6. You’ve Seen Me Naked
YOU’VE SEEN ME NAKED
AIDEN
When I turn around and find Tara standing in the doorway of my office, I wonder if I’m hallucinating.
She looks different. Gone is the professional makeup and fake lashes.
The fitted bridesmaid dress that clung to her curves has been replaced by ill-fitting office attire, a white button-up shirt and black trousers that look pretty baggy on her.
She’s still gorgeous, but looks so different to the woman I spent time with two nights ago that I have to blink a few times to make sure it’s definitely the same person.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, clinging to the door frame.
“I work here. Which, I’m guessing, you do too?” I move closer, and she puts her hand up, halting me in my tracks.
She steps in quickly and shuts the door behind her, reaching over and closing the blinds behind the glassed wall.
“You’re David’s son? The man who just swooped in and took John’s job?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Uh, I’ll cop to the David’s son part, reluctantly. But I didn’t swoop in and take anything. My dad told me he had a job for me, I came. That’s it.”
She scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at me. “Nice try. So, what? You saw my photo on the company website and decided to hunt me down at the wedding to humiliate me before we have to work together, is that it?”
I gape at her for a moment, before finding my voice.
“What the hell? No, that’s not it. I had no idea who you were on Saturday night.
No one told me my assistant’s name yesterday, just that she’d show me the ropes and was the best in the company at her job.
” I tamp down the anger I can feel clawing at my throat, thrown by the accusation she threw my way.
“Of course I’m the best in the company at my job. I worked my butt off for it.”
At this point, I have no idea what she’s angry about anymore. That I got the job? That I spoke to her on Saturday night? That I’m breathing the same air as her? The list is endless, but also, not my fault.
“I don’t know why you’re so mad at me when you’re the one who snuck out of bed on Sunday morning without a word.”
Two can play at this game of righteous anger, love.
She glares at me, opening her mouth to respond, when a knock at the door startles us both. My father lets himself in without waiting for an invitation.
“Oh, Tara, fantastic. I see you’ve met Aiden.” Dad shows no sign of recognising the tense atmosphere that he’s walked into.
Tara straightens slightly, dropping her hands to her side. “Yes. I didn’t realise you’d replaced John so quickly.” There’s an underlying animosity to her words that sails right over my father’s head.
“Oh yes. I reached out to Aiden as soon as John let me know he was retiring. He was in London, so he needed time to pack up his life and move over.”
Tara looks like she’s fighting back tears, but if that’s the case, it’s definitely angry tears. I don’t know who she’s more pissed at, me or Dad, but I’d prefer to be left out of all of this.
“So you’ve known for months and didn’t tell me?”
Dad looks confused. “Why would I need to tell you? It will be the same for you as it was when John was around.”
And in that moment, I see that he’s just as clueless as a boss as he is as a father.
From the fleeting expression that passes across Tara’s face, I can tell that she doesn’t want things to be the same as they were under John.
I also think that was a stretch on Dad’s part.
I have nowhere near the knowledge and experience that John had, as evidenced by my day yesterday when I was handed paperwork to read and it all meant nothing to me.
I’m going to be relying on my assistant a lot, and seeing the unimpressed look on her face, I’m not looking forward to the moment when Tara realises that.
“I guess it would have been nice to be given a heads up, considering that I’m the one with the relationship with the clients,” Tara says, practically vibrating as she holds herself back.
Yeah, this is not going to be fun.
After Dad continues to fumble through the conversation with Tara, she leaves with barely contained rage. I swallow hard when it’s just Dad and me alone in my office.
“Why the hell didn’t you say anything to her about me coming?” I ask, shaking my head.
“I didn’t think about it. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal, anyway,” he replies, staring at the closed door, confusion written all over his face.
“You can’t seriously be this naive, Dad. She clearly isn’t happy, and I have to work with her. It puts me in a really shitty position.”
“Nonsense. Tara will be fine. She’s one of the most professional women in the office, never gets involved in any of the office politics and just gets on with it. She’ll be fine.”
I was wrong. Apparently, he is that naive.
An hour later, I bite the bullet and call Tara back into my office.
Needing to clear the air, I wave for her to take a seat on the other side of my desk, which she does, albeit reluctantly. I sit in my chair and suddenly have no idea what to do with my hands. This woman makes me nervous for reasons I can’t quite work out.
“Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I can tell you aren’t happy about me being here, but I honestly had no idea who you were on Saturday night, I promise.” I lean forward to rest my forearms on the desk and click the pen in my hand for something to do.
Tara stares at the pen, then back at my face, her jaw clenched. “Well, as you can imagine, it’s put me in a really shit position. I never sleep with strangers, and the one time I do, it turns out he’s my new direct superior.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Just to be clear… When you say ‘sleep with’, are you… Do you think we had sex?” This has gone to a whole new level of inappropriate, and now I’m wondering if HR is about to bust the door down.
