Page 6 of If You Could Only Imagine
Fuck, I had to think.
I couldn’t avoid him, and I had to show that I was mature enough and professional enough to not let something like this affect my job, but Mary, Jesus and Joseph, I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to resist him. I feared ending up bent over his desk more than I feared for my job. The odds in favor of stripping down for him were way higher than the odds of losing my job were.
I took several deep breaths and opened the stall door to brave the world.
He was supposed to go around the departments and introduce himself today, so the odds of seeing him again today were pretty slim. That made me feel more positive about the rest of the day, but it was the rest of the week I was going to have to figure out.
My ninja skills sucked, so I wasn’t sure how I could go about avoiding him altogether, so I was going to have to make sure any future meetings we had were conducted out in the open and not-I repeat-not behind closed doors.
I walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. I cupped my hands under the water and splashed my face to cool myself down. Now was not the time to have a heart attack. Well, I suppose no time is really ideal to have a heart attack, but that’s what this was feeling like.
I turned off the faucet and was patting my face dry when I heard the restroom door open. I turned from throwing the paper towels away to find Shane Buchanan standing by the mirror. She smiled up at me. “Hi, Denise, how are you?”
I’ve only had the chance to run into Shane a couple of times, but she was very personable and always had a kind word. I didn’t think it was wise to tell her I was coming down from a near heart attack from her brother-in-law mauling me, so I just said, “I’m doing well, Mrs. Buchanan. How are you?”
She tsked at me. “Please call me Shane. Mrs. Buchanan sounds like someone I am not.”
I smiled. “How are you doing, Shane?”
“I’m doing fine, thank you,” she answered. “I was actually on this floor looking for Aiden.” My brows shot up, but I remained silent. “I’ve been given an opportunity and I want some input from him about it. He is the numbers guy, after all.”
Okay, you can do this.You. Can. Do. This. “Well, I just left him, actually,” I said, hoping my face wasn’t turning beet red. And do you know how hard it is for a person with African-American heritage to blush? “He was making his rounds of introductions.”
“Crap. I forgot he was doing that,” she replied. She sighed. “Oh well, I’ll just catch him later. Thanks.”
I smiled back as she headed into one of the stalls, and as soon as the door shut, I ran out of the restroom like a certified yellowbellied coward. I felt like there was a sign on my forehead that read ‘I want to bang the boss’.
I was still a scattered mess, and I hadn’t realized how long I had lingered in the hallway, until Shane came out of the restroom and approached me. “Hey, Denise, are…are you alright?”
I didn’t want to lie to her, so I went with the partial truth. “Meeting the boss is kind of unnerving,” I admitted.
She let out a soft laugh. “Yes, I can see how it can be.” She gave me the most mischievous grin. “They are kind of intimidating, aren’t they?”
“Just their last name alone is rather intimidating.”
Shane nodded in understanding. “Well, if it’s any consolation, once you get past their last name, their money, their success, their good looks and their brute manner, they really are all sweethearts.”
I let out a full-blown laugh. “Yeah, once you get past all those little things, I’m sure they’re pussycats.”
She winked at me and then hit me with the unexpected. “You know, I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but my husband is kind of insane, and he gave me The Morgan Corporation to do with as I see fit.” I nodded but didn’t comment. I didn’t want her to think the floors were gossiping about her, even though they were. “That’s actually what I was looking for Aiden for. I wanted his opinion on if the numbers were worth my trying to make a go of it, or if I should just sell it off.”
I didn’t feel right half-ass lying to her, but I replied, “I have heard some rumors about BI acquiring them, but nothing concrete.”
“Well, if I do decide to try to make a go of it, I’m going to need a small division of my own,” she said. “Is there any chance you’d be interested in working for me? I mean, I’ll need a couple of finance and marketing people, but BI would still be the big brother standing behind me with all this.”
I had to stop myself from jumping up and down. “I’m very excited for you, Shane, and if you decided to move forward with this, I have no doubt you’ll be a success. And if it doesn’t cause any issues for my department with the absence or part-time presence working for you would create, I’d love to be a part of this new challenge,” I answered, truthfully.
Shane clapped her hands. “That is wonderful, Denise. And I promise I will make a final decision by the end of next week or so.”
“No rush. I’m not going anywhere.” Unless Aiden fires me, of course.
“Okay. I have to get going, but I’ll talk to you soon,” she promised and then sauntered down the hallway.
My skin started prickling and my adrenaline was making an appearance at the thought of working for Shane. Not only would it be an exceptional professional opportunity, but it would get me away from Aiden.
I snuck my way back to my office all covert-like, and it took everything I had not to shut the door when I got there. I had to act as if everything was normal, even though shit was far from it.
When it was clear that I wasn’t going to get any work done until I let go of all the chaos that was running through my head, I called my best friend, Kelly. Thankfully, she answered and wasn’t in the middle of a design. “What’s up?”
