by Mary Alford
Most of the executives regarded the women who worked for them as only slightly higher up than furniture. They were not supposed to have feelings or express thoughts. They were simply there to churn out meetings, answer phones and get coffee. I hated the way some of those women were treated. It had made me even more determined not to let anyone, especially someone like old man Severn, treat me like trash.
“Okay, wait right here and let me have a word with him before you join us.”
She gave me one last final assessing glance, shook her head in resignation, and left me standing outside of one of the lesser used executive areas.
I could only consider how hopeless I must look to Susan. If I were the best she had to offer, then poor old Susan would probably end up supporting him herself.
Stephen Donaldson and his entourage of higher-ups had their offices one floor above. The area where we were had been part of the old executive offices and still housed a conference room and a few guest offices. I was surprised Severn would have allowed himself to be stuck in such a low-class neighborhood.
I didn’t have a whole lot of time to ponder these things before Susan reappeared and smiled somewhat reassuringly at me.
“Okay, he understands you weren’t expecting to interview today, and he’s okay with it.” She looked me over one more time and tried to put some order to my blond curls. They didn’t listen to anyone, me included. Susan straightened my shirt, buttoned the top button, and tucked it in a little tighter. “You look fine—don’t worry. You’ll do great and I’ll be right there with you.”
I managed to keep my amusement from showing. I wasn’t the one who was worried. I’d pretty much resigned myself to the idea I’d be interviewing for another temp position with a different company in the near future when the old guy inside laughed me out of his office.
In a weird sort of way, it was almost liberating not to have to worry about doing well. I could pretty much say how I felt. Give him a piece of my mind, even, for all the secretaries around the world who weren’t so lucky.
When Susan caught sight of the glint of mischief in my eyes, I was sure she guessed exactly what I was thinking. I did my best to reassure her with a smile. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t let her down. She’d hired me out of the blue, without any experience in the field. She had taken a chance on me. I owed her some sort of repayment for all her trust.
She knocked once on the guest office door. I just caught a masculine, young-sounding voice tell us to come in, which had me wondering if we were actually in the right office.
“Mr. Severn, I’d like you to meet Grace Caldwell.” Susan practically shoved me in front of her just as the man behind the desk stood up.
I was certain we were in the wrong office, because this guy wasn’t old at all. Off the top of my head, I’d guess thirties.
He was so tall he put my five-foot-four-inch height to shame. I actually had to tip my head back to look into his eyes. They were as blue and as sparkling as the sea on a beautiful clear day.
“Grace, Aaron Severn. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Please, have a seat.” When he smiled, two dimples made an appearance and warning bells went off in my head. I couldn’t let myself be distracted by his perfect white teeth and dark brown hair cut so that it swept back from his forehead and gently rested against his collar.
What? Where had that come from?
It took me a minute to recover from the shock enough to realize I’d been staring at the guy, quite possibly without blinking, and certainly without answering whatever question he might have asked me.
I took the seat he’d indicated, thoroughly embarrassed, and waited for Susan to do the same.
“I don’t see any reason for you to stick around for this, Ms. Jenkins. Grace and I can take it from here.” He smiled at me, and I tried to hide the sinking feeling starting up in the pit of my stomach again. When he turned his attention back to Susan I was able to breathe again. Since she wasn’t in a position to argue with her new boss, Susan left us alone.
Aaron closed the door behind Susan and took his seat.
“Grace—may I call you Grace?” I somehow managed a nod. “If you don’t mind, I would prefer to keep this casual.”
Dressed in a dark gray business suit, its somber color accentuating the crisp white shirt and making me more aware than I wanted to be of the tan skin of both his hands and neck, he didn’t exactly look all that casual.
Aaron Severn obviously spent a great deal of time outdoors, and from the way his suit was tailored to fit his tall and nicely built frame, he was in excellent shape as well. Nope, nothing about this guy indicated casual.
Then I remembered he’d asked me…something. Something about my name, I think. “Sure.”
“Good.” I had to fight hard to keep from returning his smile. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve had Susan send over your resume along with your personnel file.”
Oh, I minded all right. “You did?” My words sounded ridiculous, even to me. For some reason I didn’t quite like the idea of him seeing all of my failures. “When?” I remembered Susan’s silent warning to me to keep my mouth shut and try to be nice.
He laughed at my silly questions. A masculine, disturbing laugh.
“Yesterday afternoon. Does it matter?”
Sure it mattered. I just wasn’t prepared to tell him my boss had just hoodwinked me. Instead, I shook my head.
“Good.” He paused for only a second before saying, “Let me be perfectly honest with you, Grace. Even though you’re Susan’s top candidate for the position, you don’t have a whole lot of background in the administrative field, do you? Although you’ve certainly had an impressive college career. Top in your class, I see. Do you mind my asking what you are doing working here?”
How should I answer? I could fib and say I was working my way up the corporate ladder, shooting for his position someday, but something in his expression told me he was only going through the motions with me anyway. We both knew I wasn’t what he wanted. It was then I decided to throw out all of Susan’s warnings and simply lay it on the line for him.
