Chapter 39
A lot to handle
Harley
As I enter my office with a cup of coffee in one hand and a warm cookie in the other, my phone rings. I drop the items on my desk and fish for my phone inside my handbag.
My face breaks into a huge grin.
I accept the video call. “Isn’t it a little late in Copenhagen to be calling?”
Ciara returns my smile. “It’s a little past ten. Nik is working in his home office on a proposal with a looming deadline. I’m hanging out in the living room until he’s done, so we can go to bed together.”
“The triplets aren’t the ones keeping you up?”
“Not this time. No little nuggets are kicking soccer balls in my tummy.”
We laugh.
“You made it to Friday. Yay.” She brandishes a fist in the air “How was your first week.
“Give me a sec.”
“Holding.”
I get up and close the door to my office.
I snatch the mug and the small plate on the way to my chair and sit.
“I got an afternoon pick-me-up.” I take a sip of my latte.
“Bitch. I hate you.” Ciara frowns. “I miss coffee so much. I’m totally jealous.”
“The babies will be here soon, and you’ll be able to drink coffee again— Wait. Can you drink coffee while breast-feeding?”
“Girl, it didn’t hit me until a couple a months ago. When I asked my doctor, she said it was safe as long as I don’t drink a bucketful of coffee per day.”
I swipe my hand across my forehead. “Phew. Can you imagine giving up coffee for two or three years, depending on how long you breast-feed?”
“If that were the case, women would never have babies. Can you imagine pushing the equivalent of a watermelon out of your vagina and not being able to drink coffee for the foreseeable future? Back in the day when women had seven, eight, nine kids or more, the world order would’ve been fucked up if those women weren’t able to drink coffee.
As women, we’re strong, but not that strong. Coffee is essential.”
“I agree.” I lift my mug. “May your coffee kick in before reality does. I can’t remember where I read that quote, but truer words have never been spoken.”
“Hear, hear.”
“But you can still eat cookies.” I lift mine.
Ciara’s eyes widen.
“These beauties are from a bakery that’s located not far from Kaz’s office. I swear, at this rate, I’m going to need a new wardrobe. These are dee-licious.”
“What flavor is that?
“This one is a soft, stuffed pistachio.” I take a bite, careful not to let the gooey filling drip on my pretty lavender dress. I turn the cookie so she can see the inside.
She gasps. “Do they deliver?”
“To Copenhagen?”
She offers an animated nod.
I laugh. “I don’t think so.”
“Maybe I can send Nik’s jet to New York, you could buy me a dozen, or two, or three––and whatever other delicious flavors they have––put them on the jet, and that way I can get them here.”
“That would be a perfectly good use of your husband’s private jet,” I say.
“If you fly with the cookies, then I’d get to hug my bestie, which I haven’t seen in so long. Miss you, babe.”
My heart tightens. “Miss you, too.”
“If you’re going to fly over with cookies, you might as well fly in with your fake boyfriend so I can meet him.”
My lips pull down in a frown.
“What did I say?”
We don’t talk often enough, and I don’t want to cast a gray shadow on the conversation by whining. “It’s nothing. He’s had a trying week.”
“Which brings us back to the reason for my call,” she says. “Loved the video tour of your new office. Way to go, boss lady.”
“I know, right?”
“I hope the boss lady office comes with a boss lady salary?”
“Ci, my eyes bugged out of my skull when HR handed me the employment papers.”
“Kaz and you hadn’t discussed salary?”
Girl, I’m so broke, I wasn’t going to nickel and dime a man who was throwing me a lifeline. “He said it would be fair. He was lying. It’s extremely generous.” I tell her how much I’m getting paid.
Her head rears back. “That’s way more money than you were taking home when you had your corporate floral business.”
And a gazillion dollars more than what I was making as a waitress. “It is.”
“Running into your ex-boyfriend’s ex-stepdad was a great coincidence.”
More like it saved my ass. “It was.”
In two weeks, when I get my first paycheck, my bank account will no longer be in the red. Can’t wait.
“Now, tell me everything about week one at Lindstrom’s Corp,” Ciara says.
“This week was about setting the foundations. I got my tracking and planning software all organized with the different brands. The branding approach for the burger restaurants is completely different from Number 22.”
“Makes sense since Number 22 is fine dining.”
