by Emily Mayer
"The glasses are over here," Mary said, opening the cabinet to retrieve a glass. "Again, you’re welcome to help yourself to anything you find in here. Goodness knows all the boys do."
"Thank you," I said, gratefully taking the glass from Mary. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until we walked into the house.
"I hope you don't mind that I had Jack put your things in a separate room. You’re welcome to stay in Ben's room. I just thought it might be nice to have your own space too," Mary said nonchalantly.
"We don’t… I mean, we’ve never… umm… I mean… I just work for him. I don't even know why he hired me. I called him an idiot to his face. I mean, I didn't know it was his face but still," I stammered, surprised at the implication that Mary thought I was sleeping with her son. I was a nervous rambler. The more nervous I got, the more I rambled.
Mary raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"You called him an idiot?"
"Yes. Of course, I didn't know Ben was Ben. He had just gotten rid of his last assistant the day before, and was sitting at her desk rifling through some papers. I just assumed he must be Ben's assistant. I had never been up to the executive floor; I pretty much had no idea what happened outside of the legal department, which is like a cave. My horrible boss had me run some documents up to Ben for him to review and sign, because I went through three years of law school to track down signatures. I found a couple of pretty obvious mistakes on the elevator ride up and I pointed them out to him when I handed the documents over. I told him his boss probably would have missed them, because he must be an even bigger idiot than my boss if he actually let her run the merger and acquisitions department. "
Mary was listening intently, her grin widening as I rambled on.
"And how did you end up going from the legal department to his assistant?" Mary prodded when I didn’t continue.
"The next day I got a message telling me to go to Ben's office immediately. I was pretty sure his assistant had told him I’d called him an idiot, and I was going to be fired as soon as I stepped off the elevator.” My hands started sweating just remembering that elevator ride. “I had finally saved up enough money to quit at the end of the month, but quitting and being fired are two totally different things. As you can probably imagine, I almost died when I saw Ben sitting at his actual desk. For no reason I can possibly think of, he offered me the job as his executive assistant. "
"You didn’t mind going from an attorney to an assistant?" It was the obvious question.
"I told him no at first, because it did seem like a huge step back career-wise. Law school wasn’t easy or cheap. He offered me a pretty big raise but I still said no. He told me to think about it and give him my final answer on Tuesday, because he had to leave for London on Wednesday and his assistant usually traveled with him. I’d never been to London, so I said yes. I absolutely hated my job anyway, so I chose London." I shrugged.
Later I had learned the real reason Ben had been so desperate to hire me. He’d had what could only be described as a very unprofessional relationship with his last assistant, which did not end well. The company had paid her a large settlement to avoid her leaking the relationship to the press, and the board finally put their collective foot down. They gave Ben two weeks to find a new assistant they approved of, or they would find an acceptable replacement for him. I was the perfect solution. I was smart and career-focused, as evidenced by my tenure in the legal department. Most importantly, I looked nothing like any of his previous assistants. The board readily approved of Ben's new hire.
Despite his track record, Ben was a great boss. He never yelled or insulted me like my previous boss had. He always asked my opinion. I felt more valued in my new role than I ever had as an attorney, and I’d learned a lot about how the company operated in the months I had been working with him. It wasn’t the job I had imagined for myself, and I had no idea where it fit into my long-term plan, but I was happy for the moment.
Jack walked through the door, pausing when he saw we were in the middle of a conversation.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked, looking slightly nervous and a lot like he wanted to bolt.
“Not at all. Actually, if Evelyn is all set, why don’t you show her where her room is so she can get settled in before dinner,” Mary said.
“No, no, that’s not necessary. I’m sure I can find my own way,” I said, walking toward the door for emphasis.
“Don’t be silly. Jack doesn’t mind, do you, Jack?” Mary asked.
“Nope, it’s no problem,” Jack replied, looking very much like it was a problem.
I once again tried not to look as nervous as I felt at the prospect of being alone with Jack. I waited for him to take the lead and followed behind him silently. I reminded myself that there was no way he could dislike me on sight. He had probably just been confused when Ben introduced me. He was used to Ben's assistants looking more like women he would date.
The framed pictures I’d noticed earlier caught my eye as we walked down the hallway, and I slowed to take a better look at them. They were all photographs, some of them in black and white and so old they were worn yellow.
“Are these all family pictures?” I asked without thinking, curiosity winning out over my nerves.
“Most of them are,” Jack responded. He moved behind me to look at the picture that had caught my attention. “Those are our great-great grandparents, Louisa and Theodore Sterling. I think that was taken in Boston.”
“Louisa and Theodore started the company, right?” I asked.
“You did your homework,” Jack said, walking down the hallway away from me.
I scampered after him, trying to keep up, and we walked the rest of the way down the hall in silence. I was grateful Mary had insisted on having Jack show me the way to my room. The house was bigger than it looked, and we passed several doors down a winding hallway before we stopped.
“Here you go, this is your room,” Jack said, opening the door for me and standing aside.
“Thank you,” I said, trying to avoid eye contact as I crept past him into the room.
