Page 70 of The Plus Ones
BERNADETTE: Busted!
NINA: Oh fudge me! Switching channels, sorry Rox. But you know…GET IT, GIRL! Xoxo
I put my phone to sleep and try to watch Keaton through the windows of the glass doors, but mostly I see my own reflection in them, and I’m shocked—shocked—to see the well-rested and relaxed face smiling back at me.
I open the doors and sit down in one of the Adirondack chairs, looking out at the view but listening to Keaton talk on the phone. It sounds like he’s talking to one of his business partners about some investment opportunity. God, I love to hear him talk business. He’s so confident and knowledgeable and authoritative. It’s hot.
I close my eyes and let my head roll back as I remember the way he let me touch him last night and the way he finally took control. The way he took control the night before. The way he keeps surprising me and challenging me and then giving me space when I need it. I’ve never been with a guy like that before. Oh God, the way he kissed me all over…
“Yeah. It was good, wasn’t it?” he says, startling me.
I open my eyes and look up to find him grinning down at me.
“I was just listening to the waves.”
“Were you? Because I was remembering what it felt like to have your hand on my—”
“Okay, okay. I need to start making some calls and dealing with things.”
“Work stuff?”
“Work stuff.” I look at my phone. “If you don’t mind.”
“Everything okay there?”
“Where?”
“Work. Is everything okay at work?” He takes a seat on the daybed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, and I can’t stop staring at his forearms and hands and he knows it.
“Mostly.”
“You sure?”
“I am a very competent and successful executive, you know.”
“I do know that. You’re the Senior Manager for Customer Relationship Management and Loyalty for the third largest online clothing store in America. So why are you putting up with shit from an employee?”
“You heard that?”
“Bits and pieces yesterday. Let me guess. You have a male employee who reports directly to you, but he went over your head for something and talked to your male boss about a matter that he should have come to you for.”
“Yeah. He’s done it twice now. I hired him four months ago.”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“I can handle it.”
“Can you please tell me how you plan to handle it?”
“You don’t think I can handle it?”
“I think you can handle anything. I would just like to offer my perspective on the situation if you’ll let me. As a friend. Who happens to know and work with a lot of guys who have a problem with female superiors.”
“Fine. This employee. We’ll call him Bryce. Came highly recommended and he knows my superior—we’ll call him Ansel—socially. He is perfectly good at his job, except for the part where he’s supposed to respect my decisions. Twice now, he has disagreed with my strategy for a large-scale CRM program based on my data analysis of our performance metrics. When he brought it to my attention the first time, I thanked him for his opinion and told him I had made my decision and I had already presented it to the marketing department. He then went to Ansel privately to pitch him an alternative strategy. I only know this because Ansel mentioned in passing at lunch one day that Bryce had done this and that he didn’t agree with him, but he did like the way he pitched it. On Friday, my assistant heard from Ansel’s assistant that Bryce did it again, only he didn’t bother to discuss it with me first because I was out of the office.”
“And?”
“And I haven’t heard from Ansel yet because of the weekend. Or possibly because he just doesn’t plan on telling me.”
