Chapter 7 #2
Guilt rippled through me again over the fact that I kept last year’s incident from Vi, but I wanted to believe the best of someone, especially someone who worked as hard as Fiona did.
My other assistants, who had been canned for their inappropriate behavior, had all done half-assed work, were completely inept, or slacked off immediately after receiving the first praise for a job well done.
It was no loss to toss any of them on their asses at that point.
Fiona would have been hard to replace since she was a hard worker and went above and beyond in her job without fail.
“You seem very deep in thought for a man who should be celebrating. Where is Violet, today?”
“She has been planning some party for…” I laughed, but there wasn’t really any humor in it. “I don’t even know who she’s planned it for because my wife hasn’t told me anything about it except that her client is a bit of a pain in the ass.”
“What about your family or your…” she hesitated and then chuckled. “I never know what to call Moreland. Is he your cousin? A brother? Or are the two of you just really close friends who call one another family?”
I grinned at my assistant. “He is my actual blood-related cousin, but also my best friend.”
“That’s what I thought. Surely, he sent you a message at the very least?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Haven’t heard from him in a couple weeks.”
“Well, that’s…” Fiona stopped herself short and shook her head as if her input wasn’t valuable, or maybe she was afraid she would say something wrong.
“Anyway, here, why don’t you open my gift.
Maybe it will cheer you up before you have to go home and figure out why everyone forgot today was important. ”
I offered a half smile and took the bag she thrust into my hand. It had a little heft to it and when I peeked down into the bag it was clear that there was more than one gift. “You really shouldn’t have.”
Fiona waved that thought away. “You and Violet got me a trip to the spa on my birthday. It was the least I could do to show my appreciation. Like I said, you’ve been the best boss I’ve ever had.”
“Thanks.” I dug the biggest gift out first. It was a pricey bottle of bourbon. W.L. Weller Special Reserve X Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon to be exact. “This is too much, Fiona.”
“It’s not. And seriously, I got it at a good price, so don’t even bat an eye about it.
” I knew for a fact that it was usually about $250 a bottle, so I wasn’t sure what kind of good deal she got on it, but it was exorbitant for an employee to bestow upon her boss.
The other way around, it would have been more appropriate.
“There’s more,” Fiona told me as she nodded to the bag.
I pulled out a square box that was wrapped in shiny blue paper. It happened to be one of my favorite colors, but I had never told Fiona that, so I chalked it up to coincidence. When I finished unwrapping it, and opened the box, there was a gorgeous watch inside.
“It’s a Longines Master Collection Chrono Moonphase Watch with blue alligator strap.” Fiona spoke in a breathy tone and sounded as though she could be performing for a commercial for the Swiss watch maker.
“These are worth several thousand dollars, Fiona.” I turned my eyes up from the watch to meet her denim blue gaze. The blue in her eyes was a near perfect match to that of the watch band. I glanced back down at it. As nice as the gesture was, I couldn’t accept it.
“I can’t keep this.”
“You can. If it helps, this job isn’t entirely necessary for me. I’m a trust fund baby, so I have my own money, too. I just happen to enjoy working.”
Something about that statement seemed false, especially since she wouldn’t look me in the eye as she said it. Fiona distracted me from my thoughts as she started to clean up the wrapping paper and pushed it all into the gift bag that sat empty.
I put the watch down on the coffee table in front of us next to the bottle of bourbon. “What’s really going on here?”
“Nothing, I swear. I just wanted to make sure you had a good day.” She winced as she said those words, and it made me wonder why she thought – ahead of time – that it wouldn’t be a good one.
“Can we enjoy your cake and maybe some of that bourbon before you make me play twenty questions because you have trust issues?”
I laughed at that. Fiona, having effectively broken the ice, moved to cut us both a piece of cake. She had two plates and forks, as well as a cake cutter in the bag that the cake had come in.
“I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to share this with you or get the chance to say happy birthday today at all. I thought I’d just leave your present on your desk for you to discover whenever you came in next.”
“Thank you,” I offered. “Sorry my manners are lacking today but thank you for all of this. It means so much since…”
“Since what?” As Fiona asked, she placed her hand gently on top of mine, which was sitting on my knee.
