by Alexis Gold
His father planted his palms down firmly on the desk, “We can’t afford for you to keep doing that! You have been through secretary after secretary, and every time you get a new one, you wind up bedding her and then we wind up getting sued! You have a horrible reputation in the business world here, and the rumors are spreading further than Manhattan!”
Jonathon sighed and rubbed his fingers against his forehead, his hands over his face as he rested his elbows on his knees. He knew that the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere good.
Phillip continued, his cheeks going from pink to red. “I’ve lost thousands upon thousands of dollars to your numerous indiscretions, and I’m not about to continue doing it! The last one cost the company a fortune! You’re in all the papers and online media all of the time as being a playboy with an attitude; the arrogant bull is what I think they’ve begun calling you!”
He pushed himself up out of his chair and lifted his glass to his lips, emptying it and then walking over to the bar for a refill.
“Have you no pride? Have you no shame or decency about you at all? No sense of propriety! You are going to inherit this business from me, and you cannot take control of it if you are in danger of losing it, especially to something as tawdry as an affair with a staff member! What are you thinking?” he raged on and Jonathon sighed and said nothing.
“Now you’re endangering us again and you have no assistant. What are you doing about that?” his father demanded, returning to his desk.
Jonathon leaned back in his chair and looked at his father with slumped shoulders. “I’m actually having a few new admin assistants interviewed tomorrow. We’ll see where it goes from there.”
His father glared hotly at him. “You’d better keep it all business, do you hear me? I absolutely forbid you under any circumstance to have any kind of relations other than business with anyone you hire! If you do it again I’m going to mandate that all of your administrative assistants be men! Is that clear? We’ve had terrible press over this and I’m not about to stand for it happening ever again!”
Jonathon nodded in silence and then answered his father, though his gaze did not reach his father’s eyes. “I understand. I will not be engaging in any kind of romantic relations with any of my staff in the future.”
Phillip leaned far forward, his eyes nearly on fire with anger. “If it happens again, you will be fired. I am not going to absorb any further expense, collateral damage, or bruised reputation toward our family or this company because of your indecencies! You will not get another chance!”
He looked up at his father with his heart in his throat and finally met his eyes. “It won’t happen again,” he said quietly. His father did not make idle threats, and panic was coursing through him as he sat there facing a harsh reality he had never considered. His attention was locked onto the man seated before him.
“What in the hell are you doing with these women anyway? It can’t just be cheap or easy sex; you’re a good looking boy, you could go out and find girls all over the city, I’m sure. What on earth are you going after your staff for? Why don’t you find someone in our own circle of friends?
"You know, Vincent Grayson is my oldest and dearest friend, and I believe that his daughter Susan has liked you for quite a while now. She’s on par with you in every way. That would be a smart match. That’s what you should be focusing on, rather than the women on the other side of your office door. Give Susan a call and take her out. God knows it would make both Vincent and I thrilled if you two tied the knot, and it would certainly be a step in the right direction of saving your reputation and the reputation and finances of this company!” His eyes were fully open and his face was beet red.
Jonathon sighed again. He had known the conversation would go that route and he had hoped to avoid it, but there was no way around it. His father had had it with him. He had very little interest in Susan Grayson whatsoever, but telling his father that as he glared at him over his desk would be a bad idea; the timing could hardly be worse.
“I’ll give it some thought,” he said instead, standing up and straightening his jacket. “Good morning, father.” He spoke as a means of saying goodbye. With that, he turned around and walked out of the door, closing it behind him as he heard his father plunk his empty glass of scotch down on the desk.
Jonathon went back to his office and found the flash drive he had requested, waiting for him on his desk. It was labeled and as he plugged it in to look at it, he saw that everything he had wanted to review was on it. Margaret was a good secretary. He considered hiring a secretary that was a little older like she was; someone who might not be attracted to him, and someone he would not be attracted to. He knew that it wasn’t in his best interest to hire anyone else who might turn his head.
Jonathon hadn’t meant for each of his indiscretions to happen, they just seemed to develop and when hot sex around the office turned into more than a night or two out, he would realize too late that he had taken it too far, and then he’d have to either let the woman go because she wouldn’t let go of him, or she’d let go because he wouldn’t hold on to her.
It never ended well, and he swore every time that he wouldn’t let it happen again. After the last fiasco, he promised himself that he wouldn’t do it again, and then he had just promised his father, so there could be no slip-up with whoever was hired to fill the administrative position. In an effort to remove himself from the process of hiring and choosing a woman who might be tempting to him, he had given the task of hiring his new assistant to the head of the Human Resources department; a woman older than Margaret was, and possibly even more conservative.
He was certain she would make a good choice for him. He wanted to negate any chance that he could be remotely associated with the final decision on who was hired. He was well aware of the office rumors and the whispered scandals that had made the rounds in the business he was slated to inherit, and he didn’t want to add more to it.
