“Oh, please. Now that you’re here, you must call me Betty. Otherwise, I’ll feel old.”
“All right, Betty,” Sassy said with a smile. “Thank you. Then please call me Sassy.”
A slight scowl. “How will your father feel about that?”
“He won’t say anything. He’s the only one in the world who calls me Susan anymore.”
She walked to her desk and braced herself with a positive attitude. When Tom arrived exactly ten minutes later, she had pasted on a tranquil smile. He took off his jacket then stopped at her desk, and just from the casual expression, she could tell that Tom Duncan was a better person than she was. Without even a hint of a mention of her jail time and their ensuing conversation, he greeted her with a surprise cup of coffee, then he introduced her to her responsibilities and placed a file on her desk. His niceness almost made everything worse.
“This might be a little unprofessional, but I’m hoping you’ll call me Tom. I mean, if there are clients around and it seems better to go with Mr. Duncan, that would be all right, but I’m more of a first-name person. How do you feel about that… Susan?”
“Sassy,” she allowed. “Of course you may call me Sassy, Tom.”
She was painfully aware that no matter how polite and professional he was, her actions of last week were imprinted in his mind. Even if he’d planned to get along with her from the start, he now couldn’t help but see her as a spoiled little girl who could do whatever she wanted under Daddy’s watch. To make matters worse, he was right. She had to change that perception. She set her mind to demonstrating that yes, she had been that way, but she had changed. This sassy cat was changing her stripes.
She got to work, following his instructions, determined not to mess up. And yet every time she looked at him, her mind seemed set on misbehaving. Sarcasm bubbled to the surface when he spoke to her, as if he turned a tap in her head, so she zipped her lips and fought the urge to banter with him. He was her boss, after all. She had to be professional. It was a strange feeling. She wanted to like him, and yet she constantly felt like challenging him.
Working in this office for Tom was a much better fit for her. For one thing, she wasn’t in a pool of secretaries. She was the only one, and her deskwas just outside of Tom’s windowed office. Just like at Jamieson, Baines, and Brown, she typed and filed, but it was more than that. She hadn’t expected to enjoy working for him, but the more he talked and the more they worked together, the more intrigued she became. Her desk was physically close enough to his office that she could hear him talking on the phone, and he was constantly dropping things off on her desk, so she started to get a feel for some of what he was doing. She still disliked the overall idea of their business: buying houses, upgrading them then selling for a profit, thereby making neighbourhoods unaffordable for real people, but she kept quiet about that. Tom seemed keen to teach her, so she listened and learned, resolved not to disappoint either him or her father.
Her father worked down the hall in his own office, though she hadn’t seen him today. She knew some girls might feel smothered, having to work near their father like that, but Sassy was quietly elated. She had always loved being close to him, and it was even more special now that she didn’t live with him.
At lunchtime, Tom showed Sassy the boardroom, where they occasionally entertained clients. On Fridays, he said, either he or her father brought in lunch, and they ate it in there. Sassy was to clean up after, but she had expected that. Thinking of being fed even one day a week was a welcome bonus. There were only so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a girl could eat.
At the end of her first day, to her great surprise, Sassy was smiling. Things were looking up. She liked her job, the sun was shining through her very own office window, and last Friday she’d made a new friend in Marion, just when she’d really needed one. Marion was a little older, she guessed around Tom’s age, but she was pretty cool. She’d run into her in the hallway on her way out this morning, and Marion had invited her over tonight. Sassy said yes right away, then volunteered to bring wine. Now she wanted to tell her about the new job, see what she thought.
Sassy said goodbye to Tom at five o’clock, and he gave her a cheery nod.
“Good work today, Sassy. Thank you. I think this is going to go well, you and me working together.”
“I do, too,” she managed, though she couldn’t hold his gaze. “Listen, Tom, I… I need to apologize after last week.” She inhaled a little confidence then lifted her eyes to his. They were a sharp, intelligent blue, and she was reminded of Sean Connery again. “I was incredibly rude. I’m sorry.”
That curl at the side of his mouth lifted, and she wished she could read what thoughts it was hiding. She didn’t know him well enough yet to ask. She would have to fix that.
“Apology accepted. You’d had a bad day. I get it.”
“You didn’t deserve that from me.”
“Sure didn’t.”
Was that laughter? Or was that little half smile an expression of acceptance? Either way, his answer struck her the wrong way.
“I said I was sorry.”
The other side of his mouth rose as well, curving into a full smile. “Are we starting up again, Sassy? I mean, I can keep up, but it’s going to be harder to work together if you’re going to freak out at me every time you think I said the wrong thing.”
What was it about Tom Duncan that made her want to get in his face and, well, be right? To win every time? It was ridiculous.Grow up, Sassy.
“No. We’re not starting up again. It’s me. I’m tired. Thanks for putting up with me,” she said.
“It’s not a problem.” He lifted a charming black eyebrow. “How about we start over again, you and me?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like that.” She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Tom.”
“I’m glad to meet you, too, Sassy.”
She did like that smile of his.
It really had been a good day, and she was feeling more upbeat than she had been whenever she’d left the law office. Maybe it was like Davey said once, that everything happens for a reason.
