“Please, come in and sit down.” I gesture to the chair on the other side of my desk.
She’s pale, and her large-framed black eyeglasses pop on her face in comparison to her ghostly white skin and bright red hair.
As she approaches the desk, I stand, reaching across to shake her hand, which she promptly returns with a soft smile. “I’m Andrew McPherson. I assume your uncle told you about me?” I question. Now that she’s closer, I see a sprinkling of light brown freckles that pepper her nose and upper cheeks.
She nods and swallows hard before sitting down in the chair opposite me. I also sit and tuck my phone into the pocket of my suit jacket. Sue is nervous, wringing her fingers together in her lap and her neck has large red splotches all over. I smile in hopes of calming her before I begin.
“I’m sorry you found out about this acquisition while you were on vacation,” I start. “I had a team meeting while you were gone and assured the team there is a spot for everyone in the new organization.”
Sue’s shoulders visibly fall in relief, but she remains stoic, showing no emotion on her face.
“I’d really, really appreciate it if you’d stay on as my executive assistant.” I look away from her to the thick folder I have that lists every employee and their duties. “And in reviewing your position and workload, there may even be room to bring on another assistant if the work load increases any more. When that happens, that assistant would report to you. Is that something you’d be interested in managing?”
Her eyes widen and I see the first sign of emotion from Sue. “Yes, sir,” she answers, looking flattered.
“Good.” I give her a genuine smile. “Until everything settles down around here and we have a chance to reassess our needs, it’ll be business as usual. First thing I need you to do right away this morning is to schedule an all-office meeting for eleven o’clock. And I know this is short notice, but is there any chance you’d be able to have lunch provided for that meeting? Maybe have it delivered for noon? This could take a couple of hours.”
She nods her head quickly and her voice perks up. “I have a deli on speed dial that works with us on short notice. How does an assortment of sandwiches and salads sound?”
“That sounds perfect, Sue. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have you on my team.”
She finally offers me a wide, delighted smile. “Anything else for this morning?”
“No. Just the meeting and lunch. Let’s regroup this afternoon and discuss the rest of the week.” With that, Sue steps out, closing my door behind her.
Ninety seconds later, an email arrives with an attached invite for the all-office meeting. She’s good.
My mood shifts suddenly when my office door opens abruptly and closes, followed by my brother’s arrogant voice.
“I was going to be pissed off about the black eye, but it got me a lot of attention last night.” The asshole smirks and slides into the chair Sue just vacated.
“Please, have a seat,” I say, matching his sarcasm. “Is that why you couldn’t be bothered to text me back?”
Aaron reaches both arms above his head and stretches. “That and the fact that I was buried inside Ashley,” he frowns, “or was it Amy?”
I shake my head and rub my eyes with the heels of my palms. Typical Aaron behavior.
“What?”
I huff. “You’re always going to be an asshole, aren’t you?”
Something about this, the words I said or my tone, strikes him. He shifts uncomfortably in his chair, his icy blue eyes glaring into mine.
Swallowing hard, he finally speaks. “Are you always going to hate me?”
Hate is such a strong word. At times in my life, I have hated Aaron. I’ve hated things he’s done and things he’s said. But he’s my brother, and deep down, I could never hate him.
“I don’t hate—”
“Bullshit,” he cuts me off.
“I don’t.”
We stare at each other for several long seconds, not knowing what to say next.
“Gracie.” He says her name quietly and the hair on the back of my neck rises. I hate that he called her Gracie, and I hate the way her name rolls off his tongue like he knows her. He’ll never know her like I do. “I didn’t know.” He clears his throat and pauses. “I didn’t know that you two—”
“It happened very fast,” I start, but then stop, not wanting to share too many details with him. While he is my brother, I still don’t trust him. I don’t know that I’ll ever fully trust him again. I’m not ready to talk about Gracie with Aaron. My relationship with her is new and private and something I’m holding close to my heart.
“You know I would never—” he starts before I cut him off.
“Don’t, Aaron,” I growl at him. “Don’t make any fucking promises you can’t keep.”
He nods his head slowly and something like remorse flashes across his face. I’m not ready to get into the past and everything that happened with Melissa right now, so I change the subject.
“I called you here this morning because I want to introduce you to the team. While I don’t have plans at this moment to expand public relations to the New York office, it can’t hurt for you to give them some insight into your end of the agency and how we might partner for future clients.”
He rolls his fingers on his knee and listens intently.
I continue. “Everyone seems to be fascinated with the celebrity clientele you keep, so I think it’s important that you discuss confidentiality, as well as company social media expectations.”
“Anything else, boss?” His voice weighted with sarcasm.
I can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah. Tell a fucking fascinating story to the team on how you got that shiner. You’re good at the art of spinning, so spin a good story for that one.”
He huffs out a laugh and rolls his eyes.
It always amazes me how Aaron can be the ultimate professional when he needs to be. He moves around the conference room, wowing the team with his presentation and his energetic personality. He’s presenting an overview of his team, his clients, and professional decorum on how we interact with our celebrity clients.
“As much as we want to believe these people are superstars, they’re just normal people. They want to be treated with respect, confidentiality, and professionalism.” He pauses, changing the slide on the PowerPoint. “At this time, we don’t have any PR needs in the New York office,” he starts, chancing a brief glance at me. “But I’m open to it. It makes sense that the advertising team is bi-coastal; the PR team should be as well.”
My heartrate kicks up a notch, but now is not the time to argue this with him, especially in front of the staff. I’ll let him have his five minutes and we’ll hash this out later in private. I have taken notice that Aaron hasn’t so much as blinked at Gracie for more than a brief second, which pleases me.
She sits in the same spot she always does, taking diligent notes in her notebook while Jamie sits next to her, arms folded across her chest. She can see right through Aaron’s professional demeanor. She saw the real Aaron yesterday and she has a look on her face that says, “I’m not buying your bullshit.”