Chapter 16
Colin
So much for my uncle being here to help me through my transition. He left about an hour after lunch and said he wasn’t returning today. He has an appointment with his doctor. Now, I only have an hour left before I can leave this day behind me, which will go down as one of the worst in my life.
All was lost when she threw the food away and demanded I turn down the job. I was close to telling her why I couldn’t, but I refused to betray my uncle’s confidence. It's up to him whether to share his medical condition with others. I understand why he won’t. He doesn’t want to appear weak. I get why he wants me here, too.
I’m still not prepared to give up. Maybe she needs a little time. Maybe after working together for a while, she’ll remember what we shared and want to pick up where we left off.
Or maybe you’re a delusional idiot.
For the past three hours, I’ve been meeting with employees individually to discuss their backgrounds and the projects they are working on and answer any questions they didn’t feel comfortable asking during the meet-and-greet. No one trusts me, but that’s okay, as I plan on earning their trust in time. All the meetings went well except for the one I had with Ernestine.
“I work for Brynne,” she says after I ask her to tell me about her role here.
“Yes, but I’m getting to know everyone in the office one-on-one.”
“Brynne explained to me this morning that I work for her, not for you. She said nothing would change about my duties or who I report to.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t tell me about your role here.”
“I’m her personal assistant. I anticipate her needs and keep her happy. That’s my role in a nutshell.”
“Do you think you can tone the hostility a bit?” I finally snap. “You report to Brynne, but I’m her boss, which makes me your boss.”
She flares her nostrils and purses her lips shut. After a few more seconds, she gives me a more thorough answer about her job description. I release her soon after that, having lost the bandwidth to deal with more people today.
I’ll tackle the rest of the staff, including Brynne, tomorrow. Maybe a good night’s sleep will put her in a better mood.
As I lean back in my chair and close my eyes, I hear my office door open and shut. I open my eyes to see an angry Brynne walking toward me. I don’t bother to stand. Whatever this is, I’m not in the mood for it. I’m not the argumentative type. That’s never been my vibe. I don’t deal with toxic people, and I don’t stand for drama. That’s why things with me and Esme didn’t work out. That and her horrible personality.
Even in her anger, Brynne’s still so beautiful. If she’s trying to look scary or intimidating, she’s failed. All I want to do is grab her and kiss her.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” she says through clenched teeth. She slams her hand down on my desk and looks down at me. “Ernestine Gunner works for me . You do not have the authority to fire her. You do not have the authority to ask her so much as to hand you a paperclip. She’s my hire. You might have bulldozed your way in here, but your so-called authority only goes so far.”
I rub my hands over my face and eyes and take a deep breath to calm down. It doesn’t work. “Would you dare tell Milton not to talk or ask your personal assistant questions?”
She stands straight and takes a step back. “Last time I checked, you weren’t Milton.” Then she eyes me up and down. “But maybe you two are a lot alike.” She nods. “I guess I can see the family resemblance now. It’s in your eyes.” She points at me and frowns. “Snake eyes,” she whispers.
After finally having enough of her attitude for today, I stand. “You’re kind of mean, you know that?”
I don’t think she expected me to say that. She even takes a step back. I don’t believe she’s mean at all. I believe she’s angry. I would be, too, if I were in her shoes. Uncle Milton fucked us both over.
“And I’m supposed to be nice? Bend over backward for you?”
“Well, you did bend over for me. Remember that?” She gasps. “That was a great night. One of the best of my life.”
“Stay the hell away from Ernestine, and the next time you threaten to fire her, you’ll have to deal with me, and I won’t be as sweet as I’m being now.”
“I don’t make threats,” I say to her retreating back. “If I want to fire her, I will. I’m the boss around here. The boss of all of you, including you.” I point at her. “As your boss, your underling also reports to me.”
“Underling?”
“Underling. Bodyguard. Personal assistant. Bully. Whatever the hell you want to call her. And for the record, I was trying to converse with her like I did with all the other employees. What I won’t do is deal with her attitude and disrespect.” Having had enough, I stand there and dare her to find a counterargument.
“You feel disrespected, Mr. Kincaid? You?” She gestures at me. “The one who was handed a cushy job the first day you stepped your Tom Fords in this office?” She raises an eyebrow and takes a step closer. “Do you want to know how I feel?”
“I didn’t cause any of that.” I know my words are empty. The optics are bad, and if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t believe me either.
“And you think that makes a difference? You come swooping in, take something you didn’t earn, and threaten to fire anyone who isn’t thrilled to have you.”
“Oh, you were thrilled the last time you had me,” I announce.
“Don’t you ever bring that up again, you con man. And for the record, I don’t report to you. Everyone else, maybe, but not me. If you have a problem with that, fire me.”