“My job pays the bills, but it’s only temporary. I never intended to stay here for any length of time. As you can see, my degree is in another area entirely. Once something in my field opens up, I’ll be leaving.”
“I see. Public relations, is it?” His smile told me I wasn’t doing so well in his public relations department.
“Exactly.”
“And you have no real interest in being a secretary?”
“None whatsoever. I’m sorry, I realize I’m probably wasting your time here, but I wasn’t expecting to interview, as I’m sure Susan told you, and I don’t see any real reason to lie. You see, I’ve seen the way most executives treat their assistants, and I can only sympathize with those ladies. I have no desire to become one of them.”
No doubt, he’d seen enough of those poor souls whose livelihoods depended on obeying their bosses’ every demand. He knew exactly what I was talking about.
I could see my answer amused him. I might not be qualified to do the job, but at least he found me amusing.
“And you see those poor ladies as doing what? Getting coffee, running personal errands? Making dates for their bosses?”
Dates? Who said anything about dates?
“Something like that, yes.” I’d started to regret my impulse to be honest with him already. I’d gone too far and would probably get the boot once Susan heard about my little outburst—and I had no doubt she would.
“Well since we’re being honest with each other, let me tell you what I’d be expecting from my assistant. I would never expect her to bring me coffee, and I wouldn’t waste her valuable time running personal errands unless necessary. The position you are interviewing for today is an executive position. There will be another assistant to handle those menial tasks and she is already in place. I want to keep my assistant’s time free to handle other more challenging tasks such as public relations—just to name one. Kin
d of what you were looking for, am I right?”
His infuriating grin told me I’d just made a fatal mistake. I hadn’t even waited for him to show any interest in me as a candidate. I’d just plunged dead ahead on my own personal crusade, as Grandma Ruth liked to call it, instead of waiting on the facts.
I was ready to get up and walk away before I showed him how upset I was when he stopped me.
“Relax, Grace. We’re not finished here.”
I just dropped back down into the chair I’d just jumped out of and waited, my gaze fixed on my hands. I didn’t want to see his grin again, and I knew it would be there.
“I like your spunk,” he surprised me by saying, forcing me to look at him. “You’ll need it for this job. And the last thing I want or need from an assistant is someone who tells me what I want to hear. I can be impossible to work for at times—I’m under no illusions about this, and since we’re being so honest with each other, I happen to know how much you need your job, so, even though I admire your honesty, I would watch what I said in the future. Sometimes speaking your mind can be a bad decision, and certainly not always the best one to make.”
There it was—the truth at last. He knew he had me just as I knew I’d screwed up big time. After my little indiscretion earlier, he’d probably insist on having my resignation be on his desk immediately.
Chapter Two
By the time I made my way back to my cramped office, carefully avoiding Susan’s floor, there were several voicemail messages waiting for me already. Most were from Susan asking me to call her the moment I returned. The last thing I wanted to do was to confess my sins. After all, what could I possibly say to her? Sorry, I pretty much told the boss off and possibly got us both fired.
Applying my usual avoid-problems-at-all-costs philosophy, I fired up my computer and had begun going over the projects I needed to finish by the end of the day when my phone rang.
I recognized Deb Martin’s extension right away. Deb was one of those assistants who had been only too happy to share her horror stories about the boss with me. She’d been assigned to help show me the ropes. We’d hit it off right from the start and become instant buds.
“So, is he as good looking as everyone is saying?” Deb didn’t even bother with hello. I wondered how on earth she had found out so soon. My memories of the horrible interview were still fresh in my mind. I hadn’t stopped blushing since I left Aaron’s office.
“Who?” I gave her my best attempt at playing dumb blonde. A ploy I used as shamelessly as I avoided problems.
“Oh please. Is Aaron Severn as handsome as I’ve heard from just about everyone else around this place today?”
“How would I know?” I decided my motto for the day would be to plead ignorance until there was no other way out.
“Because you’ve just come from an interview with him. How’d it go, by the way? You weren’t in there long. Not good?” I was constantly amazed and a little put off by Deb’s gossip network. She’d worked for the company for almost ten years and knew all the assistants and then some. She might not like all of them, she’d certainly told me some things about a few of them that had shocked the pants off me, but Deb knew how to work the network.
“Who told you? Marge? How did she know?”
“No. Don’t be ridiculous. Marge is so yesterday. Her days are numbered. Besides, she doesn’t talk to anyone beneath her who isn’t one of her cronies. Not Marge, but I do have my ways of finding these things out. You might as well give me the scoop.”
“Sally, right? It was Sally.” Sally had been Marge’s spy for a while. “I should have known. Since you know so much, you can tell me who else is interviewing for the job.”
“Uh-uh. Not until you give me the goods on our handsome new leader.”
I let go of the breath I’d been holding inside. “He’s good looking and then some. If you like the drop-dead gorgeous, cutthroat kind of guy. I don’t…remember?”
“How could I forget? You like those losers who do whatever you tell them to do and are too smitten to realize they don’t stand a chance no matter what they do for you.”
