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‘Huh?’
I raised my brows and pointedly looked at the shoe in her hand. She glanced down, then looked up at me and I watched as heat rushed to her cheeks.
A sudden grin threatened to form on my lips, but I managed to hold it back.
She straightened up, put her shoe back on and cleared her throat. ‘Oh. Nothing. Let’s go downstairs and start working.’
Before I could say anything, she picked up her laptop and started walking – no, it was more like limping – ahead of me and out the door. I followed her simply because I didn’t know what else to do.
We stood side by side as we waited for the elevator.
‘And no, you don’t have to talk to my dad. I did talk to him this morning and he still wants me to work outside of your team too,’ she said, breaking the silence.
I frowned and looked at her profile, but she was staring straight ahead, waiting for the doors to open. ‘That wasn’t my deal with your father. I’m supposed to have a core team and they’re supposed to focus on whatever I…’
She gave me a quick look. ‘I know. That’s what he said, but he still needs me to handle a few things here and there. With Stan, Trisha and Rick there he doesn’t think you’ll need me that much. He mostly wants me to learn from you apparently. You really got the best people in the office in your team. I think you’ll do great things together whether I’m there or not.’
I didn’t like what she was saying at all. ‘That’s for me to decide. And if he thinks you need to learn stuff from me, why does it look like he needs you more than anybody else in this firm?’
She gave me a surprised look and scoffed. ‘He doesn’t need me more than anybody else in the firm.’
I had only spent a couple of days at the firm, yet had already seen that Douglas had invited Charlie to almost every meeting he was having. I chose to let it go. It wasn’t my problem unless Douglas made it my problem. ‘That’s not what I’ve seen or heard. You won’t have time to work on other things. I can’t have you or anyone in the team distracted.’
The elevator doors finally opened and we stepped inside. You could faintly hear the piano solo coming through the speakers.
‘It’s okay. I’m used to working on a few things at once. I won’t be distracted, don’t worry.’
The doors closed and before I could think to hit any buttons, instead of going down to our floor, the elevator headed up.
‘I really like Michael,’ Charlie continued. ‘He seems genuine. And as much as my dad thinks I need to learn more to be more cut-throat or whatever, I’m a hard worker. I won’t slow you guys up or let you down.’ She gave me a quick look. ‘If you still want me on the team, of course.’
That wasn’t what I’d been thinking, but I decided to stay quiet and give it a day or two to see how things shaped up. Then if I needed to talk to Douglas I would. Not because it was Charlie, but because I needed every member of my team to actually be on my team.
The doors opened on the 32nd floor, but there was nobody waiting. In the quiet, just as the doors started to close on us again, I pressed the button for our floor and watched as she bent down to deal with her shoe.
‘Is there anything I can help with?’ I asked out of courtesy.
Letting out a big breath, she straightened up with her shoe in her hand.
She thrust her laptop into my arms. ‘Could you hold this for a minute?’
With her laptop in hand, I looked down to her now naked foot and noticed her toes were painted in lilac. For some reason, I kept watching as she stood on her toes and turned her back to me. Curiosity won over, and I managed to force my gaze away from her small feet. I glanced over her shoulder as she raised her hand and brought down the heel of her shoe on the holding bar. It cracked with a loud noise and the broken piece clattered on the ground.
She was hopping on one foot as she tried to put the now heel-less shoe back on when she lost her balance and kind of fell against my chest, rocking me back a step. I wrapped my right arm – the one that wasn’t holding her laptop – around her small waist. We stood like that for a few seconds longer than necessary. Both of us were a little surprised, I think. Then, still holding her laptop, I managed to set her back on her feet and she quickly moved away from me.
