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“It’s not serious,” I tell him.
“No? Because it sounded serious. Looks serious too. I mean, you said it yourself that you were into her when you hired her. I saw the way you looked at her; you were almost entranced by her. Man, she’s had you under her spell from the moment you laid eyes on her.”
“It wasn’t the first time I saw her,” I let out and then I stop.
“Okay,” Tuck says, sitting down yet still at full attention. “When was the first time you met her?”
“Five years ago,” I say. “At the Ferris wheel.”
With that, he gives me the look I expected because I’ve never fully told Tuck what happened that night. He knew I met someone. And he only knew this because I disappeared that night, sending him and half the people I attended the gala with into a frenzy. When I finally reappeared, as nonchalant as I pretended to be, Tuck could tell. For one, I looked a little disheveled; my pants were actually still unzipped. She had an effect on me for sure because I don’t make careless mistakes like that.
But he didn’t know the mechanics of everything that happened. Sure, he asked, but I held face, and eventually he gave up.
“At the Ferris wheel,” he echoes. “She was the girl from that night? The girl who had you so off axis you forgot to zip your pants and spent the next month walking around in a distracted gaze?”
“You’re being dramatic,” I mutter.
“I caught you chewing on a pencil in the middle of a meeting,” he says. “Is that why you promoted her?” he asks, and my eyes snap over to him.
“Is what why I promoted her?”
“Be real, boss. It was obvious that Ferris wheel girl left an impression you couldn’t shake. I know she crossed your mind more than once over the last five years. You dated other women, sure, but none of them ever stuck. Natalie got under your skin in one night and apparently never left. Your night with her was epic; that much is obvious.”
“I didn’t promote her because I slept with her,” I argue, and Tuck narrows his eyes.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I say. “She was the most qualified for the job.”
“Okay, but between you and me,” he says with a goofy grin that’s pissing me off. “Did you buy shares because you knew she worked for M.E.?”
“No!” I practically growl. “A broker representing several Mission shareholders approached Ashford with a controlling block. I did not know Natalie worked there when I agreed to review the deal. The sellers used our vacant events-director position and Mission’s hidden cash problems to make the acquisition attractive. It was a fracture buried so deeply inside the company, not even Jim knew how many shares were being assembled.”
“Do you believe that?” he asks.
“I don’t believe he was ever trying to destroy his own company,” I admit. “At first, that’s what I suspected, like it was some kind of retaliation. But from what Natalie dug up, money has been disappearing for a while now. I’m confident in saying Steve and Terry will find out even more.”
Tuck nods, and we both quietly think about that for a moment before he circles back. “So what are you going to do…about Natalie?”
“What about Natalie?” I ask.
“You asked her to accompany you to the gala as your date. Are you going to make it official?”
I scoff at that as walls go up between my ribcage and my heart.
“There’s nothing to make official. Do we have chemistry? Yes, but that’s all it is,” I insist.
“If there’s chemistry, real chemistry, it will never stop,” Tuck says.
“It will with me,” I say.
“Oh, really?” he asks, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “How do you figure?”
“There’s too much at stake,” I tell him. “She’s Jim’s daughter, for one, and she’s nearly twenty years younger than me. She’s got a kid. We fight like crazy. She’s my employee. HR would have a field day with that information.”
“People do date their co-workers,” Tuck says.
“She works for me,” I state.
