Boss Meets Her Match

by Janet Lee Nye

  He let his own silence play out. She knew he hated being called Charles. He also hated the way she told him he’d have dinner with them rather than asking. Nothing new, but he’d hoped that since he was over thirty years old now, she’d treat him somewhat like an adult. He sighed. Such was the life of the black sheep. If only he’d become a lawyer. Interned for some powerful senator who owed his father a favor, then moved on to a lucrative lobbying position, scamming people for the sake of a billionaire or two, then his parents might not treat him like a dirty secret.

  “Sure, that’d be great. Just let me know the night so I can clear any plans I might have.”

  “Your sister is having another baby.”

  Ah. Moving right on to major disappointment number two. His two sisters were popping out the grandbabies left and right, but he, the only son, the only carrier of the Matthews family name, had thus far failed to produce a Charles Beaumont Matthews the Sixth.

  “Awesome. Which one?”

  “Susannah. She’s due in April.”

  “Tell her and Biff I sent my congratulations.”

  “His name is Bill.”

  “Is Biff Charlotte’s husband? I get them mixed up.”

  “You are being unpleasant. Goodbye.”

  “Bye, Mom,” he said as she ended the call.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t love his family. He just didn’t like them very much. Boring. Predictable. And so many damned rules.

  He stood to gather his things when the phone rang again. He almost didn’t look, sure it was his father calling to yell at him for upsetting his mother. And his mother merely annoyed him. His father could push buttons that made him want to punch walls. But it was Eliot Rutledge. This was random.

  “Dr. Rutledge, how are you?”

  “Eliot, please, son. How many times do I have to ask?”

  “Enough to overcome the ruthless teachings of several deportment for proper gentlemen classes, sir.”

  Eliot laughed. “Yes. I have a daughter who was politely asked to leave several of those.”

  “How may I help you?”

  “I have an idea. Now, I understand you have a lot going on with your job at the hospital and your art career beginning to take off, so tell me no if you need to.”

  “Okay. Go ahead.”

  Like he was going to tell his benefactor no. He just hoped it wouldn’t be too onerous.

  “I do some volunteer work at the St. Toribio Mission out on John’s Island. Are you familiar with it?”

  “Vaguely. They work with the migrant workers?”

  “Yes. Primarily, but the doors are open to anyone needing help. I was thinking about creating an art-therapy program for the children. I see them there while their parents are getting medical or legal help and they have nothing to do but sit and wait. I thought an art room with supplies would be helpful.”

  Matt nodded. “Actually, sir, that sounds like an amazing idea. I’m sure it would help them quite a bit. What are you thinking? Weekly sessions or just get it set up?”

  “For now, getting it set up. We have plenty of volunteers who could watch the kids and keep the room and supplies in order.”

  “Okay. I’m in. Just let me know when and where.”

  “Very good. Thank you. I’ll be back in touch.”

  Matt ended the call with a smile on his face. At least someone appreciated his art and his desire to use it to help others.

  CHAPTER SIX

  LENA STOOD IN the doorway of her walk-in closet. Sass wound her way around her ankles, getting cat hair on her still-damp and freshly shaved legs. “What do you think, Sass? Standard black? Or should we pull out all the stops and go with the red?”

  As she moved into the closet, Sass dashed under the row of neatly hanging dresses, her tail trailing along the hems as she walked. Lena sighed. “I might as well just buy everything in Sass orange. It’d be cheaper than all the lint rollers.”

  She’d always wanted a pet. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if it was a cat. Sass seemed interested in what she had to say, so that was all that mattered. Lena leaned down to scratch behind Sass’s ear. Lifting a dress from the rod, she turned to the mirror. “I’m going with the red. I shaved my legs for this.” She hooked a pair of shoes out of the shoe rack. Black stilettos with four-inch heels. “Let’s see what poor old Eduardo thinks about this.”

