“Ms. Bryant, in my experience, it’s important for someone in my position to set the proper expectations. I’m not here to make friends.”
I so badly wanted to comment. I had the best comeback on the tip of my tongue; it took everything I had not to say what I so desperately wanted to. I wondered if Boss knew what an arrogant jerk he had hired to take his place. We were going from the man who was everyone’s friend to a man who apparently wanted to be an island.
I held in my comment, but it was really hard.
“Do you have something to say?” He knew me too well.
I shook my head no, but he waited several seconds before he spoke again. It was like he was daring me to say it. I almost did, but in this battle of wills, I planned on being the victor. When he realized I wouldn’t be rising to the sarcastic occasion, he invited himself all the way into my office, came around, and stood behind me at my desk. I thought it was odd.
He leaned down and looked over my shoulder, pointing to my screen. “Would you mind pulling up your schedule?”
Oh, he smelled good. He was still wearing the same cologne he had so many years ago. It was a warm, spicy scent. It drove me crazy, and when I looked over to him, our faces were too close for comfort. I quickly turned away and complied with his request, trying to ignore my rapid heartbeat. This was ridiculous.
When my schedule popped up, he reached over my shoulder and began touching the screen, asking about each appointment and if it could be rescheduled. Each time I replied in the negative. He was becoming increasingly frustrated with me. That delighted me more than it should.
“How about a working lunch?” he suggested.
“Hmm . . . I had wanted to run some errands.”
“Kel— I mean, Ms. Bryant.”
I loved how he couldn’t even stick with his own dumb rules.
“It’s important that we meet. I would be happy to have Ms. King, order something in for us. Or if you would like, we can go out somewhere together.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Everyone else called her Delfia, it had taken me a moment to figure out who Ms. King was. He was giving me a headache. I really didn’t want to meet with him, but I knew I couldn’t keep avoiding it. The more I put it off, the worse it would be. “I brought my lunch,” I huffed. “I’ll meet you in the conference room at noon.”
He stood up straight. “That wasn’t so hard now was it, Ms. Bryant?”
I swiveled in my chair to face him. “Is that all, Mr. Greyson? As you can see, I’m busy.”
His chest rose and fell. “I look forward to meeting with you.” He turned and walked out.
Yeah, well that made one of us! I crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at the opened door.
I peeked out my office door to see Delfia trying to hold back her laughter. I shook my head in disgust, threw my earbuds in, and went to work. I had emails and proposals that needed my attention.
The only interruption I welcomed was Boss coming in to wish me a good morning. “You look good in this office, kiddo,” he said.
I wanted to say I would look even better in the adjoining office, but I left it alone. What’s done is done.
The morning unfortunately flew by between catching up on email, sending out two proposals, and having a conference call with a demo. As noon approached, I headed to my private bathroom and touched up my make-up. I knew it could have seemed like I wanted to impress my new boss, but I would have done it for anyone, and mostly for myself.
I pulled up the roadmap for the product on my laptop before I undocked it and grabbed my lunch. I made my way over to the conference room. Delfia wagged her brows at me as I walked by. I rolled my eyes at her.
“By the way, you look sizzling today,” she whispered.
I laughed and kept on walking. I loved her.
I walked in to find Ian, I mean, you know who, set up with two laptops running, surrounded by a myriad of files. It also looked like he had ordered in sushi. Yuck. When he noticed me, he stood and pulled out the chair next to him. Ugh, I was planning on sitting across from him. Once again, he thwarted my plans.
I begrudgingly took the seat next to him. “Thank you,” I said somewhat politely. I almost added that it was probably crossing a professional boundary for him to pull out my chair, but I decided to keep that to myself and get this meeting over with.
“Would you like some sushi?” he asked as soon as I was situated.
“Uh, no thanks. We like our fish fried here in the South.”
He chuckled. “You might like it.”
