Page 16 of When Hearts Collide

“No. Not that I need them. I’m very healthy.” Ashley lets out a breathy laugh, her voice heavy with innuendo. “Professor, I’m strong…and healthy. Ready for anything, really.”

The frat bro next to her, someone who resembles an extra for lifeguard movies, shifts in his seat, his eyes raking over her body with interest. I bite back a sigh. This is going nowhere.

“Do you know why you don’t get benefits from your company?”

I try again, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Anything to keep from reaching out and shaking her and any other student who is treating this class like a date with a billionaire instead of taking it seriously.

Ashley shrugs, staring at me with those annoying stars in her eyes. I pinch my nose again and raise my voice, the impatience seeping out in spades. “Does anyone have anything meaningful—”

“It’s because they classify us as contractors instead of employees,” a sweet voice replies from my left.

The voice I’ve heard only once before, but I know I’ll recognize anywhere.

My chest tightens, and the pounding pulse quickens in my ears as I turn toward Millie. She still has her hand raised as if she’s asking for permission to speak, but her sapphire eyes glint with knowledge, with eagerness. She’s not asking for permission. She’s making her presence known.

My heart skips a beat. Will she be different from the others? Or will she be a disappointment?

I clear my throat. “And why do you think they do that?”

“Minimize costs and maximize profits for them, of course.”

I nod. “If you’re an investor of InstaEats and you infused capital into their fledgling company five years ago, and now they are rewarding you with increased dividends because they were careful with their cost management, that’s good, right? The right thing a company should do for its stakeholders.”

“But not the right thing for its workers though.”

She leans forward on her desk, her hands clasped in front of her, deepening the shadow of her cleavage showing above the round neckline of her unassuming red T-shirt. Renewed heat circulates in my body and I force myself to drag my eyes back to her sapphire gaze again.

“Precisely,” I begin, my voice sounding hoarse to my ears. “This is just one example of business ethics. What’s ethical to one group of people may not be the correct thing to do for another group, even in the same situation, like in this case, investors versus workers. Should the company give a livable wage and correctly classify workers who have accumulated a certain number of work hours as employees, thus giving them full benefits?”

I pause, taking in the furrowed brows of the students. “But if they do that, they’ll decrease their bottom line to their shareholders. Or should the company maximize profits at a cost to the workers, who now have to sustain on something as unpredictable as tips in a turbulent economy while finding other ways to get medical benefits, if they can even afford it?”

“There’s also one more group of people affected in your situation.”

I cock my brow. “How so?”

She swipes her tongue on that distracting plump bottom lip of hers, the innocent motion much more captivating than what Ashley did moments ago. The energy radiating from her is so effervescent, it’s the bright beacon of a lighthouse shining through the torrents of rain in a stormy sea.

Millie replies, “The customers are impacted as well. The ethics of the situation aren’t black and white. When you presented the case as you did right now, it seemed like the company was unethical because they took from the wellbeing of the workers to pad the pockets of their investors.”

Her tentative voice becomes stronger and more confident. “But that’s not completely true. If the company treats these workers as employees with additional benefits and a higher wage, despite their competitors not doing the same, don’t they still have a fiduciary duty to their investors? What about their corporate employees with pension plans that’ll be worth nothing if the company goes under or if their stock tanks?”

My breathing quickens and before I know it, I find myself standing in front of her, my lips threatening to quirk into a smile.

“What does this have anything to do with the customers?” My voice is deceptively quiet, but every cell in my body is pulsing with energy, every nerve ending sizzling with anticipation.

Millie’s eyes widen and she swallows, her delicate throat rippling. “To do the right thing for their investors, the company will want to pass the higher costs to third parties, in this case, the restaurants or the customers in question. But is that ethical? To have the mom-and-pop shops and us customers pay for a broken system? Isn’t this a lost cause? Everyone loses.”

She stares at me, her plush lips parted, like she’s waiting for my approval, for my praise.

Fuck. She’ll look so good on the ground beneath me.

A bolt of heat slices through my body and I stagger back half a step, lust warring with the curl of satisfaction at her thoughtful answer and provoking questions.

Shit.

My voice is rough when I reply, “Exactly. You’re exactly right. This is why having a solid understanding of business ethics is important before you step into the cutthroat world out there. Because once you’re swimming in the thick of it, it’s hard to keep your eyes on the shore. It’s difficult to know if you’re paddling toward land or toward your demise.”

A murmur ripples through the class as other students shoot their hands into the air, clearly affected by Millie’s passionate analysis and wanting to share their thoughts on this moral quandary. I tear my gaze away from her and step away, resisting the impulse to look back.

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