John stood and swung his leg over the bench seat. He picked up his coffee. “Nothing. If you’re happy with where you’re at, then so am I. You judge me for being too indulgent, and I worry about you being alone all the time in that sterile house. You need people around you. Otherwise, you’ll become a shell, just like Dad did, and one day you’ll look in the mirror and see the very thing you’ve hated all your life. I don’t want that for you, little brother.”
I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw started to ache. “I’m nothing like him.”
John turned his back on me and started walking away. “Not yet.”
* * *
A storm cloud followed me all the way into the office. My brother had some nerve talking to me like that. John always thought he had something wise to say, when in reality he just knew how to press my buttons and say the exact thing that would get stuck in my head for weeks and piss me off.
Fucker.
Older brothers were overrated.
I pushed in through the office doors and passed the empty reception desk. I’d have to start interviews to find a replacement. Hooray. I’d had such a hard time filling the position before Gabriella came along. Maybe I’d leave it to her to hire a replacement and train them. That fell under the assistant’s duties, right?
I felt all my staff members avert their gaze as I crossed the deck and climbed the stairs to my office. When I arrived at the top, I saw Gabriella in my office, pacing. Her mouth and hands moved, and there was a crease pressed between her brows as she spoke to herself. She looked heated. Bothered.
That makes two of us.
I opened the office door.
Gabriella rounded on me, pointed her finger at me, and then swept the same finger to the coffee cup on my desk. “Why did you ask me to come into work two hours early with your coffee order when you didn’t even show up until now? It’s nine o’clock!”
“Oh yeah,” I said.
She blinked rapidly. “That’s it? ‘Oh yeah’?”
What was she looking for? An apology from her boss? I didn’t do apologies unless they were absolutely necessary. “Things happen, Gabriella. Did you pick up the documents I asked for?”
Her hands balled into fists at her sides. A bit dramatic, in my opinion. “They’re on your desk.”
She continued to fume while I moved to my desk and signed the paperwork for the Hansel and Gretel Bakery. I’d been working closely with the mother and daughter team, who presented me with their business plan six months ago. Since then, they’d been working tirelessly on recipes and branding, and now we were ready to move forward with opening their dream bakery with my financial backing.
I picked up the paperwork and gave it back to Gabriella. “I need you to drop these back off at the bakery tonight on your way home.”
She licked her lips.
“Will that be a problem?” I asked.
Gabriella shook her head, took the documents, and gave me the fakest smile I’d ever seen. I almost laughed. “Not a problem at all.”
If she’d been a cartoon character, there would have been smoke blowing out of her ears and her eyes would have turned into dizzying spirals of red and white circles. She turned on her heel and marched to the door.
“One more thing,” I said.
She spun back with her lips peeled off her teeth in a sneer. “What?”
I nodded at the boutique bags she’d left on my office sofa. “The boutique clothes are for you. If you’re going to work this closely with me, you’re representing me and my business. I need you to elevate your look and dress the part, but I don’t expect you to spend your salary on such things. Take them. Try them on. Whatever you don’t like, bring back and exchange for something else.”
Her golden-brown eyes narrowed. “Is that your version of an apology?”
“An apology?” I cocked my head to the side. “For what?”
Gabriella threw her hands in the air with a sigh of exasperation, marched over to the sofa, collected the half-dozen boutique bags, and stormed out huffy and grumbling. Everyone down on the deck watched her head straight into the bathroom, where I assumed she was going to try on the clothes. I hoped she liked them. They’d look better on her than the wide-leg outdated slacks she wore every day and the high-neck blouses.
As I returned to my work, I couldn’t help but crack a bemused smile. My new assistant was kind of… I don’t know… cute when she was all flustered and bothered. I wondered if telling her so would be a good strategy to piss her off the next time I felt inclined to have some entertainment.