The feeling never really went away, although it lost its intensity as I got older and saw him less and went off to the University of Edinburgh to pursue my own degree in business management. An MA that proved useless when I left school and competed with a ton of other young people with similar degrees and very little experience.
After six months of job searching with no luck, Patrick said Reid was looking for a new personal assistant at his department store, and he was willing to give me a shot.
I hadn’t even thought about my old crush.
All I’d thought about was the great pay and the fact that my first job would be working with one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Scotland.
After working for several companies over the years, networking and accruing stock and investments, Reid purchased an aging department store in the heart of Edinburgh. Situated on the main thoroughfare of the city center, Princes Street, the department store had lost its luster years ago, as many had because of online shopping. Reid bought the store and the three shops that shared the same turn-of-the-century building. Knocking through into those meant he could create a much bigger department store.
While he maintained its nineteenth-century charm, he created a mini empire with everything from clothing to home furnishings to electronics to beauty to a salon and spa and topped it off with a fine-dining restaurant on the level below the office floors. He created an atmosphere where people wanted to shop, and he catered to those in the city who had money to do so.
Everyone thought he would fail.
In the last three years, the store had gone from strength to strength, proving all the naysayers wrong.
Unfortunately, success meant Reid was a busy man. Too busy to think about women beyond the convenience of having a partner with him at a business dinner and someone to satisfy his sexual appetite. While not necessarily a womanizer, Reid was definitely a serial monogamist. He had a few rules when it came to women.
They had to be accepting of his long working hours.
Everything was on his schedule.
And he didn’t do immaturity. Which meant he never dated a woman younger than twenty-eight. Patrick told me that. It didn’t make sense to me at all. I knew women twice my age way more immature than me. That ridiculous rule stung.
Did I mention my youthful crush returned when I started working for Reid and was now growing into full-blown infatuation? It wasn’t just because Reid was tall with the athletic physique of a swimmer, or that he had the most beautiful glimmering dark eyes and wickedly boyish grin. I suspected Reid had much passion and feeling buried beneath his cool, overly controlled facade. For instance, he was loyal and generous to a fault. I wasn’t supposed to know, but my parents were in financial difficulty because of a second mortgage they’d taken on the house and were in danger of losing it. Reid paid off their debt. No questions asked.
I could only imagine how much of a hit that was to Dad’s pride. Reid would have handled it delicately, though. I’d seen him handle businessmen with a deft touch, and he loved my dad, so I couldn’t imagine him not handling him with care.
Then there were the many charities I knew he donated to. Anytime I tried to ask him about them, he just blew me off. But I worked for him. I saw the good he did without wanting accolades.
And all his staff were competitively paid. If one among them had a personal problem that interfered with their duties, Reid had instructed Nicola, our Human Resource manager, to create a supportive environment for them and to put measures in place to help.
His staff were a priority.
When I mentioned this, he replied, “Happy staff are productive staff. Productive staff bring in more sales.”
All that was true, but I still thought he was a big softie, really.
For the last six months, I’d seen Reid with two women up close and personal. The first was Anushka. She and Reid had been dating for three months before I appeared. His PA before me was a lovely older lady called Janet. She’d retired.
Anushka was unhappy that Reid’s new PA was a twenty-three-year-old, not entirely unattractive (I hoped) woman. Again, Patrick filled me in on that. After about two months of me working for Reid, Anushka grew increasingly paranoid. At her jealous insistence that Reid fire me, he fired Anushka instead.
Emmy appeared on the scene about a month later.
And she was the worst.
While I truly got the sense Anushka had genuine feelings for Reid, all Emmy saw was Reid’s success and what his money could do for her. Patrick told me (if you hadn’t already guessed, my big brother was a bloody gossip) that Reid had to stop at his mum’s house in Dalkeith one night while Emmy was with him. Despite Reid wanting to buy his mum a nice house somewhere else, she didn’t want to leave. Instead, he paid off her mortgage, the darling man.
Anyway, back to the story. So Reid goes to Annie’s to drop off the new phone he’d insisted on buying her when her old one broke, and Emmy had stayed in his car, dramatically terrified to get out, as if Dalkeith were the ghetto. While the estate we grew up in was a little run-down and very working class, the insinuation that it was dangerous was insulting.
Patrick had been pissed when Reid told him Emmy had said “he was never to bring her back to that dump again.” Reid had shrugged it off. When I asked Patrick why, he said Reid wasn’t serious about her. He was only interested in their sexual relationship, so there was no point getting upset about her attitude.
I got upset.
Mostly at the reminder that the snooty cow got to have sex with Reid.
Reid who looked after his body with the same careful discipline he brought to all areas of his life. There was a staff gym on the top floor that Reid used first thing in the morning, every morning.
I’d once found him in there, shirtless.
The image was BURNED on my brain.
“I don’t care how many men would die to have you in their bed,” Reid said to Emmy. “Go find one of them.”
“What?” Emmy screeched.
I winced.
There was a moment of silence and then, “I called you in here to discuss the charges on my store tab. I’m not a man you can use like this, Emmy.”
“Use you? I’m using you,” she said indignantly. “As if you aren’t using me. Reid, I’m at your bloody beck and call. You do realize that’s not how normal relationships work? They’re about give and take. Outside of the bedroom, you’re all about take. Surely, a little compensation for being one step up from an escort isn’t a lot to ask.”
“An escort?” he replied coolly.
I knew that tone. If Reid hadn’t been happy before, he really wasn’t happy now.
“Yes, an escort. And I’m worth more than that. You think you can break up with me? I’m breaking up with you.” Footsteps moved toward the door, and I skittered quickly back to my desk, staring at my computer like I hadn’t been eavesdropping.
The door to Reid’s office opened, and I heard Emmy say, “You’re an unfeeling bastard, Reid, and you’re going to die alone for it.”
I tried not to let my jaw drop in shock at her awful snipe.
She stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her with a little slam. She cut me a dirty look and strolled away.
“Good riddance,” I called out to her as if I were calling a cheery “good day.”
Emmy glanced over her shoulder, pausing. “Excuse me?”