Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
T he food arrived just as she returned. I had just laid it out when the door connecting our rooms opened, and I was a bit startled because I had expected her to come to the front. With a smile, she settled before me, and I handed her a pair of chopsticks. Something seemed different about her. She wasn’t as nervous as before and seemed to be in control of herself, and I wondered why. Or perhaps I was just paying too much attention to her?
“Tell me about your philosophy,” I said. She had just put a bit of meat to her lips, so she paused for a moment to look at me.
“My philosophy?”
“Yes,” I replied as I relaxed against the chair with my full plate in hand. “Why do you sometimes go through the front door and sometimes go through the connecting door? I need to understand so I can gauge what state you are in depending on the door you use.”
This made her smile, but it took her a while longer to respond.
“You really don't want me to lie to you from now on?” she asked. “Even little harmless lies designed to save me from embarrassment and to keep our working relationship stable?”
At her words, I paused. She wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she had returned her attention to her food and was calmly eating. I knew exactly what she was asking in every sense of the word.
For a moment, my mind went to my bed and the clear memory of us the previous night flashed through it. I made my decision then, and it had to be one of the riskiest things that I had ever done in my life.
“Yes,” I replied. “I hate being lied to. Tell me the truth to the best of your ability without any deflection or sugarcoating.”
“Alright,” she replied, but she still didn’t respond right away. Instead, she continued eating, and I knew that she was still deep in contemplation. And so, I allowed her the time she needed until eventually she was ready to speak.
“In very simple terms,” she replied. “I go through the front door when I want to remind myself that you’re my boss, and I go through the connecting door when I want to forget that you are.”
Her words, though brief, which was unexpected, were incredibly clear and self-explanatory. I didn’t need any further clarification from her because I too had these times of battle with myself.
Now that she had put it in this way, I truly couldn’t help but smile.
“We really caused a lot of damage last night, didn’t we?”
“Six months' worth,” she replied, and I nodded.
I liked where this conversation was going, but before anything, I needed to confirm something with her.
“I’m sorry I gave in,” I told her. “When you were insisting. I’m not sure if you remembered that. In exchange, I tried to reciprocate, but I didn’t go any further. I'm still not certain if you were okay with any of it.”
“For the record,” she replied even as we ate. “I am okay with all of it. More than okay.”
At this, she lifted her gaze and met my eyes. And then she smiled and lowered them once again.
“Hm,” I said in thought.
“So... where do we go from here?” I asked.
“For starters, can I stop dressing like an old middle school teacher?” she asked, and I almost spat out my food in laughter.
“I never asked you to dress that way.”
“Well, it's the standard uniform around you, since no woman with a working libido can keep their eyes and hands off you.”
I shook my head as I kept eating. It occurred to me that it had been quite a while since I had had a personal conversation of this sort with anyone. It was always solely business-related, and this change in pace and topic was quite thrilling, to say the least.
“Did you hear of the previous secretaries that came before you?” I asked, and she smiled.
“Cassandra and Leila?”
“Yes, them.”
She laughed. “I heard Leila showed up at your gym.”
“Showed up?” I asked. “You mean she signed up at my gym. And because she was my secretary, of course, she had access to both the building and my schedule. When I asked, she said she lived with a friend there, which was obviously a lie. Imagine training at night after work and seeing your secretary’s ass right in your face? She managed to skirt the indecent dressing at work bit and decided that I couldn’t fault her for this at the gym, and she wouldn’t stop hitting on me either.”
“Wow,” she said, and I wondered for the first time ever if I had said too much.
“Wow, what?” I asked.
“That sounds like something I would have done. It sounds like something I should have done.”
Once again, I was amused, but I didn’t know what to say to this.
“If I - do you think we crossed the line because of a change in location and pace?”
I contemplated this response. “I think we got here because you gave me the time to notice you. It could also be because rather than getting me to notice you, you simply just did your job and did it well. And there was no need for the extreme dressing. The Human Resources head was just being over the top. The other girls were either intentionally provocative, so with you, he just went overboard.”
“So I can wear skimpy strapless tops and miniskirts to work now, Sir?” she asked. “Yes! Thank you.”
At this, I narrowed my gaze at her, and she immediately changed her tune.
“I didn’t mean that, Sir,” she said. “I was kidding. I don’t dress like that on a normal day, not to talk of in the office.”
“You’re going to keep calling me Sir even when I'm with you like this?”
She looked at me.
“We’re not working right now,” I pointed out.
Smiling, she lowered her head. “I’m sorry, force of habit.”
“It’s okay,” I replied.
We continued eating further in silence, and then she asked.
“So... where do we go from here - Sir?”
I lifted a brow once again at her and chuckled my chest in laughter.
“I'm sorry. I just can't drop it that easily. It's been six months; every single day I have called you boss. In your presence... you have no idea how imposing you can be.”
“I'm imposing?” I asked, and her smile reduced. She lowered her head.
“You are. I mean, besides the fact that you could fire me, which would technically and almost immediately make me homeless, by the way, and -”
“Wait, why would firing you immediately make you homeless?” I asked. “Isn’t your salary high enough for your role? I thought we were paying a premium salary compared to other offices in the city. Is this not accurate?”
It was as though she had frozen in place from all the questions.
“Uh... so, this is where things might get tricky between us,” she explained. “I mean, you’re paying me a very high salary, and I won’t technically be homeless immediately. This wasn’t a lie, but I was just trying to point out that in case you were considering firing me, it really wouldn’t be a good idea. I mean, you can do what you want; you're the boss, but I was trying to use a bit of - I was just trying to exploit this into securing my job. I’m sorry.”
She lowered her head and released a heavy breath.
“We have to set very clear boundaries, or else this won’t work, right?” she asked in a low tone.
“Yes,” I replied.
“All right, one boundary is that I wouldn't ever try to use our personal relationship for professional courtesies or favors, whether directly or indirectly. I’ll put this in writing.”
“Can you manage it?” I asked.
“The alternative is that I eventually get fired, as a result, right?” she asked.
I held her gaze but didn’t confirm nor deny her assumptions.
“I’m going to take that as a yes. Therefore, this is one boundary that I will never cross again.”
“Okay,” I replied.