Chapter4
“This was a good choice,” Bradley told Jessica, looking out through the huge windows onto the city. She’d gotten them reservations at Portland City Grill for their first lunch together and had managed to get them a table where they could look out at the city--and more than that, the mountains beyond. It was one of Bradley’s favorite places to eat, especially for business purposes.
“Thank you,” Jessica said, smiling slightly. “I figured it would be a bit more official than going and getting pho somewhere.” Bradley chuckled.
“Well, I want you to enjoy your meal,” he said. He was already impressed with her work: she’d gotten more done than he had thought possible between when he’d briefed her that morning and when she’d come into his office to give her progress report just before their lunch together. “That means that if you want to order a drink, I’m not going to think you’re some lush.” He gave her another smile and saw color rise into Jessica’s cheeks for just an instant.
“Oh, in that case…” Jessica said, reaching for the drink menu they’d been given playfully. Bradley snickered and looked over the lunch menu idly. He knew what he would get, but he was--strangely--interested to find out what Jessica’s selections would be. A normal level of interest in a new employee, especially one who works so closely with you, is fine, he told himself defensively. Just because his new assistant was beautiful didn’t mean that he had any bad intentions towards her; after all, he’d had lunch once or twice a week with all of his assistants.
The waitress came to the table and asked if they’d like to start with drinks. “I will have a glass of water and…” Bradley considered. “The specialty old fashioned you make here.”
“And for you, ma’am?” Jessica looked up from the two menus in her hands.
“I think I’ll have a water as well, and your Eastside Elderflower,” she said, setting that menu down.
“Do you know what you’d like to have for lunch, as well? Or should I come back?”
“I know what I want,” Bradley said. “But that’s mostly because I only get one of two or three things here. Jessica--are you ready?” The woman glanced over the menu one more time.
“I’ll be ready by the time you order,” she said brightly. Bradley grinned to himself. She wants to gauge how much I’m spending and then choose based on that, he thought.
“I’ll have the pan seared rainbow trout, then,” he told the waitress, handing her his menu.
“I would love the crab and shrimp BLT,” Jessica said, also handing her menu back.
“I’ll have both right up for you,” the woman said, smiling at them both. Bradley watched the waitress leave, and considered how to move forward in the lunch. It was oddly awkward, the way he felt; he needed to maintain his objectivity as much as possible. “How are you enjoying Portland? It’s got to be really different from Atlanta,” he said.
“It’s very, very different,” Jessica agreed. “I’m trying to mentally prepare for when it gets cold--and also when it eventually snows.” Bradley smiled.
“Well, fortunately the heating system in the building is really good,” he told her. “And I think there’s a plan somewhere along the lines to incorporate some kind of heating in the parking structure, so that should help as well.”
“I am going to be ploughing my paycheck into heavy coats and gloves,” Jessica said. She shook her head, smiling slightly.
“It’s a big move, coming to the other end of the country,” Bradley observed. “Totally different climate, all that--do you know anyone in Portland?” Jessica shook her head.
“I know you--by name, at least--and I know your former assistant, but I think he’s already headed out of town, isn’t he?” Bradley nodded. “I know one of the checkout girls at Fred Meyer. Maybe.” Jessica shrugged. “Apart from that, I don’t really know anyone.”
“That must be a bit intimidating,” Bradley said. “What made you decide to apply for the job?” Jessica licked her lips, and for just an instant--before it was ruthlessly suppressed--Bradley felt a jolt of heat course through his body at the sight of it.
“I wanted a total change of life,” Jessica said. “I’d applied for a few other positions as well--sorry if that dings your ego.” Bradley laughed.
“No, I would have assumed that you were looking at multiple possibilities at the same time,” he said. “It’s only smart to do that. But obviously, you weren’t working somewhere else when you applied to come to Portland.” Something flicked across Jessica’s face, too fast for Bradley to catch it.
“I took a leave of absence from my last job,” Jessica said slowly. “I needed to take some time to figure out some things, and once I felt like I’d gotten to that point...I decided that I wasn’t happy in Atlanta anymore, and that I should go somewhere else--get a bit of the world under my feet.” Bradley considered that answer and nodded.
“I was born in New York,” he said. “Not the city--out in the middle of nowhere. I went to college out at UCLA, and then transferred to Stanford, and ended up dropping out just short of my degree.” Bradley smiled wryly. “My parents were not really pleased by that.”
“I am not surprised at all,” Jessica said.
Bradley chuckled. “I’d been tinkering with some projects while I was in school, and one of them had gotten the attention of a major company, so I dropped out one semester short of finishing, and things just sort of took off from there,” he went on. “And then of course, I eventually came up here, where the tech industry’s more or less moved itself for the moment.
All that to say: I get needing to move around, to be somewhere else for a while.” The waitress arrived with their drinks, and Bradley raised his glass to Jessica, who did the same. He took a sip of his old fashioned, and it was just as good as it had ever been.
