Page 16 of She Likes It, Hey Micah
He clenches his jaw, dropping eye contact with me for the first time in a while. I hadn’t noticed until it was gone that his focus hasn’t left me since we were talking about the Greenwood menu. Not many people can last that long, but it feels like Fischer only looked away because I mentioned his job. He’s several years older than me, and if I feel lame being an assistant at twenty-five, I can’t imagine he feels any better. Without knowing his circumstances, I shouldn’t point out something that could easily be out of his control.
“Should we finalize this menu for the reopening and let Debbie get back to work?” I say quietly, which doesn’t often happen for me. Only when I feel like I’ve pushed too far. Most of the time I have a single volume, and according to Chad, it’s an eight on a scale of ten.
Not sure why he doesn’t call it a ten, but I think he’s leaving room for those moments when I simply cannot contain my excitement about something.
“All of these are great,” Fischer says without looking at me. “I think you both found the balance between elegance and comfort.” He makes eye contact with Debbie and softens his expression until there’s no trace of a scowl. That had better not be the closest he gets to a smile, or so help me… “I can see why Micah trusts you with Ember’s catering needs. You have a real talent.”
“Thank you, Fischer. And if I can throw in my two cents, you can trust Micah with the rest of the planning. I’ve done enough events with her—and I’ve known her long enough—to know your lodge is in good hands.”
“Please don’t make me cry,” I complain before darting around the corner and throwing myself into Debbie’s arms. “You know how much I hate crying.” That doesn’t stop a few tears from slipping onto my cheeks. This is why I only buy waterproof makeup. You never know when a chef is going to soothe your insecurities with a few well-chosen words.
When I pull away and look back at Fischer, I catch the briefest expression on his face before he replaces it with his signature scowl. I wish I could have gotten a better look at it, but I’m pretty sure he’s just as intrigued by me as I am by him.
Chapter Five
Fischer
There’s a chance I mayhave underestimated Micah Taylor. And bychance,I mean I most definitely misjudged her. That seems to be par for the course for me lately, so I really shouldn’t be surprised. As long as I don’t discover at some point that Kale is actually a multimillionaire, I can handle being wrong now and then.
As she and Debbie work out the details for the catering, I sit back and watch her, trying to figure out what it is about her that has me so off balance. She’s perky and confident, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn she was a cheerleader when she was younger; she has that outward exuberance that fits the sport. But I’ve been around plenty of outgoing individuals, so that isn’t it. Obviously, she’s beautiful, even more so today than she was yesterday because she pinned some of her dark curls back to show more of her heart-shaped face.
Maybe it’s the way she’s so quick to smile? She must have a lot of reasons to be so happy, but even then I’ve never met anyone whose default expression is a smile. Most people are like me and look angry when they’re not actively showing emotion, but not Micah. Even when she’s focused on ordering food quantities, there’s a grin playing on her bright red lips.
I wish I knew how it felt to be that happy. At this point, I can’t even remember the last time I really had a reason to smile, and I’m not so sure I like knowing that fact. I’ve had good things in my life. Even in the last six nightmarish months. But for some reason, I can’t think of a single one, and that’s not helping my mood.
The one thing that has kept me from slipping into a funk like I do most days is seeing the way Micah has this event handled. I thought she was completely crazy when she started talking about meatloaf, but I can’t deny that her comfort food idea tasted so much better than Lila’s choice, and it fits the Lodge as well. We want people to remember the good old days, whether from past visits to Greenwood or with reminders of home.
Micah seems to understand that, which has me breathing easier.
“Well, I think we’re all set!” Micah says with a wide grin. “Debbie, you are my hero, as always.”
“Don’t let Lila push you around,” Debbie replies, and then she turns to me. “Same advice for you, only don’t letMicahpush you around. She has a strong head and sometimes forgets that other people can have good ideas too.”
Micah swats her. “I do not!”
“You absolutely do. Sometimes you’re a bit too much like your mom.”
With the way tears fill Micah’s eyes, I can guess pretty easily that she no longer has her mom. I want to ask what happened, but I probably never will. It’s none of my business. I turn away before she thinks I’m watching her, pulling out my phone to pretend I have work to do while she talks in low tones with Debbie about something I can’t quite hear. Probably about her mom.
To my surprise, my phone is void of notifications. Grant so constantly messages me that this almost feels wrong. Or maybe it’s an omen. Did something go wrong? Is he conspiring with Lila and planning the event without me? Has he finally realized I’m more likely to be a detriment to his company than an asset if anyone realizes who I am? Maybe I should call him. Make sure nothing has gone wrong while I’ve been playing this dangerous game with Micah.
“Everything okay?” she says behind me.
I slip my phone back into my pocket as if afraid she might see the empty screen. What does it mean for an assistant to have nothing on his to-do list? Maybe that’s normal, and the last few hectic months working with Grant have been an anomaly. I have no idea what a typical assistant does because my only experience is working with Grant. Well, that and working with my own assistant, though he was always so nervous that he made his job look terrifying.
I may not have a particularly viable data pool here.
“Fischer?”
“Fine,” I say, though it’s more of a grunt. “What’s that?”
She looks down at the paper box in her hands. “Leftover samples of the food Lila wanted. I thought she might like to try it.”
“You want her to think that’s what we ordered,” I translate. “You want to lie.”
Micah’s eyebrows shoot high. “No! I’m not going to lie to her at all. I’m going to tell her that we ordered the food for the reopening, and these were left over. Where is the lie?”
“You’re going to put yourself in danger. You could lose your job.” And I care because…? She’s probably better off without Ember anyway, though I don’t think she caught on to the hint that Debbie is more loyal to her than to Ember Events. If Micah wants so badly to plan events, she could just start her own company. Houston Briggs could fund it. Or maybe her wealthy father.
