Page 78 of Summer Haze & Tokyo Craze

"That's great," I say, grinning into my coffee cup. Nominations for awards are wonderful for the company, but not the kind of pressing news I was fearing I would get here.

Mentally, I was almost prepared for like three fires to put out, but then again, Barbara is very skilled with a fire extinguisher herself. I’m sure she handled everything wonderfully while I was gone.

"Apart from that, no, nothing important. Only a bunch of documents that need your approval and signature."

"Perfect," I say and stop in front of my office door. "Nothing urgent. Listen, Barbara, I need your help. There's something I need to research. Can you pull up my company contract for me?"

"Of course." Her eyes grow wide as saucers. "But please tell me you're not leaving, because if it means you're going to quit, then I will absolutely not get it to you."

"I'm not going to quit," I assure her quickly, and she exhales a breath of relief, her expression softening.

"Okay, then I'll have it right over."

God, I lovethat woman.

“Also, I’ve been thinking.” I take a step back into her office before I continue. “And I wanted to run this by you before I do anything. I would like to hire an additional assistant.”

“An additional-“ Her face turns sour and I quickly lift my hands in a defensive gesture.

“It’s not because I’m unhappy with your work, I was just thinking about cutting down on work for a while.“ I quickly clarify and her expression instantly relaxes.

“Why?” she asks, fixating me with a hard stare.

“I just think it’s time,” I admit and scratch the back of my neck, shooting her a sheepish look. “Zoey is off to university now and… yeah.”

“The pressure is off?”

“Something like that.”

She nods in understanding, then turns to her computer. “I’ll draw up the job ad.”

“Thank you, Barbara.” I turn around and finally step into my office. Phase one of my plan is in action now.

It's already close to midnight when I call Chris, our company lawyer and old family friend. He’s known me since my dad founded the company, so really fucking long already.

"Adam! Long time no talk. Do I need to bail you out of jail?"

"Christian," I greet him, rolling my eyes at the intro. "You're saying that like it's ever happened."

"Oh, I’m sure one day it will. And then I’ll have the great pleasure of telling you ‘I told you so,’" he quips, making me chuckle.

"Well, this is nothing quite as serious. There's something about my contract that I need your professional opinion on. Do you have time for me tomorrow?"

I hear rustling on his end of the line before he makes an affirmative sound in the back of his throat. "I can pencil you in around noon. Want to give me a heads up what this is about so I can prepare?"

"I just need to know if anything in it forbids me from dating the CEO of a rival company. I read through it, but my legalese is a bit rusty."

"Oh, I see." He lets out a low whistle. "Alright, tomorrow at three you may invite me for a late lunch and I'll make sure to have the answer for you."

"Perfect. Thanks, Chris. Usual place?"

"Usual place," he confirms. Before I can even say "see you tomorrow," he's already hung up.

I look at the stack of papers in front of me.

I've combed through every single one of my contract pages at least three times over the course of the day and I couldn’t find a single thing explicitly prohibiting it.

Then again, my legalese definitely isn’t as good as a lawyer's.

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