“I have to go.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye, Chelsea,” he murmured in my ear, his voice warm and deep.
I liked the sound of him saying my name. Maybe too much. “Bye, Landen. Have a safe trip.”
A few moments after we disconnected, the door to the office opened and Chris came in. I noticed that he too had a lightness in his step and knew that the honeymoon phase still wasn’t over for my newlywed boss and my best friend. He wasn’t smiling but he definitely looked relaxed.
Though I didn’t want to think about the details, it was still nice to know that Lucy was happy and made her new husband happy as well.
Chris glanced over at me as he walked in. “Good morning, Chelsea.”
“Morning, boss,” I replied. “Did you have a good weekend?”
“Definitely.” His response was firm and I had to bite back a grin. Then he stopped and looked at me. Really looked at me. “You look relaxed for first thing on a Monday morning. I take it your weekend was good.”
I couldn’t suppress my smile then and nodded. “Very good. Thank you.”
Before he and Lucy became engaged, Chrisneverwould have asked me that question. He would have entered with a grumbled good morning and gone straight back to his office rather than stopping in front of my desk for a quick chat.
That was the effect that Lucy had on him and I had to admit it was a good one. Chris would never be open or charming, but he was no longer as stoic or harsh as he once had been.
“I’m free until ten, yes?” he asked, jerking me out of my thoughts.
I nodded.
“Good. Grab your coffee and tablet and meet me in my office. We have some things to discuss.”
Curious, I did as he asked, stopping briefly in the kitchenette to make another cup of coffee.
When I entered, he was already seated at his desk, his laptop open in front of him. I set my mug on his desk and opened the note app on my tablet so I could take notes of our conversation to refer to later.
I looked up and found Chris studying me, his body leaned back in his chair and his hands folded over his abdomen.
“I need you to put out an ad for an executive assistant,” he stated quietly.
My stomach dipped, hard and fast, and I swallowed reflexively. Oh shit, was he about to fire me? “I’m sorry?” I squeaked.
He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have led with that.” He straightened. “Look, we’re swamped and I’m sick of working ten and twelve-hour days all the time. I need someone else to handle some of my consultancy work and, honestly, I think you’d be a good fit for it. You’ve been a tremendous help over the last year and you’re more than qualified. Too qualified to be my assistant. Therefore, I’m hiring another assistant and promoting you to Vice President with the option to buy in as a partner at a later date.”
My fear vanished as I gaped at him. A promotion? “I’m sorry?” I repeated, my voice still little more than a squawk.
Chris grinned and it freaked me out a little. The man never ever smiled like that. Well, at least not at me. He smiled at Lucy regularly, but she was one of the only ones who could elicit such a response from him. Sometimes I’d get a lip twitch, maybe even a small grin, but that was about it.
He leaned forward, resting his clasped hands on the desk. “Chelsea, you and I both know that you are overqualified for your position. I know that being my assistant isn’t a cakewalk, but it’s something that anyone with a few years of corporate experience could do. You have good instincts, you have a degree that you haven’t utilized, and I know from the year that you’ve worked here that you’re reliable. You could easily share my workload and we would both work less in the long run.” He relaxed once again as he continued, “Plus you’re one of the few people that don’t annoy the shit out of me.”
I smirked then because I would have believed him in the beginning if he led with that statement. I took a deep breath and studied him, my thoughts whirling. He was offering me my dream. I loved working with him. It was a challenge and he always appreciated my contributions. He might be taciturn, but he was never unreasonable. He never yelled or threw tantrums as my old boss had and he never took credit for my ideas, even in front of clients.
Though Lucy would probably disagree, I thought he was a good boss. I imagined that he would be an even better business partner. Well, when I had the money to buy in, that was.
“Okay, what’s the first step?” I asked. My grip tightened on the stylus in my hand to keep my fingers from visibly trembling.
“Well, you need to put out an ad for an assistant. We’ll interview them together. Though I’m tempted to let you deal with that alone, I want to be sure that they can handle dealing with me.”
“Dealing with you?” I asked.
“Did Lucy ever tell you about the day she came in to interview?”
