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She hangs up the phone and before she says anything I’m already jumping in. “What was that all about?”
She frowns down at the timesheet in her hand. “I guess one of Adrian’s guys didn’t get his paycheck on Friday. I’m going to call the payroll company.” She frowns down at the timesheet once again before reaching for her phone.
“What else is wrong?” I ask.
She just shakes her head. “It’s nothing. Really. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”
“Something’s wrong, Vi. You’re looking at that timesheet like it just murdered your best friend, and since that person happens to be my daughter, I find it disturbing.” She gives me that soft smile that makes my heart beat faster in my chest. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
“Well, it’s just that... these time sheets. They’re a little archaic.”
“Archaic?”I know my tone is coming out as a little offended but I can’t help it. I don’t want Violet associating me with anything old, let alone archaic.
Her pretty lips turn down into an even prettier pout. “See, I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I want to smack myself in the head. “I said you could tell me anything and I mean it. What’s wrong with the time sheets besides them being archaic.” I shoot her a wink on that last word to let her know that I’m joking with her.
“If we just modernized the system a little it would be easy for your employees to self-serve some of these things. Plus, they wouldn’t have to fill out a paper every day and then have Jake or Adrian come drop them off to you weekly. I know of services where they can enter their time into an app on their phone, they can view their pay and hours, they can even get direct deposits.”
I look at her surprised. I thought this girl was a college student. Why does it seem like she’s more confident and capable of running an office than I am? “How do you know all of this? You said that you listened to your dad do negotiations on the phone all the time but I highly doubt he was putting payroll systems into place for his company.”
“You’re not wrong. No, during my summers in high school my mother would drag me to every debutante event she could find. It was exhausting and just, not for me. The only way out of it was to spend my days at my dad’s office. One of the women in the HR office took pity on me and let me hang out with her. Most days I spent either reading or helping her with minor tasks. I picked up a lot of things from her on how to run an office.”
“I guess I have her to thank for all this.” I point around me at the office that is a million times more orderly than before Violet joined the team.
“I really haven’t done much,” she says, going shy on me.
“Oh please, I wouldn’t even have known where to look for that time sheet if Adrian would have called me. Plus, I would probably spend half the day on the phone with the payroll company trying to fix the problem that I know you’ll handle in minutes.” Her face is starting to glow with a pretty blush I rather like on her. “Why don’t you get me some pricing on some of those apps you’re talking about and we’ll look into it. Anything that requires me to have less paper floating around here is a good thing.”
She nervously fiddles with a lock of her hair. “No problem, I can have those numbers to you by end of week.”
We spend the rest of the day companionably working side by side until it’s time for her to leave for class. As she packs up to go and the only thing I can think of is that I don’t want her to leave. It barely feels like work when I get to share it with her. Once she leaves with a gentle goodbye and a small wave, the office is dead silent. I turn on some music in a vain attempt to fill the void that Violet has left, but it doesn’t help. I guess now is as good a time as any to drive over to Roxhill and check on Adrian and his crew. Maybe I can apologize to his guy about the payroll mix up in person.
I’m just shoving my keys into my pocket when I hear the sound of the front door downstairs. My heart soars for a moment hoping that Violet has come back. That hope is quickly shattered when I hear a distinctiveclack, clack, clackon the hardwood floor.
Some additional pieces of information I’ve collected about Violet Daniels: She always brushes her hair to the right side of her neck, never the left. She prefers knee length skits over pants. And even though she’s short, she rarely wears high heels unless the occasion calls for it.
No, instead of the blue eyed, black-haired beauty walking through the office door I’m greeted by the visage of my ex-wife. “How the hell did you get in here, Amanda?”
She strides into my office, all tight jeans and boobs that does absolutely nothing for me. “Bianca told me where you keep the spare.”Looks like I’ll be moving that and having a talk with my daughter.
“What do you need? I was just about to head out to a job.”
“I saw little Violet leaving here. It was so sweet of you to give the tiny thing a job.” I clench my jaw. I don’t appreciate the snide way she’s talking about Violet but I can’t let it show.
“Look, if you don’t need anything I’ve got to take off.”
“I just wanted to check again on the properties you have. I found a place that I think I’m going to take but I just want to make sure you don’t have anything for me.”
This woman gets on my nerves like no other. “Amanda. There’s nothing. If I had something, I would have told you. What is this obsession with getting into one of my properties? And while we’re at it, why are you moving here? You’ve never expressed any interest in moving to Seattle. Hell, you’ve only been here to visit Bianca a handful of times since she moved here four years ago. What’s going on with you?”
She lets out a sigh and gives a little jump, sitting on top of my desk. I guess it would be rude to rip out the papers she’s sitting on and dump her on the floor, but the urge is strong. “I lost my job, okay?”
“What? How? You’ve been working there for years? Did the doctor close his practice or something?”
She gives out a huff and shrug, turning her head away from me. I know from my years with her she’s hiding something. “Amanda,” I say in a warning tone.
“Fine. I was having an affair with him for the past year and his wife found out. After promising me for months that he was going to leave her, the second she found out, he dumped and fired me. That bitch wife of his didn’t keep her mouth shut about it either. Now I’m the town pariah. I can’t find a job at another practice and I feel like I’m one step away from people shunning me in the streets.”