  She slipped the dress on, careful not to smudge her makeup, and wiggled the zipper up. Oh, hell yes. She smoothed down the front. The dark red set off her hair and eyes and it clung to her curves like nothing else. Bonus, it actually came down to just above her knees so she didn’t have to worry about accidently flashing anyone.

  Trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach, she fluffed her hair and grabbed the shoes. “All right, Sass. It’s showtime.”

  * * *

  THE UBER DRIVER pulled up to the curb directly outside Hall’s Chophouse. Lena frowned. Eduardo was there, waiting. In rumpled khaki pants and a short-sleeved, blue plaid shirt. And was he wearing sneakers? For this, I shaved above the knee. She slipped her shoes back on and stepped out of the car.

  He didn’t even notice. Just stood there, hands shoved in his pockets, staring the wrong way down the street. “Idiot,” she muttered under her breath. Shaking her head, she approached him. The clack of her heels on the sidewalk must have caught his attention because he turned in her direction.

  “Oh, hi,” he said.

  She stopped in front of him. “Hello.”

  He pressed his lips together and looked down at his shoes. “You know, I know our families sort of pushed this on us and I was just trying to go along with it, but, so if you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to.”

  Her mouth, she managed to keep shut. Her eyes, however, fixed on him in a stare so hot he should have burst into flames. He glanced at her and a shadow of fear crossed his features. The door to the restaurant opened and an older man dressed properly in a suit walked out. He smiled at Lena.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Lena said to him. She motioned at Eduardo. “This gentleman doesn’t want to go on the date he asked me out on. What do you think about that?”

  The man stopped and, with a slow up-and-down look, smiled. “I think he’s a damned fool.”

  “Hey. I didn’t say I didn’t want to. I said if you didn’t want to,” Eduardo protested.

  Lena lifted a finger. “Dude. We are going on this date. I shaved my legs and put on a bra. We will each pay our own way. We can talk or not. Then we can each go tell our families that, oh well, didn’t work out. Okay?”

  The frightened look returned. “Okay,” he said.

  Lena smiled. “Okay.”

  As they were seated, Lena asked for a chardonnay. She tried to hide her irritation because Eduardo was staring at her like she was going to gut him. She didn’t mean to be a bitch. She simply could not stand a wishy-washy man. Made her teeth itch.

  “So, you’re a software engineer?” See, I’m being nice.

  “Yes.”

  Silence. For the love of God.

  “What sort of software do you engineer?” Come on, man. Give me something here.

  “Mostly design-and-build commercial websites.”

  Lena nodded. She had no idea what that even meant. “I understand Charleston has a thriving technology community.”

  He fiddled with his napkin. “Yeah.”

  Lena eyed the steak knife. This was going to be a long night.

  “So,” Eduardo said. “How many kids do you want to have?”

  Lena froze. Stared. Gave him a long, slow blink. “Um. I don’t know?”

  “Oh. Because I come from a large family. Very traditional.”

  Lena raised her eyebrow in a perfect arch. Traditional. Didn’t teach you any machismo
, that’s for sure. “Honestly, Ed, I think I’d like to shelve the topic of children until after my wine arrives at least.”

  “I think it’s important. At your age, you can’t afford to wait, you know. Your aunt said you wanted to settle down and start a family. Me too.”

  The waiter appeared with her wine and she practically snatched the glass from his hand. “Thank you. Go ahead and bring me another one, please.”

  She took several steadying sips. Let out a long breath and looked back up at Eduardo. “So, you think we should just go ahead and get married? Twenty-four-hour wait on the marriage license. We could go get it Monday and be married by Tuesday. Maybe I could be pregnant by this time next week. Unless my withering eggs are too old and feeble to crawl out of my ovaries.”

  His face went dark. “No wonder you have to have your family out hunting men for you. You’re mean.”

  “And you’re insulting.”

  “Actually, I’m leaving.”

  Lena shrugged and took another sip of wine. “Bye.”

