Being on of top of things was something she had always prided herself on. Combine that with her ambitious drive and analytical mind, and becoming a chartered professional accountant was the best career choice for her. It had taken a really big leap of faith to get her to this point.
In her senior year of high school, her brother, Max, had left their hometown to study in California. He was the first one out of the five of them to leave Montana and it inspired Jordan to do the same. However, when she packed her bags, she had chosen a slightly different direction and decided to settle down in Seattle.
Her field of study and her choice of state had landed her the fantastic opportunity of working for the biggest property company on the west coast and she was doing pretty damn well for herself at twenty-five. Sure, there was a downside. Every decision had a downside. She didn’t get to see her family much. The weather wasn’t…great. And she had to deal with Tyler Evans.
Tyler was another reason why she always tried to be ahead of schedule. Anything involving numbers usually sent him into a downward spiral of procrastination. So here she was with her first set of draft financial statements and all she needed was for him to review it. She’d had every intention of handing it to himas soon as he walked in today, but changed her mind when he stormed past her desk without greeting.
That was already completely out of character, because he always made the time to greeteveryone. The hard slam of the door had kept her rooted to her seat for almost an hour and from the harsh mumblings she could hear coming from the other side, she was sure an hour was not sufficient to solve this particular problem.
After two years of working under Tyler Evans, she knew he could be melodramatic at times, but she had noted an expression on his face which led her to believe that he may just have justification for being his drama-queen self today.
He was an odd character, her boss, a combination of personality traits one would not ordinarily associate together. He was the type who would exaggerate something to the point where she would believe the sky was falling only to find out that the printer cartridge needed to be changed.
It was strange, though, that even in those times—the “oh, no the world is going to end”times—he still managed to be a great leader. Profits had tripled since he’d taken over the company because of his tactful and resourceful approach to business.
He wasn’t the worst boss in the world. Actually, he was an all-round nice guy, always friendly, accommodating, and fair. He was approachable and knew his employees by name. Everybody loved him, but that was probably because none of them had to work with him as closely as she did.
Put him in a boardroom and he dominated, exuding power and confidence, but behind the scenes he was the most disorganized person she had ever met in her life. This meant that on top of all her responsibilities as the group financial manager of a multi-national company, she also had to play personal assistant to Mister Evans just because he thought hiring a cutelittle blonde to take his messages would raise doubts in his girlfriend’s mind.
And there was another intriguing fact about her boss. For someone who had the title of being one of the most eligible bachelors in Washington, he certainly acted as if he were already married. Strange but true. At six foot, two inches, he had a body that filled out a suit in a way that left most women with their jaws hanging open when he walked by. Add to that, brown hair and alluring brown eyes and he wasapparentlyquite a catch. He wasn’t exactly drop-dead gorgeous, but he was definitely appealing to the eye and what he lacked in appearance, he made up for with wealth.
Having inherited fifty-one percent of Diamond Properties from his father, Roscoe Evans, the man was already a millionaire. But as rich as he was, he still treated everyone with the same degree of respect.
It was a combination of all these factors that led to winks, whistles, and seductive pouts from many different women and yet he had always remained faithful. Even now, three months after the unexpected break-up with the perfect princess, Trisha Parker, he still had not entertained the possibility of dating another woman.
Yes, Tyler Evans was a strange man, a strange man with strange quirks and—in Jordan’s opinion—had the personality of a doorknob.
She sighed and continued playing a game of Solitaire. She was going to give them another fifteen minutes and then she was going to barge into his office and slam the financial statements on his desk.
*****
“I have an idea,” Matthew announced, his brown eyes gleaming with possibility. “Do you want to hear it?”
Not really, Tyler thought. After hearing the string of disaster plans Matthew had conjured up—one of which included chloroform and duct tape—he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear any more of his ideas.
“Sure,” he replied when Matthew’s eyes finally manipulated him into submission.
“Date someone else,” he suggested with a little too much enthusiasm.
A look of sheer disgust was thrown in the direction of his friend. “I really don’t think dating someone else is going to help me get Trisha back.”
Matthew shook his head. “Let’s look at the facts. She refuses to see you. She doesn’t want to speak to you. If you can’t go to her, we need her to come to you. Jealousy is the oldest trick in the book. She will be at your door, demanding to know who this other woman is. Besides, you don’t really have to date someone. You just have to make it look like you’re dating again. So find a girl and take her to all the places you know Trisha hangs out at. Let her see you with someone else, or better yet, let her friends see you with someone else. Never underestimate the power of the gossip chain.”
Tyler took some time and lifted his jaw off the floor. “Not only is that sick and twisted, but it’s also the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. Okay, make that the second dumbest. The dumbest would be the one where I take her mother hostage until she comes back to me. You really need to get your head checked, Matt.”
“You’re not seeing the beauty in it.” Matthew leaned forward, unaffected by the remarks made. “Think about it. She sees you at her favorite restaurant, looking adoringly at some woman– let’scall her…Michelle– and Trisha sees her laughing at your jokes—”
“I don’t make jokes.”
“Whatever. She sees you and Michelle in an intimate conversation and she starts remembering all the times you guys spent together, right? And she goes home and she starts thinking about it and it starts playing on her mind, Ty. She can’t sleep because all night all she can think about is what you and Michelle were talking about, what could be so interesting that you didn’t even notice her.”
“I would notice her.”
Matthew gritted his teeth in frustration. “Could you just work with me for a second?”
Tyler finally sat down and crossed his arms over his chest. He wanted to end this conversation, but he knew that when Matthew had an idea, it was in his best interest to hear him out. “Okay, let’s assume for the purpose of this conversation that I agreed to do something as idiotic as that. Who would Ipretendto date?”
Matthew lost his momentum, but it only took a few short moments before he was back on the ball. “How about Lucy? That waitress from the diner down the street.”