His father had shaken him up with the mention of him losing his job. He knew that Phillip had been disappointed in him, but he never would have guessed that he might lose more than what was left of the reputation he didn’t care much about. The company was a family legacy, and his father was not one to make a light threat. If it had been spoken, it had been spoken after much consideration and contemplation, and it was a serious warning to be heeded. Jonathon Cross was intent on keeping his romances out of the office and his mind focused on business.
The only request his father had made that he was disinclined to spend much time at all on was that Jonathon become romantically involved with Susan Grayson, the daughter of his father’s best friend, Vincent Grayson. Susan and he had been an item on and off throughout college, and though she had what could be realistically termed as an obsession with him, he had little interest in her other than for occasional intimate interludes. Even those had stopped after college, because she couldn’t seem to want to let go of him, and he had no interest in a serious relationship with her, and that was what she wanted with him more than anything.
For both of their sakes, he had for all intents and purposes, stopped speaking with her, but they would see each other on rare occasions and he was polite, and she was filled with longing, holding back her unrequited love for him.
Her father had prompted him several times to become involved with her, and his own father had done the same; both of them interested in merging their families, and their businesses. Her father was also interested in seeing his only daughter get anything that she wanted to make her happy, and there was nothing that she wanted more than Jonathon Cross.
Phillip had mentioned him getting engaged to Susan, and when he had, Jonathon struggled to keep his mouth closed, rather than to tell his father just how remote a possibility that truly was, no matter how much his father pressed him toward being with her.
Jonathon wasn’t interested in settling down with anyone for any length of time; he liked to have fun, and he preferred to indulge in spending time with a varie
ty of women, and he was not about to give that up for his father, his father’s best friend, or anyone else.
He could see all the merit of finding women outside of the office, as his father had requested, however, and on that point he would acquiesce to his father’s request.
Chapter2
At ten in the morning on the following day, Naomi was sitting in a reception area on the twenty seventh floor of the Cross Corp building. Her heart was beating swiftly and her mind was whirring with the possibilities of what may come, but she was calm and collected on the outside, and she knew that was what mattered most of all.
She had opted to wear a dark pinstriped skirt and jacket with a light blouse beneath the jacket, low heels, and her mother’s pearl necklace. She had slipped in the pearl earrings that her parents had given her for her sweet sixteen birthday, and they matched the necklace almost perfectly. Her makeup was light, her hair was pulled up into a twist at the back of her head, and on her wrist, and her watch told her that she was fifteen minutes early to the interview. She looked classy and put together, and she knew it. It instilled her with some confidence, but not enough to truly ease the butterflies that were fluttering wildly in her stomach.
Just as the clock began to chime ten times, an older woman walked out to her, extending her hand and inclining her head slightly. She was slightly heavyset and had a sway to her whole body as she moved. Her hair was silvery white and her eyes were blue, but were obscured behind thick glasses. She was dressed nicely, but simply, and Naomi admired the woman’s short haircut that was styled in a cute and bold fashion; it reminded her of Andrea.
“Good morning, dear, you must be Naomi Bradshaw. I’m Helen Klein. It’s so nice to meet you.” She extended her hand to Naomi and Naomi took it and rose to her feet with a wide smile on her face.
“Good morning, Ms. Klein, it’s really nice to meet you as well.” She returned pleasantly. The butterflies in her stomach continued to zip around erratically. She noted that Ms. Klein had a firm but friendly handshake and she knew in the first few minutes of speaking with her as they walked into the meeting room that she liked her. She was anxious in every part of her that Ms. Klein would like her as well.
The meeting room was like the building and the elevator and the waiting room; spacious and large. There was an oval table that filled most of the room, and it was surrounded by a couple of dozen chairs. They sat together at one end of it and faced one another. Ms. Klein set a tablet on the table and ran her finger over it, reading over what Naomi was sure was her resume.
She waited patiently and quietly as Ms. Klein reviewed it for a few long moments, and then the woman looked up at her and smiled. She asked Naomi questions about her education and her work history and she asked her about why she wanted to work with Cross Corp.
Naomi felt as though it was less of an interview and much more of a conversation with a friend that she was just getting to know. Ms. Klein asked her if she had any questions about the benefits or the position, and she asked what she felt she needed to in order to give herself a good base of information about the job. Ms. Klein seemed impressed with the questions that she asked and when they were done with them, Ms. Klein smiled genuinely at her.
“I was given authority to hire whomever I felt was best qualified for the position, and Naomi, I really have to tell you that I feel as though you are the best person for this job. It is my pleasure to offer it to you today. It is yours if you would like it.” Ms. Klein said happily.
Naomi felt all of the butterflies in her suddenly come to an immediate stop and somehow it felt like they all fell right through her to the ground below. She stared at the other woman and tried to convince her lungs to take in air. After a few long moments, she was able to take a deep breath and smile and the shock began to wear off. She was going to work at Cross Corp. She had gotten the job.