  The waiter came over as Eduardo left. “Everything all right here, ma’am?”

  She gave him her brightest smile and was rewarded by the pure male appreciation in his eyes. “Everything is perfect. I’m ready to order. I’ll have a cup of She Crab soup to begin. The petit filet mignon, medium well, with the parmesan truffle fries, thank you.”

  She discreetly kicked her heels off and took her phone out of her purse. She was going to have her favorite meal and finish the book she’d started last weekend. Eduardo could scamper back home and tell his mommy how mean she was.

  * * *

  “SO, HOW’D THE date go last night?”

  Lena groaned and rolled over in bed. “It’s not even nine o’clock yet, Sadie. Ugh.” Sass hopped on the bed and stomped across Lena’s stomach to stand on her chest, singing the song of her people. The song of long suffering, slow starvation and the horror of a half-empty bowl of dry food.

  “Are you murdering your cat?” Sadie asked.

  “Not yet,” Lena muttered, pushing Sass aside and rolling out of bed. “I haven’t even had coffee yet.”

  “So, how was the date?”

  “He got up and walked out on me.”

  “Ha! Wyatt! You owe me twenty dollars.”

  “Are you betting on my dates? You bet against me? Bitch.”

  “I know you. You are mean.”

  “I’m not mean. I just don’t take bullshit.”

  “What’d he do?”

  “Literally, Sadie, the second question out of his mouth was how many kids did I want? Then he said I’d better hurry up before I got too old.”

  “Tell me you only verbally emasculated him.”

  “Yes. He called me a meanie and ran away.”

  “Lena. You have to know that you can be a bit...ah...intimidating when you get angry.”

  “Weeds out the weak.”

  “Well maybe just give them a chance to see the nice you before you unleash your inner Latina guerrera once in a while.”

  “Next time. Right now, I want coffee. Goodbye and don’t call me on a weekend before noon again unless it’s an emergency. Bruja.”

  Ending the call, she tossed the phone on the counter. “Don’t even try tripping me this morning, feline.”

  Ten minutes later, Sass loved her again and she was stretched out on the couch with a large, steaming cup of coffee warming her hands. Maybe Sadie was right. Maybe she was mean. Maybe she could have handled that whole situation more graciously. “You know what, Sass? Maybe he should have not asked that. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up my age. Maybe I’m not mean but he’s a rude dork. Do they ever think that?”

  No, they didn’t. It was always her fault. She eyed the clock. At some point she was going to get a phone call from her mother. The way Estrella and Eduardo’s mother had planned this, there was no doubt a full report would be made. The only question was: before or after mass? Probably after.

  By one that afternoon, she started to think that maybe she’d gotten away with it. Maybe Eduardo hadn’t ratted her out to his mother. But that hope was dashed shortly after two. Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” pierced the quiet, sending Sass scurrying for the bedroom.

  “Bueno, Mamacita,” Lena answered.

  “So. I understand things went poorly?”

  Lena rolled her eyes and made a face. “Yeah, that wasn’t a good matchup. Eduardo and I aren’t on the same page. In fact, we weren’t even on the same date.”

  “There was no reason for you to be rude.”

  “He was rude first.”

  “Now you sound like a child.”

  “I’m not the one who ran tattling to my mommy.” A flood of rapid, long-suffering Spanish filled her ear. When it died down, she continued. “No more fix-ups. Promise.”

  “I promise.”

  “Thank you.” A frown creased her forehead. That was way too easy. “Promise, Momma.”

  “I promise I won’t try to fix you up again. And I did have another reason to call. Don’t forget that Louisa’s daughter is having that operation tomorrow to fix her leg.”

  “Ah, yes. Thanks. I did forget about that. I have a present for her. I’ll bring it to the hospital when I get off work.”

  She ended the call feeling lucky to have gotten off that easily. She got Ava’s present and set it on the entryway table next to her purse so she wouldn’t forget it in the morning. Glancing at the time, she sat back down with a sigh. She and Sadie would usually do something on Sunday afternoons. Now Sadie was busy with Wyatt and Jules. She fired up her laptop. Might as well get some work done.

