Page 11 of His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice
She had never been left out of anything. She had always been his right-hand woman, had sat in on all meetings. Very soon after she’d joined, he’d told her to scrap the boring business of taking minutes.
‘I don’t need you to remember on my behalf,’ he had drawled in that self-assured way of his. ‘I have an excellent memory. And so have you. Between the pair of us, we can remember what goes on in a two-hour meeting. Just make sure you transcribe as soon as we get back to the office.’
Now, here she was, twiddling her thumbs, ostensibly dumped from whatever high-level conference they had gone to.
Coding on new apps as they came to fruition, and before the process of launching them onto the market began, was often a game of timing and secrecy. Beating the competition was everything, and that rested on no one finding out what was going on within the hallowed walls of Matt’s considerable business. Loyalty was of the essence.
Violet told herself that it didn’t matter. Indeed, it was perfectly understandable, given the circumstances, but it stung and she found herself staring off into the distance, biding her time until everyone returned.
Which they did.
In dribs and drabs. The office filled out. The noise levels rose. It was a young, enthusiastic and wildly exuberant team.
She didn’t know whether Matt had said anything about her resignation, and she kept a low profile, but her eyes kept darting to the bank of lifts, looking out for her boss. When he finally showed up, well after she had had her lunchtime sandwich and bottled water, she had given up on him returning at all and was busy collating information that would be needed for a handover.
She was aware of him by the shadow over her desk, at which point she looked up, a professional smile pinned to her face.
‘Apologies if you got here and found an empty office,’ Matt said without preamble, before heading into his office. ‘Did you get all those emails sorted and sent? Hope you used your time out productively. Can’t have you shirking because you’re on your way out.’
‘All done.’ Violet was her usual crisp and efficient self as she followed him into his office and shut the door behind her.
They usually spent at least an hour a day privately debriefing on updates on any of his many companies scattered across the globe. She flipped open her laptop, ready to start, when he held up one hand.
‘No need.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘In fact, I’m going to have to get a number of the more sensitive accounts removed from your remit.’
Violet paled. She stared down at her laptop and felt the prickle of tears gathering behind her eyes.
‘Of course.’ She cleared her throat and quietly closed the laptop. ‘If you make a list of them, I’ll make sure they’re transferred out of my portfolio.’
Matt relaxed back and lounged into his leather chair, hands draped loosely over its arms. He pushed the chair back and angled it so that he could stretch out his legs. ‘In fact, maybe it would be better if you surrender your work computer completely.’
‘But why?’ She gazed at him in speechless consternation. She barely recognised the drop-dead gorgeous guy looking at her with bland, calm indifference. His hair was swept back, curling at the collar of his faded grey tee shirt. His navy eyes were cool and guarded. He was more of a stranger than the man she had met on the very first day she had walked into his office.
‘Why do you think you weren’t included in this morning’s activities, Violet?’
‘I had no idea there was a conference planned at all.’
‘It was hurriedly arranged last night. A significant development with one of our smaller takeovers in the Far East sparked the need for a conference. I arranged it myself.’
‘Because you no longer trust me,’ Violet said dully. She stared at her fingers, long, slender fingers, fingers that had delicately begun playing the piano almost before she could walk. She could feel her heart thudding inside her chest and she wanted to choke.
‘It’s not about trust, exactly.’
‘Oh, but it is, Matt.’ Violet looked directly at him, her face calm and pale. ‘If I surrender my work computer—and of course, I completely understand, and I’ll hand it over to you as soon as I leave this office—how am I supposed to carry on here? Should I go to the stationery office and stock up on paper and pencils so that I can write everything down longhand?’
Just for a second, she saw a flash ofsomethingin those deep-blue eyes, but it didn’t last.
‘You can work on non-sensitive issues.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well,’ Matt mused, tilting his head to one side and appearing to give her question a great deal of thought. ‘There’s always a lot of office rearranging to be done.’ He waved a hand in the general direction of the industrial metal cabinet that stretched from floor to ceiling against the grey wall in his office, and which contained a ridiculous number of complex computer and coding manuals that were largely ignored by every single employee in the company. ‘There’s always that monstrosity. I bet half of those manuals are out of date. Could do with a complete clear-out.’
They stared at one another in silence for a few seconds, then Violet asked, in a low voice, ‘Why are you doing this?’
