Rodrick
Rodrick
R od wasn’t sure how he was going to tell not only Nova but his brother that he had hired Evie. He was going to call them on Friday, after his supposed date, but he chickened out as soon as he got home for the evening. He spent the whole weekend hiding out at his penthouse, for fear of running into either Alex or Nova and having to answer a million questions for them. They set him up to date her, not hire her to be his new paralegal. He’d never date his assistant, even if that was how his brother met his new wife. They were happy, but Rod was sure that starting something with Evie wouldn’t end so well for either of them.
He got off of the elevator and walked back to his office. When Alex first asked him to join the firm, he agreed thinking that he’d be down with the rest of the lawyers on the seventh floor. But then, Alex went and asked Rod to join him on the top floor that he reserved for himself. Of course, Rod protested, but Alex insisted and when he did shit like that, there was no going back. So, he moved up to the top floor and had his own corner office that most of the junior lawyers on the seventh floor would have killed for.
“Hey,” Nova said, standing from behind her desk. “How did it go on your date with Evie?” she asked. Rod knew that his sister-in-law would have already called her best friend and gotten the scoop about their date. He knew that her asking him was a trap, and he didn’t plan on falling for it.
He turned around and smirked at her. “You can’t tell me that you haven’t already called Evie and gotten every last detail,” he said.
“I did call Evie and she’s been avoiding me, just like you’ve been avoiding your brother’s calls.” She was right, he had been avoiding his brother’s calls. He had let every one of Alex’s calls go directly to voicemail trying to avoid having to tell his brother that he’d hired Evie and wouldn’t be dating her.
“So, you haven’t talked to her then?” he asked.
“No,” she breathed. “How about you give me the scoop and I’ll track down my so-called best friend to talk to her later.”
“Well, we went out to dinner and had a very nice time,” Rod said.
“So, you’re going to see her again then, right?” Nova asked.
“Yes, I’m definitely going to see her again,” he agreed. He wasn’t lying. He planned on seeing her in just minutes when she was supposed to show up for her first day of work.
“That’s great,” Nova said. “I’m so happy that things worked out for you both. I knew that you two would hit things off.”
“Yep—she’s great,” he agreed. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my office. I’ve hired a new assistant and I want to be ready for her.”
“Assistant?” Nova asked. “You need an assistant?”
“Well, not really,” he admitted. “She’s more like a paralegal,” he said.
“Is she an assistant or a paralegal?” Nova asked. “You do know that there is a difference, right?”
“Of course I do, but I need someone who can do a bit of both job descriptions and I hope that I’ve found her,” he said. “Have a good day, Nova.”
“You too, Rod,” she said. He didn’t bother to look back to see if she was watching him—he could feel Nova’s eyes boring holes into his back. She’d figure it out sooner or later. He was guessing sooner since, according to his watch, Evie was due in the office in the next five minutes.
Rod called down to HR to let them know to expect a new hire and got the empty office next to his own ready for Evie to move into. It had the basics—a desk, chair, computer, printer, and even two chairs in front of her desk, for when clients came in. He hoped that it suited her needs, but he’d help her find something else if that was necessary.
“Hey,” Evie said from the doorway to her new office.
“Hi,” Rod said. “Um, I hope that you’re okay with this. I was planning on it being your new office.”
“It’s perfect,” she said. Evie walked in and dumped her bag onto her new desk.
“I’ve also called HR and you are due to meet with them, on the second floor, in the next hour,” Rod said.
“What’s going on here?” Nova asked. She was standing in the doorway and Evie’s new office was starting to feel smaller and smaller by the second. “Why are you here, Evie?”
“To start my new job,” Evie said.
“Wait—she’s your new assistant/paralegal?” Nova asked.
“Yes,” Evie said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner, I’ve just been so busy.”
“Too busy to call your very best friend?” Nova questioned.
“Yes,” Evie defended.
“Doing what?” Nova asked.
“She was hanging out with me,” Rod said. “We didn’t want to tell you, but we hit it off, and well, that’s why neither of us answered when you tried calling this weekend.”
“I knew it,” Nova shouted, pointing between the two of them.
“Yep, you called it,” Rod said. He could feel Evie staring him down as if he had lost his mind and he just hoped like hell that she’d play along until Nova went back to her office.
“Well, I’m happy that you finally accepted a job here, Evie. Now, we’ll get to see each other whenever we want. I’m so excited,” she gushed. Nova rushed into the office and hugged her best friend who looked like she was just trying to figure out what was going on.
“How about you two catch up later?” Rod asked. “I have a lot to talk to Evie about before she heads down to HR to fill out all of their paperwork.”
“Right,” Nova said. “How about lunch?” she asked. Poor Evie looked at him as if she was trying to tell him that she needed saving.
“Sorry, Nova,” Rod said. “We’ll be working through lunch today. You’ll have to get on her schedule for another day.”
“Boy, you’re more of a slave driver than your brother,” Nova teased. “I’ll leave you two alone so that you can get to work.”
“Thanks, Nova,” Rod said. “For everything.” He wrapped his arm around Evie and pulled her into his side, causing her to make the cutest squeaking noise, he almost wanted to laugh. He waited for Nova to get back to her office before he released Evie and crossed the room to shut the door.
“What the hell did you just do?” Evie whisper shouted at him. “You told her that we’re together? How could you do that?”
“I did it because it’s the only way that we’ll be able to get anything done around here. You see, Nova is determined to put us together. As soon as I walked in here, she practically knocked me over to ask me a couple hundred questions about our date. She won’t let this go, Evie. So, we’ll have to pretend that we’re together for a while to throw her off track.”
“Throw her off track?” Evie asked. “You’ve lost your mind. Evie is my best friend and knows me better than anyone else does. She’ll know that I’m lying and then, she’ll hate both of us for being deceitful to her. I won’t lie to my best friend.”
“Okay, then tell her that you don’t want to talk about us. Tell her that things are so new, you don’t want to jinx it or something corny like that. She’ll accept that and we’ll have time to figure out our next move. But you and I both know that if we don’t pretend to be dating, she’ll ruthlessly keep trying to put us together. We won’t have a moment's peace. Do you want that while you’re learning your new position here?”
“No,” she grumbled. “I’d rather not have to deal with Nova trying to set us up anymore—especially now that we’re working together. That would be the worst possible scenario. You and I don’t need a relationship messing everything up.”
“Agreed,” Rod said. “So, we’ll pretend to be together for a while and then, we’ll start having little arguments over the next few weeks and before you know it, we’ll be able to claim that things didn’t work out between us and we’re breaking up.”
“So soon?” she teased.
“You’re joking around now, but it’s going to feel like an eternity since you refuse to lie to her. She’s not going to just sit back and let you keep all the details to yourself forever. Sooner or later, Nova’s going to start poking around, and then, we’ll have to figure out a plan B.”