“So, you ready to get started on Monday?”
“Sure, what do you have in mind?” A flutter of excitement passed through my stomach. With graduation only three short weeks in my rearview, I was eager to get started on this internship. He’d been reluctant to start with, but Mom convinced him to let me get my feet wet with him, despite what it might look like on my resume to have my brother’s company name there as my first job post-college.
“So, like anything, it’s best if you work from the bottom up.” He held his hand in defense as I rolled my eyes. “Now listen. You may run your own firm someday, so if you learn everything from the ground up, you’ll know how to do it all. You’ll start by being a PA—”
“Personal assistant?” That was a hard pass. I groaned internally. Fifty-thousand dollars on an education to make someone’s coffee—no thanks.
“Yes but listen. You’ll learn the most if you assist Jared or me. I think Jared is the better option because now that we’ve signed the papers on the new branch in Chicago, I’ll be headed there. Someone will need to care for Mom as I get this thing off the ground.”
I thought I detected a hint of slurring in his speech and decided that we would have to readdress this conversation at a time when he was not clearly drunk. No way in hell was I going to be Jared Klinger’s PA. “Kling-on” as we called him back in the day when Jared and Steven were mere high-school pals, was too dangerous.
At 12 I had a huge crush on him, those muscles, the charming smile, the way his hair miraculously always looked perfect. Now, after growing up and getting a man’s body, holy fuck, I’d cream my panties every morning he smiled at me for making the coffee right. No—PA to Mr. Klinger could not happen.
“You look upset.” Steven was always blunt. He never sugarcoated anything or tiptoed around. He said what he meant and in a very tactless way most times.
“I’m fine; you’re drunk. And you’re too sensitive. Let’s enjoy the moment. This is a huge day for you.”
A happy grin returned to his face as he patted my knee. “I wish Mom could have come.”
“Mom can’t really do car rides like this anymore, you know? The fifteen-minute commute to her doctor’s visits does her in. No way she’d make it all the way across Springfield in rush hour traffic.”
I went to continue, to ask him about how things would work when I came in on Monday, but his phone rang.
“One sec.” He held a finger up as he pulled the phone from his pocket and scanned the screen. “I have to take this.”
Without notice, he stood and walked off, leaving me alone. I sipped the champagne, watching employees I didn’t know milling about. Soon I’d be getting to know them all, and hopefully they would not treat me differently because I was related to the boss. Not because they disliked me, or because they were wanting to buddy up to me.
I was starting to have second thoughts about the idea of working with Steven when I heard a voice raised from another room. A man was shouting. It drew the attention of a few other folks in the room, but the looks on their faces told me that they had heard it before. I thought I heard hushed whispers about inner-office dating.
Curious, I stood and strolled to the door, following the booming baritone that reverberated around the room. I peeked out into the hallway and noticed it was empty, so I continued my search. The shouts came from my right, so I headed that way, walking softly so my heels didn’t click on the marble flooring.
“How many times have I told you!”
Jared’s voice concerned me. He wasn’t usually one to lose his cool. I knew that from past experience, over 15 years to be exact. Jared was the type to talk his issues out unless he was so stressed, he was losing it.
I stopped by a door that stood ajar, listening to the conversation. The slight opening allowed me to see Vicki in her skintight pencil dress, dragging her paws across the front of Jared’s pants. Her stilettos sank into the Berber.
“Oh, baby. You know we’re too good together to let this thing die.” Vicki had it bad for him, and I felt embarrassed to witness this awful display of desperation on her part. I almost burst into the room to save her from humiliating herself.
“Vicki, I’m going to tell you only one more time. You and I are done. We gave it a good shot, but it will never work.” Jared pulled her hand off his groin and stepped back.
Vicki offered a sour look and plumped her breasts, the V-neck of her dress offering not nearly as much cleavage as she seemed to think it did.
“You’ll be sorry. One day, when I find a man who treats me the way I deserve, you’ll come running back. And I will not be taking you back.”
Jared’s nostrils flared as Vicki headed for the door. I pressed my back against the wall, careful to avoid the windows to my left. The door swung open, and Vicki staggered out, her back to me. She walked down the hall without even looking my direction and I was certain she hadn’t seen me at all.
I turned to walk away, and heard Jared call out, “You can come in, Silvie. The show is over.”
Heat crept into my cheeks, and I froze. Jared had seen me despite my effort to remain incognito. Did I go in, or just run and hope he decided he was mistaken?
“Sil?”
Busted.
His face peeked around the doorframe, and I flushed with embarrassment.
“Sorry?”