“Are you all right, Faith?” Stephanie’s face radiated concern as I realized I was pulling an “ew” face.
“Sorry. I’m fine. This has just taken me by surprise. That’s all. I thought you might be going to fire me.”
“Oh no! I’m sorry.” Spoken like a typical person in authority who lived high above the unwashed riffraff. They couldn’t see their privilege until someone pointed it out. She seemed to be a lovely person, but she was still a rich person, and I’d do best to remember that and not let my guard totally down.
“If I don’t agree to this role, will I lose my marketing job?” Might as well get straight to the point since she really appreciated my honesty.
“Not directly, no.”
I jerked my head to the side and peered at her while resisting the urge to eat more donut. I plumped it gently between my fingers and thumb, which was oddly comforting. “What exactly does that mean?”
She drummed her long, ballerina-pink-manicured fingers on the table, unintentionally highlighting the differences between us—she did elegant things while I played with my food. “I can’t say too much, but I will say that our company is under threat, and we’re not sure if it’s an internal or external one. As you might’ve already heard, we’ve lost three major advertising accounts this year. If we lose any more and can’t pick up new, large accounts, we’ll have to let some staff go.” Her energy dissipated, and she gave me a concerned look. “Unfortunately, the last to start is the first to go. When all our staff are exceptional, it has to work that way. And I would hate for that to happen, Faith. You’re fitting in here so well, and the quality of your work is high. You would be wasted as a barista.”
I swallowed the tsunami of panic surging up my throat. Well, she’d certainly gotten my attention. “What’s the position?” Reality check—to keep my job and get a ten-thousand-dollar bonus, I’d agree to anything, including washing feet. I kept my shudder to myself because feet were my worst nightmare, and nothing had been confirmed yet.
“You’d be PA to Mr. Knight.”
I blinked.Say what now? Not only was I a shit PA, but I would have to be shit at my job while dealing with the grumpy yet hard-to-resist man himself on a one-on-one basis. No thank you. Visions of Mark and that disaster came to mind. I would have to work for my second most-hated subset of people—rich, attractive men who happened to be in charge and thought they were better than you. My most-hated subset of people were those who abused animals and children.
But I had to eat. And if Mom found out I’d lost another job,she’d never let me live it down. Bethany’s smug face polluted my brain. She existed to rub my failures in my face, which was probably why she still lived in Mom’s house, just for the rare times I returned and she could lord it over me. Those prospects were scarier than facing the bosshole himself every day for six weeks.
“How would me working for Mr. Knight help the company?” That was the ten-thousand-dollar question.
Stephanie’s open expression shut down faster than a woman in a meeting full of men named Chad. “This is where it gets more delicate. Mr. Knight is not to know that you’re there on the company’s behalf. There are… issues at the top we require clarity on.” I tried to keep my eyebrows in place, but they rose anyway. Was Stephanie hinting that they didn’t trust Curtis? Surely not. “We want you to keep an eye on him and relay information back to me on everyone he’s in contact with—I’ll pass it onto the board. You’ll need to keep a record of who he meets with, has phone conversations with, and what hours he’s in the office. Also, let me know if you see or hear anything suspicious. If you get a chance, please go through any files he’s recently worked on. Check his calendar for appointments since the beginning of the year. His current PA might have missed something.”
What the heck did she mean by suspicious? How was I supposed to know what was and what wasn’t? Had his current PA been “keeping an eye on him” too? “You want me tospyon him?” Oh, God no. I wasn’t cut out for that. Poker faces weren’t my thing. Neither was lying to someone 24/7. Because that’s what I’d have to do, right? Be polite to his face while stabbing him in the back like a serial killer who’s on their fifth caffeinated energy drink.
“You make it sound so…” She stared at her desk for a moment, lost for words, but I couldn’t read what she was thinking. Finally, she looked back at me. “By doing that, you’d be protecting our company and potentially him. I know you’ve been advised that we’ve lost a few key clients lately. We’re not sure why, but we suspect it could potentially be sabotage. If it is sabotage, we need to discover where it’s coming from, and there have been… rumors, which I’d rather not go into. But if no one’s looking out for him, more rumors might start. And I hate to say it, but it would be good to be sure that the rumors are just that.”
