Laughing and shaking her head at Josh’s playful exuberance, she told us all about her date the night before. I watched the two of them, thankful to have people like them working on my floor.
I started chatting with them on the day I started, but it felt like we’d known each other much longer than a week. The same could be said for most of the other people I was getting to know at work. I got along with everyone I met here, which had surprised me at first.
Neil popped in a few days after I started and told me everyone liked me. He attributed it to my “sweet nature” and “sense of humor.” I thought it was because I wasn’t as snotty as Jeremiah’s previous secretary had apparently been.
I talked to Josh and Aisha for a couple of minutes, then went to take Jeremiah his coffee. He was on the phone when I entered and motioned for me to set the cup down on his desk. I noticed his chair was angled so he would be able to see the view at least a little in his periphery.
It wasn’t the first time I noticed it. The man seemed to love staring out at the city and the bright blue sky. Not that I could blame him. I did the exact same thing in my office.
I was doing just that the following day, looking out my window while coordinating deliveries for construction material with one of the contractors Jeremiah was working with. Then, I heard the voice of the one person in the company I knew didn’t like me.
Jeremiah’s father. “Is he in?”
“Please hold,” I hurriedly told the contractor, then muted the phone and turned to face the titan in the flesh. I hadn’t been formally introduced to him, but he didn’t seem interested in knowing who I was aside from being the gatekeeper to Jeremiah’s office.
“Mr. Williams.” I greeted him, pulling up Jeremiah’s schedule on my computer even though I knew it by heart. “He is in. I’m not sure if he can take a meeting though, let me check.”
To my surprise, the man nodded curtly and started firing off orders to the older woman standing behind him. Mary Jane, or MJ, was as feared and well-known in this building as Jance Williams was.
After noticing the contractor hung up, I put in a quick call to Jeremiah, anxious for being in such close proximity to his father. The man was larger than life. He started out as an oil mogul and built the company from the ground up, expanding into just about every industry there was.
It was impressive but intimidating as all hell when he was staring at you. His eyes were the same color as Jer’s, but where Jer’s were warm and often filled with amusement once you got to know him, Jance’s were frigid and seemed to look right through you.
“Your father’s here. Do you have a minute for him?” I asked Jer when he answered his office line.
He sighed heavily. “Sure, it doesn’t really matter whether I do or not. Send him in.”
I set the phone down and cleared my throat. “He’ll see you now, Mr. Williams.”
“About time,” Jance muttered and strode past me, firmly shutting Jer’s office door behind him. MJ was gone when I looked up again, presumably back to their corner of the castle.
Really not up to hanging around when Jance was close by, I opted to take my lunch break to escape him. Hopefully, he would be gone when I got back. The man made me seriously uncomfortable.
I fished my phone out of my purse and returned a text from Tiana. She asked earlier if I was free for lunch, and we quickly arranged to meet at a coffee shop down the road.
Giving Jeremiah the heads-up he asked for whenever I take off for lunch, I typed out a quick email and hit send, grabbing my purse in the same movement. Tiana got to the coffee shop minutes after I did. The restaurant she was doing work experience at for her degree wasn’t far away.
We ordered our lunch, then got a table in the crowded place where we got caught up. Since I started at Williams Inc, we didn’t see much of each other. I was out early in the morning, while Tiana’s shifts tended to start over or even after lunch and kept her out until well after I was in bed.
She sipped on her water, swallowing a bite of her sandwich. “So, week one down. How’s the rich bastard?”
“Surprisingly, not as much of a bastard as I thought at first.”
Tilting her head, she narrowed her eyes a bit and tore another bite out of her lunch, motioning for me to keep talking. “I actually kind of like working for Jeremiah.”
“Jeremiah, huh?” She lifted a brow, questions filling her eyes.
I shook my head hard. “It’s not like that, I swear. He just thought first names would make it easier since we spend so much time together.”
“Riiiight,” Tiana said. “Speaking of spending so much time together, has he been behaving himself? I know you were worried about it.”
“Surprisingly, he’s been totally professional. He’s keeping things strictly business between us. He hasn’t even made one comment that’s made me uncomfortable.”
What I didn’t tell her was that I caught him watching me every now and then from his office or when he thought I wouldn’t notice. The reason I didn’t tell her was because I didn’t mind him watching me. In fact, I was starting to want him to look at me. To notice me. Given I nearly turned the job down worrying about him, how twisted was it that I was slightly disappointed he was behaving so well?