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I froze, staring at him as he stuffed the manuscripts into his bag.
“You know?”
“The whole house knows, with the boy making goo-goo eyes at you all the time it’s so obvious I’m insulted you thought I was stupid enough to not notice.”
“Accept my apologies then,” I said with a sigh.
Howard and I were dating. That was supposed to be my big reveal and he just went and gutted it. We’d been dating for about a year since I’d started working here actually.
“Accept my rejection then.”
“What?”
“If you want to date him that’s your business but no granddaughter of mine is shacking up with anyone!” he replied standing to his feet.
“Grandpa!”
“Esther!” He mocked and I should have learned not to do that by now.
I sighed. “Grandpa, I’m twenty-two. I’m not asking for permission, I’m asking for—”
“Help.” He cut in as he stood in front of me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Howard is twenty-eight, he’s pretty much settling down, ready to enclose you in his white picket fence, which would be okay if that was what you wanted. But if you wanted that, Esther, you would have told me about him, and if he was the right one he would have told me himself—”
“I told him not to.”
“It doesn’t matter, peanut. He still should have been man enough to do so. Lastly, if you really wanted this you would have started off with ‘Grandpa, I love him.’ Not ‘Grampa, I’m twenty-two.’”
I opened my mouth to say the words but nothing came out. Why were three little words so hard to say? I wasn’t even looking at Howard and I still couldn’t say it.
“I’ll be the bad guy alright?” He patted my shoulder. “You told me and I said no. Besides, who else is going to take care of me when I’m old if you moved out?”
I snickered. “You’re already old.”
He gasped letting go of my shoulders. “How dare you? I’ll have you know I don’t look a day over seventy-five.”
I laughed and he flicked my nose. He didn’t say anything else about the matter, he simply walked towards the door and held it open for me.
“Now get back out there and earn my money.”
“Oh back to boss-mode. Sure, sure. I’m going,” I said as I grabbed my things and walked towards the door. “I’ll even walk you to your office, old man.”
“I remember when your legs would wobble like a giraffe and you’d fall onto your bottom and sit there confused and crying.” He shook his knees outside the office
for everyone to see.
“Grandpa!” I grabbed his arm.
“Esther!” He mocked again.
Tightening my grip on him I walked faster, pulling him along which caused him to snicker like he always did. Expect this time his snickering was interrupted by a cough. He coughed so badly we had to stop for a second and I broke apart a little just staring at him.
“Don’t give me that look…ahuh!” He coughed once more as he rubbed his throat.
“What look?”
“That.” He pointed his long slim finger directly between my eyes. “Your big, brown, sad puppy dog eyes like I’m going somewhere. Come on, you’re walking me, ain’t you?”
“We’re here,” I said and, like the hostess of Wheel of Fortune, I lifted my hands and directed his attention to the glass door with his name etched onto it. “I’ll get back to earning my paycheck now. Namaste, Rafi.” I nodded my head and clasped my hands together as my grandfather’s personal assistant, Rafi Patel, rushed to the door wearing his classic suspenders and bow tie, which upon first hearing it you’d think was kind of dorky, but the moment you saw his muscular build, hazel eyes, and his half-million Instagram followers, you’d want a pair of green and white striped suspenders too.