“I just can’t shake the fact that no one has bothered to call or message me today. With everyone else, I might have brushed it away as them leading busy lives. Moreland never fails to send me a message and my wife… Well, it’s sort of her day, too, since it’s not just my birthday.”
“Oh?” Fiona made the one-word sound like more of a question.
“It’s our ninth wedding anniversary, tenth for us being together since we met on my birthday.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you met her on your birthday. Wait, you also got married the same day, too?”
I nodded and grinned as I remembered how Violet had teased me.
“My wife always tells people that I wanted it like that, so I could never forget the date.” As I mentioned that, it sunk in that she must have forgotten.
I never thought I’d live to see the day when my wife, the woman who is the other half of me, would forget our anniversary.
“Let’s open this bad boy up.” Fiona grabbed the bottle of bourbon, and I stood to go get glasses that I kept in the cabinet behind my desk.
When I got back, I moved a little closer to Fiona, so that she wouldn’t spill the liquid on the carpet.
The last thing I needed was for my office to smell like a distillery.
I didn’t go easy on my glass. I threw it back and barely tasted the bourbon as it went down. I held my glass out immediately for a refill. My eyes moved to the piece of cake that awaited me.
“Coconut is my favorite,” I told Fiona needlessly. Apparently, she already knew.
She chuckled. “You don’t say,” she teased. “Every time we order in for a client lunch, you want it from Alice’s so you can get her coconut cake.”
“Attention to detail,” I praised. “That’s what makes you the best damn assistant.
” She winced a little but tried to cover it as she took a sip of her bourbon.
It was clear that she didn’t enjoy it. Most people needed to acquire a taste for it.
“How is it you’re here when everyone else is off again? ”
“I told you already. I was going to leave this stuff.” She swooshed her hand around indicating everything she brought to celebrate my birthday with me.
I grunted my answer as I downed another glass of bourbon. “Thanks for being the only person in the world to celebrate with me.” Fiona reached over and patted my thigh a couple times before she pulled her hand back.
“I’m sure they all have a good reason,” she suggested, but that rang just as false as some of her other statements.
I picked up the bottle and poured myself another glass.
I took one bite of the cake and decided it did not pair well with the drink, and the liquor seemed more important.
It was official, at thirty-five-years-old, I was throwing myself my very first pity party.
That wasn’t even true. My assistant was the one who supplied me with everything I needed for the party.
“I don’t understand why Violet, of all people, would have disappeared today and never said a word to me.”
“Do you think she’s happy at home?” Fiona shocked me with that question.
If someone had asked me that two months ago, my answer would have been a resounding ‘yes.’ If someone had asked me yesterday, it would have been less resounding than in previous years, but still a ‘yes.’
My wife loved me, of that I had no doubt.
She had been hiding something, though, and the more I thought about it, the more I worried she didn’t want to have a baby with me.
It was the only thing that had changed in our lives in the past year.
Well, the past nine months, since we had to wait for the effectiveness of her birth control shot to wear off.
I wished it was my wife who sat beside me in my office.
I’d have the courage to ask if it was what she really wanted, or if she wanted to wait a little longer.
I didn’t want to push her into doing something she would regret, but neither of us were getting any younger.
I was thirty-five and she was thirty-one.
It had been a decade since we met, and I thought that was plenty of time to be selfish and enjoy one another without children.
We lived our lives, traveled together, and had a great life.
The only thing missing for me was children that my wife and I raised together.
I would be disappointed if she didn’t want to start a family yet, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
I slammed back another drink, not thinking about the fact that I rarely drank more than a half shot at dinner parties anymore.
“You’ve said more than once that Violet has been unavailable a lot lately. Do you think she’s hiding something more than a party she’s planning for strangers?”
“Like what?” I snapped.
Of course, I thought that.
The devil on my shoulder nudged me when that thought escaped. I wondered if maybe she was hiding from being intimate with me because she didn’t want a baby, but that wasn’t right either, since we’d just had a major, unprotected fuck session the night before.
“I don’t know.”