Justin (3 page)

Sarah knew as soon as it was announced Angela was taking over there’d be problems. Angela and Melanie were best friends, and had always made it clear Sarah wasn’t good enough to be included in anything. She rolled her eyes. Working with those two women was like going to junior high all over again. She continued packing her desk without a word.

“
Maybe you didn’t hear me. I said your transfer isn’t happening. You can stop and get to work.”

Sarah knew better than to back down. Once Angela had her obeying orders, she’d never get away from here. She simply continued to put her personal possessions into the box she’d brought with her.

“
Look, you’re either going to stop packing that box, or I’m going to fire you here and now. That’s insubordination.” Angela stood over Sarah where she was sitting at her desk doing her best to intimidate her. Sarah almost laughed. Angela was not much over five feet, and Sarah was just shy of six feet. The only way Angela would ever tower over her was when she was sitting. She considered standing up, but decided against it.

A calm male voice sounded from the hall outside HR. “It would be insubordination if she still worked for you, but she doesn’t, which she just told you. You’ve been in your position for one day, and already you’re misusing your authority. Do you need to go stand in the unemployment line with Melanie?”

Angela jerked around to see who dared talk to her that way. Her face turned white. “I’m sorry, sir. I just don’t think you realize what a problem Sarah’s been to our department.”

“
Write me a memo.” He turned to Sarah who had just finished putting her things into the box, and smiled. “Why don’t I carry that for you?” He hefted the box into his arms and walked out the door with Sarah trailing behind him.

She wished she’d been able to say something to rub Angela’s face in the way she’d been treating her, but decided that wasn’t a good idea. Not with Justin watching anyway. It would be enough that anytime she needed to talk to the “big boss” about anything she’d have to go through her. A slow smile spread across Sarah’s face. It would definitely be poetic justice.

“
Thank you.”

He smiled over his shoulder. “No problem. I had no idea Angela acted like that toward anyone. I’ve only ever seen her doing her job and being kind to people.”

She laughed softly. “You’ve only ever seen her when she saw you first, you mean.” She watched as he set the box down on an empty chair in the office belonging to his executive assistant. Sarah had seen the woman around the office, but had never met her. She did know her name, though. Candice Abernathy. It was on every memo coming out of this office.

She held out her hand in greeting. “I’m Sarah.”

Candice got to her feet, her huge belly leading her. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ll show you the ropes until Friday. After that, I’ll be on call for the next month. In a month, I’ll be giving birth and taking care of my new daughter, so I won’t want to hear the name of this silly company.”

“
Silly company?” Justin stepped up beside her and poked her arm. “Did you call this a silly company?”

She nodded emphatically. “Any company that is based on predicting sports outcomes is silly. I mean really. Grown men getting paid to play games is bad enough. You guys take it to a whole new level.”

He sighed. “When will you understand that life mirrors sports?” His voice sounded worn out. This was obviously an argument they had on a regular basis.

She rolled her eyes. “When will you understand your fascination with everything sports makes me want to vomit?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care much about sports actually. Just about the money to be made from them.”

“
Go away, Justin. I need to teach Sarah to be your obedient lackey.”

“
That’ll certainly be a change from you. You’re always trying to boss
me
around!” He went into his office closing the door behind him.

Candice smiled at Sarah. “Good, now that he’s gone, we can get to work. I don’t know how he expects me to teach you everything in three days.” She sighed and looked at the huge stack of papers on her desk. When would she have time to get to those before leaving?

“
Why wasn’t someone here to train before now?” Sarah was stunned someone hadn’t been in training for at least a couple of weeks prior to Candice leaving.

Candice bit her lip for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible reason for having to do it all so quickly. “We had someone, but she didn’t work out.”

Sarah nodded. “Okay, let’s get started.”

Candice was a good teacher, and Sarah found herself starting to grasp at least part of what she’d be doing by lunchtime. At noon, Candice pushed back her chair. “Baby needs to eat. Let’s break for lunch.”

Sarah got to her feet. “Okay, I’ll be back in an hour.” She picked up her purse and put it over her shoulder.

Candice shook her head. “Oh, no you don’t. The boss man is making us work our tails off to get you trained in three days; the boss man is taking us to lunch all three days.” She walked over and knocked lightly on the door between her office and Justin’s. Opening the door, she called, “Lunch time. Where are you taking us? It’d better be good. I’m hungry!”

He got to his feet. “I don’t know. What are you hungry for?” Candice was playing her part perfectly. He’d told her to do whatever she had to do to make sure he was taking both women to lunch every day. He would have preferred taking only Sarah, but he knew Candice would balk at that.

She rubbed her belly with a smile. “Junior wants tacos.”

Justin sighed. “Junior has wanted tacos every day for the past six months.” He looked down at her belly.

“
Junior has good taste.” She put her hand through Sarah’s arm. “We’re taking my mini-van. I won’t get in his death trap and risk Junior’s life.”

Sarah grinned at the easy camaraderie between Candice and Justin. “How long have you worked for Justin?”

Candice sighed. “We were in a marketing class together at UTA. One day after class, he was trying to impress me saying he was starting a company with two friends and they were going to make billions. I laughed. He offered me a job on the spot.”

Sarah looked at Justin. “Why did you offer her a job for laughing at you?”

He shrugged. “Partially because I needed to have someone who was smart and knew what she was doing working for me. Partially because she wasn’t willing to put up with my nonsense. And partially because one of my friends had a crush on her and I knew he’d hate it when I had her all to myself for hours every day after classes.”

