“I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said dryly.
With that she spun on her heel, marched out of his office, and slammed the door behind her.
Chapter 7
Simon didn’t see Heather for almost a week. Not even accidentally. It was like she’d completely vanished from his life, making each day grayer than the last.
He headed into his office so early in the morning that he managed to beat the usual morning traffic. He hadn’t been able to sleep all night and had finally dragged himself out of bed for his usual morning swim. Not even opting for cold water in his apartment’s swimming pool had been enough to chase away his restlessness.
Before Heather had come back into his life, the dull morning routine hadn’t bothered him in the slightest. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have much of a social life or that his parents were barely part of his life. Work had been enough to sustain him.
Now, work just didn’t have the same appeal. He still loved the job, but his mind kept wandering back to Heather.
He sank into the chair at his desk and turned on his laptop. It had been a couple of weeks since Heather had been transferred and he still hadn’t gotten a replacement assistant. In truth, he hadn’t actually tried. Looking for another assistant was just too daunting a task considering both of his previous assistants had scandal tied to them.
Once his laptop was on, he started checking his email. It wasn’t usually a task he did, but without a permanent assistant and the executive assistants not yet at work that task fell to him. Funnily enough, it didn’t bother him. Mostly because of the prospect of finding an email from Heather.
When his eyes landed on an email from her he quickly opened the message, his heart hammering. He hadn’t heard so much as a word from her in days. The message was mundane. Very professional. She wanted him to choose some photographs to go into the new company magazine.
With a sigh, he fired off a quick response. He didn’t know what he had expected. Of course, she would have sent some business-related email. Heather wasn’t the type of employee to let things get unprofessional. Which was probably why she kept forcing him to stay at arm’s length. She was ashamed of letting their relationship get so uncharacteristically personal, and to make up for that she was determined to cut him off for good.
No wonder she had lied in her job interview. She had been trying to avoid letting their past catch up to them, but he had given her a hard time for lying. After that, he’d made accusations and belittled her. Regret roiled through him. If he could take it all back, he would.
“Are you busy?”
He looked up to find Linda stepping into his office.
“You’re here early,” he observed, surprised to see her.
“Dover’s new magazine needs extra attention,” she said.
“How has that been coming along?” he asked.
Linda gave him an incredulous look. “What you really want to know is how Heather is doing in her new position.”
Was he so transparent? If everyone could see how obsessed he was with Heather, then it was obvious that he was slipping. He’d been a closed book for years, but now it seemed everyone at Dover got constant updates about his private life.
“Well, how is she doing?”
“She’s settling in nicely,” Linda replied. “She’s got a great work ethic, and I like working with her.”
“Is the department staff treating her well?”
Linda frowned. “That’s been a bit tricky. They haven’t been harsh or anything, but I think it’s been isolating for her. The staff treats her professionally, but there isn’t a lot of friendliness or warmth.”
To him that sounded like absolute bliss. Idle talk and people digging into his personal life drove him insane. But, as shy as she sometimes was, Heather enjoyed getting to know people. A chilly environment couldn’t have been good for her.
If only he had been able to convince her and the board to let her stay on as his assistant. She’d seemed to thrive in the brief time they worked together, and it was unfair to transfer her to a department full of people who didn’t respect her the way she deserved. But even when he had tried to talk her out of it, she had dug her heels in and insisted she change departments. The fact that she was willing to endure isolation to get away from him stung like hell. He had really screwed up, and now Heather was suffering for it.