Page 5 of Knocked Up By the Silver Fox

I exchanged glances with Harold who shrugged and chuckled. He said, "Teenagers," and turned to face the stage.

I sipped my wine and watched Abby stalk up the steps to the podium. Two teachers and a smattering of students had assembled for the awards, which went fairly quickly. Each student was called to the mic to be recognized, and they gave a speech. Abby's was short and sweet, thanking her teachers, her student body, and of course, me, for being supportive in her life. I was proud of her, and I kissed her on the cheek when she returned to my side.

"Well done, baby," I told her and she was all smiles again.

"Thanks, I was nervous."

"You did a fantastic job. You will make a very good public speaker if you ever need to do that." I patted her hand as she wrapped her arm around my bicep again, and we started out to mingle.

We stopped by the snack table and munched a little. We ran into a few celebrities, to whom I bragged about our fantastic team and of course the lovely Ms. Reid who could handle their accounts well.

Then we dipped out to the bathrooms so Abby could freshen up and I waited for her, checking the time on my phone. She appeared annoyed and irritated with me again and I felt bad. I didn't know what was bothering her, but during her awards banquet wasn't the best time to talk about it.

When Nevil Banks, owner of a rival firm and one of my least favorite people in the world, walked up to me, I put my phone away and decided it was time to gloat. I knew his firm was vying for that acquisition too and I was thrilled we'd won out over them. There was no doubt in my mind that had we gone with Kevin's proposal we'd have failed and Nevil would be basking in the glory now.

"Well, Mr. Caldwell, interesting to see you tonight." Nevil tucked his tie into his coat and buttoned it. His eyes trailed after his son, who entered the men's restroom. I slid my hands into my pants pockets and squared my shoulders. The man was a snake in the grass and I could see him coming from a mile away. He wanted to rile me up and it wasn't going to work. Not with my secret weapon in my corner now.

"Yes, well our children do both excel and attend the same school. It makes sense they'd both get awards this evening." I watched his eyes flash with hatred. He never did like me, but Ididn't ever let it bother me. Men in this industry were always cutthroat and I was well aware of it; it was part of the game.

"Yes, yes…Well I suppose that's true." He eyed me and a flicker of mischief in his expression made me tense. "I heard you won out on that big purchase. How'd you manage to pull that one off?"

It was just like him to try to pull off some sort of manipulative tactic with me. He wanted my trade secrets and it was no surprise. My firm out-maneuvered him at every turn. This time wasn't just a fluke. We excelled because I hired the best people to work for me. I was a firm believer in the statement: Hire people smarter than you and you'll always win.

"Honestly, it's my new senior analyst. She's brilliant." I grinned like a fool. I wanted to make this jerk as jealous of me as the time his wife flirted with the basketball coach and his face lit up bright red.

"New analyst, huh?" He grunted and sighed at the same time, and I could tell I was getting to him, so I poured it on thick, even as Abby joined me again and put her arm back around mine.

"Yeah, her name is Elizabeth Reid. She's phenomenal. Better than anyone else at my firm. It's a shame she didn't apply to work for you. You'd have loved her. She's sassy and bold and just plain genius. She's going to make me millions, and I'm going to make a giant swimming pool to fill with money and swim around in it."

Nevil scowled and pursed his lips, and I felt Abby tugging on my arm, but I had to get one last jab in. "And not to mention she's stunning. A real knockout. We'll have her on the front cover of Business Insider before the year's out." I winked at him and that was all I could manage before Abby dragged me away.

"Bye, Mr. Banks," she grumbled as she dragged me away from the restroom. The move was sort of immature and rude,but she was upset. I'd seen that look on her face and the exasperation in her eyes enough times to know I'd upset her.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked, when we were finally back to the gymnasium.

She stopped and pulled away to glare at me. "Why are you so happy about some woman you work with?" The anger and hurt in her eyes were so real it gutted me. She was almost in tears.

"Honey, Elizabeth is just an employee. I was trying to make Nevil jealous. He runs the same?—"

"Yeah, yeah." She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "I know you compete with him. I'm not stupid. But why do you have to talk about some woman at work like she's amazing."

I didn't know where the hurt was coming from or how to stop it, because I was just talking about my job. It was just a bit of friendly rivalry that I enjoyed, banter and nothing more, but for whatever reason it was upsetting her.

"Baby, she's an employee. She's doing a fantastic job and I just talked her up. That's all. What's wrong?" I reached for her. I wanted to pull her in for a hug but she backed away.

"You don't talk about me like that. And you don't talk about your male employees either." She scoffed and shook her head, then she stormed off leaving me to wonder what the heck just happened.

Abby had never acted like that before, though she hadn't really been privy to any of my business conversations where I pitched our services to clients like that. And while I realized that she was right, I never did talk about her like that, I didn't know why that mattered in this context. I wasn't boasting about someone I was affectionate toward, just an employee. Abby would always be my number one. No woman would ever come between me and my daughter.

But watching her walk away made me feel like a horrible father tonight. It was her special night and I upset her. I'd have to make up for it somehow. Maybe with the extra cash I'd have from this acquisition, I'd be able to take her somewhere special. Maybe that would make up for it.

In the meantime, was I really talking about Ms. Reid too much? Had I really let her get under my skin so much? Yes she was gorgeous, but nothing could come of it. She was my employee. Still, if my daughter noticed it, maybe I was already letting it get out of hand. I had to think about this for a while.

5

BETH

My eyes hurt and my back ached from sitting in this chair all day. I could've left at five like the others, but the time on my computer said it was well past eight. I was exhausted, but I knew Mr. Caldwell needed these numbers for his meeting in the morning. I'd spent the entire day toiling over the reports from my junior analysts and the beginners downstairs and while most of them had really great projections, something just felt off about the whole thing. I needed to do more research.

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