I nod. “I spent a lot of time at all three restaurants, the brewery, and the ice cream shop. I took tons of photos of the staff in action, the delicious food, and yummy ice cream. I planned out the first month of social media posts and I spent a lot of time going into each social media account and cleaning up old posts that had low or zero interactions. Today, was dedicated to the hockey charity near and dear to Kaz’s heart.
I’m wrapping my head around everything they’ve done in the past.”
“You’re going to get a lot out of working for his charity.”
“I feel the same way. I’m going to have to learn the basics of hockey, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
“Look at you, hockey girly.”
“If it weren’t for this job, my education about hockey would remain wedged between the pages of a smutty hockey romance, but now, I get to expand my horizons.”
“So, after a busy week, you get to chill tomorrow.”
I shake my head. “I want to capture the highlights of Saturday brunch. At the burger joints, it’s business as usual, but Number 22 offers weekend brunch menus people line up for hours to devour.
And parents come in with their kids for cones and pints at the ice cream shop.
The store goes all out to keep tiny humans entertained. ”
“Sounds like you have no intention of slowing down for the weekend.”
“I don’t want to let Kaz down”
“That’ll never happen. You’re a hard worker and you see every project through.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
“We’ve been best friends for a while. I know your work ethic. Where is this insecurity coming from?” Concern etches her features.
I’ve lost a lot of confidence in myself.
In my abilities. In the decisions I make.
“I’m proud of what I accomplished for my floral business.
But this is next level. It’s one thing doing social media for your own company, it’s another when you’re carrying the responsibility of four successful brands on your shoulders. ”
She brings the phone close to her face. “You got this, bitch.”
I laugh. “If that’s your idea of a pep talk, personal coaching isn’t for you. You better keep your day job.”
“Made you laugh. My work here is done.” She does a mic drop gesture with her hand.
I miss this. Us hanging out and being silly.
I miss so many things about my old life.
Ciara puckers her lips, mirth glinting from her light brown eyes.
“What is it?”
“How’s the bitchy colleague? Did she finally get that personality transplant?”
The overdramatization and mockery in her voice catches me off guard.
I laugh. “That’s hilarious.”
“When you sent me those texts about how rude that office barracuda was on your first day, I wanted to hop on my husband’s private jet and come bitch slap her. How dare she talk to my bestie that way? She’s lucky I’m too pregnant to fly.”
God, I love this woman.
“I still can’t get over that sordid phone business on Wednesday,” Ciara says.
“Same.” I roll my eyes. “I leave my office to go to the kitchen for a coffee, spend a few minutes chatting with coworkers, and when I return to my office, both phones are gone. Disappeared into thin air. There’s only one person who would be responsible for stooping that low.
Kaz gave Cressida the green light to overnight two phones.
Then out of the blue, I find my phones swimming at the bottom of a toilet bowl. ”
Ciara shakes her head. “She needs to get over herself. It’s an office. As for her unrequited obsession with Kaz, the Roy Kent of hockey is fake dating my bestie. Eat your heart out, barracuda.”
Fake dating.
That’s my status relationship.
How I long to remove the word fake from that equation.
“I hope Kaz puts his foot down,” Ci says. “The way Maybellynn talked to you is unacceptable. It’s not like you stole that office from her. It was never hers to begin with. And then the phones. That’s thousands of dollars down the drain.”
“Kaz has been out of the office all week.”
She tilts her head to the side. “He’s still dealing with the Grazie Mille situation?”
“After three days of extended search, the police and FBI didn’t find any drugs hidden anywhere in the restaurant.
Kaz hired a plumber and a renovation crew to repair the bathroom he had to have destroyed.
That nightmare is behind him, but the Brazilian owner is itching to sell.
All of these surprises aren’t helping his heart condition.
The man is literally pulling his hair out. ”
“Poor guy,” Ci says. “In a matter of weeks, he’s had to deal with a manager who was running an illegal gambling operation after hours whose partner in crime is the idiot stepson of a Chicago Governor who groped you, a bartender who was stealing booze, and a bunch of morons using his restaurant as an exchange place for drugs. ”
“It’s been nonstop for the poor man. In any case, Kaz has been at the restaurant, overseeing everything, and meeting with perspective buyers. Once he’s done with Grazie Mille, he needs to take care of his own businesses. He’s usually at the office really late.”
“Kaz has been MIA from the office with good reason, so he has no idea Maybellynn is a terrible human being, but I hope you’re going to tell him.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to be the one instigating office drama. I only just started this job.”
She considers me for a beat. “I see where you’re coming from, but someone needs to put that woman in her place.”