Chapter 1

“Would you come into my office for a moment, please, Sonya?”

Sonya Holt picked up her notepad and followed Cameron O’Toole into the plush office where she found him sitting behind his big oak desk. He looked up from his phone when she walked in.

“Have a seat. I want you to edit my speech for the Rotary meeting tomorrow night.”

She sat down in the armchair opposite and set her notepad on her knee with her pen poised over it.

Cameron swiveled his chair around and leaned back. “You’re a very good secretary. I wasn’t expecting much from a temp, especially one as young as you, but you’ve proved your worth in the last two weeks. How would you like a permanent position here?”

Sonya rested her pen hand on her knee. She wouldn’t be taking any notes on the speech anytime soon. “Well, that would depend on the conditions, the benefits, and pay and all that. I enjoy temping. I wasn’t in the market for a permanent position, but I’m grateful for the offer.”

He swiveled back the other way. “Think it over. I’ll email you the full offer so you can see if it’s something you want to do.”

She lifted her pen again. “Okay. Are you ready to work on the speech now?”

He got up and paced back and forth behind his desk. “I better tell you right out front that the position I want you to fill isn’t a secretarial one, either. I want you to come on as my long-term executive assistant.”

Sonya stiffened. “Then I’m certain I would have to decline that.”

“May I ask why?”

“I’m not an EA. I’m too young to take a long-term position committed to a single company, let alone a single executive. As a temp, I can go anywhere in the world, make some money, and move on. I don’t want to tie myself down to one person—or place.”

“As my EA, you would be traveling the world.”

“But I wouldn’t be free to come and go as I wished. I would have to answer to you and be at your beck and call.” She held up her hand when his head whipped around. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that, but I would have to decline an offer to be your EA. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I appreciate your frankness. That’s why I offered you this job. I know I can trust you to give me the plain truth when I ask for it.”

Sonya sat silent and waited for him to say something else, but he only paced back and forth in front of the office window. Anyone could see Cameron O’Toole used to be a Navy SEAL. He barely fit into his square-cut suit, and the striations of his chest muscles stretched against his shirt when he moved his arms.

He wore his soft brown hair longer on top, but he kept the sides and back buzzed off short. His green eyes snapped when he looked around, and he clipped his words in a crisp, commanding sort of way. He snapped his eyes up and down Sonya, too, when he looked at her.

That look always made her feel like a raw recruit in front of a drill sergeant, but he never spoke to her with anything but the utmost politeness and respect. He never gave her any reason to withhold her unvarnished opinions, even when she critiqued his writing or his speeches.

While she waited for him to finish his pacing, she ran through what being his EA would be like. She enjoyed working as his temp secretary in the last few weeks. She appreciated the challenge of editing his blog posts and his newsletters. She didn’t get that kind of challenge often in a temp job.

Cameron O’Toole headed his own hand-built empire of internet consultation, motivational material, podcasts, blog, and master courses for executive teams and political hopefuls. He spent his whole life commanding. He commanded her, too, but he did it in such a way that inspired her to rise to greater success in her own career while contributing to his. He made money hand over fist making everyone in the world believe they could be as successful as he was.

At last, he sat back down in his chair and picked up his tablet. “I guess we can get started on the speech now.”

Sonya picked up her pen. No hurry. She could wait all day for him to be ready.

Instead of starting on it, though, he tossed the tablet down again. “The thing is, Sonya, I really need an EA and I don’t want another one. I want you. As a matter of fact, it has to be you.”

“Why does it have to be me? I’m sure there are plenty of others you could screen to find one more qualified than me. I really don’t have any EA experience.”

“Nope. I don’t want to screen any others. The way you’ve edited my work in the last three weeks has been invaluable.” He covered his mouth with his hand to suppress a laugh. “Do you want to hear something funny? Everyone who has ever edited my work has made me feel inadequate.”

“You? Inadequate? I don’t think so.”

“Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. I can’t stand having my work edited, but you do it in a way that makes me want to improve it. I don’t take it personally from you. That’s how I know you have to be my EA. I’ve studied motivation most of my adult life, and I still can’t figure out what you do or how you do it, but it sure works. I can’t see any of my own methods in your approach, but I want to study it and apply it to my business.”

