“Tomorrow is Saturday, I wouldn’t have been in until Monday.”
She pursed her lips in annoyance for a fraction of a second before she turned it around and offered a bright smile. “Forgot about that. Good thing you came in today, otherwise the cake might have gone bad waiting for you until Monday.”
I chuckled at that. “What do you have there?” I asked as I nodded my head to indicate the gift bag in her hand.
“Just a little something to show my appreciation. You’ve been an amazing boss, and you deserve to have the best birthday ever.”
“Thanks,” I hummed. If only my family felt the same. Not even Moreland had sent me a text. He was usually the first, besides my wife, to send something. In fact, he made it a tradition to send me something by one minute after midnight every year, so he could rub it in Violet’s face that he told me before she did. Her argument was always that she told me before I got to read his text. It was all done in good fun, and something I never thought I’d miss until today when it didn’t happen.
“Come sit down,” Fiona moved to my couch and patted the seat beside her. I followed because this didn’t feel the same as the way things happened the previous year. We had spent the entirety of this past year working side-by-side in a healthy boss-employee relationship, so it was clear we were past her attempted come-on from the year prior. She might have claimed it was all a joke in good fun, but I wasn’t stupid. If I had accepted, she would have made the offer very real.
There was a twinge in my gut as I acknowledged that because it came with a bit of guilt. A few of my previous assistants had been let go because of improper behavior with me. I always told Violet the minute something like that happened. We had an agreement since one of my clients tried to get too close, and far too handsy, at a party we threw in her honor. That took place in the first year I was married to Violet. My wife had put the woman in her place, and I backed her up.
Ever since, I’d made it a common practice to put a clause in contracts that said clients would be in breach if they behaved inappropriately with me. Any time an employee attempted to step over those boundaries, I talked it through with my wife, and we made a collective decision about whether it warranted them being moved to a different position or fired altogether. I had listened to her every time except with Fiona. I had no excuse for not telling my wife what happened the previous year. By the time I got home, I only wanted to enjoy our special day together.
When the next day rolled around, I had entirely different reasons to not bring up Fiona’s attempt. It honestly boiled down to the fact that I didn’t want to train a new employee as Fiona had only been with me about six months at that point. The other part was that I wanted to see what would come of her attempt without any interference. Every single woman who worked for me couldn’t have an agenda to sleep with the boss. I wanted to prove them all wrong. My father didn’t like the looks of Fiona from the beginning. He said she carried herself in a sexual way and dressed inappropriately. I had to remind him that my clients were all celebrities who made Fiona appear as though she dressed conservatively.
When Moreland met her, he felt the same as my dad and told me she would end up being trouble. I disagreed because she was competent and went above and beyond at her job. Violet had never spoken ill of her. The only thing my wife ever said about my assistant was that if something changed, I should tell her and handle things as we always discussed in the past.
Guilt rippled through me again over the fact that I kept last year’s incident from Vi, but I wanted to believe the best of someone, especially someone who worked as hard as Fiona did. My other assistants, who had been canned for their inappropriate behavior, had all done half-assed work, were completely inept, or slacked off immediately after receiving the first praise for a job well done. It was no loss to toss any of them on their asses at that point. Fiona would have been hard to replace since she was a hard worker and went above and beyond in her job without fail.
“You seem very deep in thought for a man who should be celebrating. Where is Violet, today?”
“She has been planning some party for…” I laughed, but there wasn’t really any humor in it. “I don’t even know who she’s planned it for because my wife hasn’t told me anything about it except that her client is a bit of a pain in the ass.”
“What about your family or your…” she hesitated and then chuckled. “I never know what to call Moreland. Is he your cousin? A brother? Or are the two of you just really close friends who call one another family?”
I grinned at my assistant. “He is my actual blood-related cousin, but also my best friend.”
“That’s what I thought. Surely, he sent you a message at the very least?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Haven’t heard from him in a couple weeks.”
“Well, that’s…” Fiona stopped herself short and shook her head as if her input wasn’t valuable, or maybe she was afraid she would say something wrong. “Anyway, here, why don’t you open my gift. Maybe it will cheer you up before you have to go home and figure out why everyone forgot today was important.”
I offered a half smile and took the bag she thrust into my hand. It had a little heft to it and when I peeked down into the bag it was clear that there was more than one gift. “You really shouldn’t have.”
Fiona waved that thought away. “You and Violet got me a trip to the spa on my birthday. It was the least I could do to show my appreciation. Like I said, you’ve been the best boss I’ve ever had.”
“Thanks.” I dug the biggest gift out first. It was a pricey bottle of bourbon. W.L. Weller Special Reserve X Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon to be exact. “This is too much, Fiona.”
“It’s not. And seriously, I got it at a good price, so don’t even bat an eye about it.” I knew for a fact that it was usually about $250 a bottle, so I wasn’t sure what kind of good deal she got on it, but it was exorbitant for an employee to bestow upon her boss. The other way around, it would have been more appropriate. “There’s more,” Fiona told me as she nodded to the bag.
I pulled out a square box that was wrapped in shiny blue paper. It happened to be one of my favorite colors, but I had never told Fiona that, so I chalked it up to coincidence. When I finished unwrapping it, and opened the box, there was a gorgeous watch inside.
“It’s a Longines Master Collection Chrono Moonphase Watch with blue alligator strap.” Fiona spoke in a breathy tone and sounded as though she could be performing for a commercial for the Swiss watch maker.
“These are worth several thousand dollars, Fiona.” I turned my eyes up from the watch to meet her denim blue gaze. The blue in her eyes was a near perfect match to that of the watch band. I glanced back down at it. As nice as the gesture was, I couldn’t accept it.
“I can’t keep this.”
“You can. If it helps, this job isn’t entirely necessary for me. I’m a trust fund baby, so I have my own money, too. I just happen to enjoy working.”
Something about that statement seemed false, especially since she wouldn’t look me in the eye as she said it. Fiona distracted me from my thoughts as she started to clean up the wrapping paper and pushed it all into the gift bag that sat empty.
I put the watch down on the coffee table in front of us next to the bottle of bourbon. “What’s really going on here?”
“Nothing, I swear. I just wanted to make sure you had a good day.” She winced as she said those words, and it made me wonder why she thought – ahead of time – that it wouldn’t be a good one. “Can we enjoy your cake and maybe some of that bourbon before you make me play twenty questions because you have trust issues?”
