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“Anyone could see something was going on, ever since LA,” Summer said, knowingly. “Trevor said he thought she wanted to get married and you wouldn’t, something like that.” Summer laughed thinking about it, the whole weekend of Evie pretending she was my fiancée. Doing a brilliant job of it too, I had to say. The weekend was a success, mostly because of her. She’d taken the focus from everyone around her, making it easier for us to get on with the business of getting to know each other better.
“So what did you fight about?” Summer asked.
I had to tell her something, but nothing jumped to mind.
“Oh, you know, something silly.”
“Did she forget to give you an important message?” Summer said.
“It was a very important message!” I blurted out, thinking this was as good an excuse as any.
“I lost a big potential client because she wanted to leave early and forgot to tell me about calling back this person!” I thought a bit. “And when I confronted her, she said she was sorry but that it wasn’t such a big deal, which showed me how seriously she took her job and me as her boss!”
Summer was thoughtful. “That wasn’t right.”
“Exactly.” I was glad to be vindicated.
“But… you said Evie is good at her job?”
“She is, she is,” I said. “It was a silly fight. We’ll make up again,” I reassured her, but I didn’t know if that was true. I’d already told Jill I wanted to start looking for another PA. I’d have to wait a while as I was going on a trip to the UK and wanted Evie to manage things while I was away, there was no time to train up a new PA. But I knew we couldn’t work together anymore. I would have to face her sooner or later, tell her something. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
My trip to London was important, I was looking at a collaboration with a big software development agency there and I needed to be sharp for the pitch. I couldn’t afford to screw this up. The trip was in two weeks’ time.
Then, out of the blue, I got a mail from my old college buddy, Felix Baumgarten.
He was from Germany and had spent a term at my college on an exchange program. We had clicked instantly. Even though he could hardly speak English and had an annoying way of always doing his work and trying to please the professors, we’d gotten along like a house on fire. After he went back to Germany to work for Google in Berlin, we’d stayed in touch.
He told me he was coming to California for work and he wanted to know if we could meet up. The last time I’d seen him, was in Italy a few years ago, when he’d invited me for a week on a yacht, cruising around the Mediterranean. By then, he’d left Google and was working for a major telecoms outfit, heading up the European division.
I told him I’d love to see him and I’d organize some snowboarding for us. The weather was turning, we were properly into Fall. Felix had grown up in the mountains, skiing and snowboarding were like running and walking to him.
I told Evie to go to the airport to pick Felix up and bring him home, give him the keys to one of the cars and tell him to make himself at home.
Felix was like a brother to me, I told her.
This was not entirely true, because I had a brother that I never saw and wasn’t close to. My real brother, Brett, wasn’t even that far away, only over in Napa Valley where he and his wife grew grapes and had three little boys who looked exactly like their father.
No, Felix and I were properly close.
I was looking forward to seeing him.
I sent Evie the details of the flight and when it was landing, telling her to take the Ferrari to pick him up.
That was the last time I thought about it.
I spent the afternoon in a board meeting, trying to convince the board to give me the money I needed to expand our marketing and increase our budget for experimentation. It was like getting blood out of a stone, but by the end of the meeting, I had gotten them to agree to a basic monetary commitment.
I drove home, looking forward to seeing Felix and spending time with him.
But when I got home, I immediately saw that I had other problems.
Felix and Evie were sitting on the coach, laughing and chatting much too intimately for my liking. It hadn’t even occurred to me that this might be a problem. Of course, Felix was attractive. A tall Nordic God, with a big smile and a very cultivated and well-mannered personality.
When they noticed my arrival, both of them jumped up, looking very guilty.
“Tate! My man! How are you?” Felix came up to me, stretching out his hand to shake mine, but then pulling me into a hug. “It’s been too long! But thank you for sending the Excellent Evie to come pick me up.”
“Yeah, thanks Evie,” I said without looking directly at her.