“If you need anything, just let someone know. Ben’s room is down the hall to the right. Third door after the corner,” he said casually.
I felt a flare of unexpected anger and snapped, “Great, I’d hate to get lost.”
I had no trouble meeting his eyes to glare at him as I slammed the door. Why does everyone just assume I’m sleeping with Ben? But some small part of me acknowledged that what bothered me most was that Jack thought I was sleeping with his brother. I didn't really care to think about what that meant. I was completely willing to just chalk it up to lack of sleep and a long plane ride.
6.
Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I looked around the room. The walls were painted a soft lilac which was beautifully set off by the white crown molding. A distressed-wood dresser and matching nightstand gave the room an almost rustic quality. The walls were decorated with pressed flowers that had been placed in distressed white wood frames, complementing the molding. A large four-poster bed sat in the middle of the wall, across from picture windows that overlooked a large field leading up to the mountains looming in the distance. It was obvious that every detail of the room had been lovingly planned. I couldn’t wait to crawl into the large bed, which had been decorated with lots of plush pillows that seemed to be calling out to me.
I pulled my phone out of my bag to let my family know I had arrived.
I sent the first message to my mom, knowing she would be checking her phone waiting to hear I had landed safely.
Me: Landed safe and sound. Montana is BIG. Love you.
Scrolling down the message list, I found the well-used group message my sisters and I talked on throughout the day.
Me: Made it to Montana. The house is beautiful! And big.
Almost immediately, I heard the familiar ding notifying me that I had a message.
Elise: Evie, I love you but no one cares about the house! Did you see h
is brother?
Corinne: Please tell me he’s even hotter in real life than he is in pictures, Evie! I need to live through you right now.
I smiled reading my sisters’ responses. Technology made living away from each other seem almost bearable. I’d spent the first half of my life wishing I was an only child, and the second half wishing I lived closer to my sisters. Life was weird like that.
Me: He’s fine. We didn’t really talk much.
I purposely avoided the details I knew my sisters were actually curious about. A little part of me wanted to avoid having to tell my sisters that Jack had pretty much ignored me the entire ride—when he wasn’t acting like I was carrying the plague. Another part of me wasn’t ready to admit that Jack was probably the hottest human being I had ever seen. He needed to carry a warning label: DO NOT look directly at heat source, may cause eye damage.
Elise: Fine is not an answer! Unless you mean fineeeee.
Corinne: I really don’t care whether he’s a great conversationalist, Evie. I spent all morning watching cartoons with Celeste, and I haven’t seen my lady parts in months. MONTHS! Give me something to work with over here!
Me: Sorry, I have to change for dinner. I don’t have time for a lengthy description of his hotness right now. Wine date later? Tomorrow night maybe? I responded, hoping to keep them at bay a little longer.
Corinne: Fine. But don’t think this means you’re getting out of this!
I tossed my phone onto the bed and turned my attention to the suitcase laying by the dresser. Living out of a suitcase was never something I could tolerate for more than a few days. It always made me feel unorganized and unsettled. I surveyed the luggage, chewing on my lower lip while trying to assess how much I could unpack before dinner. I made a quick to do list and got started.
7.
The sunlight I had been inching farther and farther across the bed to avoid had finally reached my face. I groaned, admitting defeat. One more roll and I would be on the floor. Aware that it hadn’t been the best idea to indulge in a second glass of wine last night in an effort to survive dinner, I tentatively opened my right eye to assess how badly my migraines would punish me for that decision.
Dinner had been a complex balancing act of trying to engage Mary in conversation while also avoiding eye contact with Jack and dodging Rodney's quick hands, which always seemed to find a way to rest on an arm or shoulder.
At one point, I thought I caught Jack watching as Rodney's hand traveled from my shoulder to my back while he was regaling the room with a much-exaggerated retelling of a contract negotiation he had just completed. Involuntarily, I glanced up and met his eye, instantly triggering a blush. I’d felt it starting at my chest and slowly creeping to my cheeks, and I winced now, remembering how quickly I had averted my eyes. Had he attributed the blush and awkwardness to the accidental eye contact or Rodney's freely roaming hands? Neither possibility was particularly appealing, but I doubted he would assume I’d had too much wine after just one glass.
When I had slowly opened my right eye without the familiar shooting pain immediately appearing, I cautiously opened my left eye and sat up. There was just the familiar dull ache that promised to be a migraine later if I didn't pay attention to it. Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I opened the nightstand drawer where I had stashed some of my medicine in case I needed it in the middle of the night. I always made sure I kept a few pills on my nightstand when I was traveling; it wouldn’t be wise to stumble around a dark and unfamiliar room trying to find my medicine.
So much of who I was had been shaped by my migraines. My need to carefully plan every aspect of my life stemmed from always having to be prepared for the possibility that a migraine would ruin my plans and then I’d have to scramble to compensate for the lost time. The knowledge that pain was always lurking just below the surface had made me a little more cautious, a little more anxious, than most people. I’d never been as carefree as Elise, who never had the need to follow a plan and whose spontaneity often inspired a combination of horror and envy in me. Even Corinne seemed to have the ability to roll with all those bumps in the road that instilled almost crippling fear in my overly anxious heart.
