“Keep him on hold. I’ll pick up in a moment.”
“No problem,” she answered, and then the room was silent again. Whatever had passed between King and me, he seemed to be trying to push it from his mind.
Unable to stand the quiet, I asked, “So what did you want to see me about?”
I ran my hands over my skirt, noticing how King’s eyes lingered on the movement for the barest second before he brought his gaze to mine. Another beat of silence passed, and my throat grew dry. Had he been…? I felt like maybe he had a thing for my thighs, because I’d caught him staring at them a number of times now. A moment later, he deftly set two newspapers down in front of me, each open on a different story. “Read both of these.”
I cocked a brow. “Why?”
“Just read them, and then I’ll tell you why.”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
He shook his head at my response and brought his attention to the phone. Picking up, he immediately began chatting a lot of numbers to the guy on the other end, while I tried to concentrate on the newspaper articles. Both were about different companies. One was a silicone manufacturer who had just announced an expansion to its production facilities. The other was a start-up for a new social media website. I read each of them to the end and was done before King was finished with his call. Glancing up, he noticed I was finished reading, and reached for a pad and pen. Still holding the phone to his ear, he scribbled something down, then passed it to me. It read: Which of the two companies would you invest in?
I pondered the question, unsure as to why he was asking me this. Did he need advice, or was it some kind of a test? Looking back at the articles, I tried to come up with an answer. Grabbing King’s pen and paper, I began to write down a pros and cons list, and noticed his lips twitch when he saw what I was doing. All of a sudden, I began to wonder if I was some sort of amusement to him, or maybe a pet project. The thought disgruntled me, but I was determined not to let him see it. I’d told him at the end of my interview that I’d show him I had brains, and now I needed to prove it.
Five minutes later, he hung up the phone and turned to face me. Clasping his hands together, he asked. “Well, have you decided?”
I sat up primly. “Yes.”
“And?”
“I’d choose the social media start-up.”
“Elaborate.”
Had it gotten hotter in here all of a sudden? My throat was feeling unusually dry. “Well, silicone is clearly a good investment, because let’s face it, plastic surgery gets more and more popular year on year, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. It’s the safe choice if you don’t factor in the possibility of a replacement being created that works better. However, the sky’s the limit with the social media thing. It has the potential to go anywhere. And yeah, it’s more of a gamble, but if it succeeds, the rewards could be huge.”
King leaned forward, looking pleased. “So, let’s say you’re me and I’m my client. I come in and I want invest in either the social media start-up or the silicone manufacturer. You’d advise me to go for the social media?”
Narrowing my gaze, I nodded.
He smiled. “All right. That will be all.”
“That’s it?”
“I have a very busy day ahead of me, Alexis, but I hope to see you at lunch for our game of chess.” His easy dismissal irritated me, and I felt like he was being sneaky.
“King, this was all hypothetical, right?”
The look he gave me when I called him “King” made my knees a little bit weak. He clearly liked it, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d essentially given him an affectionate nickname, or if he just enjoyed being referred to as an all-powerful ruler.
“And if it wasn’t?”
“I’m only an assistant. I know virtually nothing about investing. You shouldn’t be using my advice in any kind of real life dealings.”
Now I had his full attention, and he seemed annoyed with me. “Alexis, I have heard more intelligence from you in two weeks than I have from some of the people I work with in an entire year. Never underestimate the value of your decisions.”
I swallowed. Blinked. Couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Never in a million years had I expected him to say something like that. And then I felt tears prickling in my eyes. It was such a huge compliment, and I wasn’t used to those. I needed to get out of there before I embarrassed myself. Not saying a word, I gave him a sober nod, turned, and walked out of the room. Despite what I’d proclaimed about having brains at the end of my interview, I suddenly realised that when it came down to it, I didn’t really believe I could do very much with them. King’s compliment showed me that I needed to seriously rewire the way I thought of myself.
For the next two hours, Gillian kept giving me furtive glances. She clearly wanted to know what King had talked to me about. I gave her nothing. Not only was the woman a flirt, she was also a gossip, and I didn’t want her spreading rumours of me getting preferential treatment from my boss. Not that it had been particularly preferential, but I got the feeling he didn’t often ask his assistants for business advice.
It was almost lunch when Gillian came to my desk and placed a small white envelope in front of me.
“This came for you,” she said, looking curious.
I glanced at the envelope and saw it had been addressed to me in pretty cursive handwriting. Opening it up, I found it was a note from Elaine King telling me she’d very much enjoyed my company yesterday, and that she hoped she’d see me again sometime. Wow. I definitely hadn’t been expecting this. I’d just finished reading it when I realised Gillian had been craning her neck and reading over my shoulder.
“You met Elaine?” she asked in a breathy, flabbergasted voice.
I shot her annoyed look before answering, “Yeah. Mr King had to cancel a visit and asked me to deliver some flowers to her house.”
Gillian’s eyes flared wide as she took a quick look at King’s office door to make sure it was closed. Her voice grew hushed. “Nobody around here has ever met Elaine. Rumours say she went mad with paranoia after something happened with a stalker, and Mr King keeps her locked away to hide the secret.”
For some strange reason, I felt the urge to cover for both King and his mum. “Well, she seemed normal enough when I met her.”
“Oh,” said Gillian, obviously disappointed. She was after a scandal, and I wasn’t going to give her one. Finally accepting there was no story to tell, she went back to her desk and resumed working. I read Elaine’s note once more, a warm feeling in my tummy to know that she’d liked me. It felt good to think I’d brightened up her day. Then I started to wonder about the stalker Gillian had mentioned. This tidbit definitely wasn’t common knowledge, since I would have read about it in the media. Given the state of Elaine nowadays, it could just as easily be true as it could be a rumour.
When my lunch hour came, I waited until Gillian had left the office to head into King’s bathroom. He wasn’t around, so I tucked into my packed sandwich and browsed my personal emails while I waited. As I did this, a text came in from Bradley. He had news about the photo shoot he wanted me to do. In a nutshell, he’d shown the higher-ups at the fashion house some photos of me from my Facebook page. They’d liked my look and wanted me to model. It all felt so glamorous and exciting. I was just reading through the details for the shoot, which was to take place on Saturday, when the bathroom door opened and King stepped inside.
“Started without me?” he asked, taking off his suit jacket to reveal a perfectly fitted white shirt beneath. I really needed to stop noticing these things about him.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, swallowing a bite as he neatly placed his jacket over the back of his chair. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to make it.”