Page 12 of His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice
‘You work in a sensitive business, Violet. You must know that. I can’t allow you to leave taking anything with you. For all I know, you might decide to set up shop over in Australia as a direct competitor.’
‘You don’t mean that!’
‘You’re defecting,’ Matt told her bluntly. ‘I have to take the necessary precautions.’ He breathed out deeply. ‘It’s also naturally troubling that you’ve refused the job offer I made yesterday. Had you accepted, I would have known that your loyalty remained with me. As it stands...’ He shrugged and let unspoken words settle between them.
After two-and-a-half years, he no longer trusted her. He was intensely passionate, intensely volatile and, yes, he would see her refusal of his job offer as a kick in the teeth. But did he really think that she was the sort to go behind his back and draw down on his contacts so that she could set up in competition with him?
That stung.
It was as if the time they had spent together had counted for nothing in the end. She shifted, smoothing one shaking hand over her grey skirt. For once, the uniform that had always kept those lines of distinction between them firmly in place seemed to be giving at the seams.
She felt miserable. She wanted to cry, but she wasn’t going to yield to the temptation. For a second, she wondered how he would react. He went out with women who were clones of one another, and the duration of his relationships ran to more or less the same timetable. A handful of months, sometimes mere weeks. And he didn’t do any form of histrionics. Violet knew this because on a couple of occasions, a weeping ex had descended at the office and had been dispatched with ruthless efficiency.
They worked brilliantly together because Violet had always made sure to keep her emotions to herself.
Hadworked brilliantly together, she amended mentally. No more. Now she was leaving and she had been dispatched with ruthless efficiency, a bit like one of his exes.
She didn’t know how she was going to stick it out for the remainder of the week. It wasn’t a long time, but it was long enough.
‘Of course. When would you like me to start on the clearing out?’
‘I’m having a late lunch soon. You can begin once I leave. Oh, and while we’re at it, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no need for you to work out any of your notice.’
‘I thought... What about a replacement? I know a week isn’t a long time, but I can already think of a few candidates for the job if we promote from within the company.’
Violet realised she was desperate to see a glimmer of the warmth he had always shown towards her and which she had always taken for granted. But his face was as cold as a slab of icy marble as he stared at her quizzically, before saying in a voice that threatened to turn into a yawn, ‘Can you, now? Who are they?’
‘I’ve made a list.’
‘Of course you have.’
Violet smiled tentatively because this was a running joke between them, her love of lists. She said they were essential to make sure you kept up to speed on everything. He maintained that they were the sign of an uninspired mind and that life was too short for lists.
He didn’t smile back. He just looked at her in a way that made her feel hot and bothered and out of her depth for the first time since she had started working for him.
‘Maria Callway from Accounts.’ Her voice echoed in the silence. ‘She’s very diligent and I know she would love the work. Then there’s John. He’s new but he’s efficient. You remember he handled all those problems we had with the tech company in Maidstone a few months ago? Well, there’s him. And Agatha Child would also fit the bill, and at fifty-two she’s got just the right temperament for the job.’
‘Right temperament?’
‘I mean she’s calm. Level-headed.’ Violet filled in the blanks quickly. ‘As is Maria.’
‘Maria... Maria... Maria... Is she the one who’s just returned from maternity leave after her third?’
‘Yes. She has a brilliant eye for detail. If you like, I could call up their CVs for you to have a look at? I’m not sure whether we would have to advertise the job in the public forum but, honestly, either of those three would fit the bill and the move would be seamless. They’re all already familiar with most of the accounts, and you can...’
Matt held up his hand and Violet fizzled into silence and stared at him. Now that she was leaving, and within hours rather than days, she felt free to appreciate his beauty without lecturing herself on the idiocy of it. The only sport she knew for sure he played was table tennis, and only because there was a table in one of the rooms three floors down. It was always in use and many a complex problem had been sorted in between racket hitting ball.
Yet, to look at him, you would have said that he did nothing but work out. He was six foot two of tightly packed muscle and sinew, made all the more beautiful because of his exotic colouring. No one would have guessed that he was a billionaire several times over because the only expensive item she had ever known him to wear was his watch. She had gazed at that watch surreptitiously so many times, taking in the way the dark silky hairs brushed the dull leather strap.
Occasionally, and under duress, he was known to wear a suit, and his suits were all hand tailored, but usually his dress code for work comprised jeans—usually black—loafers—usually tan—and some kind of tee shirt, usually with a logo of sorts on the front. He liked rock, she caught herself thinking now as she looked from under lowered lashes at today’s tee shirt which featured a prominent rock group from the seventies. No big surprise he had heard of her dad.
‘No need to trouble yourself over a possible replacement,’ he was saying now as he vaulted to his feet, taking her by surprise.
‘But...’
‘I’ll be back in an hour or so. Make sure you haven’t decided to leave in my absence.’
‘I wouldn’t. Of course not.’ She clumsily stood up but he was already heading for the door. ‘I won’t be able to get through much of that cabinet in the space of a few hours.’
