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I know this about her. “I’m wondering who’s going to be the first to figure out that we got left behind.”
“Gloria, for sure,” Bailey says.
“That’s a good choice. I’d take that bet, except I scared her off from my room.”
“Surprise, surprise.” Bailey swirls her cup, staring into its depths. “Rhett Armstrong acts like an ogre.”
She isn’t going to pull any punches at this juncture.
I brace my elbows on my knees. “So give it to me straight. What were my worst qualities as a boss?”
I can see her fighting to avoid smiling. “Well, I guess wedohave all day, so I could get started on this lengthy list.”
“Maybe it’s quicker to say if I had any good qualities at all.”
She tilts her head, her dark eyes meeting my gaze. “That’s a considerably shorter conversation.”
“So, anything?”
She shrugs. “People look up to you. You’d be surprised how rare that can be.”
I suppose they do. But it always seemed to me that was only because they had to. I held their employment future in my hands.
“You always kept the job interesting,” she continues. “Office work can be tedious. The same thing, over and over. But with you, we always had new skills to learn and try.”
That’s true. “It’s because we’ve been in a constant growth cycle since we started.”
“Plenty of people would say your best quality is that you run a good business. It’s profitable. That’s more than a lot of businesses can say.”
This is better than I expected. “And the downsides?”
“But there’s so many.” She sips her drink again.
“What is the absolute worst one?”
She shakes her head. “Nobody ever really wants to know that.”
“I do.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Why is this important?”
“This is a rare opportunity. Someone who worked with me for two years, whom I then fired, who is now stuck with me on a private island. You can’t duplicate the scenario.”
“I could walk down the beach and avoid you until someone comes for us.”
“You could. It wouldn’t be wise. We need to stay close to this area because this is where they’ll expect us to be.”
Bailey lets out a littlegrrrrsound. “I can take the shed, and you can keep the hut.”
“You would never abandon your margaritas.”
She turns to look at the ice crusher with affection. “I could make off with the bowl, but the ice crusher looks permanent.”
“So what is it? My worst trait.”
She sighs. “Fine. But don’t murder me on an abandoned island.”
I press my hand to my heart. “I solemnly swear not to murder you on this island.”
