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“You want to stick around, visit with your staff?” Beck asked.
“Oh, there are no Britesmithers here. I just thought it would be something fun to do for the third night of Hanukkah.” Nora waved a hand, laughing. “Totally worth it to see your reaction.”
“Oh, you mean mypolkeface?” Beck gave her a playful shove as they made their way to the exit. “I played right along.”
“You’re a good sport,” Nora said, pulling him close by the sides of his coat. Before she could talk herself out of it, she kissed him, right in the front vestibule.
“Ope,sorry – I don’t see any mistletoe up there,” he murmured, eyes upturned before focusing warmly on her. “Just a mezuzah.”
“Any port in a storm, right?” she said softly, as he cupped her cheeks. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. Back at my place. It was just…when you assumed I didn’t report – it was like you didn’t believe me.”
“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I can see now you’ve had to shoulder so much alone. And seriously, how much you genuinely care for your staff. But well…then my shields went up, too. At the mention of my grandfather. It wasn’t like him to leave anyone hanging like that.”
Latecomers were pushing past them; it was not an ideal spot to have an emotionally-charged heart-to-heart. Plus all that prop food on the stage made her realize they hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Swedish fish didn’t really count. “Can we debrief somewhere with snacks? And a little more private? I know a great comfort food place on Christopher Street.”
“Order it for delivery to the Langham. Hold thekishkas.”
* * *
“Privateandwith a good view,” Nora commented. Thirty-six stories above Manhattan, they’d warmed up with a surprisingly decent red wine from the minibar, and fueled up with butternut squash soup, crispy Brussels and just enough walnut pesto tortellini to keep them out of a carb coma. Respecting Nora’s ‘no subway clothes on the bed’ policy, Alex had offered her one of the luxe hotel robes. “Taking back everything I said about this place.” She snuggled down into the thick waffle-weave and inhaled its ginger flower scent. “Five-star is the way to go.”
“I could get used to this view, too.” Alex agreed, although his back was to the window. Nora, making his barely slept-in hotel bed into a nest of her own, was a welcome sight.
“Come match me.”
He smiled. “Would love to. But feeling like I should shower the city off me first.”
“New York has that effect on people.” She gave a small shrug, the oversized robe slipping off her shoulder.
He leaned in with the wine bottle to refill the glass she held aloft, wanting to kiss that exposed skin in the process – but refrained. They had cleared the air with their apologies, but mistletoe and mezuzahs weren’t the only things hanging over their heads. The metaphorical Sword of Damocles that had chased them out of bed this morning needed to be addressed before there was any climbing back in.
“So. You give all those people their first crack at Broadway.”
Nora swallowed the gulp of wine she had just taken. “I do. Even if it is just thirty-minutes before the show and fifteen minutes in between acts.”
“Those are important minutes.” She was just as much a dream-maker as a kingmaker. “You are way more than just HR, Nora.”
She had given him a true sense of the extent of People Operations at work today. “You have your hands in everything at Britesmith. And not in the way I think Hedstrom led my uncle to believe.”
“He calls me his trailblazer, but what he really means is troublemaker.” She pulled her robe belt tighter. “He’s threatened by new ideas from others, yet he has none of his own because he is short-sighted.”
Alex paced the length between the bed and the window. “Oh, I think he has ideas, they just aren’t with the company’s best interests in mind.”
Especially now that he had a new stream of funding from Myers and Sons coming in.
“For every person I onboard, I make sure they trained to the performance level you saw today – people like Angelo, Tia. They give their best every day, and the benefits they receive here are a rarity that I think shows how much we appreciate them. Hedstrom took advantage by dipping in…and once I figured out his scheme, he’s been trying to take that all away.”
“How so?”
“He’s been bringing in a lot of outside consultants and 1099 contract employees, especially for the satellite offices. That’s why I figured you were from Westchester or Jersey, and why I wouldn’t even know you if I tripped over you at that party.”
Alex smiled, thinking of that jingle bell that brought them together.
“Explain those locations to me.”
“Westchester serves the venues upstate, plus Connecticut and Long Island. New Jersey extends to parts of Philadelphia. Regional theater, summer stock. Still quite large operations. But they are barely recognizable as Britesmith. More like temp staffing agencies. New York has been his bargaining chip with me. Keeping it intact if I kept his secrets. Up until now.”
Nora’s phone buzzed from the deep pocket of the robe. “Just Jonah, checking up on me. And calling me a total lame-ass for not coming out with them to Enclave last night.” She bit back a grin, typing back.
