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Chapter Eleven
Aaron
As she steps through the door to my office, I glance at my watch. Even having to stop and pick up coffee as I'd asked when I texted her first thing this morning, she's still five minutes early. As efficient as always. Emily crosses the room and sets a cup of coffee down on my desk in front of me.
I know it's a little demeaning to have her fetching my coffee, but I want to make sure she understands what it means to be my PA – it often means having to run errands for me that I don't have time to do. I know Emily is better than this, but it is the nature of the job.
“Thank you.”
She smiles and stands there, her own cup of coffee in hand and gives me a wooden smile. I can tell she resents having to stop and pick up my coffee. But this is what she signed up for.
Standing up, I pick up my cup and lead her out of my office. I hook a quick left and take her to the office one door down from mine, which will be her office. Opening the door, I step aside and let her enter first. As she passes, I catch a whiff of her hair. It's the same citrusy aroma I remember from college. I also catch a subtle hint of her perfume – also the same as she wore back at Rodham. The memories and nostalgia it unleashes are a little heady, I have to admit.
I stand there and revel in it for a moment, recalling better times with Emily, before I follow her in and touch the panel to turn on the lights. Her office is done in a rich cherry wood and is very tastefully furnished. Though most of the building has that modern, almost sterile, feel to it, I like for people's personal offices to be somewhat warmer. Given the number of hours we typically work, this place is like a second home for most of my employees. I want them to feel comfortable here.
“This is your office,” I tell her.
“It's nice,” she responds.
I watch Emily walk to the large picture windows that overlook downtown. The view is stunning, the city of LA glittering like a jewel in the early morning sunlight. As much as I love the skyline of New York – and I do, having a large framed photograph hanging in my office – I have to admit that LA has a stunning skyline in its own right.
“Decorate however you want,” I tell her. “I want you to make yourself at home here.”
She nods but doesn't turn around, her eyes still fixed on the world outside. I have a feeling I know what's going through her head, but I don't know how to help her. For a woman as intelligent and driven as she is, having to humble herself and take a job that requires her to fetch my coffee has got to be terrible. And again, it makes me wonder how she came to be in the sort of situation that would require her to do it.
But the bottom line is that she's here now, and this is a job. Like any other job, there are certain expectations and obligations. I'm not going to pull my punches or take it easy on her just because of our shared history. I wouldn’t do that with anyone. I need a reliable PA and she signed up for it. If she's expecting special treatment or for me to use kid gloves on her, she's mistaken.
“Do you have any questions so far?” I ask.
She finally turns around and I see her cheeks flare with color. “Actually, I was hoping you could tell me a little more about what we do here.”
I nod and motion for her to take a seat behind her desk. She moves to the big chair and sits down, the gentle smile on her lips telling me she enjoys the large, overstuffed office chair. I made sure her chair would be extra comfortable. She swivels back and forth for a minute, getting used to it as I take a seat in one of the chairs across from her. Emily stops adjusting her seat and finally looks up at me for an answer to her question.
“Frankly, I'm surprised you didn't research it already,” I quip.
“I did. I'm just not super tech-savvy,” she grins sheepishly. “I was hoping you could put it in layman's terms for me.”
I cross my leg and lean back in the chair. “Basically, what we do is provide computer security. Our tech team designs specific security programs based on a client's need,” I explain. “We also follow up and maintain those programs. We have a different department that is continually testing the security measures.”
“And how do they do that? Test the security.”
I chuckle. “Basically, I've hired some of the best computer hackers I could find. Their task is to hack our security programs,” I explain. “That lets us know where weak or blind spots exist and how to better fortify them.”
She nods and leans back in her seat, watching me closely.
“Interesting,” she replies in a way that tells me she actually thinks it's anything but interesting.
I laugh softly. “If you're not a tech nerd, it probably isn't,” I offer. “But, that's okay. You don't have to be interested in that side of the company.”
A smile touches her lips and it looks somewhat more genuine than before – though, I still see that she's keeping me at an arm's distance. There's some piece of her that's not entirely comfortable with this arrangement. Whether it's because I'm her boss or because she's doing menial work, I'm not entirely sure.
I do wonder whether or not she ever thinks about the time we spent together back in New York. And more importantly, if so, what she thinks about it. I know things didn't exactly end on good terms with her, but I'm hoping she’s as curious about this twist of fate that brought us back together as I am.
I know we weren't in love or anything back in college, but I recall that we were growing closer the longer we dated. At least, I thought we were. To have it end so abruptly, and in such an ugly way – honestly, I never knew just how much it bothered me until I saw Emily's face again right before I hired her. It bothered me a lot.
Even though we weren't together all that long, Emily Hall had an enormous impact on me. Or, at least, she occupied a hell of a lot of brain space. Either way, her effect on me was one I never saw coming. It kills me that things with her ended while I was overseas finding myself. And yeah, there's a part of me that is still upset about the fact that we never got to talk face-to-face about it.
Even though I haven't thought about it for years, having Emily reintroduced to my life has brought all of those feelings back to the surface and I'm surprised to find that despite the time that's passed, it still hurts somewhere deep. Worse still, I find myself wanting to open up that discussion and rehash it all.
