Page 47 of Naughty Heart

Her parents were gone, and her ex had stepped out on her.

She didn’t want my help, and I couldn’t say I didn’t understand why. Perhaps she believed nobody would stick around for her.

“I want to help, Evelyn. Like you said, I have the means.”

“Maybe I’m a fool for this, but I will not accept that,” she fired back.

Even if I could rationalize this in my head, I still didn’t understand the anger radiating off of her.

“What else is there?” I asked.

“Pardon?”

Narrowing my eyes, searching for answers I didn’t think I’d find on her face, I clarified my question. “Not more than a few hours ago, you were in my office doubled over in a fit of laughter. And now you look like you want to claw my eyes out. I understand feeling frustrated about the bus situation, but I can’t understand how that translates into what I’m getting from you right now. So, what else happened?”

“Please let it go,” she begged.

“No. Given the nature of our work relationship, I can’t just let it go. And I can’t have all this hostility between us. Tell me what’s wrong, so we can talk about it and get back to where we were earlier today. I’m kind of missing the woman who was in my office this morning,” I shared.

That did it.

While I didn’t immediately understand why, the words I’d said had obviously struck a nerve. Evelyn’s body went taut as she pinned her stare on me. “I hate to disappoint you, but she’s never coming back.”

“Care to explain why?” I pressed, doing my best to keep the tone of my voice neutral, but feeling utterly panicked.

“Do you really want me to answer that? Because once I do, there’s no going back.”

Why was she making this sound so horrible? “I really want you to answer.”

Evelyn leaned her forearms on the desk and seethed, “I know this was all a joke to you.”

My gut clenched. I had a sinking feeling about what could prompt her to say such a thing, but it was impossible for her to have drawn such a conclusion from any of the interactions we’d had. “What?”

“For the last week and a half, I thought I was a legitimate employee. I thought I was someone whose input you valued. You should have told me from the start that wasn’t the case,” she advised.

I didn’t exactly know what to say.

Granted, I was well aware the position I’d hired her for hadn’t existed before I gave her the job, but it wasn’t possible for her to know that.

Fear started to creep in, my throat growing tight.

“I can see you understand I’ve figured it out,” she began again. “If my situation was different, I would have walked out of here and never looked back. Unfortunately, I hate to admit I need this job as much as you need me to secure your position in this company and take it over. If you had told me from the start, I could have had a choice about whether I wanted to be part of something like this. I don’t have that choice now.”

Along with the hollow feeling that had formed a pit in my stomach, my palms started to sweat. “How do you know—”

“Does that really matter right now?” she questioned me. “Look, you need me to fool your parents into believing you’re a man they can depend on to take over their company. And I need this job. From this point forward, I’d like us to just work together with that understanding. I don’t need you pretending to be interested in any part of my life, and I certainly don’t want you making me believe there’s something special happening between us. I’ll do what you need me to do, Malcolm. I’ll even attend the Christmas party with you. But my only request is that you do me the favor of respecting that this is purely a business transaction between us. Nothing more.”

With those words, it felt as though my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

When my parents came to my place and told me I needed to change how I was living or I’d lose my chance to be the owner of this company, I felt the worst I’d ever felt in my life.

And yet, hearing everything Evelyn just said, having her state that there’d never be a chance for something more between us, I finally realized how wrong I’d been.

This was worse.

Way worse.

And to top it off, I wasn’t a guy who was accustomed to facing this kind of adversity, so her words left me stunned and speechless.