Page 1 of Secret Desire
Prologue – Ashley
Twenty years ago…
“Where are you guys going? Can I come?”
My sister Ariel and her two best friends stopped in the doorway, all three of them looking over their shoulders at my question. They were all so grown up and cool.
Ariel looked irritated at my question. As usual. My sister didn’t like me too much. She thought I was a pest.
“No squirt, we’re going to a movie.”
“A movie for grown-ups,” Grace emphasized, clearly as annoyed as my sister.
“That’s not fair!” I protested in a voice that even I recognized as whiny.
Why didn’t my sister want to spend time with me? She always acted like she was better than me, and her friend Grace was kind of snobby too. They were so selfish keeping all the fun for themselves.
Of course it was Maeve who wanted to make me feel better. Crossing the foyer, she squatted down in front of me, giving me a kind look. I loved Maeve. She was so pretty and nice. Much better than my stupid sister.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t take you this time, Ashley,” Maeve said. “It’s a PG-13 rated movie, and they won’t let you in. But how about sometime soon we’ll have a movie night together here at your house and we’ll make popcorn and watch whatever you like?”
That was one of the things I liked about Maeve. Even though I was only eight and she was fifteen, she never treated me like a baby.
“Do you promise?” I asked.
Maeve held out her hand, her pinkie finger extended. “I pinkie swear.”
I held out my much smaller pinkie and crossed it with hers, looking up into her eyes adoringly. “Pinkie swear,” I repeated.
Maeve stood up, then gave me a wink. “We’ll see you soon, okay Ash?”
I nodded. “Okay Maeve.”
As she left with my sister I made myself a promise: someday Maeve would be my best friend instead of Ariel’s. And then I’d show everyone that I was more than just an annoying little kid.
Ashley
“Idon’t know if this is a good idea,” I repeated for at least the third time this week.
My sister gave me an impatient look across her desk.
“Ash, I’m not going to force you to work with me if you don’t really want to, but I’ll remind you that AGM is one of the most successful development companies in the Midwest.” She pinned me with a hard stare. “I’ve got people beating down the doors begging to work here.”
“I know,” I said in a conciliatory tone. “I just don’t want people to think I got this job because my sister is one of the company founders.”
“Who cares what they think?” she asked.
Not Ariel. She’d stopped caring what people thought long ago. Of course when you were as rich and powerful as my sister was, people cared whatyouthought, not the other way around.
“Besides, everyone here knows that you’ve made a name for yourself in this field already. If I just saw your resume and portfolio, I wouldn’t have hesitated to call you in for an interview. Anyone who doesn’t know what your qualifications are, they’re the problem, not you. You’re here because you’re qualified, not as charity. We don’t hire anyone who isn’t the best at what they do.”
“No, you’re right, and I’m sorry to sound ungrateful.”
My sister wasn’t exaggerating, every designer or development professional in this city would give their eye teeth to work here. AGM had an excellent reputation, and the fact that it was run by three strong women made it even more attractive for those of us who’d had bad experiences with men in the industry.
Like my smarmy boss at my last job. It was bad enough he took credit for all my work, but the way he couldn’t keep his hands off me was another thing entirely. I mean sure, I guess I could have gone to Human Resources when his incessant hitting on me turned physical, but my knee making contact with his balls sent a much more effective message.
Fortunately for me a trio of my coworkers were standing right outside the glass wall of the conference room and saw the whole thing go down. Needless to say, my old boss was fired. I stillresigned -- after negotiating a generous “keep quiet and don’t sue us” settlement, that is.