Elation flowed through her like a running river coursing in her every vein. She had done it, and all the while that she was filling out paperwork and doing her orientation, she could only think of her parents and how proud and happy they would have been for her as she reached her goals. In her mind’s eye she saw their smiling faces and she knew they would have supported her in her decision to work at Cross Corp. They would have told her that she had earned it, and that she deserved all of the good that she got.
Her hiring paperwork finished and her whirring thoughts and mind beginning to finally settle, she realized that she hadn’t asked one considerably important question. She looked at Ms. Klein with a wide smile.
“Who is it that I’ve been hired for? Whose administrative assistant will I be?” she wondered hopefully. In all of the research that she had done, she had been able to get to know many of the people in the top ranks of the corporation for whom she might be hired to assist. There were some she truly hoped that she would be working for, and there were some who she honestly hoped that she would not get, but in all the excitement of her new hire, she had forgotten to ask.
She had shared with Ms. Klein all of the research that she had done on the company, and so it was with a knowing eye that Ms. Klein looked at her with what could only be called a poker face, and said in a professional voice that she had not used since she introduced herself to Naomi, “You will be working for Jonathon Cross as his personal administrative assistant.”
It was clear by the look on Ms. Klein’s face that she was curious to know just how familiar Naomi was with Jonathon Cross and his reputation. It was clear by the expression on Naomi’s face that she was distinctly clear with Jonathon Cross and his reputation.
She was stunned when the name left Ms. Klein’s lips. Jonathon Cross. She would be working directly beneath Jonathon Cross. The very idea of it made her stomach turn. He was someone she hadn’t expected to be working for at all. The possibility of her ever even associating with him had never crossed her mind.
Naomi was more familiar with Jonathon Cross’s reputation and lifestyle than she was any other member of the staff whom she had researched, and it was not because she did any research on him. It was because he was so often in the news for having said or done something appalling or arrogant, and for always being out with different women and never having a serious relationship.
In the business world, he was the black sheep; he was renowned for his cold as steel and razor-sharp business sense, but he was also notorious for his unforgiving mouth, his cold shoulder, and his history of sleeping with women who worked for him; usually ending with disastrous results. She could not believe that he was going to be her boss. It was the worst possible scenario at the best possible company.
Revolted though she was at the idea of working for a man like him, she could not say no to the opportunity to work at his company, and she considered that it may be possible for her to change her position to another executive; something she hoped that she could do in a very short amount of time.
She called the law firm where she had been offered the other job interview and advised them that she had accepted the job at the corporation. Then she called Andrea, and Andrea picked up her phone almost right away.
“Well?” she asked excitedly, “Did you get it? What happened? How did it go?” Andrea asked impatiently.
Naomi laughed. “Hang on! I’ll tell you everything. It’s both good and bad.” She began.
“Good and bad? How is it good and bad? I thought this was your dream job!” Andrea asked in confusion.
“Well,” sighed Naomi, “I got the job, which was fantastic. The woman who offered it to me gave it to me right there as soon as the interview was done! I was so excited! I’ve spent the rest of my day filling out paperwork and doing orientation. It’s actually really exciting.”
Andrea paused a moment. “Well, what is the bad part? How could there be any bad part at all?” she asked in confusion.
“Are you sitting down?” Naomi asked, lowering her voice as she looked around herself in the break room to make sure that no one else was there.
“Oh gosh, this
sounds serious. Okay. I’m sitting. What is it?” she asked with trepidation.
“My boss is Jonathon Cross.” Naomi moaned dejectedly.
There was silence for a moment on the other end of the line. Naomi knew that Andrea knew exactly who Jonathon Cross was, and everything that he did.
“Well yeah, he owns the company with his father… so he’d be your boss. He’s everyone’s boss there.” Andrea said with a little hesitation, obviously lost on the point that Naomi was trying to make.
“No, Andy…. He’s my boss. I’m his personal administrative assistant. I’m working directly for him,” she said in a low tone.
There was a long moment of silence again, and then a deep groan. “Oh you must be kidding me. That’s horrible! I’m so sorry!”
Naomi knew that Andrea would feel just the same way that she did about it, and that at least was some small comfort. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I almost wanted to ask if there was anyone else in the whole company who I could work for instead, but then I didn’t. I knew I’d have to just deal with it until I can switch to someone else,” she admitted sadly.
Andrea gave another disgruntled moan. “Well… you just be careful. He has a terrible reputation with the ladies who work for him, or under him, and I mean directly under him.”
Naomi frowned and sank down in her chair slightly. “I know. I’m going to be careful. You know better than anyone that I’m here for the job and not for any other reason. I don’t care what he says or does; I’m only here to work in a business capacity and not that I expect him to come after me, but if he does he’s going to find out really fast that I’m not the kind of girl he usually has as his admin.”
Andrea sounded relieved. “I’m so glad that you said that! I was worried for a minute. Not about you, of course, but definitely about him! You just keep your eyes peeled and watch out for him. Oh…. And congratulations again on the job! I think…” she trailed off and then laughed a little and Naomi laughed with her and before too long they were talking about other things and Jonathon Cross was no longer on their minds.
