In Bed with the Boss. Christine Rimmer

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      “Yep.” Her parents had two acres. A small stream ran about a thousand yards behind the house. “Granny let me keep them in a jar. I even punched holes in the top so that they can breathe. But I only get to keep them for a day, she said. I have to let them go so they can eat a lot of flies. I caught some pollywogs, too. One has legs. I want to watch it turn into a frog, but that takes time, Granny says. And Grandpa took me to get ice cream yesterday. I had vanilla. I like vanilla.…”

      He babbled away, intent on sharing each small, special detail of his summer at his grandma’s house. Shelly listened and made admiring, interested noises at the right moments, all the while picturing his pointy little chin and his thick, unruly wheat-colored hair. One big cowlick, that hair of his. It stuck up from his head even when she tried to comb it down.

      She wondered if he’d lost his glasses again, or broken them. The thought brought another grin. She could afford to grin over broken glasses now. She had a job. They’d be calling to tell her she was hired tomorrow. She just knew they would. Tom had as good as said she was hired, though the formal offer had yet to be made.

      Finally, Max ran out of steam. “And that’s all. I’m having fun, like I said. And I’m being good. And I had a little problem with my glasses when I left them in Grandpa’s chair and he sat on them. But it’s okay. Granny taped them up good as new.”

      “I’m sure she did.” She made a mental note to call the optometrist and have another pair made. “I love you.”

      “Love you, too. I think I better call you again. I think it should be soon. You know, so you won’t have to miss me too much.”

      She suggested Saturday and named a time.

      “Okay. I’ll call you then. Granny’s here to talk to you now.…”

      Norma didn’t bother with hellos. She went straight for, “Well? How did it go?”

      “Really good, Mom.”

      “You got the job?” Her mother sounded almost as excited as Shelly felt.

      “I think so. I should know for sure tomorrow.”

      “I just know this is it, honey.”

      “Oh, Mom. I hope you’re right.”

      “Of course I’m right. You’re going to get that job.”

      Shelly hardly slept that night. She couldn’t wait for morning and the phone call she felt certain was coming. She was up at six, dressed and ready to take on the world by a quarter of seven.

      Too keyed up to eat, she sat at the two-person table in her small kitchen, staring at the phone in front of her, drinking cup after cup of strong, black coffee.

      Nine o’clock went by. Ten. Ten-thirty…

      At ten after eleven, the damn thing finally rang. Shelly jumped in surprise and then gaped at it, hardly daring to believe, almost afraid to answer for fear it would be some telemarketer or a friend from her old job calling to ask how she’d been doing.

      She let it ring twice, just to prove that she could, and then she snatched it up in the middle of the third ring. “Hello?”

      “Shelly Winston, please.” It was one of the women from TAKA-Hanson HR.

      Shelly spoke with great poise as she accepted the job. With amazing composure, considering the fact that she could now do miraculous things: pay her mortgage, order new glasses for Max, head over to Dominick’s and buy herself a fat filet mignon, and not care in the least that it was seventeen dollars a pound. “I’ll be at the office tomorrow at nine. Goodbye.” She hung up the phone.

      And then she ran around the house yelling, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!”

      Once she’d finished shouting out her joy, she called her mother and basked in Norma’s pleasure and praise. Before she hung up, her mom said, “When you call your uncle to thank him, thank him for me, too.”

      “I will, Mom.”

      Drake. She certainly did owe him a big, fat thank-you. She called. And got his voice mail.

      “Uncle Drake. It’s Shelly. I just want to thank you. I got that job at TAKA-Hanson. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. Thank you.…” She let out a self-conscious laugh. “But I guess I said that already. Oh. And my mom says thank you, too.…”

      What else? She couldn’t think of anything. She said goodbye and hung up.

      After that, she got out all her unpaid bills and wrote the checks, addressed and stamped the envelopes and put them in the mail. Because she could. Then she went to the store and bought groceries, including a small, beautiful, way-too-expensive filet mignon. She also applied for a passport. And since she would probably be needing it soon, she paid extra to get it fast.

      The afternoon went by in a warm glow of anticipation for the job she just knew she was going to love.

      Shelly did love her new job.

      And she really liked her new boss. Truthfully, she liked Tom a little too much, and she knew it. There was just something about him—beyond his good looks and strong handshake, his sense of humor and that tempting aura of power and command he wore so confidently. There were…shadows behind his eyes. Though he never came across as brooding or sad, she still had a feeling he’d been through tough times—and come out a better man for them.

      She constantly reminded herself that a feeling was not reality. He’d probably been born into privilege. And if he’d suffered, it had been over whether to go to Harvard or Yale.

      Yes, she liked him. And she was attracted to him. But so what? Nothing was going to come of it. She was there to work, not to get involved with the boss.

      On her fifth day on the job, Verna announced she was leaving a week earlier than she’d planned.

      “After all,” the older woman said. “No point in having the two of us in each other’s hair when it’s perfectly clear to me you can handle everything just fine on your own. I’m going to talk to Tom about this right now. I’m thinking I’ll finish out the week on call. I’ll be out of your way, but you can give me a buzz if necessary. Monday, you’re on your own. And Hank and I will hit the road. What do you say to that?”

      “I say I really hate to see you go…”

      Verna laughed. “But you can’t wait for the chance to have this desk to yourself. Well, it’s all yours. Starting tomorrow, I’m outta here.”

      The phone was ringing when Shelly got home that night. She raced in the door and grabbed it on the fourth ring, just before her machine picked up.

      It was her uncle Drake. “I hear you’re exceeding expectations at that new job of yours.”

      “How do you know so much?”

      “I thought I explained that. There are always ways…” Which explained exactly nothing.

      “Uncle Drake, I’m starting to think you have spies at TAKA-Hanson.” She said the words jokingly, even though she had a feeling he СКАЧАТЬ