“Con man? You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious. You lied. You pretended to be someone else to gain my trust so you could get me into bed and have this over me.”
I throw my head back and give a humorless laugh. “Really? I didn’t realize I was that good. For the record, I’ve never had to con a woman into sleeping with me, but since you’re so damn delusional, let’s go over what happened. Remember the night at the club? The night where you had your hands all over me. Rubbing my chest and touching my ass. Remember how you pressed your body against mine and said you wanted to go home with me ? I asked if you were sure, and you said you were. I took you back, and you made love to me all night. I spent every spare moment with you after that, and now you want to say that was all a lie?”
“It was a lie!” she yells. “And you set it all up. Walking around with no shirt on, flashing your washboard abs. Wearing those ridiculous Crocs so you could appear approachable and smiling like some wanna-be GQ model.”
“So, I asked for it? My outfit made you do it?” I challenge. “It was my fault you asked to go home with me ?”
“Don’t you dare use that argument on me, and if you were honest about who you were, I wouldn’t have touched you with a ten-foot pole, but you knew that.”
“I offered to tell you who I was. You’re the one who said no. You wanted to use those stupid code names while on vacation mode.” I put vacation mode in air quotes. “Remember that ?”
“No,” she lies. “I don’t remember any of that.”
“And you call me the liar,” I challenge.
“If the Crocs fits.”
“Okay, so you fucked me, and now you’re mad about it. Do I have that right? Well, stay mad then.”
“Of course, you would reduce it to just that,” she says, “but on the contrary, Mr. Kincaid, I’m the one who got fucked. And since we’re on the topic, you can go ahead and fuck yourself.” She walks out of my office and slams the door behind her.
Frustrated, I toss my penholder to the floor and let out a string of curse words.
My plans with Brynne blew up in my face, but I still get to have dinner with two beautiful ladies. The first thing I do when she opens the door is force a smile. She gestures for me to come in, and I walk to the living room and drop myself on the couch face first.
“Oh, boy,” my sister, Lisa, says. “I’ll fix you a drink, but really, Paddy. I warned you about getting wrapped up in Uncle Milton’s business.”
My only response is to groan, but I’m not alone for long. I hear multiple footsteps before I feel two little people climb on me. Then I feel a set of paws on my lower back, followed by a loud bark. I turn over, and my niece and nephew smile down at me. I hug them both.
“This is the best part of my day,” I say as I ruffle Archie and Milly’s hair.
“Look, Uncle Paddy,” Milly says as she points at her feet and shows off her bright blue Crocs. “Mom got you ones, too.”
Archie, who can’t yet talk, claps his hands and points at his own feet. He is wearing the same pair of shoes.
“Thanks, Milly. The ones you got me for Christmas were great on vacation.” My sister returns, holding a drink, and orders the kids to the kitchen for dinner, where the nanny will help them.
“What the hell happened?” Lisa asks. “When I talked to you last night, you said you had plans with a woman you met on vacation. How do you go from sounding like that to looking like this?” She gestures at me, and I grimace.
I take the drink and down it in one gulp before I tell her everything. She smiles and swoons at the parts where I met Brynne, but when I mention that Brynne is the same person our uncle promised the job to, the look of horror on my sister’s face is almost comical. It would be if this happened to anyone but me.
“See?” she says. “He’s like a damn genie. He gives you something, but there’s a twist. He always takes it from someone else, like that stupid car. Now this.”
I groan again and feel like a man fifty years older than I am. Lisa is right, as always.
“But even you couldn’t have predicted this,” I say as I finally sit up, “of all the women on the planet, I meet and fall for the one whose job I took. And she doesn’t believe me at all. She spent the day calling me a liar or pretending that what happened between us didn’t happen at all.”
“I knew something was going to blow up in your face. Who offers a job to someone, yanks it away, gives it to their nephew, and expects the other person to accept it? She’s going to make your life hell in the office,” Lisa warns. She’s not telling me anything I don’t already know. Day one already was a complete disaster. “Remember when he sent me all those designer clothes and shoes? The ones he took from his girlfriend after a fight?”
“And yet we still love him.”
Lisa sits next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I’m glad you’re back,” she says. “And I know you’ll figure out a way to fix this. She’ll see how amazing you are soon enough.”
“I doubt it. I think her hooking up with me on vacation is outside her norm, and now she’s kicking herself. She’s going to get back into her shell and have nothing to do with me. If I were in her shoes, I’d be angry too.”