Tara’s cheeks redden. “Well, I woke up in your bed wearing nothing but your shirt.”
I let out a breath. “So you don’t remember?
Tara, I promise, all we did was sleep. I don’t sleep with women who are too drunk to consent.
I tried to find your friends after you’d passed out on me, but they must have all left after you told them you were going to bed.
So I gave the bartender my details and told her I was going to get you sobered up enough to get you back to your room.
But when I got you upstairs, you stripped your clothes off before I had a chance to give you a drink of water.
My solution to that was to put you in one of my shirts and let you sleep it off.
I was going to ask you to go for breakfast in the morning, but when I woke up, you were gone. ” I raise my hands in surrender.
She stares at me for a moment. “Somehow, that all makes me feel worse. ”
I laugh, dumbfounded. “So you’d prefer it if we’d slept together and now we have to work together?”
“No,” she snaps. “But you’ve still seen me naked and we have to work together.”
My automatic response is to offer to even the score, but I’m pretty sure that joke would fall flat here. And also, far too inappropriate for the office. Even though I’d really like to see her naked again.
I scrub my hand over my face. This is not going well. “Look. How about we both agree to forget about Saturday night and start fresh?”
She sits back in her chair and crosses her arms, considering me closely. She’s quiet for so long, I wonder if she’s about to tell me to get lost, but she finally nods.
“Fine.”
She doesn’t seem fine.
“Okay then,” I reply warily. “I’m glad we could clear the air. Do you think you could run me through how things are done here?”
She raises an eyebrow. “What do you need me to show you?”
I want to say “Everything”, but I suspect that way would lead to me getting a swift kick up the arse, or worse. So instead, I wave my hand towards the stack of papers on my desk that one of the admin team members brought in earlier. “Well, for starters, what am I meant to do with these?”
Tara looks at the stack of papers, reading through the note on top before looking back at me. “Did they not have you reviewing your renewals at your old office?”
“Uh, no. This is all new to me.”
She stares at me, and I instantly know I’ve said the wrong thing.
“You’ve done this job before, right?”
Despite the warning voice in my head screaming at me to lie, I shake my head. If I lied, she’d eventually work it out anyway when she uses all the insurance jargon that everyone else is fluent in, but has sailed right over my head.
“No. I’m new to the industry.”
Her mouth drops open. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Fraid not,” I reply, hoping my grin is enough to charm her.
Spoiler… it is not.
“So. Not only did your father ,” she says through gritted teeth, “not bother to tell me he was hiring someone else, but that someone else has no clue what they are doing, and I’m just expected to do all the work once again?
” I try not to flinch at the venom in her voice.
“Unbelievable,” she adds under her breath.
I honestly miss the version of her I met on Saturday night. This one is scary and yet, still just as hot. There is something seriously wrong with me that I’m equal parts terrified and turned on right now.
She takes a deep breath. “Look, Aiden. I’m going to let you in on a secret.
This place is like a vipers den, and your father has left you to fight to the death.
There are plenty of assistants who would have killed for the chance to interview for this position, myself included.
Add in that we have an admin team that makes the girls in Mean Girls look like innocent puppies, and it’s basically a constant shit fight in this place.
David is completely clueless because he chooses to be, but make no mistake, you’re about to be eaten alive. ”
Fabulous.
“I had no idea. Honestly, this is all as much a shock to me as it is to you. Please, can we just work together? I might not have a clue what I’m doing, but I’m a fast learner. In the meantime, maybe we can share the role,” I offer, practically begging at this point.
Her words have made it even harder to walk out of this office and interact with all the people I was already pretty sure weren’t happy I was here.
Having it confirmed is making me consider just getting on a plane and heading back to England.
But there’s nothing left for me there now, and I really need this job. At least for the foreseeable future.
“Even if you somehow convinced your father to let you share the role with a woman, I’d still be the one carrying the load.
” She sighs and shakes her head. “Look, it’s done now.
But you better work things out pretty quick.
John may have slacked off in the last couple of years, but his shoes are pretty big ones to fill.
His clients expect their broker to know the answers straight away.
You’ve at least got your qualifications, right? Tell me David wasn’t that stupid?”
I nod. “Yeah, he had me do all the tests last week.”
“Well, that’s something, I guess.” She gets to her feet and points at the stack of papers again.
“You need to review those, comparing them to last year’s policies.
You’re not just looking at price, but need to see if any additional clauses have been added by the underwriters.
Usually this is all done by email, so I don’t know why they’ve printed it all off.
Probably some sort of joke for the admin teams to get their kicks out of.
I avoid them as much as possible, but if you don’t want to be swimming in paperwork, I suggest you ask their manager to ensure that these are emailed to you from now on. ”
With that, she sweeps out of my office, leaving me staring at the papers with a sinking feeling.
This all just got so much harder.