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She crossed her arms over her lovely chest and gave me a look that would melt steel. “I can do a lot of things as your secretary, but getting your parents to leave you alone isn’t one of them.”
“What are the other things you can do as my secretary?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“I can order lunch,” she said, not taking the bait. “I can rearrange your files. I can book you a trip to Cancun.”
“Can you book my parents a trip to Cancun?” I muttered.
“I can,” she replied, “but you’ll have to tell them about it.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“Do you want me to tell her you’re busy?”
“No, I’ll handle it.” I turned my attention to the computer screen, signaling that our breakfast chat was over. “Will you block off an hour over lunch? I’m meeting with Peter from product design.”
“Sure,” she agreed, cleaning up our little picnic before walking out the door. I watched her leave with more enthusiasm than I should have. Her butt was packaged neatly into the pants she wore, an added bonus for any male coworkers. I decided to keep Ava on the list of staff to try on new designs. It would make for an interesting fashion show in my own office.
Peter came up around noon and we went out for pizza. I was finally able to vent about my father and all his bullshit. I really wanted to explain how messed up his visit made me, how I couldn’t sleep, and found myself drinking a few too many too fast.
“Calm down,” Peter said, taking a bite of his slice. “Everyone knows your old man is a handful. I’m surprised you handle him as well as you do.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“Give him a few months. He’ll go away on his own.”
“I’m not sure that he will,” I said. “He wanted me to get all you guys together to have a dinner meeting.”
“God, that sounds awful.” Peter frowned.
“I didn’t let him get out of the gate on that one,” I assured.
“Thank you.”
“Maybe you should make a Lex Brockton employee of the year award or something like that. Something that gives him an excuse to come back to the office once.” Peter took a sip from his soda, grabbing a French fry and waving it around. “We’ll have a catered lunch and let him give someone a plaque and put him in charge of the whole thing. He’ll figure out that he likes to be retired and go away happily.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I mused.
“Thank you.”
“No, really. It’s like promoting someone to get them out of your hair. No one can argue, and the problem is solved without any drama.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll have Ava work on that when I get back.”
“Speaking of Ava, how is she?” Peter asked.
I sighed. I didn’t really want to talk about Ava. I didn’t know how I felt about her. Other than a vague uneasiness around the fact that I was thinking about her far too often, there was really nothing to say.
“We’re getting along. She’s a hard worker and I haven’t been able to find fault with anything she’s done yet.”
“What about your old secretary?” Peter asked.
“Shannon?” I guessed.
“Was that her name?”
I shrugged. “She went back into the pool when I got promoted, I think. She was nice, she just wasn’t executive material.”
