yet she didn’t seem at all desperate for air.
“Are you calling me a broody mess?” I downed half my glass, feeling the alcohol burn in the best possible way down my throat.
She batted her lashes innocently. “Am I calling my own son a broody mess? Why yes, I am.” Her face turned serious as she took another swig. “Do I need to be worried about you? I’ve never seen you looking quite like this before.”
“I met someone,” I admitted. “I’ve never looked like this before because I’ve never felt like this before. Are you happy with the size of my ovaries yet? Or do you need more feelings?”
“Please.” She waved her hand. “Saying that you’ve never felt something before is only the tip of the iceberg. I still have no idea how you’re feeling. Although I’m willing to venture a few guesses.”
Mom listened while I told her about my trip, chiming in with questions about how things had made me feel every time I tried to gloss over it. When it happened again right when I got to the part about me leaving, I narrowed my eyes in a mock glare. “Are you going to charge me for this session?”
“Of course. Dinner is on you tonight.” She gave me a delighted grin. “There’s a magnificent new burger joint that delivers. I’ll have the Chicken Supreme.”
“Dinner was going to be on me anyway.”
She shrugged. “In that case, you’re paying for this session by giving me the peace of mind that my son has the balls to face what he’s feeling.”
“Mothers should not be allowed to say the word balls,” I grumbled.
Arching her eyebrows as an amused smile swept across her face, she tucked her chin closer to her chest. “Why not? You’re forgetting the fact that mothers knew what balls were before you kids were even conceived, and also that we were the ones to wipe them for you when you were still in diapers. All things considered, I’m quite confident I know more about balls than you do.”
I choked on my own laughter. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”
“Yep. You texted me yesterday. Did you tell this girl how much you love her? I think that’s the more pertinent question here.”
“What? I don’t love her. I’ve known her for a week.”
She gave me a headshake and looked at me like I was stupid. “You say that like it means something. Do you want to know what I think?”
“Sure.” I was curious to get her take on it. “Bring it on.”
“Something is different when you talk about her. I suspect you already know that, considering that you’ve already admitted that you’ve never felt like this before.”
I nodded. “She’s something special all right. It’s really too bad she deserves someone better than me. Hell, I might not even have a job right now.”
“You’re such a man.” She pinned me with knowing eyes. “You should’ve given her the goodbye she deserved, even if it hurt. You also should have told her that she was someone special to you. In which case, you might not even have had to say goodbye.”
“I was trying to do right by her.”
“Maybe that’s what you’ve been telling yourself, but it’s a lie. Since when do you lie to your mother, and since when do you have such self-esteem issues that you think she deserves better than you? You, my darling, are the absolute best. If this woman is as smart as you think she is, she already knows that.”
“Her fiancé left her at the altar less than two weeks ago. Let that sink in, Mom. The guy she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with left her—on their wedding day—less than two weeks ago. She deserves better than being hounded by some guy she met when she was supposed to be on her honeymoon that now can’t leave her alone.”
“Does she?” She cocked her head in a way that made me think Kavan had rubbed off on her just as much as she had on him. “Let’s put that a little differently, shall we? Does she deserve a guy who knows her worth and is so crazy about her after only a few days with her that he’s willing to stand by her side no matter what? How about a man who recognizes and respects that she’s been through a tough time and doesn’t abandon her just because of it?”
“Fuck.” I hadn’t thought about it like that. “I could’ve been that guy.”
“Yes, you could ha
ve.” Mom drained her glass and set it down with a thud on the counter. “What are you going to do about it?”
“It’s too late now, Mom. It’s already over. I’ve already left.”
The long look she gave me told me she disagreed. “One day, you’ll learn, darling, that while you still have breath in your lungs and fight in your heart, it’s never too late. Now, refill my drink and let’s deal with this one step at a time.”
Chapter 29
LINDSAY
I’d always liked our office building. It was near the airport, so there were constantly planes coming over, but I’d gotten so used to it that I hardly heard the noise anymore.
Since my employer was an airline and the employees I wrangled worked for it too, it made sense for us to be within spitting distance from the actual airport. Our offices were light and airy, and we looked out over a collection of runways with wide expanses of green grass between them.
My first day back at the office had been chaotic, and my second day wasn’t shaping up to be much better. It wasn’t even nine yet, but I was already putting out fires every time I turned around.
On the upside, it didn’t leave me much time to think about Jaxon. While I usually prided myself on having everything in hand and neatly organized, the chaos I walked in on offered a welcome reprieve.
Anna, my newish assistant, stood in front of my desk with a tablet in one hand and a takeout coffee for me in the other. “Yesterday was all about sorting out the most urgent things that happened while you were gone. Today we’ll have to work on returning a ton of calls and messages.”
“Let’s do it.” I waved her into the wingback chair across from me and held out my hand. “Thanks for the coffee—and for holding the fort down while I was gone.”
“Just don’t go away again anytime soon.” She smiled as she slid the coffee across the desk. “I swear it was like people could smell you were gone. The entire workforce seemed to have a collective meltdown.”
My nose wrinkled. “Was it really that bad?”
“Yep.” She turned the screen of her tablet to me so I could see how many unread emails there were in her complaints folder as she scrolled. “A bunch of the ground staff got drunk on the premises again, the luggage handlers might be planning a strike for the end of the month, and there have been a string of infractions by individual employees.”
I rolled my head back and said a quick prayer for patience before jumping in. Picking up my coffee, I opened the corresponding folder in my emails that she had open on her tablet. “Is there anything that needs our attention more desperately than any other matters? Or can we work through it systematically from oldest to newest?”
