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"Always a plus," Hannah agreed, turning back to the cabinet and grabbing three new mugs.
"You haven't even asked me my name," he informed her, reaching for the coffee pot and pouring three fresh cups.
"That's because your name precedes you, James," she told him with a smile.
"Ah, yes, my reputation tends to make me a topic of discussion around these parts."
"Or perhaps it is your absence that makes people talk," Hannah suggested.
"Easy girl," James laughed, "I don't know if my brother can handle an assistant who has a mind of her own."
"He will learn to adapt," she said, defiantly.
"Elliott? Adapt? Oh, gorgeous, you have some learning to do it seems," he said, taking one of the coffee cups from her.
"Oh, wait. I need to grab a dustpan and broom."
James chuckled. "It's already cleaned up," he told her.
"How do you know that?" she asked, following him back to the lobby.
"Because... it's my brother."
–
He wasn't ashamed to admit that it was irritating to see how easily James interacted with his new assistant. The way he joked with her to overcome her embarrassment, the way he took charge and got her out of the room to take care of herself, the way he obviously prevented her from crying, the way he put his own jacket on her so she would not have to walk around the entire day with coffee stains and a see-through shirt.
Next to all of that, he felt clumsy and inadequate.
They came back into the office with a hushed sort of amusement. There was a light in both of their eyes and James winked at her comradery when she handed out the coffee and then excused herself.
When the door closed at her back, Elliott spared his brother a quick glance and said simply, "No."
James lips quirked up on one side. "We'll see," James said looking at the closed door. "You never know."
–
Hannah leaned back against the door and breathed deeply a few times. Tad walked past her, reading the top sheet in the pile he was holding and said without ever looking up, "That's a look," and kept about his business.
She knew she would never let herself live that entire episode down. It might have been the single most humiliating thing she had ever had happen in her adult life. It was the thing she would have rolling around in her mind at night when she was trying to sleep. She made a mental note to dry clean James' jacket and tie, and went back to work to try to put the whole incident behind her.
About an hour later when she got back to her office, she found something sitting on top of her desk. It was a plain white shirt, folded neatly on top of all the paperwork she would have to eventually file away. It was almost identical to the one she had been wearing earlier which was likely ruined. But this one was of a finer material and a designer label. It was even in her size. She would have to make sure she sent a "Thank you" note to James along with his dry cleaning.
–
He hope it fit. He was usually a decent judge of those kind of things and she was somewhat on the thin side to him so she was likely to fit in anything he picked out. But, for some reason, he wanted it to fit her the way she would have it fit if she picked it out herself. He made sure there was no note, hoping, perhaps, she would assume it was from Tad or one of the other office women... or even his own brother.
But he had to make the purchase to ease himself of some of the guilt he felt in assuming that if he wasn't such a demanding, intimidating person, she wouldn't have been in such a rush and would have taken her time and looked where she was going and not ruin her shirt and burn herself. He needed to make amends somehow, even if she never knew it was from him.
Besides, he couldn't have her walking around the office in a man's jacket with a tie as a belt. And, especially, not his brother's jacket and tie. People were already going to talk about them. He had heard the laughter from the kitchen when they left to make more coffee. It had irritated him. Hannah seemed every bit as serious and sober as himself, but the fact that James had so easily gotten her amused proved otherwise.
Or proved that she was attracted to James. His brother had always possessed a knack for charming even the most taciturn of women. Maybe it was because he had all the time in the world to pursue anything in a skirt because he hardly ever showed up at work. Except on days when he threatened to terminate him if he refused to show up to an important meeting. Like the one they had had earlier with the slimy snake of a CEO to a company they were trying to acquire. James had a much stronger tolerance for the backhandedness and B.S. they were sure to hear from the impossible man.
When Elliott was all but ready to grab the man by his neck and throw him from his office, James sat there, hands steepled in front of his mouth, lounged back in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk.
"We understand your concerns, Alan," he had said, sending a look to Elliott that only a brother could interpret as 'hey look, I know he's a total tool, but we need him so keep your cool.' And, perhaps, 'I know you think I'm incompetent, but I can handle this.'
Sometimes he forgot that James actually had a higher level of education than he did. While he had been busy busting his ass working sixteen hour days to get his company on its feet, James had chosen to stay in college. Mostly, he stayed because he liked living on campus with the crazy parties and the abundance of women. And while he switched majors four times before he settled on (see: was forced into) business, he always kept an almost perfect GPA.