  * * *

  A FEW HOURS LATER, both her stomach and Sass were grumbling. She closed down her work files. Grabbing her phone, she scrolled through her delivery restaurant contacts. Mmm. Brown Dog Deli. Setting the phone down, she thought about what Sadie had said about being in a rut. Maybe she should change out of her pajamas, put on real clothes and go outside. Do something that involved people.

  “I don’t want to people,” she moaned, flopping back on the couch. She picked up the phone and did a search for “Charleston events.” A moment later, she was sitting straight up. “Sass! It’s the Color of Music Festival!” Checking the time, she got to her feet. She could still make it to the Ebony and Ivory Piano Recital.

  After calling to make sure there were still tickets available, she showered and changed clothes. The church hosting the recital was only a short walk away. As she reached the street, she called Sadie but the call went to voice mail. “I’m outside and peopling, for your information.”

  Smiling as she strolled down the sidewalk, she realized she did feel much better. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. Everyone in her family was safe and happy. There was a line already queued up at the church. As she walked to the end of the line after buying her ticket, she heard someone calling her name.

  “Hello, Dr. Rutledge,” she said, shaking hands with him. “Mrs. Rutledge. Nice to see you both.”

  “I was going to call you tomorrow, Lena,” Eliot said. “I’m putting together a group to do a little charity work for the St. Toribio Center. We’ll be setting up an activity room for the children to use while their parents are being seen. We could use your Spanish skills.”

  St. Toribio, the patron saint of Mexican immigrants, was more than familiar to Lena. She’d given money and attended benefits for the charity that offered not only medical and legal assistance, but English classes and adult continuing education. She’d never been actively involved in a project before.

  “Wow. Yes. I’d love to help out. What do you need? A translator?”

  “Thank you. Yes. Definitely translation. Also, we might need some printed materials made. Would you be able to help with that?”

  “Ah,” Lena said
. “I grew up speaking Spanish with my older relatives. While I’m verbally fluent, my reading and writing skills are very rudimentary. But one of my cousins has a degree in Hispanic Literature. I’m sure she’d help out.”

  “Great. Well, the first planning meeting is going to be next Saturday. Right now, we’ve got it slated for ten in the morning, at my house. Is that good?”

  “Got it. Thanks for asking me.”

  After saying goodbye and walking to the end of the line, she realized she was grinning ear to ear. Uh. Okay. Maybe you should try this actual volunteering stuff more often. Feels pretty good.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON, Lena wandered the labyrinth that was the Children’s Hospital. Ava, her cousin’s little girl, had broken her leg in a trampoline accident the previous summer. It hadn’t healed correctly over a growth plate and now required an operation.

  Finally, she found the correct unit. She paused outside the open door to Ava’s room. She could hear voices. Ava and a man. Not a relative. She stepped into the doorway.

  Ava was in the bed, her leg up in something that looked like a torture device. In a chair beside her was a man. She recognized that flow of dark blond hair, tied back with a length of leather. Recognized those shoulders. That voice. In a moment, she’d be seen and he would turn and those impossibly icy blue eyes would look into hers and those lips would curve into a smile and...

  “Auntie Lena!” Ava squealed.

  Matt turned with a surprised expression, but she had Ava to distract her. She circled the bed to the opposite side and leaned in to give Ava a hug and kiss on the forehead. “Ava. Mi probo prima! Como te sientes? Tienes dolar?”

  “No, it doesn’t hurt and it’s rude to speak Spanish in front of people who don’t,” Ava said prissily. She held up a sketchbook. “Mr. Matt is drawing pictures with me because I can’t go to the playroom.”

  “Ms. Reyes,” Matt said, his tone dripping with pleasured surprise and more than a little teasing. “How delightful to see you. I didn’t know Ava was your niece.”