“Systematically should be fine.” She glanced down when her device started vibrating in her hands, an annoyed scowl flickering across her features. “Actually, maybe we should start with that one first. He’s been calling all day and he’s put in a few calls over the last couple of weeks. He’s getting terminated.”
A loud huff came out of her when the vibrating started up again seconds after it ended. “I don’t think he actually understands English. I’ve told him so many times that you’d get back to him as soon as you’re able to.”
“People tend to get worked up when they’re threatened with termination,” I said calmly. “Let’s get his papers in order and we’ll call his managers before we speak to him. Have you got his file on there?”
“Yeah. Name’s Jackson.” My heart skipped a beat, but then I realized that the spelling was probably different, even though the pronunciation was the same. “They’ve sent him to us because apparently he didn’t show up to work for a week or something.”
My stomach twisted, but it had to be a coincidence. Taking in a reassuring breath, I exhaled it slowly and focused on my job. I could not allow not-my-Jaxon to distract me here.
“What’s his direct manager’s number? Have you got it?” Mentally running over our termination checklist, I identified the next steps we had to take. “We should double-check our own system, speak to management, and get all our ducks in a row before entering into official communication with the employee.”
Terminations could get rough. Coming across unprepared or not having all our evidence on hand only made it so much worse. Anna nodded and tapped on her screen a few times, and a contact email from her popped up on my laptop a few seconds later.
“The manager is Steve Robertson,” she said. “He’s also the one who sent the file over here. They’ve already been in contact with the employee to alert him to the fact that steps are being taken against him. There’s a note on the file about the call.”
“It’s a good thing they’ve gotten the ball rolling.” I took a few sips of my rapidly cooling coffee, but I’d rather have cold coffee than a hot office. The air-conditioning in there was even more effective than the one—
No. Stop it. Not here. Not now. Not him.
“Can you check our logs to see whether we’ve had any communication from him prior to the incident in question or his incessant phone calls now?” I asked Anna. “I’ll get Steve on the line, but we need to update him about what we’ve got as well.”
“Checking now,” she said. “Our office didn’t receive anything directly, but I’ll include a search to our general administration emails as well. I suppose most communications with the entire department go there, whereas we only get the stuff specifically addressed to our own email addresses.”
“True.” I’d have thought she would know that I needed a wider search, but she was probably just a little overwhelmed. She’d only been with us for a few months, and I loved her, but leaving her alone for so long would’ve been intimidating.
Most larger companies, like ours, had hundreds of people working in their HR departments. Employees working in other divisions of the company hardly ever knew our names or exactly which person to send things to.
We were the backbone, the people who kept the order among the most important assets of any business—its workers—and made sure the employee lifecycle was properly managed. Most of the people we actually worked for, the employees, avoided us like the plague because our role was often misunderstood.
Even those who understood what we did rarely knew anyone within the department’s responsibilities so well that they knew who to contact. It was slightly worrying that Anna hadn’t performed the proper search when the phone was already ringing for Steve’s office line, but I’d deal with her in a few minutes.
Perhaps I should’ve gotten someone a little more experienced to stand in for me. We would have to tread carefully with this particular termination. If the employee whose name I’d rather not think about, even though it was spelled differently, was already blowing up Anna’s phone, he wouldn’t take getting fired lying down.
We had to follow our procedures to the letter. If the ball had been dropped already, we’d simply have to pick it back up.
“Hello?” Steve said when the call connected.
“This is Lindsay Flinn calling from Human Resources. I understand you’ve referred an employee to us for disciplinary steps to be taken.”
“Yeah. Guy took off without notifying anyone here. He claims to have had some vacation days saved up and says he did contact you, but I obviously wouldn’t know anything about that. It’s your domain, so I referred his file.”
“Sure.” I didn’t like the manager’s tone, but managers were employees too. They were as loathe to speak to us as anyone else most of the time.
Anna caught my eye, so I asked Steve to hold. He didn’t sound too happy about it, but he’d just have to wait. I was back, and I was making sure everything was getting done properly.
If he’d thought his referral was where his role ended, he was sorely mistaken.
“It looks like he did reach out to us before he disappeared.” She frowned. “I didn’t see this before.”
I let out an internal sigh. This is why I don’t like going away. First, I get my heart broken and now, my portfolio is broken.
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“That’s okay. We’ll go over some of the departmental guidelines when I’m done with Steve. It’ll be good for both of us to brush up.”
She smiled as she nodded, and I went back to the phone. “It would appear that he did reach out to us before he absconded from the job. We’ll go over what we have and contact him. I’ll keep you apprised of the situation.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
Story of my fucking life.
I’d been meaning to ask him some questions about the employee and his service record, but I’d have to do that in a follow-up call.
I also needed some more details about the guy, and then I needed to compile a separate file for the disciplinary proceedings. Ember had no idea why I loved my job so much, but I really, really did.
“Will you get Jackson on the phone for me please?” I asked Anna. “We need to ask him to come in. I’ll get started on the forms we need to fill out.”
“Sure thing.” She smiled as she returned his earlier calls. “Thank God I finally have something legit to say to him. That man does not like hearing no for an answer.”
No one does when it involves losing their jobs. I definitely needed to spend some more time on Anna’s training. She was clever, though. She’d pick up on the finer details soon enough.
Her smile slipped when he didn’t answer. “What do I do now?”
“Send him an email to the same address he contacted us from, as well as any other addresses listed in his personnel file. Ask him to come into the office and tell him that we’ll talk about the issue.”
A few minutes later, before I’d even gotten around to printing all the paperwork from his file and was only about halfway through the official disciplinary forms, her tablet chimed with a response. “He says he’ll come in immediately.”
Well, at least now I know it’s not my Jaxon. He would never be so prompt.
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