s.”
We both raised our cups and saluted the Outer Reach program which I discovered by chance. Or rather the one that Amelia had pointed me to, would be the perfect way to get a secretary for Ross. It was for people over fifty who couldn’t get back into employment. It was against the law to discriminate against someone’s age, but with rising taxes and inflation, some of them needed to get back into work. I had a couple of ladies whose résumés looked perfect. I just hoped that Ross would see it my way.
Then again, as Amelia had politely highlighted, I just needed to make him think that it was his idea.
As I got back to Ross’s office, they were waiting outside. Ross and Craig were supposed to be at some kind of golf tournament with a couple of potential clients. They should have left when I was in Starbucks with Amelia, but Ross always managed to make a surprise visit. Sometimes I thought that he did it to check up on me.
And predictably enough, he strolled into his office.
“Are those my potential secretaries?”
I nodded.
“Good, just choose the right candidate.”
“You don’t mind…” I was just about to ask him about their age.
“No, just like a mature wine, they get better with age. That’s what I found with you.” Then he walked back out again. Was he complementing me or insulting me?
I thought about the wink and gesture he’d made when he left. I decided that he was insulting me, and promptly disregarded Amelia’s idea of dressing up all sexy and surprising him. Like a mature wine, I didn’t feel like being refined that night.
Chapter Sixteen
Ross
Olivia and I had been seeing each other for a couple of months. Yet I couldn’t fucking believe that I was going along with what we were doing that night. I was simultaneously trying to keep a straight face and put a smile on it. But it was so fucking hard, especially with Olivia smiling at me every minute.
“Ross, if you don’t want to go in, then we can just go home.”
I patted her hand, thinking about us having sex anywhere and everywhere and now we were going to talk about it with a bunch of strangers. I should have fucking backed out. That’s what Craig used to do with his wife.
Speak off the devil, “Shit, can’t believe you came,” he laughed as he patted me on the back.
“Olivia, you’re a good woman.” She winked back at him. I wished there was less of this secret language between the two of them and more talking. Amelia took Olivia’s hand and they entered the building. The one that I really didn’t want to go into.
“Why should I suffer alone?” Craig said as he opened the door for me.
“’Cause you’re a wimp!” I reminded him as I passed him.
“Fuck you, Ross. You could have told Olivia that you didn’t want to come. But you didn’t.”
“There fucking better be other saps here too, otherwise Craig. I’m really not fucking coming back. Whether Olivia likes it or not.”
“That’s what I said Ross, and every fucking week, we’re here.”
As the elevator doors opened, Amelia smiled, “You would think that they had to do all the cooking, cleaning, and washing the way them two are carrying on. It’s only a night out with couples and they look as if they’re going to hell or something?”
I scoffed. “We could have gone to a restaurant.”
“We do that all the time, Ross,” Olivia laughed, and I started to wonder whether this was what happened to women when you fell in love. They decided to take over your body, mind and any fucking sense that you had left.
As the doors opened, Amelia grabbed my hand and said, “You’ll love it. Craig never did at first, now he forces me to come.”
“What?”
“That wasn’t what he’d said to me. He’d told me that it was the other way around!” I blurted out thinking that this guy was getting on my last nerve.
Craig had a big smile on his face, the same fucking one that he used to have on his face whenever he cheated on a test and didn’t get caught. I really should have known better.