Page 71 of Not As Advertised

She managed to keep a serious expression while I scrambled for something to say, but that only lasted as long as it took for the grossed-out look to appear on my face. When she laughed at my expression, I gratefully realized she was joking.

“You really enjoyed that, huh?” I asked.

“Your face…” Laughing again, she covered her mouth with her free hand to muffle the sound.

“Well, it’s not my fault that I’m distracted by sitting at a table with the most beautiful woman in the city.”

The mirth in her gaze turned to delight at my compliment.

“Very smooth, Mr. Sullivan. You’re dangerous when you’re charming. You should come with a warning label.”

The waiter returned to take our orders (we did not order raw octopus). Having not looked at the menu because I’d been staring at Abbie, I ordered the same thing she did: chicken primavera. I wondered if she ordered that for my benefit, knowing I hadn’t even glanced at the menu.

It didn’t take long for our food to arrive. I was happy that Abbie seemed to have let go of the worries she’d felt in the car. I regretted having to let go of her hand so we could both eat.

“Let’s pretend we don’t work together. People on dates talk about their jobs. Tell me how Miles is doing,” Abbie said after a few bites of her meal.

“Surprisingly well, actually. You know, unlike my last assistant, he hasn’t complained once about the thoroughness of the training materials I supplied him with.”

“To your face, anyway,” she said under her breath.

“And,” I continued as if I hadn’t heard her, “my last assistant, who was somewhat of a brat, would be pleased to hear that I haven’t burdened him with the task of making coffee for me. I wouldn’t want my ‘impossible to please’ coffee requirements to come up in my first performance review with Jack at year end.”

“Sounds like your last assistant was a saint to put up with all that coffee nonsense. Have you checked on her well-being after going through such trials?” Her tone was laced with false concern.

“From what I’ve heard, she’s doing really well in her new temporary department.”

Abbie hadn’t given me very much detail about her role in digital arts. I’d hoped she’d let him in on how she was feelingabout it. Letting the silence hang between us for a moment, I was rewarded when she finally shared more than a “It’s going fine” comment.

“Well.” She looked down at her food briefly. “The team is great. And the work is interesting. But with no experience with Photoshop other than through the very basics in my photography courses, I’m way behind the rest of the team’s abilities. Not to mention having zero knowledge of digital drawing software.”

The disappointment she felt in herself radiated across the table. I hated she was struggling to feel like she could add value to the team.

“What has Ethan assigned you to help with?”

“I’ve been mostly working on copy.” She sighed. “And doing a little bit of preliminary layout work for graphics since that’s more basic.”

“Did you expect to be good at it right away?” I was curious why she was being particularly hard on herself.

“Kind of?” Abbie set her fork down to put her face in her hands. “No matter how much I practice at home in the evenings, I’m moving at a snail’s pace.”

“Hey. Look at me.”

She brought her hands back down to her lap, looking at me with a baleful expression.

“Remember that everyone on that team has three or four years of college courses behind them. Not to mention their professional experience. There’s no way to bridge a gap like that in four weeks. I know you want to do the best you can, but you already are doing that. Can you give yourself a bit of a break?” I kept my tone gentle.

“Yeah. I can try.”

“Do you remember why you wanted to take the temporary assignment in the first place?” I knew she remembered but wanted her to remind herself by saying out loud.

“Because I wanted to see if I was interested in doing more with my photography.”

“Okay. So can you maybe treat it like an experiment for the next two months? Just learn what you can by watching the team and see if you’d like to do that in the future. “

“Yeah. It’s just hard.”

As much of a fixer as I was by nature, I knew this was something I couldn’t fix for her. I couldn’t ease the way for her or make any decisions for her. The only thing I could do was support her while she figured it out.

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