Page 9 of Billionaire's Accidental Marriage
“I have an idea.”
He leaned back and crossed his leg over his knee. “I’m listening.”
“And hear me out before you make any judgments, all right?”
He nodded. “That, I can promise.”
Then, a grin slid across my face. “What if we were each other’s assistants?”
2
Michael
The idea wasn’t terrible, but my mind started conjuring all of the ways this could potentially backfire and create even more havoc in our lives when neither of us needed it.
“I mean, it’s a clever idea. But, you wouldn’t have the monetary funds to pay for my time, and I would want to pay you for your time, but I also wouldn’t want the boat to be uneven if that makes any sense.”
Maggie nodded slowly. “It does, and I respect that.”
I sighed. “Plus, if you took on yet another job like that—because I would treat you like you were my assistant—you’d most certainly have to quit your job at the spa.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t think about that.”
“It would also put more on your plate, and it would put more on my plate. And that means I’d either have to cut back on my gym time—which is practically my morning coffee at this point—or I’d have to cut back on my personal ‘outside of work’ time, which I try to balance as best as I can, so I don’t become a workaholic.”
I watched her grow more deflated. “And I don’t want to quit my job here.”
“Exactly.”
The truth of the matter was that I’d cut back on my time away from work if it helped her out at all. She was struggling, and I understood some of the mountains she was staring up at, and I knew I could help her. But, the frown weighing her face down made me cave.
“If we could work through those hiccups, though, what kind of pay were you thinking?” I asked.
Maggie shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.”
“There are always alternative forms of payment.”
She slowly furrowed her brow. “I’m listening.”
I folded my hands in my lap. “Well, I value your advice.”
“I didn’t know that but thank you.”
“And I can safely assume that you value mine since you called?”
She snickered. “More than I probably should, but yes.”
“So, that’s how we pay one another. We continue being regular supporters of each other. We continue giving out advice to one another. We use the monetarily free work we do for each other as payment. Neither of us sacrifices a dime we may or may not have, and we both get something we need out of the equation.”
She smiled. “I follow what you’re throwing down.”
I leaned forward. “The keyword there, however, isregularly. None of this calling me once a month business. We’ll create a schedule, sync our calendars as we would with any other assistant, and become each other’s business pillars when we need something done or we need an extra ear to listen to our ideas.”
“I could also pay you in the form of a workout buddy. If you’d like one.”
I cocked my head. “I’d like that. And I could match that regular payment with funding work trips you might have to take with me in the future.”
Her smile grew. “I like where this is going.”
