CHAPTER NINE #2
But who was he kidding? He didn’t have time to date the woman he was dating, let alone pick up another one.
Besides, after fooling around with Dena and ending it years ago, he knew better than to ever date anybody that worked for him.
Even when they still, like Dena, wanted him to.
He almost lost a good assistant when he called it off.
She was so good that years later, when she hit her thirties and knew the inner workings of his household and his businesses inside and out, she became his chief-of-staff.
But his libido almost cost him that good placement.
And the fact that she was still smitten with him continued to be a problem for her.
Not for him. He was long since over the bed action she used to give to him.
But she still wanted it he could tell. Which was unfortunate for her.
He’d never go down that road again.
“Have a nice night,” Toya said to him as she made her way to the door.
But when she smiled and looked back at him, glad that she was in good stead with the boss despite her firing and her arrest, she saw that he was already back on his computer taking care of his business.
He had forgotten about her already. Although she was a tad disappointed, she knew it was as it should be.
The boss and the nobody. Get your head out of the clouds, Latoya. She opened the door to leave.
“Oh,” she said again so loudly that it forced him to look up with an irritated look on his face. Only the look softened when he saw her face. “Sorry to interrupt again, but I don’t know the phone number here? In case I’m running late or something and I need to call in.”
He was about to give her the number, but she interrupted him.
“Just a sec,” she said as she pulled out her cell phone and created a contact.
Then she inputted the number as he recited it.
She then recited the number again, out loud, and then in her head too, after she took it down.
That way she’d never forget it. And because she needed to jumpstart a career again, and earn a living again, she was hopeful it was going to be a decades-long number in her life.
She was going to retire with that number as her business number. That was her hope anyway.
She put her phone back in her purse.
But for some reason she lingered again. But why was she just standing there? And why was he just staring at her instead of ordering her out of his office the way he did the others? It mystified them both.
But she knew she had to eventually get out of that man’s office. That was why she gave him a smile, a wave of her hand, and then she walked on out, gently closing the door behind her.
It was only then, after that door closed, did Grayson realize he had given her his private phone number rather than the company number! He almost jumped up and ran after her. What was he thinking?
But he stayed where he was. Precious few people had his private number. It was a mistake he never made before. But he made it this time, and for some temp employee? It made no sense!
But that feeling that came over him as soon as he saw her in that bathroom and eyed her in his office made no sense either.
He couldn’t believe it when he saw that his new temp employee was the girl in that bathroom.
She seemed so lost and so in need of protecting that as soon as Lois tried to give her position to that white chick he knew he wasn’t going to allow that shit to happen to her.
Not to her. Any other time and he wouldn’t have given a damn.
As his house manager, he gave Lois Javits the authority to decide who did what in his household.
But he gave a damn because it was her. Jameesha Latoya Morgan. That much he knew.
What he didn’t know was why did he give a damn.
What he didn’t know was why did he mistakenly give her his private number when he rarely ever gave that number out.
It was so unlike him that it angered him. His ass was forty-four years old. He was no lovesick puppy who thought some girl was cute. He wasn’t even a man who played around like that. He was so beyond those days it wasn’t even funny.
But here he was defending her, and giving her his private number, and allowed her to stand up there like some wooden soldier and linger in his office when he had work to do.
He didn’t even mind when she came behind his desk like she owned it, grabbed his expensive pen as if it came off of one of those picnic tables at Walmart, and handled her business while interrupting his.
But it was a fact. He didn’t mind when it came to her. A privilege nobody else, not even the woman he called himself dating, have ever had. But he was giving it to Miss Temp Agency?
Then he ran both hands through his hair, leaned his head back, and shook it. “Get it together, Carrington,” he said out loud in admonishment of himself. “Get. It. Together.”
Then his office door opened again. It was Miss Javits. “Yes?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to give this to you in front of anyone else. Not even Dena,” she added as she walked up to his desk and handed him an envelope. “But this came this afternoon. Via Fed-Ex. It looked like the other ones.”
Grayson’s heart sank when he saw that envelope. Not another one! But he took it and didn’t open it. “Thank You, Miss Javits. You can wrap it up for the day.”
“Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. See you in the morning.”
Javits left, closing the door behind her.
And that was when Grayson opened that envelope and read the letter inside. Just a few words like all the others. Pasted on rather than written or typed.
He leaned his head back again. Only this time he squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. When, he wondered, was it going to end?
Then he thought about it. About all of it. Then he quickly picked up his desk phone and made that call.
“I’ve got another job for you,” he ultimately said.