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A genuine smile lit up her face, but I felt awkward. Why was it that only a few minutes had passed, and she had left me feeling drained and empty?
Focus.I couldn’t think about her right now. I needed to be productive and prepare for my meeting, not think about hot, little brunettes!
Chapter 8
Laurel
Ireceived a text from Lorelai requesting me to meet up with her at a coffee shop around the corner from work. Hudson wouldn’t even notice I was gone while he was in his meeting. I pondered what she wanted to meet about. Had she changed her mind? Surely, she couldn’t have changed it that quickly. When I entered the coffee shop, I saw Lorelai with Hudson’s sisters, I presumed. One of them was with Lorelai yesterday. She introduced us as I sat down. His sisters looked nothing like him. They were identical to Lorelai or at least what I would assume she would have looked like many years ago. “So, what is going on? Have you changed your mind?” I asked the question, but I didn’t want to hear the answer. I needed this job. What would I do if it fell through?
She laughed. “Of course not, sweetie. We wanted to conspire with you and discuss some ideas.”
This made me a little more at ease. I wondered what crazy plans she or his sisters had come up with. I couldn’t wait to hear. Although I needed to try and hide my craziness. People didn’t always take to me so quickly. I was a great deal to take in all at once.
Christina seemed quirky like me. She was the younger sister. She didn’t have a filter, whereas Kate seemed more like Hudson. This caused the situation to be a little more uncomfortable, talking about it in front of her. I couldn’t tell if this was how she was or if she was faking it to make me nervous.
Lorelai started talking about ideas of how to stir things up for Hudson. Her motives were utterly genuine. I felt like I could become close to these women. They were all so down-to-earth. Nothing like Hudson, that was for sure. She asked me how I was doing working for Hudson. “It’s going fine besides the fact he’s an ass. He’s so uptight. Maybe I should book him for a deep tissue massage. Work out some of those knots.”
“I know, maybe I’ll do that. Slip it into our next conversation over dinner. He will loathe it, but it might do him some good.”
His sister knew how much of a pain in the ass it was, having done it herself for a year. Over the course of the next hour, she told me multiple stories about things that had happened in the office while she had been his assistant.
“Let’s get back on track here. Your brother is off his wagon when this woman is nearby. I don’t know why, but he is. With her working so closely with him, he is bound to let go of some emotion,” Lorelai explained to her daughters.
“Wow, that doesn’t make me feel very good. I don’t know what it is about me that irks him so badly.”
They grinned and ensured me that it wasn’t a shocking thing. Sure, not to them but it was for me. I didn’t need the man blowing up on me all the time. Who knew how long I could keep my mouth shut? I didn’t take shit from anybody, especially egotistical, arrogant men.
Lorelai had invited some of the guys from the office to help with the plan. They shifted chairs over, squeezing into our table. For the next two hours, everyone was shouting out ideas and coming up with plans, but I was not paying attention. It wasn’t that I minded doing this for Lorelai, but why did so many people have to be involved? Inevitably, one of them would spill the beans, and then I could lose my job.
From what I could tell, no grand plans were made. Finally, I decided it was time to leave. Hudson would be out of his meeting shortly, and I needed to be there. Hopefully, not a lot of people called while I was gone. If so, I would never hear the end of it.
I made it back about five minutes before Hudson’s meeting was over, which was just enough time for me to listen to voicemails and write the names and numbers down for him to return after lunch. He would never know I had been gone for the last two hours, conspiring to make him combust.
“I am going out for lunch. You can set my messages on my desk. I’ll return them when I get back. This means I am permitting you to put the messages on my desk, not rummage through anything.”
He said it like I wanted to go to his office and go through his things. Well, he was right. I wanted to know more about him. He spent most of his time at work, which meant this was the best place to find out personal things about him. I already knew how he liked his coffee, but what did he like to eat? I knew he enjoyed pizza since we had eaten it together, but what else? I thought about following him while he went to get food, but I didn’t want to seem too stalkerish. I stayed at my desk and searched the internet to pass the time.
About an hour later, Hudson returned with a to-go box and a man. I wasn’t sure who the man was, but it must be a client. I didn’t greet him when he came in. I figured if he needed something, he would ask. The man was in his office for about two hours, and many people had called to ask when they would be hearing back from him. “Hudson?” I asked as I knocked on his office door.
He hollered at me to come in. I could tell he was upset, but this was critical. I knew he had a client inside, but his other clients mattered too. “Sorry to bother you. I have a couple of clients asking when they can expect a call back from you. It’s on the brink of time to go home for the day.”
“Let them know I will call them back shortly. Tell them I am in a critical meeting right now,” he said and then motioned me to get out of his office.
Sometimes I wondered why people even liked him. He was such an ass. Next, I thought who the hell was the guy in his office? Was he that big of a client that Hudson could blow off the others? He was the boss, but that wasn’t a smart move from my point of view.
Five o’clock came, and I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for him to return his messages. He was a big boy; he could handle that by himself. I tidied up my desk, clutched my purse, and hiked it out of there. The man was still in his office, and no calls had been returned yet. I decided it wasn’t a job that was on the line when he didn’t return the calls. I can’t hold his hand like a child. I don’t get paid enough for that. I jumped in my car and headed home. As I parked and walked up the stairs, my phone rang. “Hello?”
“Where are you?” Hudson asked.
“I’m just getting home. What do you need?”
“Well, none of these calls got returned. I will need you to call them in the morning when you get in and schedule the best time to call them back tomorrow.”
Jeez, why couldn’t he call them before he left the office? Maybe he shouldn’t have had that man in there for almost four hours. His day had been unproductive, but instead of refusing to do it, I smiled and replied, “Yes, sir.”
I put my key into my door and peeled off my heels before I even made it to the couch. Why does being a woman have to be so damn painful? I liked wearing heels because they always gave an outfit that extra oomph. Every day, I complained about wearing heels when I got home, then I turned around and put them on every morning. Go figure.
My night was short and uneventful. I cooked up some pasta and ate in front of the TV, bingeing my latest show choice, then I passed out before nine o’clock. I’m such an old lady.
