Chapter 14
The Next Day
I haven’t spoken to her since I left her in the lobby two days ago, although I have captured a few images of her around the hotel, alongside Melissa.
After putting Nina to sleep, I try to convince myself that I’ll just send a message to check if everything is okay so far. After all, I am responsible for Olívia, in a certain way.
But instead of doing the right thing and just sending the message, before I can think clearly, I press the button to complete the call. The phone rings a few times before she answers, and her voice sounds slightly breathless, which puts me on alert.
“Olívia?”
“Guiller . . . um . . . Mr. Guillermo, is something wrong?”
“Where are you?”
“In my . . . room.”
“Alone?” Why the hell did I ask that? Besides being none of my business, I’ve just completely violated her privacy as my employee. But when she answered the phone breathing heavily, a strange sensation spread through me, along with the urgency to check where—and with whom—she was.
“Yes, alone, I . . . um . . . was dreaming.”
I swear I don’t usually have such dirty thoughts in my head. The problem is that now different images are parading through my mind: Olívia, lying on her bed—in a nightgown or naked—her long hair spread over the pillows. Without a bra? Oh, yes. In my fantasy, definitely without a bra.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” That was a big lie. I did want to, but not over the phone.
Christ, what’s happening to me?
“Everything’s fine. It’s too early to go to bed. I got out of the shower and passed out. The day was quite full.”
I froze when she mentioned getting out of the shower and falling asleep. Now I’m sure she’s definitely sleepy. I don’t think she’d tell me something so intimate if she were awake.
Before I say something I’ll regret, I decide to end the call. “Anyway, I shouldn’t have bothered you at this time of night.”
“No, wait. I don’t mind you calling. I just realized how lonely I’ve been feeling since I got your message the day before yesterday and after spending these days talking to Melissa. What you said about us being friends—I’m not sure how it would work, but I would really like that.”
“It would work like all friendships work, Olívia. I was serious about wanting to get to know you better.”
I thank God she steered the conversation to a neutral topic, but her next question throws my plans out the window.
“Wouldn’t that be inappropriate? The two of us, I mean . . .”
If it were up to me, yes. We would do many inappropriate things, beautiful.
Unfortunately, I can’t propose anything like that and push the desire to the back of my mind.
“No. We can do whatever we want.”
She pauses for a second, and I notice she’s already breathing normally again. “I do want that, but in the hotel . . . I wouldn’t want people to talk about us . . . about you and me . . .”
“No one will say anything. Now, go back to sleep. See you tomorrow.”
I quickly end the call, trying to bring my logical side back to the surface.
I’ve never been so out of control with my desires. Even when I got involved with Layla, I knew from the start that I didn’t want anything more serious, so we started the relationship with an expiration date.
Olívia, however, attracts me in a way no one else ever has, making me forget what I should and, especially, what I shouldn’t do.
I look at the clock for the third time, trying to understand why I feel so restless. Everything is under control. Nina is staying with the temporary nanny at my mother’s house. She slept much better last night, and we really enjoyed ourselves yesterday.
She started crawling last week. At first, she was insecure, since when she tried, she fell on her belly.
When that happened, she seemed upset, but my girl is persistent and a few days of practice was all it took for her to never stop.
Now, I have to keep an eye on the stairs because she wants to explore every corner of the apartment.
She’s also very argumentative in her unique baby language, and every day I find myself fascinated by how she learns every little thing about the world. Her curiosity is endless.
When I pick up my daughter, her small and fragile body makes me want to protect her from all evil. Shield her from any danger.
Her photo on my desk reminds me that I need to take more.
She grows so fast. Her face seems to change at an incredible speed, and I can’t keep up with all the phases, torn between her and my day-to-day obligations.
I blame myself for not keeping up with the little changes.
I have the new photos on my phone, but I need to print them and put them in frames.
I also would like to take her to do some activities, like learning to swim and music lessons, but Joaquín thinks I shouldn’t allow a stranger to transport her from one place to another. I think my brother will never lose his characteristic distrustful nature.
Every time I watch videos about baby development, I feel like I’m failing in some way. Falling short, unable to fulfill all the necessary criteria. I don’t want her to miss anything, and this makes me think about the girl I’m about to meet again.
I check the time. It’s almost time. Is she punctual? Should I go meet her?
No, better not. Although I don’t care what others think, Olívia doesn’t need rumors to start about her.
My secretary, Kathleen, who has been with me almost as long as I’ve been CEO, showed disbelief when I told her I had hired Olívia personally.
She’s competent and a great employee, but sometimes I think of transferring her to one of the directors.
It’s not something she has said, but occasionally I feel like she thinks that, because we’ve been working together for so long, she has the right to make certain decisions that are a bit beyond her duties.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination, but since Layla died, she has been more explicit about her intentions, forcing a closer relationship as if we were friends, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Not because she’s my employee but because I can see other interests behind her actions.
She has even hinted that she could do tasks that are not her job, like taking care of Nina, for example, when I have evening meetings.
It won’t happen.
Kathleen has never been to my house, and I intend to keep it that way.
I’ve been taking most of her actions calmly, considering the good years of service she has provided so far, but yesterday she particularly annoyed me by questioning why I needed an assistant. I don’t need to justify to anyone whom I hire or don’t hire.
