Business and Pleasure (8 page)

I run through my usual, Monday routine: a
Neo Corp board meeting, then a stop off at the coffee shop, and
then on to Hamilton. Mr. Davidson, President of Neo Corp, spent the
entire meeting going on and on about some new software they’ll
unveil within the next few weeks. I am not optimistic about it
given how the last software he came up with crashed and burned.

I walk into Hamilton Publishing, and once
again, everyone is buzzing about something. I try not to focus on
whatever it is that has them talking and make my way to my office.
As soon as I step inside the door, I’m overwhelmed by the scent of
fresh flowers. I look around, wide-eyed. They’re everywhere! Vases
of red, white, and pink roses cover every available surface, and a
vase full of white and purple Calla Lilies sits right in the middle
of my desk. There’s a card sticking up out of the Calla Lilies, and
with a shaking hand, I pull it out and read it.

Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman.
Although these flowers do not even come close to your beauty. ~
Alex

Wow. The man is either absolutely crazy or
terribly romantic, and either way, I love his style. As I’m walking
around the room, looking at all the flowers, Natalie comes running
in the door.

“So, you and Mr. Preston had a nice weekend,
huh?”

Her nosiness and insinuating tone irritated
me a little, but she means well.

“Yes, we did actually.” I’m not about to
provide any details. At least, not here, at the office.

Natalie takes a seat in front of my desk,
while I move the Calla Lilies over to the side table.

“The entire office is talking about this,
Elizabeth. I mean,
Ms. Hamilton
.”

“My door is closed; you can call me
Elizabeth. What do you mean the entire office? Does everyone know I
spent the weekend with him?”

“Well, they don’t know for sure; I mean, how
could they? But they’re making a lot of semi-educated guesses. All
these flowers showed up, and of course, the receptionist who
accepted the delivery for you took a peek at the card. I guess she
couldn’t help but satisfy her curiosity. I mean, you never get
flowers, and everyone wondered who sent them.”

Oh. Yes, I love my staff, but the place is a
nest of gossipmongers sometimes.

“Once they figured out who sent the flowers,
a few people started talking, and now most of the office is
freaking out. Their CEO is going out with a man who tried to buy
out their company, which makes quite a few people nervous. Half of
your staff is worried you’re selling out; the other half is worried
he’s just using you. Just about everyone is worried about the
safety of their jobs.”

I cannot say I saw that coming. Probably
because none of it makes any sense.

“I didn’t think about it like that,
Nat.”

“Well, if I may make a suggestion, I know
you’re a very private person, but in this case, it might be helpful
to hold a meeting and assure everyone that this is strictly
personal, and you haven’t changed your mind about selling the
company. Let them know they don’t have to worry about their
jobs.”

As much as I hate the idea, I think Natalie
is right.

“Okay. Send out an email to everyone in this
office, letting them know there will be a casual meeting at one
this afternoon. That will give everyone time to get some work
done—me, included, since I’m sure I have manuscripts filling up my
inbox.”

Natalie stands, smoothes down her skirt, and
makes her way to the door.

“I’m on it, boss.”

She shuts the door behind her, and I breathe
a sigh of relief. Maybe now I can have some peace and quiet. But
first, I must send Alex a thank you text for sending me all these
flowers. I would call, but he’s probably busy, and I know how much
I hate being disturbed when I’m in the middle of something.

Alex, I am surrounded by some of the most
beautiful flowers I have ever seen. Thank you.

He responds immediately.

You are most welcome. Have a wonderful day.
I will be in touch soon. ;-)

As much as I don’t want to end the
conversation with him, I know I have to get some work done. I set
my phone aside, settle into my chair, and open my email. Not
surprisingly, there are at least twenty messages sitting here
waiting on my attention. Seems as if everyone spent their weekend
sending emails.
Everyone but me, that is
, I think with a
smile.

I’ve made my way through three manuscripts
when my phone alerts me to an incoming text. A quick glance tells
me it’s from Alex.

Elizabeth, I think something is going on
with Christina and your CFO. C’s been very testy today. I don’t
know what’s going on, but they’re on the phone together
now
.

