Amanda
“This is the worst time for you to drop off the radar,” I said. Derek sat at my desk, his old-school leather briefcase on his lap and he clutched it like it was a lifeline. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I told you,” he said with a voice that sounded a lot steadier than he looked. “I had a family emergency. I know my job is important but work can’t be my whole life.”
I shook my head. “You see, this is where you don’t understand me. Your work can’t be your whole life, but your work has become my whole life. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Derek looked confused. God, what did I do to deserve a bunch of idiots? Was there no one who could just see things the way I did?
“While you were gone, I’ve been talking to Caleb. You put papers in my envelope that I thought you might have sent to him, too. Do you know what that would have done? What it would do to the company if you’d effectively told my financial advisor what you were up to?”
“What I’m up to?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes and walked to my window. He was the one taking care of the books. Sure, I knew about it but I wouldn’t care if he was the only one to take the fall. Rather him than me. I was doing him a favor because he did me a favor. I didn’t like him enough to care for him beyond what he could offer me.
“You better tell me that this isn’t going to blow-up in our faces,” I said to the skyline.
“We’ve never had problems before.”
“You’ve never made mistakes before.”
I looked at him over my shoulder.
“I don’t understand why you’re acting like I’m the only person involved with this,” he said.
I took a deep breath and blew it out again, trying to release some of the tension in my shoulders. I was stressed. I had had a good conversation with Caleb – it didn’t look like he knew what was going on – but James was still stalling for time and I couldn’t figure out why. I was starting to get worried that something was up that I didn’t know about.
I guess it’s true what they say – when you’re doing something behind everyone’s back you start to worry they’re doing something behind yours.
I had always been able to trust James. Not because he was so good at what he did, but because he didn’t seem to care enough about his company to get involved with what I did. Suddenly, he was interested.
Where had that come from? The reason we’d become so successful was that he left me to my own devices.
“I want to set up a meeting with the four of us,” I said, sitting behind my desk. “You, me, Caleb and James. I want to get to the bottom of this, find out what’s going on, what the hold up might be. And I don’t want that new girl in on it.”
Derek frowned. “What new girl?”
I waved my hand. “Caleb has some trainee that follows him around everywhere. I must fight to see him alone. She’s under the strictest confidence, he said, but she’s shadowing his every move. If you see him again you’ll see what I’m talking about.” I pressed my fingers to my temples. “I can’t stand her.”
Derek shook his head. “I went to see Caleb two days ago. He didn’t have anyone with him.”
“Lucky you,” I said. “I can’t get him to get rid of her.”
Derek shrugged. “Maybe she’d been on her lunch break.”
I nodded. “Maybe…” I said.
Or, maybe he was doing something and lying to me about it. I shook off the thought. I was really being paranoid now. I just had to let it go. He wasn’t doing anything that made me feel like our business wasn’t private.
“Maybe I should have a chat with James, ask him what he’s doing?” Derek asked.
I shook my head. “You can’t. The advising bit is what we have Caleb for. You’re just here for the books. I don’t want you getting close to him, anyway. The further away you stay from him, the better.”
I didn’t want James to find out anything. Derek was good at what he did but the easiest way to keep everything away from James that went on behind the scenes was to keep Derek away from him, too. James didn’t like Derek, anyway. He never protested when I offered to speak to the man alone on occasions where James’s presence wasn’t desperately needed. James let me do everything alone if I insisted on it. He was spineless in that regard. At least, he had been until recently.
“Setup a meeting and let me know,” I said to Derek. The man stood up, nodding. He left my office. When I followed him out, Charlie Weber was talking to Lauren. He was the type of man that turned heads. His confidence made for a character that was bigger than he was and his presence preceded him. He took my breath away whenever I saw him.
“What a surprise,” I said to him. He turned and smiled at me. He was a carbon copy of his father – dark hair but the same green eyes James had. He stood with his hands in his pockets and the attitude of someone who could get whatever he wanted with the snap of his fingers. And he did. He got exactly what he wanted, every time.
“Lauren tells me James is out,” he says. “You don’t know where he is?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, not.” I didn’t often know where James was. I was lucky if he came into the office at all.
“Must be busy what that new accountant of yours, eh?” Charlie winked at me.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He was a dirty son of a bitch. Between the two of them, James – as womanizing as he was – had turned out the better one of the two. I stopped as the words dawned on me.
“What new accountant?” I asked.
“A Miss Fischer, if I recall correctly. I was on the phone the other day when he let something slip. You know James, always slipping when it comes to women.” He laughed like his joke was funny.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “I’m not sure she’s his type,” I said tightly.
Charlie shrugged. “If her legs can open, she’s his type. Trust me. I’ll phone him and find out where he is. I want to talk to him. I don’t mind hunting him down.”
He gave me a half wave and walked away. I kept a smile on my face until Charlie left. I let it slide when he was gone and turned back to my office.
I had to find out who Ava Fischer was and what the hell she was doing here. Maybe she a just sleeping with James – I had yet to find out about a woman who hadn’t been there – but what if it wasn’t that? What if there was more?
For a moment, I didn’t know what to do. Something was wrong. Things didn’t add up and I didn’t know who I could talk about it. Maybe Charlie had just gotten the wrong end of the stick. Everyone knew that the Weber brothers hardly spoke to each other since Weber Senior had died and it was hard to keep track of James’s women.
The fact that Fischer had been mentioned by name, though, was a red flag. James had had many women and none of them had had a name. Charlie had never known what was going on in his life. Now, Caleb and James both worked with the same Fischer woman but they labeled her as different things?