I was annoyed enough to call Melissa directly to task her with guiding Olívia. I don’t want the girl to feel embarrassed in any way. I took her out of her world—although her world, in my view, didn’t provide any security—and now I’ll make sure she’s okay.
My thoughts are pretty good up to here, right? Coherent, rational, straight. But rational isn’t really how I feel; I feel damn anxious. Unable to wait any longer, I go to the reception. It’s past the time she should have arrived.
Maybe I should send her a text?
I open the door, and to my surprise, Olívia is sitting there, looking very focused on her own nails, while Kathleen ignores her, focused on her laptop screen.
Instead of addressing my secretary—who will have to explain to me why I wasn’t informed of Olívia’s arrival—I postpone the problem, and without even looking at Kathleen, I call Olívia. “Come.”
She raises her head and, to my satisfaction, doesn’t hesitate. From my peripheral vision, I can see Kathleen turning towards me.
I’ll deal with her later. Right now, my interest is solely in Olívia.
As she passes to enter the room, she doesn’t look at me.
“Suspend all calls,” I say to the woman who irritates me more every day.
“You have a meeting in an hour.”
“I’m aware of my commitments. Suspend all calls until I say otherwise.”
She opens her mouth and then closes it again.
Yes, maybe I really do need to take action soon.
“Sit down,” I tell Olívia.
“Good morning,” she replies instead of obeying.
“Good morning, Olívia. Now, sit,” I command again.
Sit, because I don’t need the distraction of your slim waist, which highlights those delicious breasts even more.
“Yes, sir,” she says, still sounding reluctant.
She looks different from when I left her in the hotel lobby three days ago, and I’m not sure I like the change. She’s wearing a bit of makeup, and her beautiful hair is tied back, like the other secretaries here usually keep it.
“Are you settling in well?”
I know she is; Melissa has sung her praises many times. What I’m really trying to do is distract my mind from improper thoughts, such as the fact that I spent last night in bed imagining her alone in her room, warm and disheveled, talking to me on the phone.
I promised friendship, and that’s what I should focus on.
“Very well. Melissa is great. Thank you for sending her to help me. She also took me around the hotel and explained how things work. She said that, based on what you told her, my role is that of a junior secretary. Is that what I am?”
“Do you want to work as a secretary?”
“Can I answer honestly?”
“Don’t you always?”
“That was before I signed a contract with you. Now it’s different.”
“You can be honest. I want to know everything you’re thinking.”
I think she holds back the urge to make one of her ironic remarks. Olívia is transparent.
“We’ve already talked about this.”
“About what?” I ask, because I got distracted for a moment by the movement of her lips.
“About my thoughts being private.”
“All of them?”
“Work-related ones aren’t private.”
“And what if I want to know about the others?”
Why the hell did I ask something like that?
I see her chest rise and fall quickly. It’s the first time she’s reacted to me since that day in the café, when I caught her looking at me with pure feminine interest. Which should put me on alert, but it excites me.
“Why would you want to know about the other thoughts?”
I stay silent because there isn’t a single appropriate answer about my motives.
After a while, looking embarrassed, she takes the initiative to speak.
“Okay. Let’s go back to your question. I’ll accept any role offered to me here.
You found out firsthand that I don’t have many options.
Losing my job at the café wasn’t part of my plans.
On the other hand, I have to be honest and say that I have no idea what the duties of a junior secretary would be. ”
“You’re very smart. You’ll learn quickly.”
“Alright. Where should I be, then? Alongside Melissa?”
“Did you two get along?”
“Yes.”
I think about what I should ask her to do, since I can’t just spend the rest of the morning admiring her, although the idea is tempting.
I grab my phone and, getting out of my chair, walk over to where she is and unlock the phone screen. “I need you to send some photos for printing and also arrange picture frames.”
I stretch out my arm and show her a photograph of Nina smiling with just her two bottom teeth. I watch her reaction carefully, but to my surprise, she takes the phone from my hand.
The soft brush of our fingers causes a kind of electric shock in my body, but Olívia doesn’t seem to notice.
Her face instantly softens as she looks at the photo of Nina, and a smile appears, mirroring my daughter’s toothless happiness. “Is she yours?”
“She is, yes.” If there’s one certainty in the world, it’s that my girl is a part of me.
“She’s adorable,” she says, and I think maybe, unconsciously, her eyes focus on my ring finger.
“I’m a widower.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“No, but there’s an implicit question on your face.”
“Sorry for that. I don’t know how to pretend. It’s just that I hadn’t noticed a ring.”
“It’s because there isn’t one. I’m free, Olívia.” Yes, I shouldn’t have said that. I’ll soon write a book of all the improper things I blurt out when I’m around her.
Looking suddenly shy, she hands me back the phone. “What photos do you want?”
“I’ll let you choose. I’ll send them to you by message.”
“Speaking of messages, Mr. Guillermo, thank you for calling yesterday. It was nice to hear a familiar voice.”
Feeling awkward about how to act, since nothing close to friendship was passing through my mind last night, I change the subject.
“Your corporate credit card should arrive soon, but just ask Melissa and she’ll provide money for whatever you need, including printing the photos.
Do you think you can handle that today?”
“Shouldn’t it be Miss Kathleen?”
“What?”
“Shouldn’t I report to Miss Kathleen if I need money?”
“No. You only report to me. Besides that, anything you need, ask Melissa. When you’re done with the photos, let me know.”
“How?”
“Send a message to my phone.”