Lisa stands, offers me her hand, and helps pull me to my feet. I smile down at her. She’s the spitting image of our mother, and I look more like the Kincaid side of the family. She’s only two years younger, but it’s always been me and her, especially since our mother pretty much gave up on doing any parenting by the time our father died. Lisa was only fifteen, and we only had each other to lean on.
“Come on. Let’s eat, and we’ll figure a way out of this.”
Day two is making day one look like a walk through the park on a perfect spring day. It’s only ten-thirty in the morning and I feel like I’ve been here ten hours already. Hardly getting any sleep last night has not helped my mood, and now I’m looking at the smug face of Joel Bell, junior architect.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he says while giving me a look of approval. As if I need his approval. “Your uncle runs this place like a well-oiled machine, and I’m sure you will, too.” I have no idea how he could know this since he wasn’t here yesterday, and he only met me five minutes ago.
“Thank you,” is all I can think to say.
“I worked at another firm before this one.” He whispers the last part and inches his chair closer to my desk. “The owner ran the place to the ground. She had no idea what she was doing. So damn emotional one week a month, if you know what I mean.” I take a deep breath. If he says one more thing, I’m going to physically put him out of my office. “She questioned everything I did. Always on a power trip even though she only started that firm because of the money she got from a divorce settlement.” I have no idea how he would even know that. He doesn’t strike me as the type of person someone would share company secrets with. “Do you know how many times I had to hold my tongue and not remind her that she only had that firm because of a man?” He scoffs and whispers something under his breath.
“Thank you for coming in, Joel.” I rub my eye with the back of my hand. Get the fuck out of my office and never return , is what I want to say.
He gives a satisfied nod before he saunters out of my sight. When my door closes, I lean back in my chair and groan like an old man. I need coffee before my next meeting, but what I’d really like is to go home and climb into bed, preferably with Brynne, who ignored all my calls last night.
I groan all the way to the kitchen, only to come to a complete stop when I see her. Her back is to me, so she doesn’t see me. I close the door to the room and walk behind her. She freezes before I reach her, and I can only assume she knows I’m here. I don’t know how she would know that, but this only convinces me we have a connection.
She turns but doesn’t meet my eyes. She lifts her mug and tries to walk past, but I block her.
“Can we talk?” I ask.
“Well, you summoned me to your office in fifteen minutes.” She finally looks into my eyes and something inside of me shifts. “Whatever you have to say to me can wait until then. And I only have five minutes.” She looks exhausted. More than that, she looks sad. As if my hand has a mind of its own, I lift it and stroke her cheek. She takes a breath, but she doesn’t knock my hand down. She continues to look into my eyes without looking away. I don’t see animosity like yesterday, but they are not the same eyes I looked into days before. It seems like a million years ago when I got to hug and kiss her.
“Yes, but that’s about work. I’d like to talk about other things.” She takes a step back, and I drop my hand.
“There are no other things to discuss,” she says. There’s no venom like yesterday. Today feels like resignation, and I wonder if that’s a trick. Lisa warned me about her making my life hell at the office, and my sister is wise.
“There are,” I insist. “I need to clear up some of the accusations you made about me.” I inch closer. “I still want all those things that we discussed.”
“Let’s keep it professional while we work together,” she says.
“While we work together?” Lisa’s words come to mind. “What does that mean?”
“It means, let’s keep it professional.” She walks out of the kitchen without another word.
With all the drama that has ensued since I got here, I haven’t had the chance to look at Brynne’s portfolio in depth. She’s headed many large projects. She, too, has a master’s degree in architecture from Boston Architectural College.
I know my uncle values her, even though his actions show otherwise. Other than Joel, everyone I’ve talked to thinks highly of her. It’s one of the questions I’ve asked. A few other employees went on for minutes about how wonderful she is.
Ernestine Gunner is ready to fight me over her, and after seeing some of the buildings and residential homes she’s designed, I agree that losing her would be a negative for the company.
My door opens and slams shut. I look up to see her storming to my desk and sigh. Whatever resolution she had come to is out the window.
“Why are you asking other employees about me?” she asks without a greeting.
“Excuse me?” I ask.
“I heard from five different people that you’re asking them about me when you have these little meetings, which are a complete waste of time, by the way." She takes the seat in front of my desk. "Say what you need to say, and let’s get this over with. I have a business trip I need to leave for this afternoon. Like I said, you have five minutes.”
I look through my calendar, and there’s nothing about her leaving for a trip. It’s one of the few things my uncle showed me. “I don’t know anything about a business trip. It’s not on the calendar,” I say while I skim it again.
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m flying to Philly and will be gone the rest of the week.” She stands. “Is there anything else, Mr. Kincaid? Can we be done with this, please?”
“No, I’m not done. Can you sit?” I gesture for the chair, and she takes it. “I’d like for us to co-exist at the office.”
