Chapter 10

Eva made sure to sit down carefully in her desk chair the next morning. Every fiber still ached from last night’s adventure in Matt’s bedroom. He didn’t hold back, but let RipRoarer loose on her nubile young flesh. He had her, he punished her for her very badness, and after it was all over, he curled up behind her in the bed and held her in his protective embrace until the morning light brightened the window.

His butler brought in a new suit for her to wear when she got out of the shower that morning, but Matt disappeared long before she got ready to leave for work. The limo drove her to the office, and no one noticed or commented when she got out of it.

She turned on her computer and brought up the birthday database. Why did she keep bringing it up to stare at her own name at the top of the list? Today was her twenty-eighth birthday. Today would offer the first test of the card and bonus system. She would play the guinea pig to see how well the system worked at marking the employees’ birthdays.

She scrolled down the spreadsheet and started entering the September birthdays. After that, she followed up on the legal department’s handling of Tino’s wife and the threatened legal action.

That kept her busy until well past lunchtime. Before she knew it, one o’clock passed without a word from Matt. He always texted her when he wanted her to take over while he went out for his exercise break.

She still didn’t receive any card, much less a cash bonus. Maybe she would get it at home. After some searching, she found the notification pathway. The database notification went all the way down to the mail room. A print boy fed the command into a computer and printed out the card. The notification released the bonus to the same bank account as the employee’s wages. And yes, the cards got delivered within the building to the employee’s workstation.

She checked but found no bonus in her account. She would have noticed a card showing up on her desk. Her heart sank, but she turned her thoughts to something more productive to take her mind off it.

She made phone calls to foreign exchange experts she knew. Then she talked to the executives in charge of Rockford Communications’ overseas subsidiaries about transferring their profits in US dollars.

She forgot all about her birthday card and bonus until four o’clock struck. Time to go home. Then the truth hit her like a ton of bricks. She must be the only employee in the company who knew about this plan. She never expected to be so disappointed that she didn’t get it. No one else would miss what they didn’t know about. Only she would know it hadn’t worked.

She threw back her shoulders. She refused to let a birthday card from a computer get her down. She headed for the door when her phone chirped. Would you please come into my office for a moment?

Not that again. She didn’t want to face him now. He, of all people, would understand how ridiculous it was for her to grieve the loss of this meaningless birthday card.

She strolled down to his office. He couldn’t want her to spend the night with him again. Her ass couldn’t handle his treatment more than one night in a row until she worked up a thicker skin.

She pushed open the doors. Matt sat at his desk.

“You didn’t call me up to cover your exercise slot.”

“I skipped it for today. I decided I got enough exercise last night.”

She tried to chuckle, but she could only smile.

“How was your day?”

“It was pretty good, except that the birthday card and bonus system doesn’t work. We’ll have to double-check the notification pathway. There was a birthday today, and the card and bonus weren’t generated.” He looked up, but she rambled on in spite of herself. “Actually, if you want to know, today is my birthday. That’s how I know the pathway doesn’t work. I never got a card or a bonus.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You never got a card or a bonus because I have them right here in my desk. I kept them for you so I could give them to you in person.”

She blinked. “You what?”

He opened his desk drawer and took out an envelope with a powder blue ribbon bow tied around it. He handed it over to her.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your birthday card from Rockford Communications. Open it. Your bonus is inside.”

She slid the bow off and opened the flap. Inside the envelope, she found a regular birthday greeting card with a duck on the front. What a disappointment! Was this the way he showed his appreciation to his valued employees? She flipped the card open, but she already knew what she would find. Thank you very much for your service and commitment to Rockford Communications. Blah, blah, blah.

She stopped when her finger touched something hard. She took a closer look, and her eyes fell out of her head. Fastened to the card’s interior by a plastic tie hung a heavy diamond ring, set in gold.

She fingered the solitaire setting and the filigreed band. She couldn’t speak above a whisper. “What is this?”

He stood up and took a step toward her. “Happy Birthday, Eva—my Eva. This is your token of appreciation from Rockford Communications, and from me. I don’t want you to be my business partner. I want you to be my life partner. I never met or cared about anybody the way I care about you. I don’t want to lose you. I want us to be joined at the hip and at the head, and I want us to run this company as only you and I can. You showed me you can do it, and I wouldn’t have anybody else by my side.”

He dropped to one knee in front of her. He took the card out of her hands and tore out the ring. He slid it over her finger. “Accept this and make me the happiest man in the world.”

Eva did her best to blink the tears out of her eyes. She couldn’t speak through her quivering lips, but she nodded. She couldn’t stop nodding, even when he kissed her bejeweled hand.

***

THE END

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