Page 85 of The Bet
He didn’t say anything to that.
“Why don’t you show me this messy office of yours?” she asked.
“Follow me.”
She followed him into his office and examined his workplace. “You’re right.” She surveyed the carpet of paper and books, and magazines all over the floor. They weren’t thrown haphazardly; there seemed to be some order, but it was messy. “Itisa mess.”
“I’ve got stuff I need to get done today. It wasn’t this messy a few days ago, I promise.”
She cast her eyes all over it. It wasn’t going to be more than a few hours work. But if she could make herself useful, she could wrangle a few more hours of work out of him.
“Show me what you want me to do.”
~ ~ ~
While Izzy tidied up his office, he moved his laptop to a far corner of the kitchen and worked there.
There was much to be said for having virtual assistants take care of things, but nothing beat having someone come in and look after the paperwork the way it needed to be. He was often so busy, he didn’t have time to properly do it and his businesses were suffering for it. Having her be here wasn’t such a bad thing.
A couple of hours had passed, and she was still tidying up, filing away and archiving his paperwork.
He ordered a vegetarian takeout from NYB, the place he knew she’d liked food from the last time. He ordered it without asking her, because he didn’t want to go through the back and forth of asking her if she was hungry, having her say no, even though he knew the chances were she probably was. A feeling in his gut told him that she probably hadn’t gone home because she probably couldn’t afford it.
“I had lunch,” she said, when he told her to come into the kitchen because he’d ordered some food in.
“That was hours ago.” He beckoned for her to sit down.
“Aren’t you having anything?”
Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? This was working—this new way of not pursuing her so doggedly. “I’ve got to scan some documents through,” he said. “You start, and I’ll be back.”
He rushed into his office and saw the newly transformed neat and tidy office space.
“Nice,” he mumbled to himself. She’d done a great job. He felt as if he could breathe again.
