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“Well?” she said when Jason was gone.
“Well, what?” I snapped.
I looked up in time to see her smile slip off her face. She crossed her arms, looking openly annoyed. “Well, Mr.Esposito, do you have a status update on when I can expect the office to be furnished?”
I gestured around at the general disarray. “As you can see, we’re not exactly show ready, Ms.Cruz.”
Melanie looked around thoughtfully. I’d been practically working around the clock since she set foot in here over a week ago, but there was still a lot to be done. Plus there were tools and dust and drop cloths all over the place. I didn’t want to worry about her tripping all over stuff in those flimsy heels.
“Fair enough,” she finally said. “But don’t call me Ms.Cruz, or Mrs.Cruz. Call me Melanie.”
I paused, wondering if I’d somehow hit a nerve. Of course I’d never asked her marital status, and Gio wouldn’t have had any reason to mention it either. But I had noticed that she didn’t wear a ring on her finger, and somehow she didn’t have the air of someone who was smugly installed in a serious relationship.
“Sorry, Melanie,” I said pointedly. “I won’t call you Ms.Cruz or Mrs. Cruz. Doesn’t make a difference to me.”
She just stared at me, all wide blue eyes in a heart-shaped face. “No, I don’t suppose it does. But in the interest of developing an amiable working relationship, if there’s something you want to know about me, I’ll tell you.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of game this was, but I was getting tired of playing it, no matter how much fun it was to watch her soft pink lips as she spoke. “All right. I’ll ask. Are you married?”
Something passed over her face, something that looked curiously like pain. “Not lately,” she said quietly.
“All right,” I said, because it was the first thing that came to mind and I was kicking myself for asking her an inappropriate question in the first place. I didn’t want to open the door to some long-winded heart-to-heart chat. Then I would be obliged to pat her shoulder or maybe offer her a friendly hug, and she would sigh into my chest, and then my hand would wander down to—
STOP!!
“Do you want me to leave?” she asked suddenly.
I blinked. “Since there’s no desk for you yet, and we don’t even have Wi-Fi set up, you should probably head back to Espo 1 for the time being.”
She shook her head, a few pieces of hair coming loose from her bun. “That’s not what I mean.”
“What do you mean then?”
“I mean, do you have a problem with the fact that I’m working for you?”
“I don’t know where you got that idea.”
She glared at me and narrowed her eyes. This Melanie definitely had some spunk to her. And if everything Gio said was true, then she was already proving to be a valuable asset. I’d been managing a business long enough to understand the worth of a good employee. Plus Gio had lectured me the other day about being a control freak and trying to take everything on myself at Espo 2. He was right. We needed someone reliable in Melanie’s position, and replacing her right now would be a pain in the ass. No, I didn’t dislike the idea of her working for me. My hang-ups weren’t her problem.
“Listen,” I said, trying to soften my tone, “everything is kind of nuts at the moment, but I will make it a priority to get the office set up for you. You have my word. I’ll have a desk, Wi-Fi, the works. Give me two more days to get it all put together, okay?”
Melanie seemed to relax a little. She nodded and gave me a small smile. “Okay,” she said. Awkward silence ensued. I racked my brain, trying to think of a way to end it without sounding like a dick again.
“Gio told me you had a funny story,” I said. “About how you came to work here.”
The comment seemed to catch her off guard. She shot me a startled look. “I guess it seems funnier now than it did at the time.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Melanie shrugged and waved a manicured hand. “It’s fine. Maybe a little embarrassing. I was actually fired. First time in my life and hopefully the last.” She hesitated. “I accidentally destroyed the expensive nuptials of a semicelebrity.”
I was confused. “How’d you manage to do that from the finance department?”
Melanie looked embarrassed. “Multitasked my way in over my head. I managed to scar an innocent Minnesota family in the process when they witnessed a groomsman getting his knob polished by the bride’s stepmother. Don’t laugh,” she scolded, because I’d started doing exactly that. Then she giggled herself.
“Well,” I said when I was finished being amused, “I can’t say I’m sorry to hear it. Seems like everything worked out for the best because here you are in the Esposito’s family.”
“Yeah,” she said, and I could tell she was pleased by the comment. “I suppose it did work out.”
