There’s a long pause down the line, and Sal and I wait with bated breath for what obstacle his lovely wife might put in our way next. Holy good lord, a drink, that’s all. He hardly ever comes out to play anymore, since Moya got him down the aisle and Mia popped out swiftly after. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sal’s wife dearly—have done since they started dating in college—but, boy, she knows how to nail down that ball and chain when she feels like it.
“But don’t worry,” I go on. “Family is more important than business. I get that.” I don’t get that, since I have no wife and kids, and don’t plan on it, either. I’m just being tactical. Some might call it hitting below the belt. But I’m not gonna beat myself up too much. A little reminder that Moya’s living the dream—at least, her dream—because of this firm and the blood, sweat, and tears we’ve put into building it, isn’t going to hurt.
She eventually sighs. “I’ll see if Mum and Dad can do tomorrow.”
“You’re a total babe, Moya.” I grin as Sal jumps up from his chair and starts thrusting his groin unattractively. “I owe you.”
“Yes, you can come for dinner.”
My smile soon drops away. “So you can try and fix me up with one of your single friends?” I’m not game. Forgive me, but all of Moya’s single friends are at that stage in a woman’s life—usually mid-thirties—when they’re obsessed with nailing down a man and making him impregnate her. Any man. It doesn’t matter who they nail down as long as they have strong swimmers.
“You’re pushing forty, Ty,” Moya points out, stinging me. “You need to find a woman closer to your own age and settle down.”
“I’m thirty-seven,” I say. “And women closer to my age want more than my selective mind can grasp. Besides, Sal’s settled down enough for the both of us.”
Moya laughs and Sal scowls, flipping me the finger. “Fine, no matchmaking,” Moya agrees. “But you’ll come for dinner?”
“Just let me know when.” I hang up and stuff my phone in my pocket. “That was harder than it should have been.”
Sal chuckles his agreement. “Thanks, man.”
“No sweat.” I kick my feet up on his desk. “Gina said you wanted to see me.”
“Yeah.” He starts faffing with some paperwork on the side of his desk. “I hired a PA.”
My head retracts quickly. “Huh?”
“I figured since this was a replacement for my PA, it wouldn’t hurt for me to go it alone on this one occasion.”
I couldn’t have heard him right. We hire together. Always have, ever since we set up our advertising agency seven years ago. Every member of staff at Christianson Walker Limited is here because Sal and I carefully selected them together. That’s why we’re so successful. We complement each other perfectly. Sal covers my blind spots, not that I have many, and I cover his. “I get the feeling you’re not talking about any of the candidates we short-listed together.”
Sal coughs, avoiding my eyes. “Not exactly.”
Not exactly? I remove my feet from his desk. “You hired someone without my counsel?” I sound as hurt as I’m feeling. He’s broken a cardinal rule of our business practice. What the fuck is he playing at? I’m not buying his lame-arse excuse—the crap about it being his PA, so my input isn’t needed. Fuck that. “When I hired Gina, I had you by my side throughout the whole process. I didn’t make a decision without consulting you first. What the fuck, Sal?”
“That’s only because you needed someone to tell you what her qualities were past her great tits.”
I shoot forward in my chair, offended. “She’s the best PA out there. The tits are just a bonus.” I try to talk my tense muscles down. “As are the arse and hips. Besides, she’s loyal to a fault.” I literally couldn’t live without that woman, and part of me knows she couldn’t live without me. She loves mothering me. Takes great satisfaction in feeling so needed. She’s one hundred percent committed to her job, sometimes to a fault, but I’ve always looked after her financially, and looked out for her, too. She’s single, though I have no idea why. Or maybe I do. My Gina’s a catch, but she has fire in her belly. Most men can’t handle her. Most men, except me. I handle her, just as well as she handles me. We’re made for each other, in a platonic way, of course. In fact, I would go as far as to say she’s probably one of my best friends. There’s not many people out there that know me as well as she does. “Gina is attentive, prompt, and thorough. She’s the best PA out there.”
“We didn’t know all of that when we hired her,” Sal says.
“Exactly.” I raise and point an accusing finger at him. “We. When we hired her.”
“Stop overreacting. I’ve hired a new PA. That’s all. She was assistant to some political bloke. Did a stellar job according to her reference. If I didn’t move fast, someone else would have snapped her up in no time.”
“What, before you took an hour to consult with me on it? I thought patience was one of your best qualities.”
“My best quality is my talent and how it gets us new business.”
“I get new business, too.” I sound as indignant as I feel.
“Yeah, on your sexual talent.”
“It’s still a talent, and it still gets us business. Are you saying I’m the dick behind Christianson Walker, and you’re the brains?”
“Not at all,” Sal argues. “You have a brain, Ty. But you keep it in your dick and do all the thinking from there.”
I scoff and get up from my chair. “I’m pissed off with you,” I grumble, storming away.
“Does that mean no play time?” Sal calls.
“I have some thinking to do,” I quip, turning at the door and grabbing my crotch, giving Sal an eyeful as I thrust it on a snarl. “Join me and watch the talent unfold.” I slam the door behind me and run my hands through my hair in frustration. “He hired someone without me,” I bark at a temp as she wanders past with a tray of teas, making her startle and spill some. I growl under my breath. “Sorry,” I grumble, heading back to my office. Gina gives me wary eyes when she clocks me stamping toward her. “Did you know about this?” I snap.
She doesn’t even flinch. “About what?” she asks tiredly.
I huff and let myself into my office. Of course she didn’t know. I meant what I said earlier; she’s loyal to a fault. There’s no way she’d keep me in the dark if she knew anything, and Gina knows a lot. Which means Sal has slipped under her radar with this, too, the sly son of a bitch.
I stroll into The Savoy, still seething from my confrontation with Sal earlier. I’ve hardly done a thing since that meeting, not being able to focus on anything except the fact that he made a decision without me. In all the years of business together, it’s never happened. It doesn’t matter that I trust him, or that I know he’s been drowning for three months without a PA. He’s broken one of our only rules, gone behind my back, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why he’d do that.