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He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, mirroring her posture.
“Austin, you’ve always been generous when it comes to my salary. But I’m graduating with my MBA at the end of the month. I don’t need a graduate degree to be someone’s personal assistant. It’s time I moved on.”
“Do you have another job?”
“No, not yet. I’m going to start interviewing soon. I wanted to be up-front with you about it.”
“Thanks,” he said.
She flinched. He realized he might have sounded sarcastic. Maybe a very small part of him had meant it that way. Was he supposed to be happy he was losing her?
He raked his hand through his hair. This was not the way he wanted to start his Friday. It certainly wasn’t the way he wanted to end his week.
He gestured for her to sit down in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk.
She sat and folded her hands in her lap. “I’ve loved working for you and Fortune Investments, but I’ve worked hard to get this degree.”
He didn’t say anything because he was afraid what he wanted to say would sound wrong. He’d always prided himself on being fair.
“I hope you can understand that I want more than being someone’s secretary for the rest of my working life,” she went on. “Because that’s what I am. We can dress it up and call me your assistant, but when it comes down to it, I’m your secretary. It’s been a great job, but now I need more.”
He held up his hand.
“I get it,” he said. “I do. Congratulations on accomplishing this, Felicity. I’m happy for you. I know how hard you’ve worked. You’re smart and you’re creative and I understand that a person with an MBA is way overqualified to be a personal assistant. You’d be wasting your potential staying in this position. But that doesn’t make it any easier for me because I don’t want to lose you.”
He held her gaze and her expression softened.
“I mean did you expect me not to be upset about the prospect of losing you?” He held up his hand again to signal that the question was rhetorical. “But that’s me being selfish. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. What do you want to do with your degree?”
“My undergraduate degree is in advertising. I’ve always wanted to work in that field.”
“You’d be good at it,” he said. “You’d be good at anything you decided to do.”
Her cheeks turned pink again. She looked down and then back up at him.
“Is there anything I can do to convince you to stay with Fortune Investments?”
“I don’t know. Are there any opportunities here?”
“What if I talk to Miles and see if we can create a position for you? I’m not making any promises, but would you consider staying if we could come up with something?”
Felicity smiled. “It depends. Would it mean doing advertising work in addition to everything I do for you?”
Austin laughed. “You know me too well.”
“I know I do.”
“How am I supposed to get by without you, Felicity?”
She shrugged. “You did fine before I came on board. You’ll survive.”
No, he hadn’t been fine before she came onto the scene. His life had been a mess, a big tumbleweed of mistakes and misjudgments that had cost him dearly. It had taken him five years to get himself back on track after his disastrous marriage. Sure, he’d come through it intact and he’d learned a lot about himself and life. Yes, he would be fine on his own, but he didn’t want to lose her.
“If they can’t create a position for me, I’d like to stay until after graduation, and as I said in my letter, I’ll stay until we find my replacement.”
Maybe if he didn’t find someone new, she wouldn’t go. It would be like waiting for tomorrow. Did tomorrow ever really come?
“I’ll tell you what. I’m having dinner with Miles tonight. I’ll broach the subject with him and let you know what he says. Sound good? You won’t quit on me before you let me figure something out, right?”
* * *
How am I supposed to get by without you, Felicity?
If she was a silly woman, Felicity would’ve let herself read so much into that question. But true to form, she had already overthought it, turning it round and round in her mind, examining it from every angle until it had completely lost its shape and she’d killed off any dreams that Austin Fortune felt anything for her that wasn’t strictly platonic.
