Page 18 of Midnight & Magic
“Is this your new girlfriend, Mr. Connel? Word has it you are seeing a model. Is she the one from Victoria’s Secret?” asked another one while shoving another mic in his face.
“Please, please! Ladies and gentlemen! Mr. Connel has a critical meeting with his shareholders about this very thing. Once the meeting is done, I will organize a brief press release for the media.” Cassidy said before they all talked at once.
“So you are a model that types?”
The crowd laughed.
“I am his secretary. Now, if you will excuse us, we have a very important meeting to get to.” Cassidy said as she took hold of Camden’s arm and whisked him into the building. She motioned for the security to keep the press out, and they immediately sprang into action by holding them all at the entrance of the building.
“I am so not regretting hiring you! Not one bit! You were a rockstar out there handling the press like that! Remind me to give you a raise. You deserve it.” Camden said with widened eyes as they both ducked into the elevator.
Cassidy waved a hand in front of the two of them.
“It’s really nothing. I used to have to do that myself with the press.” She scoffed before continuing. “Now, I said I was your secretary, but those reporters will do some digging because they are convinced I’m a model you are dating. I don’t want my bad press to rub off onto you. If you need me to quit, I will understand.”
The elevator doors opened as he turned to her. Her gaze fell to the floor, and he raised her chin with his index finger to meet his eyes.
“You will do nothing of the sort! I hired you, and for a good reason! If they find out about your past, what’s the big deal? We all have a past, which shouldn’t reflect your work here.” He said as he rested his free palm on her shoulder and stroked circles into her with his thumb. He then guided her to her desk with a smile. “See you in my office in a bit.”
Chapter Six
“No. No. No! We are not doing an Ugly Sweater Contest, and that’s final!”
“You are such a Scrooge,” Cassidy said with a sigh.
It was yet another idea he shot down for the Christmas party/auction event a couple of days away. He wound up taking over a good majority of the planning because he hated all of her ideas except the one to auction off gingerbread houses designed like the upcoming projects his real estate firm planned on building in the new year.
All she wanted was this one little thing so she didn’t have to suffer in heels for the day and the evening. It didn’t seem to be all that much to ask, but coming from the source—apparently, it was. He grew distant with her. And probably because she suggested they stop seeing each other after the press took hold of the story that she was Eric Dowering’s ex and ran Camden through the mud. Once the stockholders caught wind of the story, it became a mess, trying to keep them happy. The pandemic proved terrible enough, but stocks plummeted even further when her past came to light.
“I’m not being a Scrooge! It’s just I want there to be some class for this gathering. Especially when people are bidding, so no! No Ugly Sweater Contest! You’ll have to come up with something else, and I expect that after lunch. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a meeting with the VP of sales. I’ll see you around 3.”
He left her desk and headed for the elevator. She didn’t want to follow him down even though she planned to head to Jingle Jangles, a new bar that opened just for the holidays. A liquid lunch was in order. She knew she shouldn’t. But with the way things went and how they looked like they were going, she needed a dirty martini—possibly two. Cassidy waited a good 5 minutes before she headed down to the main lobby to save herself from his grouchy wrath.
The bar was dead on a Thursday afternoon. Not something she expected since Camden’s employees talked about it constantly as “the” place to hang out. Apparently, Ginger, the bartender, was excellent. Cassidy plopped into a chair at the end of the bar and let out a sigh.
“What am I going to do with Scrooge?” She said out loud to what she thought was an empty bar.
“Does someone need a visit from the ghosts of the past, present, and future?” said a squeaky voice that popped up from the bar top. A gorgeous, voluptuous blonde dressed in an elf costume gave her a wink while leaning over the bar and placing a cocktail napkin in front of her. The detail on the woman had been perfect—nothing out of place from the stocking-like green booties to her perfectly prosthetic ears.
“Oh!” Cassidy shouted, clutching her chest. She nearly fell off of her barstool. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Just cleaning out the glasses. I like to keep my bar tidy. So, about this, Scrooge?”
“Oh! Never mind him. He’s my boss, and he can get a little cranky. He doesn’t mean to, but he’s been sucking the life out of me lately.” She didn’t mean to say it. The old vampire joke seemed to take a life of its own as the words passed her lips. She didn’t want to give away the fact that he was a vampire, but Cassidy figured that statement was safe for human ears.
“Well, I don’t mind shoving holiday cheer down someone’s throat. It’s my job. The name is Ginger.” She said with another wink. “Ginger Breading—and no—my parents weren’t lit when they came up with my name. I’m a Christmas baby, so they thought it’d be cute. But? Just between you and me, my mom may have still been under the effects of the drugs when signing my birth certificate.” She said with another wink and passed Cassidy a menu. “What’ll ya have?”
“A dirty martini, please.”
“Well, frost my cookies! That’s a serious lunch right there! Are you sure I can’t give this boss of yours a tongue wagging? Sounds like he needs a candy cane shoved where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“It’s okay. My boss probably won’t listen to you, anyway. I’m supposed to be putting together the Christmas party of this century, and he’s shot down every idea I’ve come up with. The Ugly Sweater Contest was a fun idea—at least, I thought so. I mean, who doesn’t want to dress casually for a work event? My toes would love me for sure! Sadly, the only suggestion he liked was when I suggested we stop seeing each other for a while. And, of course, that has nothing to do with this party.”
Cassidy lowered her gaze, embarrassed that she was spilling her guts out to a complete stranger. But then again, she was a bartender and was probably used to people telling her their life stories.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about that. Sometimes, breaking up with the boss is hard. But seriously, the ugly sweater thing is a lovely idea! Why would he shoot that down?”
“My guess is the man owns nothing but suits,” Cassidy said with a giggle. “But in all seriousness, I wish I could tell him how I really feel about him. I didn’t want to break up with him, but I felt I had to, for his sake. He wouldn’t let me explain and never gave me the chance to. It’s been a week and a half since the breakup, and I sorely miss how things were. Communicating with him now is sheer torture. He’s a grouch, even when talking about the Tokyo market.”
