Page 12 of Every Broken Piece
Strong Sterling Enterprises
I sit back, stunned at the complete one-eighty from his previous emails. This one is almost...dare I say it...personable. Strange, but I’m not going to question it. Instead, I make the dining and car reservations and email him the details before returning to the ad I was creating.
Chapter seven
Gabe
Jack strolls into my office at the exact wrong time. My frustration is at its peak and I’m not in the mood for his barbs and sly grins today. It’s been a shit day. An important meeting fell through. Vincent has been calling nonstop, trying to get me to see his way about the downward spiral of his company. He refuses to accept that he’s responsible for the decline and suddenly wantsmeto be CEO for the next six months. Like I have time for that.
I sit back and glare at my brother. “I’m going to have to let Ms. James go.”
Why I led with that, I don’t know, but she’s been on my mind lately. She’s too chipper. Too...sunny. I need someone who’s all business. Every fucking morning I wake up to a good morning email from her. It’s...
Refreshing
Annoying.
Jack’s steps stutter to a stop and his shit-eating grin falls. “Tess? Why are you letting Tess go?”
My brows wing up. “Tess? Since when are you on a first name basis with my assistant?”
Also, I thought her name was Theresa.
He shrugs, burying his hands deep in his pockets. “Since you wouldn’t video chat with her, I did, and I got to know her. She prefers to be called Tess.”
“Youvideo conferenced her?” Of all the things my brother has done and said over the years, this has me the most stunned. He’s never taken an active interest in any of my assistants. Why this one?
Unless...
“Are you hitting on Ms. James? I swear to God, Jack, if you hit on her I’m going to fire you instead.”
“You can’t fire me because I own half the company and I’m not hitting on her. I feel sorry for her because you keep brushing her off and I thought it important that one of us got to know her.”
I open my mouth, then close it. “That makes no sense. She doesn’t even work for you.”
Speaking of which, I need to get on HR on the status of my west coast assistant. Things are piling up and soon I’ll have to ask Ms. James to take on the west coast too. Except I can’t do that because I’m firing her.
I ignore the tweak to my conscious at that thought. I’ve never felt any sort of attachment to my assistants and I’m sure as hell not going to start now.
“Why are you firing her?” Jack falls into the chair in front of me and stretches his legs out, crossing them at the ankles.
“Have you seen her emails?” I swing my laptop around and stab a finger toward her latest email, the one where she wishes me a good day, followed by an exclamation point. “Look at this. I count three exclamation points.”
My brother stares at me like I just spouted a third eyeball on my nose. “You want to fire her for exclamation points?”
When he says it like that it does sound unhinged, but I’m in too deep now and even though I feel foolish there’s something about Ms. James—Tess—that makes me uncomfortable. “It’s unprofessional,” I mutter as I turn my laptop back around.
Jack stares at me for so long that I scowl back.
“Have you thought that maybe you need a little more exclamation points in your life?”
“What the hell does that even mean?” I snap.
He studies me a little longer while I start a new email of things I need Tess—Ms. James—to do.
When he doesn’t respond, I snarl, “Stop staring at me.” Fuck, I feel like we’re little kids again.
“You should talk to her. Not email her. Talk to her. She’s sweet.”