“Excuse me, Cameron, but with all due respect, I don’t have to be your EA. I don’t even have to be your secretary. I’m a free agent. I decide what I do and where I work and for whom.”

“I know. That’s what makes you so fascinating.”

Sonya blushed. “I’m hardly fascinating, and I came in here to edit a speech, not talk about myself.”

“Actually, I brought you in here to talk about yourself. I want to know what I can do to get you as my EA. Is it the freedom of movement you want? I can do that. Is it the independent contractor role? We can do that, too. I can tailor your employment conditions to match your requirements.”

Sonya shifted her pen and notepad into one hand. “Listen, Cameron, I already said no. If you can’t accept that as my final answer, I probably shouldn’t be working with you at all. I’ll gather up my stuff and contact the temp service to send you another secretary.”

He held out his hand, but he didn’t even try to hide his smile. “Sit down, Sonya. If you don’t want to be my EA, you don’t have to be. Come on and sit down.”

She eyed him. “I won’t sit down unless you promise you won’t mention me being your EA again.”

He laughed out loud. “I promise I won’t mention it again, and I won’t email you a long-term job offer, and I won’t compliment you on your editorial style, either.”

She did her best not smile and resumed her seat. “All right. Can we work on the speech now?”

“No, we can’t. I’m not done asking you about yourself. I want you to tell me something about your personal life.”

She let her wrist fall on her knee. “Do we have to?”

“Yes, we have to. All that globe-trotting must play havoc on your personal relationships.”

“Not really. I don’t really have any personal relationship.”

His eyes flew open. “You don’t? Well, that proves my point, doesn’t it?”

"What exactly is your point?”

“That globe-trotting plays havoc with your personal relationships.”

“I didn’t have any personal relationships when I wasn’t globe-trotting, either. I’ve got my mother in Boise, but she’s my only relative.”

“What about your friends? Do you have friends?”

“I have my best friend from college, but she got married and moved to Seattle, so I haven’t seen her in a few years. I have two other good friends, but since I moved to the East Coast, we only communicate by email and occasionally Skype. Other than that, I meet people at my postings and usually move on.”

“What about boyfriends? How do you meet boyfriends?”

“I have a boyfriend.”

His head whipped around. “You do? You never told me that.”

“You never asked.”

“So what’s his name?”

Sonya looked right and left. “Is this conversation relevant to your Rotary speech?”

“It’s not relevant to my speech, but it’s relevant to me. What’s your boyfriend’s name, and how did you meet him?”

“His name is Liam, and I met him on OKCupid.”

“So that’s how you do it. You meet people on the internet when you move to a new place, and when you move on, you leave them behind. I understand. Easy come, easy go.”

“It’s not like that. Liam and I are very close. There’s nothing easy come, easy go about it.”

“How long have you two been together?”

“I’ve been temping around Philly for three years, so that’s how long we’ve been together.”

“And are you happy with your relationship?”

“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be in it.”

“Come on, Sonya. You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t see how my relationship with Liam can have anything to do with you.”

“I want to know how you can stay in a relationship with a man for three years but you won’t commit to a job for the long term.”

“I haven’t committed to Liam for the long term, either. We aren’t married.”

“Are you monogamous?”

“What!? What are you talking about? Now I know you’re messing with me. I’m outta here.”

He didn’t jump up to stop her walking out. He didn’t even lean forward in his chair. He fixed his sharp eyes on her. “I’m trying to assess your ability to commit to anything, animal, vegetable, or mineral. Are you monogamous with the Liam of yours or not?”

She sank back into her chair. How did he manage to deflate her so fast? “We haven’t had that conversation.”

“You haven’t had that conversation in three years? That means you’re not monogamous.”

Sonya’s cheeks burned. She looked away.

“That bothers you, doesn’t it? It bothers you that you’re not monogamous.”

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“Then why are you so mad at me for saying it?”

“It doesn’t bother me that we’re not monogamous, and I’m not mad at you for saying it. I mad at....I’m not mad at anything.”

“You’re mad at Liam about something, something related to you’re not being monogamous.”

She muttered down at her pen. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“I’m only asking because I care about you, Sonya. I wouldn’t like to think anyone was taking advantage of you.”

She couldn’t lift her head to look at him. “Liam is not taking advantage of me. He’s cheating on me.”