What could Christina and Bob possibly have
to discuss? Alex already told her he’s no longer interested in my
company, so why would she still be talking to Bob? Had they
developed an interest in one another? I snort at the thought.
Highly unlikely. Bob is hardly Christina’s type. Maybe they’re
conspiring together. I know Bob was upset with me for not selling,
but I would never imagine he’d go behind my back in an attempt to
undermine me. Not only that, but what can he possibly do? Deciding
I need to get to the bottom of this immediately, I leave my office
and head for Bob’s. If they’re still on the phone together, I can
confront him, and he’ll be forced to tell me what’s going on.

As I pass my reception area, Natalie glances
up and gives me a curious look.

“Hold all my calls,” I tell her as I walk
pass. “I’ll be right back.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As I near Bob’s office, I can hear him
talking. Good. He’s still on the phone, and for some reason, he
left his door open. How odd. But his lapse in etiquette works to my
advantage right now. As I get closer, I can hear some of the
conversation.

“I don’t know, Christina. I tried to talk
her into it. Yes, I think she and Alexander are seeing each other.
Yes, I agree with you.”

That’s all the information I need. I walk
into his office without knocking or otherwise announcing my
presence. The look on Bob’s face is the
classic I got caught
with my hand in the cookie jar
expression. Talk about
priceless.

“I’ll call you back,” he says, and quickly
disconnects the call.

“You didn’t even give Christina a chance to
say good-bye, Bob. Don’t you think that was rather rude?”

He makes an obvious attempt to compose
himself, but I can tell by the look on his face that he’s trying to
hide something.

“Christina who?”

I walk farther inside the office and come to
a stop right in front of his desk.

“Do not attempt to play me, Bob.” I look him
straight in the eye. “I know you were just talking to Christina
Miller from Preston Enterprises.”

Bob leaps to his feet. I’m guessing he
doesn’t like me towering over him while we’re having a
confrontational conversation.

“That was not Christina Miller.”

I cross my arms and tilt my head, amused and
yet also annoyed he’d try to lie after I caught him red-handed.
“I’m warning you now;
do not lie to me
.”

“Elizabeth, I—”

His intercom buzzes, and then his
assistant’s voice comes over the speaker. “Mr. Barnes, there is a
Christina Miller on line one for you.”

Bob fixes his gaze on his desk, as if it’s
suddenly the most interesting piece of furniture he’s ever seen. He
clears his throat, and then says, “Thank you, Jane.”

I shake my head. What a piece of work he is.
“So, you weren’t talking to Christina Miller, huh? Then why, may I
ask, is she calling you now?”

He says nothing, so I prod him a little
more. “Well? Go ahead, Bob. Answer the phone.”

He’s sweating bullets, and shaking like it’s
ten below zero in here.

“No, wait. You know what? I think I’ll take
this call myself.”

We both reach for the phone at the same
time, but I’m just a little bit faster. I put the phone to my ear
and take a step back so he can’t reach to snatch it away from
me.

“Hello. Christina? This is Elizabeth
Hamilton. I don’t know what you and Bob are trying to pull, but as
of right this second, it’s over. Alexander told you he’s no longer
interested in acquiring my company, so there is no reason for you
and my CFO to still be talking.”

At first, I hear only silence, but then she
sighs and finally answers me.

“Alex may have decided to leave your company
alone, but I have not. You have no idea what I manage to accomplish
behind his back. He has so many companies under him that he has no
idea what goes on with half of them.”

“Well, Ms. Miller, I can assure you that
once Alex finds out what you’re doing, you’ll be sorry you ever
decided to go up against me. Have a nice day.” I hang up the phone
and look at Bob. His entire demeanor has changed, and it appears he
has regained his composure.

“I didn’t want you to find out like
this.”

“Find out what? That you and Christina were
planning something behind your bosses’ backs? I told you I’m not
selling. This is
my
company! I built it, Bob, not you!”

“Yes, you did, but I think you’re allowing
your ego to stand in the way of making a sound business decision.
The name Hamilton doesn’t hold nearly as much sway in this industry
as does the name Preston. