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“Of course you do.” I have so many questions, but he’s obviously not in a chatty mood, and I’m afraid they’d come out judgmental anyway. “So, I wasn’t aware that today’s working hours needed to go so long, but that makes sense since I’m new.” I nod. I can make this work if he’d let me take a break to let out Destiny’s Child, my little Havanese.
A muscle bulges in his jaw as he rotates his office chair towards me. “I—I don’t want to be a heel about this, but the work days are long here at Tate International. Which is reflected in your salary and in Drake bringing in your meals.” He raises his arms and lets them slap down on his legs. “I guess in all the craziness of the day, I failed to mention that. We’ve got a lot to cover tonight. I need to show you how to manage my schedule. You’ll need to learn how to navigate The Calendar, and I’ll need you to write several emails. Basically, when I’m in the office, I need you to try to be, as well.”
Whoa. This is so not cool. But I don’t exactly have a choice, do I? I force a smile.
“Look, I have some big goals to close out the year with, several acquisitions to work through,” he says. “It’s all hands on deck. If you can’t cut it, I’ll have to find someone else who can.”
This time, I don’t hold back the withering glance. This man knows how to push every button I have, doesn’t he?
Chapter 6
Sebastian
This task—this quest to meet my goals under the new challenges I’m facing—feels insurmountable. I took Britta for granted, and a sharp sense of regret turns my breathing shallow. I don’t have time to hold Elianna’s hand in this. I have three months to meet my goal, a goal I’ve had half my life.
Maybe things will click and she’ll get the hang of everything soon. If she’s anything like her brother, she will. But I always got the sense she wasn’t very much like him and their parents, and I’m starting to feel the panic seep in.
“Can I please run home to take Destiny’s Child out? I can be back in a half hour.” She sticks one foot a few inches off the ground, points and flexes her toes, and rotates her ankle. “And maybe change my shoes while I’m there.”
“Destiny’s Child?” I can’t make heads or tails of anything she’s saying.
“My dog.” The look she gives me is frosty, like how could I not know that’s the name of her dog?
“Fine. I’ll see you soon.” I return to my desk and consult my to-do list program on my computer. For every one thing I check off, I enter in three more.
I don’t look back at Elianna as she leaves. I don’t need to. Her bright blue eyes, wavy blonde hair, and unexpected clothing choices have been burned in my brain. It’s like she takes up all the space wherever she is, which isn’t a good trait for an executive assistant to have.
That doesn’t mean her role isn’t important. Executive assistants are the right arm of every operation, indispensable. I want to respect her and her time. And I do respect Elianna, but I don’t yet know if she’ll prove to be indispensable.
Patience.I tell myself. Patience is my Achilles’ heel. I’ve always struggled with it. A thorn in my side that I’ve been working on, to varying levels of success. Right now, though? It feels like a moot point. The Deca Arete list is looming large, and I don’t think I can afford to life coach my way through it and work on such things as patience. I have to hit the list, and then all my old demons that I want to change can be given the time and attention they need.
Elianna needs time and attention. She comes across as someone who likes the spotlight, which is so out of my wheelhouse I don’t even know how to respond to it. Just one more reason that this favor to Ethan may backfire.
I get a phone call from Trevor at the front desk. “There’s someone here who’d like to say hello to you if you’re available? It’s a . . .” He pauses like he’s glancing at where he wrote it down. “Lily Franklin.”
Lily?
The one girlfriend I’ve ever had. Except her maiden name was Gannon.
“Sure. I’ll be right down.”
It’s a jolt to the system to think about Lily again after all these years. We met in graduate school, but didn’t start dating until she moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I’d just built one of the first Tate International resorts. Six months later, we broke up.
Shebroke up withme.
I go downstairs and she introduces me to her four-year-old son.
“And you remember Rob?” she asks, smiling at the man by her side.
I’d met her husband before. It’s nice to know that after all these years, my feelings for her have been replaced with nothing but a hope that she has a happy life. It’s obvious she does.
“We’re vacationing here and thought we’d see if you were around,” Rob says.
We chat for a couple of minutes, and after they leave to visit the lake, I tell Trevor to comp their rooms and give them some vouchers for The Summit restaurant upstairs.
It was good to see Lily again, if nothing else but to remind myself what happens when I try to have a relationship—a semblance of a normal life.
You work too much.
