Page 25 of Under the Mistletoe
I pause, and he gives me a look that tells me he’s the smartest man in the room.
“I don’t think—”
He cuts me off. “Do you know where your father met your mother?”
The question catches me off guard, and I sit straighter. “No. Why are you bringing that up?” I’m confused. Is he losing his marbles?
“She was his assistant.” He sips his coffee, and I blink at him.
“Really?” I never knew this. I never knew my mom worked. I never really asked how they met. I just assumed that they met through friends at some posh fundraising event or something.
“Do you know how I met Bertie?” The mention of his late wife makes me frown even more.
I shake my head. “No.”
“She was the tea trolley lady at the company I worked for straight out of college. Bertie would come through the office where I was working as a cadet at ten a.m. every morning to deliver snacks and cakes to the staff. I still remember the small lemon slice she would reserve just for me. She used to hide it in a secret drawer, telling everyone else that she was out of stock, and then when she pulled up to my desk, she would slide out this little plate, with a small napkin folded just right, and put it on my desk and there was the last piece of lemon slice. You know every Friday up until the day she died, she brought me a piece of lemon slice.”
I breathe out, eyes narrowing. “This is a very nice story, Bentley, but I fail to see your point.”
“My point is, most people meet through work. I saw a statistic on this the other day which stated that forty-three percent of people who have a workplace romance ended up marrying that person.”
“Are you feeling alright, Bentley?” I brush off the comment, trying to act like I’m not completely fascinated by that fact.
“Denial doesn’t suit you,” he deadpans.
Yeah, but it’s the smartest response. I have no idea what it is about Jessica that has me thinking about her almost every minute of every day. I feel ridiculous, like a schoolboy with a crush. It’s not how I usually handle myself, and my thoughts of her are so far off the professional, I can’t believe I’m even entertaining it. But my chest has never burned for a woman like it does every time I see her. My heart hasn’t skipped a beat when a woman walks into my office like it does when Jessica steps through my doorway.
I sigh and sit back, looking at him.
“Fine. She’s amazing. I really love her brains and her beauty. She’s easy to talk to. Our work ethic aligns. She’s nothing like the women I usually meet in the best possible ways. But… she’s my staff member. I can’t do anything,” I tell him directly, even though in the car, I wanted nothing more than to kiss her senseless and almost did.
“Hmmmm… what a conundrum.” He’s teasing me now.
“I hired her for her smarts. She’s a very big asset to York Enterprises. Her career is building, and I can’t just go and take that away from her.” I’m in a lose-lose situation. Bentley watches me silently as I lay my cards out for the man who knows me better than I know myself sometimes. I never thought I would be in this position.
“What, so you are full of stats and romantic stories and now you have no advice for me?”
“I know what I would do.”
I wait, wishing he would just tell me already. I feel like I’m stuck between doing what’s right and feeling what’s real.
“Care to share?”
“You know more than anyone it can get pretty lonely at the top. Finding that one person who can be by your side in this business is hard… Let me ask you a question. If you’re offered a deal that has a fifty percent chance of return versus a fifty percent chance of failure, what would you do?”
“Take the deal. It’s fifty-fifty, but if I lose, I could probably weather the storm.” I’ve done many deals like that. It’s what helped get York Enterprises to where it is today. I’ve taken risks. Not because they all worked out, some failed dramatically, but that’s business. You roll with the bad and hope the good catapults you further ahead than before.
“Well, you have your answer.” He sits back, looking at me like a cat that’s got the cream, and I huff a laugh at myself, realizing that I backed myself right into that corner.
“Your steaks, sirs.” The waitress walks up, depositing our meals and topping our drinks as Bentley and I look at each other silently across the table.
Once she leaves, I speak again.
“The only problem with that is if it doesn’t work. If I experience the loss as opposed to the gain in this scenario, I’m not sure that’s something I could weather…” Workplace issues aside, I’ve always kept my emotional distance from women. That's why I'm forever an eligible bachelor. Being emotionally unavailable has kept me focused, kept me sane, kept me alone.
But I already know it would be different with Jessica.
“Well, every deal worth taking carries risk. If it didn't, someone else would already have taken it. You don’t build a legacy by playing safe. You build it by knowing the stakes, trusting your gut, and being the kind of leader who can choose what matters most. Whether you walk away whole or not, that’s the price of something real.” Bentley picks up his steak knife like he didn’t just deliver me the holy grail of advice and starts to dig in.