“Deb, just tell me who else is interviewing?”
“Haven’t heard. It’s true, kiddo,” she added when she heard the snorting sound I made to express my disbelief. Please! Deb knew everything. “I haven’t heard one other name mentioned other than yours.”
“Well, Susan told me there were others, so maybe Sally doesn’t have all the inside scoop.”
My spirits sank a little bit lower. No doubt, Aaron would be looking outside the company for an assistant. I sat half listening as Deb chattered on about all the things she’d heard on Aaron while trying to decide if I should just start packing my things.
“You know rumor has it he has a different girlfriend just about every single week. The guy’s worth a fortune, but apparently he has one thing in common with you. He never plans to marry. In his case, why should he? He can have any woman he wants already. Why pay for the cow…”
“That’s disgusting. You should be feeling sorry for someone who isn’t capable of making such a basic human connection.”
“Uh, excuse me, but isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black? Have you checked the mirror lately?” I ignored her nasty little reminder. I did not intend to discuss my personal life with her again.
“Deb, he’s our new boss, and I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate knowing his staff is gossiping about him already. He must be lonely.” I stopped when I heard her sniggering response and couldn’t keep from joining in the fun just a little. “It must be hard holding on to all that money while fighting off the hordes of women who are determined to get some of it. Poor guy. I’m surprised he has time for a job.”
We were both laughing so hard by the time I finally remembered Susan and her request that I no longer cared if this was going to be my last day at LoneStar. Didn’t matter. It was kind of enjoyable poking fun at someone as untouchable as Aaron Severn appeared to be.
I lucked out and got Susan’s voice mail, which meant she’d probably left for the day. She kept strange hours at times. With two small children, she ended up working from home more times than not.
So, I left her a message letting her know I had no idea how the interview went, which was sort of the truth. I didn’t know when I was going to be fired.
I decided I’d wasted enough time on Mr. Severn for one day. He could just keep his lousy job, not to mention the little carrot he’d dangled in front of my nose before pulling it back.
The more I thought about it, the madder it made me. He’d let me put my foot in my mouth (quite deliberately, in my mind), and had thoroughly enjoyed watching me do it.
I glanced over the e-mails attached to the next three jobs waiting on me, opening the one marked urgent first.
It was a fifteen-page financial report that needed to be finished for a seven a.m. meeting the following morning. The job would take most of the day and probably half the evening. I’d end up staying late to get it back to the requesting manager on time. Not that it mattered. I didn’t have much else going on in my life. After making sure the two remaining jobs weren’t critical, I started in on my urgent project.
I was knee deep in numbers when Susan called me back.
“So, you didn’t sound positive in your message. How do you think it went?”
I debated on how to answer her and not reveal the full extent of my disastrous interview. No need to dash all of Susan’s hopes.
“I can’t even begin to say, but if I’m guessing, I’d say not so well. He just wasn’t impressed with me. I’m sorry, Susan, I know you were hoping…”
I left the sentence unfinished. We both knew what she’d been hoping.
“Well, you never know. I haven’t heard anything either, which is curious. I’ll certainly let you know when I do.”
Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough about my little disaster.
“What did you think of him personally?”
“Uh, well he seems nice enough.” Of course, I knew what she meant. Susan wanted to know if I was as impressed by Aaron as Deb and everyone else obviously were.
“You know, I’d never met him in person before today but, man, if I weren’t married…” The implication needed no further explanation. Susan just didn’t understand why I wasn’t jumping all over myself to get Aaron’s attention. Was every woman around LoneStar going crazy over the man? What was it about him beyond the obvious good looks, money, and no doubt some charm I hadn’t been privileged enough to see?
“You know, he has such a bad boy reputation. The right woman would straighten him out,” Susan went on, oblivious to my regrets.
If I weren’t berating myself over my screw-ups, I would have laughed. No woman, right or wrong, was going to make any lasting difference in Aaron Severn’s life. No, he knew exactly what he wanted, and it didn’t include any emotional entanglements, no matter who the woman was.
I used the excuse of work piling up to get her off the phone, but even though I had a pressing deadline looming, I didn’t go right back to work.
Instead, I went on the Internet and did a quick search using Aaron’s name. I might not have been willing to admit it to anyone else, not even Deb, but I was curious about the man.
There was a virtual wealth of information about him in the online business journals, mostly consisting of all his accomplishments. Aaron Severn had a reputation for being a sharp, cunning, take-no-prisoners businessman. Because of his ruthlessness, he’d risen quickly through the ranks of competitors to become one of the youngest corporate executives in the advertising world.
After spending more time than I actually had, I finally was able to find one of those New York social pages that had all of the guy’s dirty laundry posted on it. Oh yeah, Susan was right. He was a bad boy. I closed the Internet window and concentrated on work. After my catastrophic meeting with Aaron, I needed to focus on doing my best work just to keep the job I had.
I put on my favorite CD, turned the volume as loud as I possibly could without disturbing my neighbor, and threw myself into the boring financial report on my computer screen.