By rumors, was she talking about him and that secretary they’d paid out? Or the more recent one I’d seen on the weekend. Some young wannabe singer had accused him of trying to force her into doing him “favors” to get representation. I wasn’t sure if I believed that because as much as I thought he was an asshole, he didn’t give off the sleazy vibe. But then again, many people like that were good at faking it in front of others. That’s how they got away with it so long. “Why don’t you get him a bodyguard and minder?” Seemed to me that paying a professional would be better than letting me loose on his calendar and plane reservations.
“We don’t want him to know. It would shatter his confidence, and we can’t have that right now. We need a strong CEO leading this company. I also think this job would be better done by a woman. Men… miss things sometimes, especially when it comes to attractive women or powerful men. They don’t often believe what women are capable of, and they all respect wealthy men too much, whether they’re good men or not. And as I said before, I trust you. Call it a sixth sense, but I do believe you’re the best person for the job.”
I frowned. “Is he dating someone you don’t like?” And I wasn’t asking that question because single Faith wanted to know. Curtis Knight’s aura flashed with a huge Danger Keep Out sign. Honestly, men that good-looking should be made to walk around with a paper bag on their face to keep the rest of us poor saps from doing stupid things, like throwing themselves at them and squashing donuts on their shirts while feeling them up, then thinking about them 24/7 afterwards.Argh. I swore I could still feel his pec in my palm when I closed my eyes.
“He’s not dating anyone, that we know of. So, do you think you can take on this assignment? It could be crucial to keeping our place in the top agencies in New York. If you do this, and we lose another account, I’ll guarantee you can keep your marketing job. We’ll let go others… against our policy.”
“Can I have all that in writing?” My chest tightened. I had a bad feeling about this. The reasons she gave me sounded okay, like, I didn’t want to lie to Curtis, but if it was to ultimately protect him and/or his company, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. But still…. I may not have liked what he stood for or what he might be capable of, but the fact that his own aunt—and I had to assume his father and the board of directors—didn’t trust him to be savvy enough to protect himself hit deep. I’d been doubted my entire life, constantly reminded how undeserving I was. Maybe by doing this, I would be helping him.
“Of course. So, you’ll take the job?”
“I have another question.”
“Of course.”
I took a fortifying sip of my now lukewarm coffee. My sigh stayed where it was polite—in my head. “Why is his PA leaving? Did she get upset at monitoring him?”
Stephanie leaned back and regarded me, maybe second-guessing asking me to do this, or maybe she was weighing up how much to tell me. “She doesn’t know any of this. I mean, she knows about losing clients, but she’s very loyal to Curtis.” Her lips shut and pressed together, as if she had forced herself to stop talking.
Right, so compromise my ethics and keep my job, or stand strong and refuse and be the first one to get fired and have my mother hounding me for the rest of my days. But maybe it wasn’t as bad as all that, and I’d find a way to help. Unless I found out he’d done something dodgy, and then, well, he’d get everything he deserved.
Making sure things were fair for others was important.Sometimes people needed to step up, and now was my moment. I just needed to get to the truth, whatever it was, and I’d start by giving him the benefit of the doubt, even if he’d been cold toward me since I’d started. Just because I was beneath his attention and kindness didn’t mean he was everything the rumors said or that he was the reason his company wasn’t doing as well as it used to.
I took a deep breath, ignoring the warning grunt my stomach made—it was probably just reminding me I needed to finish my donut. “I’ll do it.”
Her face relaxed into a smile. “Okay. Wonderful.” She opened the folder in front of her and wrote a few sentences—probably adding the things I’d asked her to put in writing. She put her pen down and pinned her gaze on me. “Sign this, and then we’ll get you started.” She slid some papers across her desk toward me.
I skim read them, and before I could talk myself out of it, I sucked the sticky donut remnants from my fingers and signed.
