My head snaps up before I can stop myself. Sheets of paper are spread around her. She’s still holding some in her arms—it must be the copies I asked her to make.
From the angle of their bodies, it’s obvious Larry ran into her. Other associates are craning their necks to watch the show.
Aspen crouches down to pick up the documents. When she reaches for a sheet in front of her, Larry kicks it away.
“Hey! What’s your problem?” she says.
“What kind of idiot does busywork until midnight?” he sneers, unleashing the humiliation he felt at my reprimand on Aspen.
All the irritation that’s been simmering since the morning run explodes into searing anger. I get to my feet and stalk out.
“What’s going on?” I ask in my calmest voice.
“She bumped into me and got rude about it.” Larry looks smug, certain I’ll side with him.
My gaze slides to Aspen. She doesn’t say a word in her defense. Instead, she continues to gather the papers.
It should satisfy me to know she doesn’t expect me to be on her side. I wanted this, didn’t I? But the fact that she won’t even try to make her case pisses me off.
I’m an asshole, but I’m not unfair. I can see who’s at fault here.
“Rude?Shedidn’t callyouan idiot.” I keep my tone deceptively reasonable.
“Well.” He clears his throat. “Why else would she be here until midnight every day? Renée wasn’t.”
“So someone working long hours gives you the right to call them an idiot?”
His eyes shift as he struggles to come out with the right answer.
“Who does Aspen work for, Mr. Carr?” I say, running out of patience.
Beads of sweat pop along his hairline, which has started to recede. He knows I never call anybody at the firm Mr. or Ms. unless I’m furious enough to fire them.
“Well?” I cock an impatient eyebrow.
“You, sir.”
“Precisely. Which means what?”
“Uh… I should’ve let it go when she bumped into me?” The end of his sentence goes up higher than a note from a medieval castrato.
“Is that all?” He’s thinking so hard, I can hear the gears in his head turning. “Are you me?” I demand.
“I’m sorry?”
“Do you think you are me?”
He swallows. “No, sir.”
“Then you have no right to criticize my assistant.” There’s a vague voice in the back of my head that says if I want her to quit, I shouldn’t be yelling at him. I should embrace people in the office being abusive to her. But the notion pisses me off. Nobody else gets to fuck with her. They don’t have grievances with her the way I do.
Who the hell does Larry think he is?He can get in line to mess with her after she fucks him over, not before!
“I-I’m so-sorry,” he says.
“Why are you apologizing to me? Did you callmean idiot?”
He almost jumps. “Of course not! Never!”
