Page 6 of His Secret Virgin
Chapter 3
Christopher
A soft rapping on my office door pulled my attention away from the computer screen. My assistant, Mrs. Kramer, opened the door, letting herself in.
“Mr. Taylor, how are you doing this morning?”
“Fine. I’ve received an interesting e-mail this morning. I may be on the next flight to China if the Skype meeting I’d like you to arrange works out.” I turned the screen around for her to see. A handful of farmers wanted to grow organic crops, and they wanted my company to distribute them. Before I agreed to anything, I’d have to visit the farms myself. They would have to prove to me that their products were truly organic, or I wouldn’t put them on my lists.
Sliding the tortoiseshell-framed reading glasses onto her thin face, she read the e-mail. “This is interesting.” Turning my keyboard around, she tapped away on it, forwarding a copy to her e-mail. “I’ll get on this meeting right away.”
“Great.” Sitting back, I put my hands behind my head. “A trip, even if it’s just a quick business trip, will do me good. I’ve been in the office way too much the last few years.”
“You have.” She walked over to the coffee pot to make me some of her famous coffee. “But then again, you can’t deny that focusing on work helped you forget about all the crap that was going on in your personal life. That’s much better than turning to alcohol or something even more destructive, like so many people do when dealing with divorce.”
“Well, there is that. But I probably drink a bit more than I should, too. I’m merely human.” I thought about how different my life had been since leaving my wife. “But then again, I don’t drink to drown my sorrows—I don’t have any of those anymore. I do it because I can without anyone trying to make me feel guilty.”
Not one to pry much into anyone’s personal life, Mrs. Kramer quickly turned the conversation. “Mr. Taylor, I’ve been kind of falling behind on my work lately.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” The woman never fell behind on anything. “Is everything okay?”
“Sure.” She brushed her graying hair back after turning on the coffee machine. “It’s just that you keep coming up with new projects so quickly that it’s getting hard for me to keep up.”
I had to remember that the woman was well past the age of retirement. But she had many good years left in her and wasn’t the type to stay home and knit. “Should I slow down some?”
“No.” She shook her head and then went to look out the window. “This company needs you to keep on doing what you’ve been doing.” She turned to look at me again. “I love my job. I want to keep working until I can’t anymore. With my husband gone now, being home doesn’t feel the same.”
Mrs. Kramer’s husband had died two years earlier. The woman had handled herself professionally throughout the whole ordeal.
“I’m sure it doesn’t feel the same.” I nodded to her.
The coffee machine dinged as the brew filled the cup below it. She watched the dark liquid as it poured into the mug. “It never will.” Her eyes cut to mine. “So, you see, I want to keep this job as long as you’ll let me. I know a younger person could keep up with you a lot better, Mr. Taylor. But I’m going to need an assistant of my own if I’m going to be able to do it.”
“Of course, you can have an assistant.” I got up to grab the coffee, beating her to it. “Head to human resources and get them on it.”
Her expression told me she felt relieved. “I was afraid you’d say you couldn’t do that for me. It seems I’ve been worried for nothing.”
It made me feel terrible that she’d think such a thing. “Mrs. Kramer, if you ever need anything at all, you just need to ask. I’m not trying to work you to death here. And I’m not trying to boot you out either. I want you to work here for as long as you want to. You’re invaluable.” It was the truth. “But don’t forget, you’ve got a pretty great retirement here. If you feel like you need to stop working, then you do what’s best. Life’s too short not to live it the way you want to.”
She nodded in agreement. “For now, I want to continue working. And getting an assistant will make things better—take some of the pressure off me.” She made her way to the door. “I’ll get to work on that meeting. It may take a day or so to get anything set with our time difference. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got it all hashed out.”
As she left, I thought about what it would be like when she wasn’t my assistant anymore. Perhaps her new assistant might one day take her place.
I jotted a quick e-mail to her, telling her I wanted to be involved with the hiring of the new assistant. If that person could one day work for me, then I wanted to make sure I could get along with them too.
I’d become picky about the people I surrounded myself with since the divorce. Too many of my ex-wife’s lovers were men I thought of as friends. And too many of the women that I thought were friends stopped talking to me in favor of maintaining a relationship with my ex. To be honest, I’d lost a bit of my faith in people as a whole.
Life hadn’t turned out the way I thought it would. The relationship I put all my hopes and dreams into sank like the Titanic. My daughters had grown into shallow people. My friends were all but gone, as I’d cut them out one by one. Life wasn’t going anywhere near the way I’d planned it.
Even though things hadn’t worked out the way I’d thought they would, I wasn’t sad, upset, or mad about it. I’d grown quite content with my life.
So what if my daughters were shallow? That was their life, not mine. I still loved them just the same.
So what if I made the mistake of marrying a woman who eventually cheated on me? It didn’t ruin me. At least not completely. I still had my company; I still had my wealth.
And as far as cutting out the friends I’d had, I hadn’t really lost anything. During my marriage, I’d surrounded myself with people just like Lisa. And who needs people around who are just trying to use you?
There wasn’t anything for me to complain about. My company thrived. I spent my time spent wisely. And I had nothing or no one to worry about.
