Chapter 4

4

Mira

"He had nothing to say to you?" Gio scowls up at me from the screen of my phone.

I shake my head. "I didn’t see the man the entire day."

She taps her finger to her cheek. "Maybe he was busy? He is the CEO of the company."

"And he asked me to get to his office for eight a.m., which I did, but he wasn’t there. He palmed me off to his HR manager who onboarded me. She also told me one of my roles, get this, is to ensure his favorite coffee is stocked, as well as his sparkling water."

"So he did instruct someone to show you around?"

I pop a shoulder. "There was no reason to ask me to report for eight a.m. if he wasn’t going to be around."

"But the office hours are from eight a.m. to five p.m.?"

"Eight a.m. to eight p.m." I grimace.

"He’s a workaholic." She shrugs.

"I don’t want to work for him."

"So don’t."

"Don’t think I have a choice. I need this job."

"Join me. I’ve resumed PR for The London Ice Kings. Also, the bookshops are booming. I need someone who can help manage the workload."

"I don’t know anything about PR," I protest.

"You don’t know anything about being an assistant."

"How difficult can it be? I have experience taking care of three-year-olds. Surely, pandering to the needs of a CEO can’t be as challenging?"

"You have a point." Gio pushes the hair back from her face.

Since she married Rick, she’s taken to wearing her hair down. She also seems less stressed; there are no wrinkles on her forehead. She’s glowing with health and seems a lot more relaxed. "Most men, in my opinion, don’t develop beyond being five years old anyway. You need to treat them like they're children. Humor them, but also don’t hold back the truth from them. You have to be upfront, but also selective, when necessary. It’s a fine balance."

I chuckle. "Is that how you manage Rick?"

"Now, there are always exceptions to the rule. Rick was one of them. Nothing I said or did could sway the man, stubborn as he is. He’s one of the only men I’ve met who’s so secure in himself, he wasn’t threatened by my self-confidence. That’s what made me hate him, at first, but also intrigued me enough to find out more about him."

There’s a soft smile on her face. Almost as if talking about him has conjured him, I hear Rick’s voice in the background.

"Do you have to go?" I ask.

"Not until you tell me what you’re going to do next."

"Not much I can do. It’s noon, and I’m stuck here behind this assistant’s desk. I have a ton of emails which have landed in my inbox. I’ve tried to reply the best I can, but without his direction, I’m not sure how much further I can go, and?—"

A baby’s shriek breaks the silence of the office.

Gio frowns. "Was that?—"

"A child, yes." I glance around the floor. This is the executive floor, so it’s only the senior management who are here, along with their various assistants behind desks similar to mine. And no one seems to be bothered by what I’ve heard. Maybe, it’s from someone’s computer or phone? But it didn’t seem that way and—there’s another cry, and this time, the sound doesn’t stop. And yet, nobody else on the floor seems to be reacting.

"I need to find out what’s happening. I’ll talk to you later, Gio." I disconnect before she can protest, then rise to my feet, pocket my phone, and walk in the direction of the crying child. As I pass each cubicle, I find people glued to their computer screens. Many are wearing earphones; others are typing into their tablets. No one seems curious about the child’s crying. I pass an empty conference room, then a few offices with more executives staring at their screens. Gosh, this place is as cold and severe as my new boss. I reach the end of the floor and peek into the last cubicle to find the HR manager, the one who inducted me, changing a baby’s diaper on her desk. The kid begins to cry in earnest.

"Not a fan of her diaper being changed, huh?"

Adela, the HR manager, shakes her head. "She hates it. I had to bring her in because the babysitter called in sick. I was hoping she’d sleep for most of the day, but clearly, I didn’t think things through."

Just then, the baby flings out her leg and hits a pen holder which crashes to the floor.

"Andrea, no. Stay still. It’s almost over, I promise." She manages to remove the used diaper, folds it and looks around for a place to deposit it.

"Here, give it to me." I grab it from her and head to the restroom that’s in the hallway behind the cubicle.

I'm back in a few minutes and find Adela has finished changing Andrea’s nappy, but the kid is still crying. She presses the child into her shoulder and rubs circles over her back. "There now, hush, baby. Everything is fine. You're fine."

The infant cries louder.

A man pops his head around the adjoining cubicle. "Keep it down. We’re trying to work here. Also, you shouldn’t have brought the kid here. You know this is a child-free zone."

"You think she had a choice?" I scowl at him.

He looks me up and down. "You’re new, I take it?"

"I’m Edward’s Chase’s new assistant."

"Well, I’d say good luck, but it’s not going to help where Priest is concerned. As for you"—he turns to Adela—"I hope you have your CV brushed up. You’re going to need it."

I open my mouth to tell him off when a hard voice interrupts, "Ms. Young, am I paying you so you can waste your time babysitting?"