“So, I guess it’s my turn to ask a question, to keep things going,” Jessica said. Bradley stifled a laugh at her frank comment. “It must be...I mean, I guess you must have had fairly comfortable parents, to have gone to UCLA and Stanford. But surely, your parents weren’t billionaires; so, it must be quite a thrill to end up there yourself.” Bradley nodded.
“It’s a thrill, but also a burden--and yes, I know exactly how that sounds,” he said, shaking his head in slight chagrin. “When you get to be that wealthy--prepare for a rich douche whine--it’s hard to know who you can believe. Who’s telling you the truth and who just wants to get on your good side. It’s even harder to date; mostly because a lot of the women I’d like to get to know better don’t want to feel like they’re being courted as a trophy girlfriend, and a lot of the women who want to get to know me better very much want to be a trophy girlfriend.” Jessica nodded and sipped her water.
“I can see that,” she said. “You have to be careful who you trust.”
“Absolutely,” he said. He wagged a finger at her. “And now that you’ve got access to all the inner workings of my life, I’d better be able to trust you.” Jessica smiled brightly.
“You can absolutely trust me,” she said. “I would have hoped that my previous bosses would have given you a good impression on that point.” Bradley nodded.
“They did,” he admitted. “They said that you were always discreet.” Again, a little flicker of something, too fast for Bradley to be able to see what it had been, darted across Jessica’s face when he mentioned her discretion. “Everyone you’ve worked with--at least those on your resume--thinks the world of you.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Jessica said.
Their food arrived, and Bradley changed pace somewhat, asking Jessica about her interests outside of work, about what she had thought about seeing in Portland. “It’s a really great city for just about anything you like to do,” he said. “If you’re into outdoors stuff, there’s hiking and skiing and boating. If you like to stay inside, there’s concerts and bars and museums of all kinds.”
“You don’t have to sell the city to me, I’m already here,” Jessica joked. “I haven’t really decided what direction I’m going to go in just yet...but I’m definitely checking out all my options.”
“It’s a shame that you don’t have friends here who can take you around to different places,” Bradley said. “Although, of course, there are a ton of apps to connect with people--one of them is in my portfolio.” He chuckled. “Not that I’m trying to sell you on that, of course.”
“I think the one in your portfolio is a matchmaking app, isn’t it?” Bradley nodded. Jessica licked her lips again and set her sandwich down for a sip of her drink. Bradley had already noticed that she ate like a consummate lady--neatly, with graceful movements. “I decided to kind of put the brakes on any kind of dating, at least for a while,” she told him.
“That’s an interesting decision,” Bradley said. Don’t push her on it. She’s your employee--that would be sexual harassment. Or it could be. But no matter what it is, it’s not appropriate.
“I want to take my time and get to know people generally for a while,” Jessica said, her voice neutral. “I think--as hipster-like as this sounds--that I just need to approach things more mindfully for a while.”
“That does sound like something a hipster would say,” Bradley said, a teasing note in his voice. “But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
“As contrary as it sounds, now that I’m here, I don’t want to rush into anything else,” Jessica explained. “I want to sort of figure out where I am, what I’m doing--all that--and then see about where I can fit other things, like a social life, in.” Bradley laughed.
“I’m not making fun of you,” he said quickly. “It’s just that you sound kind of like me--or at least, me when I came to Portland at first. I wanted to focus just on my work.”
“That’s where I’m at right now,” Jessica agreed.
“Be careful with that,” Bradley said, looking at her more seriously. “My mistake was that I’ve focused so much on my work that I never really got the hang of social life--not really, anyway.” He picked up his fork once more and started in on the spinach salad that had come with his fish. “I mean—obviously, I network with people, I have ‘friends’ in the industry, fellow billionaires and millionaires. But it’s not the same; at least, I don’t think so.”
“I feel like loneliness is probably the cost of being so successful,” Jessica said. “There aren’t very many people in the world who have the same experiences you do--and there’s no telling if you’d even get along with those that do.” Bradley smiled slowly.
“Exactly that,” he said. “You are a very insightful woman.”
“Thank you,” Jessica said, color coming up into her cheeks once more. Bradley wasn’t naive; he knew when a woman was interested in him. He took a quick breath as surreptitiously as he could. Get back into neutral territory, he told himself. Just because there was clearly some tingle of attraction from both of their ends, it didn’t mean anything inappropriate had to happen; it didn’t mean that he could give into the impulse to flirt. He was the boss--he had to be the one to take the high road, to be more circumspect.
“Of course, you’re going to be really busy managing my life,” Bradley said. “So, it’s just as well that you’re putting social life on the backburner for a while.”
“That was about what I figured,” Jessica said, the color in her cheeks returning to normal. “I’m perfectly happy with that for now.”
Bradley focused his thoughts on the most neutral, platonic topics possible, and pushed any thought of Jessica having an attraction towards him out of his mind altogether. She was competent, obviously intelligent, and just as clearly a good worker: he would focus on her professional attributes and keep things where they should be between them.