Despite it all, I had never allowed my migraines to hold me back. In a very significant way, they had made me tough and determined, too. Whenever a migraine forced me to throw in the towel during a study session in law school, I would be in the library the next day before the sun came up, making up for the time I’d lost in the dark with an icepack pressed to my forehead. I worked extra long when my head felt fine, so as not to fall too far behind the next time a migraine sent me to bed for countless hours. I had been careful to surround myself with friends who didn’t disappear after a few canceled plans, and people who weren’t put off by my need for quiet nights in with friends instead of noisy, crowded bars.
A loud grunt from the other side of the bed made me smile as I gulped down the two aspirins. A loud pawing and whining had startled me after I’d crawled, exhausted, into bed last night. Hank Williams had been eagerly waiting outside my bedroom door to be admitted, and jumped right into bed with me when I opened the door. At first I had protested the intrusion, but it quickly became apparent that he was not going to leave the bed without the use of force. The dog was like my own personal heater and didn’t seem to mind if I stuck my cold feet underneath him.
“I know, Hank. I’m not happy about getting up either. At least you wake up looking handsome,” I said, scratching my bedmate behind the ears. Hank lifted a paw to cover his face and gave a whimper of protest.
“You’re a real drama queen,” I said, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom. I needed a quick shower to clear my head and wake me up before I faced my first day on the ranch. Right now, having my own bathroom attached to the room seemed like a pretty good tradeoff for not having a balcony. I was fully aware that my “quick” showers usually turned into standing under the hot water until I almost fell asleep. It was one of the few habits my former roommates had found cause to complain about.
After standing in the warm water long enough for all the stress of the previous day's travel to be burned off, my skin and my muscles had turned to pudding, making me want to crawl back into bed instead of getting dressed to face the day. I surveyed the clothes I had hurriedly unpacked last night. I had no idea what to expect from today since Ben hadn’t exactly given me an itinerary for this last-minute trip. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about seeing Jack again when I finally settled on a pair of dark, slim-fitting jeans and a soft pink tunic sweater that I knew complemented my dark hair and pale skin. I pulled my hair to the side and secured it into a thick braid that hung over my left shoulder. I decided to go for a casual look with my make-up, and stuck with eyeliner and mascara. Then I pulled on the soft leather ankle boots Elise had sent me last Christmas and headed downstairs.
Following the smell of coffee, I managed to find my way to the kitchen—and immediately came to a halt at the sight of the five men scattered around the room, eating and talking loudly. No one had seen me enter the kitchen, so I seriously considered sneaking out again before anyone could spot me. But the need for coffee quickly overpowered my desire to not be trapped in a room with five strange men. Well, four strange men and Ben, whom I recognized sitting at the breakfast bar talking to an older man dressed in jeans and a chambray shirt.
I crept along the counter toward the coffee pot, trying not to draw attention to myself. I was not great with strangers to begin with, and without at least one cup of coffee in my system I was totally hopeless. Not to mention that even in my uncaffeinated state, I recognized Jack sitting at the large farm table. Next to him were two very attractive guys who would have made me tongue-tied and awkward even fully caffeinated on my very best day.
“Well, Evelyn, nice of you to finally join us,” I heard Ben say.
Busted. I turned slowly to see Ben smiling at me over his coffee mug. The group of men had stopped their conversation to watch m
e. My slow, slow brain was crying for coffee, and scrambling and failing to come up with words. I was vaguely aware of making some sort of grunting noise that I was pretty sure I would have been horrified by if my brain wasn’t totally frazzled.
“Coffee.”
Coffee? Good one, Evelyn.
Staying committed to totally ignoring Ben’s previous comment, I managed to pull a more coherent string of words together. “Where do you keep your coffee mugs?” I asked, keeping my eyes focused on Ben.
“If you’re the last one up by an hour and there aren’t any more mugs hanging on the rack,” Ben said, motioning to two rows of empty hooks hanging on the wall next to where the coffee pot was stationed on the counter, “there are more in that cabinet.” He pointed to a cabinet just over my left shoulder.
“Ha ha,” I deadpanned, opening the cabinet and reaching for a mug. I filled the mug to the brim and lifted it to my mouth, inhaling the slightly bitter aroma as I silently gave thanks to the coffee gods.
“There’s cream in the fridge and the sugar is on the shelf there,” said the older man who had been talking with Ben when I came in.
“Thanks, but I'm not big on cream or sugar,” I said, giving him a genuine smile. I took another small sip, eyeing the man over the rim of my cup. His skin was tanned and worn, with lots of lines that suggested he laughed and smiled often. His blond hair was streaked with grey and his blue eyes seemed to twinkle, confirming my suspicion that he was not unused to laughing. In his chambray shirt and well-fitted Levis, the man was a total silver fox. It did not escape my notice that I was sipping my cup of coffee in a room filled with ridiculously attractive men, who were all watching me.
If Hilari and Anna could see me now… I chuckled to myself, taking another long sip.
