Page 18 of Mailroom Delight
With great force I made myself move. I looked away and I moved to my chair which was only a breath away, but seemed so far away.
He laughed and, thank God, walked around to the chair that was on the other side of my desk.
He sat down, and still had that commanding personality. It was like he was still in the driver’s seat and I was the one who was in his office.
I sat too and watched him retrieve some folded up paper from his jacket pocket. It was the same place he’d kept the letter.
This looked like a print out, like when I printed out our emails.
“What’s that now?” I asked.
“You, four years ago.”
“You researched me?” Of course, the thought annoyed me even more.
“I research everyone when I’m buying a company. I need to know who’s working for me.”
That was expected, and I would have been more accepting if he didn’t make it sound like he was God or some supreme being who ruled the world.
I held my tongue, because I knew arguing wouldn’t get me anywhere.
He quite rightly stated, he was my boss. It didn’t matter what I felt. He owned the place and I worked for him.
Since I loved working here and what I did, I had to play nice. This place had become a refuge for me. A refuge for my soul. It was the only controllable thing I had in my life. The only constant that had always proven to fill me with what I needed.
Energy, life, soul.
That was my work.
He cleared his throat and read from the paper.
Dear Paige,
I’ve always had feelings for my best friend, but he’s a player. I think he may like me too but I’m too scared to try and find out. What if we cross the line and lose our friendship? Please help.
Tilly
“What would you tell Tilly now? What would you tell her now if this landed on your desk?” Jason asked.
I smirked. “You have what I wrote there right?”
I could see from here he had the response I sent Tilly four years ago. And I didn’t know what the hell he was playing at by doing this. It was pointless. I was a lot less popular four years ago.
Elizabeth had theAsk Paigemailbox set up so I could respond to readers directly. At the time only a few letters came in a week. Like maybe a hundred. I responded to every single one.
Now they came in by the thousands and we had to close off the enquiries access until I’d gotten my workload down to a manageable amount. Time had passed, and I knew how other advice columnist managed what they did, but I still took it upon myself to respond to every single message and letter.
“I want to hear whatAsk Paigewould tell her now.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Fine. I’d say a snake is a snake, and a leopard never changes their spots. If you know this guy is a player, then don’t even go there. Why would you want to put yourself through heartache and unnecessary stress? Plenty of fish in the sea, move on to someone more suitable.”
That sounded good to me, and come on, why would I advise anyone to hook up with a guy that was bad news?
The look on Jason’s face however spoke his complete disapproval. His expression actually surprised me, because I thought what I said was quite blunt and to the point. Plenty of people would agree with me.
“Okay Paige. Do you want to know what you told Tilly four years ago?”
“Sure, fire away.” I was sure I must have said something very similar to the answer I just gave him.