Candice’s eyes widened. “Neither of them ever asked me out. Who had a crush on me?” She obviously hadn’t heard that part of the story before.

“
Steven. He got over it fast, though. He was so intimated by you, he was afraid to ask you out.”

Candice laughed. “I can’t imagine dating Steven. He needs some sweet little girl who will stay home and have babies.”

“
Like you’re about to do?”

She grinned. “I’m taking a year off. I’ll be back, and I’ll be running this place yet.”

They got to the car and Sarah automatically got into the middle seat. There was already an infant seat strapped into the bucket seat beside her. “Do you have other children?”

“
No, this is my first. I’m just prepared.”

Justin laughed. “What she means is she’s had the car seat there since she bought the vehicle three months ago. She decided she was going to be a mom and needed a mini-van, and she needed a baby seat to go with it. So she did it. She’s probably already been talking to ‘all the best preschools’ too.”

“
I have, and I’m not ashamed of it. Some of us look further in the future than what we’ll be eating for dinner.” Candice parked in front of a trendy Mexican restaurant. She turned to look at Sarah. “Boss man is paying. He won’t pay for alcohol, but buy the most expensive thing on the menu other than that. It’ll drive him nuts.”

Justin rolled his eyes. “It won’t drive me nuts. I couldn’t care less. Eat whatever you want.”

Lunch was an eye-opener for Sarah. She’d heard a lot of stories about Justin after working for the company for six months, but this was the first time she’d seen this side of him. He was completely relaxed with Candice, and it showed. She preferred this man to the bossy man who hadn’t even asked if she’d wanted dinner the night before, although, as she thought about it, she realized he’d pretty much forced her into two meals with him this week.

His eyes latched onto Sarah’s as they were finishing up their lunch. “Business trip. We’re flying out Monday night.”

Her eyes widened. “Where are we going and for how long?” She hoped she’d get more notice of business trips in the future. It was a good thing she didn’t have anyone at home who would be waiting for her.

“
We’ll come back on Sunday. Somewhere warm. Take beach clothes. You’ll have some time off while we’re there, and I think you’ll enjoy the beaches.”

“
While we’re where?”

Justin shrugged, indicating he was finished with the conversation. Candice looked between the two of them a slow smile spreading across her face. She’d never known Justin to be interested in a woman at work before. She would have loved to be a fly on the wall watching the whole thing play out, but Justin said she needed to take her maternity leave a month early with pay. She wasn’t about to argue with that.

Justin raised an eyebrow at Candice. “What’s that grin for? Junior doing flips in there?” He looked down at her belly which barely fit into the booth.

She didn’t think that deserved an answer so she turned to Sarah. “So where are you from?”

“
I grew up in Arlington.”

“
Really? Justin and I went to school there.”

Sarah nodded. “I did too. Justin was considered a legend in the business department. We were all given him as a yardstick by which to measure ourselves.”

Candice laughed. “He wasn’t considered a legend when he was there. Just your typical nerd working all the time to get a business off the ground. Of course, he did that.”

Justin gave Candice a disgusted look. “I was never a nerd. I was just highly intelligent and misunderstood.” He tried to look offended with her, but just couldn’t pull it off.

Candice rolled her eyes. “He was a nerd. You know all those boring classes we business majors had to sit through?”

“
Yeah?”

“
He liked them.”

Sarah found herself laughing despite herself. She couldn’t imagine Justin as a nerd, but she also couldn’t imagine him as a twenty year old college student. “Do you have pictures?”

Candice nodded. “I have a bunch of them from when the guys started up the business. I’ll bring them tomorrow.”

Justin shook his head. “You will not!”

Candice winked at Sarah. “He can’t watch us all day. He has to work. We’ll sneak off to the restroom so I can show you if we need to.”

“
Remind me to email HR when we get back, and tell them about our new policy. No restroom breaks.” Justin sighed. “Why did I think hiring you was a good idea again?”

Chapter Four

By the end of the week, Sarah felt like she had a pretty good grasp on her new job. Before Candice left for the day, she made sure to give Sarah her cell number, and promised she’d come in if it got too overwhelming.

It was after eight when Sarah picked up her purse to leave for the day. Justin stepped into the elevator behind her. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

She could smell the butterscotch in the air. She’d wondered all week what that was about, and had considered asking Candice, but she didn’t want to ask why Justin always tasted like butterscotch. She shook her head. “I don’t mind taking the bus.”

“
Don’t be stupid. It’s cold out, and it’s after dark. I’ll take you home.” He paused for a moment brushing her dark hair away from her face. “Besides, we need to talk about what time I’ll pick you up for our flight Monday evening.”

“
We can’t talk about that at work on Monday? Or just leave from the office?” She gave him a confused look.

“
We’re not working Monday.” He pushed the button for the parking garage. “You get a day off when you have to prepare for a business trip.”

She nodded. She was still trying to figure out what to take with her on the trip. He’d said to bring along beach clothes. She still needed to bring a couple of business suits, though, right? Several? She sighed. She’d have to take some of everything and hope it worked out for her.

When the elevator door opened into the parking garage, he put his hand under her elbow to guide her toward his car. “Hungry?” he asked.

“
You’ve bought my lunch three days this week and took me to dinner one night. I don’t think you need to feed me anymore.”

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. What would it take to get her to go to dinner with him? He sighed heavily. “I guess that means another lonely meal for me.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. It had never occurred to her he may be lonely. So that was why he was always asking her to dinner. She felt badly that she turned him down so often. “I’m sorry. I was sure you had someone to eat with. Of course, I’ll go with you.”