Stepping off the elevator on Tuesday morning, I’m practically salivating for those peach pie cookies. Ambrosia greets me with a smile over her shoulder as she finishes making a coffee for Charlotte, Phoenix’s assistant.
“Good morning, ladies,” I say and politely wait my turn.
“Have a good day, Ambrosia, Mr. Hale,” Charlotte says, taking her coffee and some kind of yellow cookie and exiting through the opening to the marketing hallway.
Ambrosia pours my coffee and hands me a plate holding three of the yellow cookies. “I saved these for you, just like I promised,” she says.
I stare at them like they personally insulted me and then look up at the barista. “What about the peach ones?”
“We had those yesterday. Today we got lemon butter. They’re amazing, I promise.” She taps the edge of the glass plate with her fingernail and nods encouragingly.
“Okay, thanks,” I say, taking my breakfast of champions and heading to my office. Mindy is already there, and my stomach tightens when I see she’s in the red suit again today, the same one I saw her wearing last week. The one that’s the exact color of the dress fromthat night.
“Morning, Ms. Espinoza.”
“Good morning, Your Highness,” she trills, and my jaw tightens. Mostly because I’m trying not to laugh at her smartass greeting. I was quite a dick yesterday with the wholeI’m the bossthing, so I’ll let her have this one.
Once again, she leaps from her chair and opens my door for me, and I mutter a thank you.
The lemon butter cookies are delicious, but not quite as satisfying as the peach ones from yesterday. Maybe she alternates days and will bring them again tomorrow.
I busy myself with emails and a few phone calls until Mindy knocks on my door at 10:25. “Come in,” I call.
She steps inside, and I keep my eyes firmly on her face and not on how her body looks in that suit. “Um, I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Hale, but I was wondering if you’re planning to leave soon for the meeting over at the lab building?”
I look at the plain black-and-white calendar on my screen. “I have time. It’s not until 11:00.”
She winces. “Actually, it’s at 10:30, which only gives you five minutes to get over there.”
Squinting at the calendar, I realize the meeting is wedged halfway between the ten and eleven. Motherfucker. This really is a piece of shit system.
Standing quickly, I start rolling down the sleeves of my dress shirt. When I fumble to do the buttons one-handed, Mindy steps forward and buttons them for me and deftly adds my cufflinks. Then she plucksmy jacket from the back of my chair and holds it up so I can stick my arms into the sleeves.
“Let me see,” she says, pushing my shoulder until I turn around so she can look me over. The backs of her fingers brush my neck as she straightens my tie, and I can feel blood rushing to the point of contact.
“All good?” I ask.
“Um, you have a little…” She reaches up and brushes a cookie crumb from my beard with her thumb and smiles shyly. “All good now.”
I have an overwhelming urge to suck that thumb into my mouth, but of course I don’t. “Thanks, Mindy,” I say, using her first name out loud for the first time in front of her.
“You’re welcome, sir.” She closes my laptop and hands it over. “I compiled your notes into bullet points so you can find them easily. They’re in the purple folder labeled with today’s date, which is pinned to your desktop.”
She really is a fantastic assistant. I only wish I could keep her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I’ll be a complete asshole. Tomorrow
Remington
We’ve madeit to Thursday, and Mindy has exactly zero strikes against her. Zero. She’s been the perfect employee, other than her morning greetings, which actually are starting to amuse me. Yesterday she called meYour Grace, and today wasEl Presidente, pronounced with a perfect Spanish accent.
Trust me, I’ve searched for something to reprimand her about, but I’ve come up with nothing so far. I have no complaints, except maybe…
I march out to her area and stand beside her desk until she looks up at me with a professional smile. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Hale? Another coffee?”
“No, I wanted to ask you not to wear that red suit anymore,” I announce like an imperious prick. I’ve only seen her wear this one and the navy-blue one. She seems to alternate days.