I locked myself in my office and walked to the window. I took a deep breath.
I had to think clearly. My whole career was based on the fact that I could think like a man in a world that had no space for women. I had made it this far on composure and a lack of emotion, something that most women couldn’t do. I couldn’t let emotions overthrow me now. I was just panicking. Derek didn’t seem worried. Caleb didn’t look like he knew anything. And the new woman that was around would naturally be on James’s radar because she was female.
This was all okay. I wasn’t just overreacting. I hated that I was being ruled by my emotions. It was a female weakness and I didn’t see myself as a weak female.
Cool and calm. I just had to collect myself again. I closed my eyes and breathed through the storm that raged inside me. Cool and calm. I was a shark in the business world, the only woman that had made it this far. I knew what they said about me in the papers – the woman who showed the men how it was done. I knew what they whispered behind my back – the woman who didn’t have enough heart to find a man.
They didn’t know enough about me to know that it wasn’t all true, but they knew enough and that was all that mattered.
In the business world, this was who I was. A woman with as much business savvy and as little emotional involvement as me weren't going to be thrown off-balance by an office flunky and a weak-spined business partner.
When I opened my eyes again I felt better. I looked out over the city and the symbolism wasn’t lost on me. I was on top of the world again.
I heard James’s door close. He was in the office – the son of a bitch had finally decided to show face. I straightened my dress suit blazer and opened my door. I walked across the little passageway that separated our two offices and opened his door without knocking. I was acting like his mother, but someone had to keep the man in check.
James looked relaxed. I hadn’t seen him like this in a while. His hair was mussed up, his tie hung had half-mast and his top button was undone. It looked like he was headed home after a long day, not like he’d just come into the office.
“Nice of you to join us,” I said.
James blinked at me.
“Nice of you to notice,” he said. “Thanks for knocking.” He was cocky with me. It was this attitude – his arrogance and confidence – that made a woman melt. I wasn’t one of his floozies. I wasn’t going to fawn at his attitude.
“I just heard you come in,” I said. “I didn’t think there would be anything going on here to interrupt.”
He shrugged.
“How can I help you?” he asked. I was irritated with his nonchalant manner.
“I wanted to talk to you about that Fischer girl that Caleb drags everywhere.”
James frowned. “Ava?”
“Right,” I said. “Why does she have to be involved in our business?”
He shrugged. “He’s training her or something.”
I scrutinized his face. I wanted to see something – anything – that would give him away. He blinked at me, giving away nothing. Damn his poker face.
“I don’t like that she’s in our business. I don’t want her here.”
James shrugged again. It was starting to irritate me. Did he know nothing? Did he care?
“I’ll speak to Caleb but he mentioned a confidentiality thing. I don’t think she’s a problem.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, you wouldn’t.”
He glanced sharply at me.
“Charlie was here a moment ago, looking for you,” I added, changing the topic.
“He found me in the lobby.” James was still wearing his poker face, showing nothing. I knew he held contempt for his brother. He hid it well. I wished he was easier to read, but in our circles, being transparent could be your end.
I nodded. I could just imagine what that would have looked like. When James and Charlie collided, the aftermath was never pretty.
“I’m going to speak to Caleb this afternoon about bringing her along. Surely, we have some sort of say in this?”
“We do. I don’t mind her being here, though.” He stretched up his arms and interlinked his fingers behind his head in a frustratingly casual pose.
He emphasized ‘I’, making his point clear. If he didn’t mind I couldn’t do very much about it. James always did what he wanted. Until recently, it had just coincided with what I’d wanted him to do. Which was nothing. It was frustrating that lately, he was getting so involved with the business. He’d never cared before.
I walked to the chair opposite him and sat down. James raised his eyebrows at me. I never sat down in his office if I could help it. Standing up made me feel like I was lecturing him and I didn’t want it to come across that way. If we were equals he might tell me something more than if I was reprimanding him.
Which I did a lot.
“What are we going to do about the expansion?” I asked. “We need to move on that, soon.”
James swiveled toward his window, away from me. The message wasn’t lost on me. His attention was somewhere else. My friendly gesture was thrown back in my face.
“When we’re all set to go we’ll get it up and running right away,” he said.
“And when will that be?”
He glanced at me without turning the chair back. “I’ll let you know. I’m just looking into some things. I want to be sure that this is the right thing to do, financially.”
I sighed, trying not to sound exasperated. “We’ve spoken to Caleb so many times. He’s done projections for us. Everything has been arranged. I don’t understand.”
James nodded. “The business finances have been taken care of, you’re right,” he said. “But I want to make sure my personal finances are covered.”
I frowned at him. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
He smiled at me; a closed smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“That’s personal,” he said.
God, I wanted to strangle the guy sometimes. He was such a cocky son of a bitch. And acting a little like a teenager. What had gotten into him?
“Why are you always so difficult to deal with?” I said.
James’s face changed from the expressionless mask to surprise. I didn’t usually react to his attitudes. I swallowed my outburst right down. Calm, I had to keep calm.
“I didn’t realize I was a problem,” he said.
I shook my head. “Forget I said anything.” I stood up. “I don’t want to see that woman around here again.”
James shrugged. I wanted to slap him for it. “I’m expecting Caleb any moment now. I don’t know if he’ll bring her along.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“And it wouldn’t bother you if he did.” It was a statement, not a question. I left his office before he could think of a comment to throw at me.