“Okay,” she says with a shrug. “I have no desire to fight with you or anyone else, especially when the deck is stacked against me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I ask, but I already know. “You’re an incredible—”
“Please don’t condescend to me, Mr. Kincaid. And how do you expect to run this office when you never know what I mean?” She does an exaggerated eye-roll. “Aren’t you tired of this act yet? You don’t need to do it anymore. Just be yourself. You don’t need to pretend with me. You won. The job is already yours. Let your true self come out.”
“How about you tone down the attitude and the insults?” I snap. I look down at my desk. It’s hopeless. She’s angry, and there’s nothing I can do about that. “In the future, please put any work trips on the calendar. I also need to see what you’ve done so far on the Lane Project. We’re meeting with them here next week, and I’ll attend that meeting. I’ll also be working on that project with you.”
The Lane Project is a three-hundred-home subdivision in North Carolina we’ve been contracted to design. They specifically asked for me.
“That’s my project, and I’m going to handle it on my own. Milton gave me total autonomy and trusted my work. He didn’t micromanage or look over my shoulder. When I spoke with him this morning, he assured me that would not change for the remainder of my tenure here. I looked at your portfolio last night, and your specialty is landscape architecture, not residential homes. I’ve got this, Mr. Kincaid.”
Having had enough of her hostility, I stand and say, “Landscape architecture is my specialty. You’re right, but I have done other things. Will there be no landscaping in this subdivision?”
“Yes, there will be landscaping,” she says. She talks slowly as if to a child. “That’s why I’m going to hire someone whose work I respect.”
“Excuse me?”
Her nostrils flare and she crosses her arms. “I have another architect in mind. Like I said, I’ve never heard of you before yesterday.”
“Well, that might be the case, Brynne, but it’s unnecessary. It’s already been decided.” This is not how I wanted to tell her, but she’s backed me into a corner, and I can only take her antagonism for so long.
“So this is how it’s going to be the rest of my time here?”
There she goes again, referring to leaving this company. As much as Uncle Milton wants her to stay, I can’t force her. He was right about one thing. She would be hard-pressed to find another job to pay her as much as she’s getting paid. I don’t see her going anywhere anytime soon if money is a motivator. As far as I know, she doesn’t come from wealth, so money should be important.
“I won’t do everything like my uncle, and I’d like your cooperation. For now, I will attend meetings and work on different projects. If I had known about Philly, I would have arranged to go with you.”
I would hope that the hotel only had one room with one bed, like those ridiculous romcoms Lisa forced me to watch when we were teenagers.
“I also will have to pass on handing my work over. I would hate for there to be a misunderstanding where you’re given credit for work I did.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, here we go with the faux lack of understanding. You know exactly what I mean,” she says. “A misunderstanding.” She puts misunderstanding in air quotes.
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
“A situation where I work my ass off only for you to swoop in and reap the rewards.” She eyes me up and down. “Sound familiar?” When all I do is stare, she says, “Do you understand now?” She stands abruptly. “I do the work, and you get the praise.”
“So, that’s what you think of me?” I stand, too, walk past her, and block the door.
She gestures around the office. The office that was supposed to go to her.
“The proof is right here, Mr. Kincaid,” she says, emphasizing my name. “It’s nice to have the right name.” She walks toward me and stands close. Close enough to touch. She looks me in the eyes and says nothing. She’s probably waiting for me to move, but I don’t.
“So, now you’ve accused me of being a liar and a thief. Will the insults ever end? You’re like a kid having a tantrum because you didn’t get your favorite toy.” Her head rolls back. “What’s the matter? You think you’re the only one who can hurl insults?”
“Can you move out of the way?” She lifts her nose in the air and looks away. “I’m done here.” When I make no moves to get out of her way she taunts me by saying, “Fire me if you have a problem with me and my attitude .” The tone of her voice changes when she says attitude. It’s almost like she’s baiting me. Like she knows I’m supposed to keep her here.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to call her bluff and fire her, but I know there will be no going back if I do that. It’s almost like she’s daring me to do it, and if she’s doing that instead of quitting, there has to be some benefit to her to be let go. Instead of falling for her trap, I give her another order.
“You will send me the files that I asked for, and from now on, you are not to take any trips unless I authorize it. Whether you like it or not, I’m your goddamn boss, and it’s time you show me some respect. I’ll expect an email from you in the next five minutes.” I move away from the door, open it for her, and gesture for her to leave.
“Yeah. Sure.” Her tone is dismissive, and she has the nerve to glare at me before she sticks her beautiful head in the air and walks out. I slam the door behind her.
As of this moment, I’m grateful I won’t have to look at her face for the next few days.