Chapter Twenty-Six
Untitled
Kingston
"How's everything going with your new assistant?" Remington asks as I walk into his office on Tuesday morning.
"Everything's fine. Why?" I take a seat in the leather chair across from his desk, and he gives me a knowing look. My heart pounds for a second and I wonder if he does know.
"I don't know. She's just looking cuter and cuter each day." He smirks.
“I haven’t noticed that she's looking cuter and cuter?” I shrug and pretend like I haven’t been paying close attention to her every single time I see her.
"Well, I feel like she's wearing shorter and shorter skirts and more revealing tops and there's a certain look she gives you when she sees you."
"Er? A look of hatred," I say, and he chuckles.
"Yeah, something like that. So it's working out then?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be working out?"
"Just checking." He grins and nods toward the desk outside his office where his secretary, Juniper, sits. "This is the secret to having a long-lasting assistant."
"What is?" I ask him.
"Not being attracted to her. And you can do that in one of two ways. Either you get someone that's older. Unless you have a fetish for older women or you like cougars. There are some very attractive older women, but I'm just saying, as a general rule, that works."
"Okay. And the other?"
"The other one is, if you're going to go with a younger one, make sure you don't want to bed her."
"Is this your way of telling me that you have or haven't bedded Juniper?"
"No way. I would never do that. We have too much of a mutual understanding."
"And what understanding is that?"
"Neither one of us is interested in the other," he says with a grin. "She… well, I don't even think she dates." He laughs.
"Okay, so she's not interested in you, and you're not interested in her."
"Exactly. Kind of like you and Skye."
"Exactly," I say, nodding. "I have zero interest in her."
"Which is surprising to me," he says. "Because she's very attractive."
"She's okay if you like redheads."
"You know something I've always wondered about redheads?" he asks.
"No. What's that?"
"Come on. You have to know what I'm thinking, Kingston."
"If you say if the carpet matches the drapes, I will stand up and leave your office."
"Then I won't say it." He grins. "But don't you sometimes look at her and wonder?"
I keep my lips pressed together. One, because I already know that her carpet matches her drapes, and two, because if he keeps up this conversation, I'm going to smack him because I do not want him wondering about Skye whatsoever. I haven't seen her in a personal manner since Sunday morning, and while I’m grateful that we had split the personal and the business, it’s still odd having her act so professional in the office, as if nothing else is happening.
"So, anyway," he says. "Shall we start going through these continuances? I need to get Juniper to contact Judge Warren to see if there's any update on when we can go to trial for the Altadena Electronics case."
"Okay. Well, let's see," I say, leaning back.
He mumbles about something related to one of his cases, and I feel my mind wandering off.
I wonder what fun night Skye is going to plan.
I wonder if she's racking her brains for something really fun and exciting.
Hopefully, she doesn't spend too much money.
I realize then that I need to have a conversation with her.
I'd feel awful if she was spending a lot of money on me.
Maybe I have to insist that she have a company credit card.
That way, she wouldn't have to pay for the dates out of pocket, but she could choose what we did. That’s actually a great idea.
"So yeah, what were you thinking about that, Kingston?" Remington says, and I look up at him.
"Yeah, sounds good to me." I nod.
"Well, that was easy," he says with a smirk.
"Yep. You know me. Easy Kingston Chase."
"Actually, things are never this easy with you, but I'm not going to argue. Also, by the way, Max wanted to know if you're interested in going to Atlantic City with me, him, and Gabe in a couple of weekends?"
"Yeah, sounds like fun. When were you thinking?"
"I'm thinking the third Saturday next month."
"Saturday?" I pause.
He nods. "Yeah. Saturday. Why? You got big plans for some distant Saturday next month?"
"No, no plans," I say quickly. "But I will need to check my calendar. I may or may not have something scheduled with an old friend."
"Really?" he says. "And you can't get out of it?"
"It's been scheduled for a while. I'll check and see."
"Okay, well, let us know. We can change it to another Saturday."
"I guess we could, but traffic out of The City will be horrid, and we want to stay the night." He stares at me. "We were thinking of getting some sort of suite and…"
"I'd prefer it to be a Friday. Of course, I can check and see if I can do a Saturday if absolutely necessary," I say quickly when I realize he's looking at me suspiciously.
"Okay, well, you check your calendar and let me know." He leans forward. "Is everything okay, Kingston?"
"Yeah. Why are you asking me that?"
"You've just been acting funny."
"Erm, funny how?"
