His words stopped registering.
I could only stare straight ahead and picture Andrea’s dress pooled at my feet—her sandy-colored pumps wrapped around my waist.
“No wonder Mr. Lewis wanted to keep you to himself…” I muttered.
“Huh?” Aaron’s voice broke into my thoughts. “What do you want to keep?”
“I said Miss Stone is here for my meeting with the Keaton Group.” I cleared my throat and gestured to her. “You can join us over here, Miss Stone.”
Aaron glanced over his shoulder. Then he muttered something I couldn’t quite hear under his breath.
“Andrea Stone, this is Aaron Fletcher—my longtime advisor, and Aaron, this is Andrea Stone.”
“Nice to meet you,” they said in unison, shaking hands.
“You can call me Aaron—no formal Mister, please.”
“Noted.” She smiled and looked at me. “Where do you want me, Mr. Cross?”
On top of my desk…
“You need to set up the meeting in the boardroom for me.”
She looked confused, like she was expecting me to explain.
“Meeting setups are on page fifty of binder two,” I said. “The Keaton Group is a level-three guest. Follow that standard—and make sure Ciara approves my speech.”
“Who’s Ciara?”
“Page eighty in the binder,” I said. “Have you even started to read it?”
“I’m on page twenty.”
“That’s it?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I specifically remember Mr. Lewis mentioning that you’d read a huge technical manual in a single night.”
“Because unlike your binder, it was actually well-written…”
“Excuse me?”
Her cheeks reddened. “I said I’m adjusting to your new system, and I’ll be sure to get it done.”
“That’s not what you said, Miss Stone.” I glared at her, tempted to grab her by the waist and make her repeat those smart-ass words a little slower.
“Ciara is his long-term researcher and strategist, Miss Stone,” Aaron intruded on the moment. “She’ll be glad to helpyou with whatever you need in the coming days, and you can reach her at 555-0823.”
She saved the number to her phone.
“You can also call me if Mr. Cross assigns you something financial-related and you have a question,” he said, rattling off his number as well.
“Thank you very much, Mr.—” She stopped herself. “Thank you, Aaron.”
“You can get to work on setting up the boardroom now, Miss Stone,” I said. “And when you’re done, check your email for my updated tasks list and leave the binders for evening reading, since you’re struggling so much.”
“Understood, Mr. Cross.” She looked as if she wanted to say something sarcastic, but she simply nodded and left the room.
As soon as she was out of sight, Aaron stood up from his chair and slammed the door shut.
“Get rid of her,” he said. “Get rid of her right now.”
