‘You haven’t brought my coffee,’ he said provocatively. ‘I’m very thirsty.’
‘The doors were shut. I thought you might have been in a meeting.’
‘Only with my thoughts.’
‘I didn’t realise,’ Erin said politely, ‘that having a meeting with your thoughts necessitated closed doors.’
‘Anything to improve the thinking process. How was the rest of your weekend, Erin? How’s your father doing?’
Erin was instantly disabused of the hopeful notion that he might have forgotten what she had told him.
‘Good. Thank you.’
‘Which bit? The weekend or your father?’
‘Both. Shall I fetch you some coffee, Raffaele? There are a few things I wanted to ask you about the Saudi investment fund. I had a look at it, as you asked, on Friday and—’
‘Coffee first, Erin. My mind isn’t on hedge funds at the moment.’ He shot her a smile without taking his eyes off her face.
‘Now that we’ve entered this new and exciting phase in our working relationship, I think it’s vital we keep the connection going. I’ve always thought that it’s important that co-workers have more than just a superficial relationship. A three-dimensional relationship really expands our ability to work productively together.’
‘Really? I don’t remember you mentioning anything of the sort in all the time I’ve worked here.’
‘Haven’t I?’ He frowned with an expression of puzzlement. ‘Perhaps,’ he continued as his expression cleared, ‘that’s because you’ve always encouraged me to keep my distance and naturally I would never have disrespected your boundaries by being curious about you in any way, shape or form…’
‘I’m not the sort of person who spends a lot of time trading confidences,’ Erin said impatiently.
‘Which I’m sure is something we’ll get to in due course.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Erin countered as politely as she could.
Raffaele grinned, stood up and took his time stretching. ‘Been here since six,’ he said. ‘Stiff joints from sitting in a chair for too long.’
Erin didn’t say anything. She thought that his joints might have been a little less stiff if he’d madehimselfa cup of coffee but actually she welcomed the opportunity to regroup in private. Of all the things she had expected, a direct reminder of what she’d told him hadn’t featured.
Why she would expect subtlety from her outspoken boss she had no idea, but as she scuttled out of his office, half sliding the doors shut behind her, her head was in a whirl.
She’d been comfortable watching him from the sidelines. She had been very happy having her harmless fantasies, safe in the knowledge that theirs was exclusively a working relationship. And if, in the deep recesses of her mind, she saw the possibility of something more, then there was no sign of such wild abandon in her dealings with him.
Having moved from pillar to post during her formative years, sometimes attending school for months on end, sometimes home-schooled by her parents or else just burying her head in books and doing the learning herself, Erin had become a private person.
It had been difficult to make friendships when she wasn’t around long enough for them to flourish and although she had had a couple of boyfriends, one reasonably serious when she’d been at university, she had always found it difficult to open up, to show the softer, more vulnerable side of herself.
She knew that that was why the guy she’d dated for over a year had broken up with her. He’d wanted more ofherthan she’d known how to give. He’d wanted someone, he had thrown at her, ‘less inhibited, less uptight’.
‘You’re a nice girl,’ he’d said from halfway out of the door, shaking his head in frustration, ‘but I don’t know who you really are, Erin Fisher, and no one ever will unless you learn to open up! You’re bloody hopeless! What man is ever going to be interested in a woman who can never let her hair down! Complete waste!’
How his parting shots had stung, had made her feel incomplete and helpless. Those biting words had made her scared to take more risks on love just in case she made another mistake, another misjudgement. She would take her time and not be rushed into having her choices dictated by her biological clock.
She would only risk loving if certainty of that love being returned was as guaranteed as was humanly possible. She would do her utmost to protect her heart and never let it be damaged again.Never.
A crush on her boss, because that was what it was, was perfect because it had allowed her to press Pause on doing anything proactive about her love life.
Abruptly finding herself on the receiving end of his curiosity was a lot less perfect, especially as she only had herself to blame.
Erin made the coffee. Suddenly, after years of pleasant hibernation from dipping her toes in the dating game, she wondered how she had ended up where she had.
She was nearly twenty-nine!