"I don't know. You haven't said one thing about any of the five cases I've just been speaking about.
You now have random plans with a random friend for a Saturday.
Let's be real. I haven't heard you talk about any friends other than your law partners in a really long time. You're not dating someone, are you?"
"What? No, of course not," I say quickly. "Me? Are you kidding?"
His eyes narrow. "You are dating someone. Holy shit! Who are you dating?"
"I'm not dating anyone. There may be someone that I'm having some fun with, but that's it."
"Holy shit. Who is it? Oh my God. Not Natasha."
"Natasha?" I stare at him.
"Your last female of the month."
"Oh, Natasha. No, no, no, no," I say and shudder. "Definitely not."
"Huh? Who is it? Can we meet her?"
"Why would you need to meet her when she's nothing?"
"Well, she's obviously something if—"
"Hey, Remi, do I ask you about your women of the weekend?"
"No, but there's no point because it's a different one each weekend." He grins. "Actually, that reminds me. Hold on a second." He presses the intercom on his phone. "Hey, Juniper."
"Yes, sir?" she responds immediately.
"I need you to contact Bruno at the local flower shop and have him send a dozen roses to Camilla and another dozen to Lily Anne. Oh, and a dozen to Charity as well."
Juniper clears her throat. "And what color roses would you like me to send, sir?"
"All red. Or wait, do you think I should send yellow or pink or—"
"Red sounds fine, sir."
"Great, and you'll do that now?"
"Certainly, sir. And what would you like the card to say?"
"You can just say, 'Looking forward to seeing you soon. Always yours, Remington.'"
"Yes, sir. Anything else, sir?"
"That sounds good." He presses the intercom button and grins at me. "Thank you for that. I nearly forgot I needed to send those roses."
"Are you kidding me?" I stare at him. "You're sending a dozen roses to three different women."
"Yeah, I met them all within the last couple of weeks, and I don't want them to think I've forgotten them."
"So you're dating all of them?"
"No, but I plan to see one of them this weekend and I'm not sure which one I want to see yet. Camilla was a blonde, but her hair was a little short, and I'm in my long hair phase." I roll my eyes, and he grins. "What can I say? I just love pulling on long hair, especially when I'm behind."
"Really, dude? I do not care to hear about your prowess in bed or your preferences."
He chuckles. "I know, but sometimes I like to share."
"Anything else?" I say, standing up. "I really have got work to be doing."
"No, I guess we're good for now. Check your calendar and see about next month?"
"I'll do that." I walk over to the door and look back at him. "You really are a dog, aren't you?"
"Hey, it takes one to no one." He grins. "Woof, woof."
I step out of his office and close the door behind me. I look over at Juniper, who's scribbling something on her notepad. "How are you doing this morning, Juniper?" I ask, looking down at her.
She peers up at me through her thick glasses, her hair in a tight bun on the top of her head, her lips a pale pink. She's wearing a baggy, oversized shirt and she gives me a small smile. "I'm fine today. Thank you for asking, Mr. Chase. How are you?"
"I'm doing good. I just wanted to say that even though you don't work for me, I'm appreciative of the fact that you put up with Remington. I know it's a lot having to deal with him."
Her smile widens as she pulls off her glasses for a second and rubs the arch at the top of her nose. Without the glasses, I realized that she's quite pretty, or at least could be if she did something with herself.
"I appreciate that comment, Mr. Chase. It's always nice to be in high regard at the law firm you work at." She puts the glasses back on and they swallow her entire face up again.
"Well, you're welcome. Keep up the good work."
"Thank you," she says with a nod. "I better order these bouquets now."
"Yeah." I roll my eyes. "Good luck with that."
I head back to my office, and I see that Skye is busy texting someone. I stop next to the desk and clear my throat. She looks up and blushes. "Oh, what are you doing?" I ask her, lowering my voice.
"Nothing. Why do you ask?" she says far too quickly.
I pull out my phone to see if she's been texting me, but I have no missed messages from her. "Were you sending someone a dirty pic or something?"
"No, of course not. I don't send dirty pics."
"I know, unfortunately." I grin. "So, then, what were you doing?"
"Well, not much. I was just checking something."
"You were typing into your phone rather rapidly," I say. "You can tell me."
"Can I?" She wrinkles her nose.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't you be able to tell me?"
"I was applying for a reality dating TV show." She shrugs.
"You what?"
"I was applying for a reality dating TV show. Love is Blind. Have you heard of it?"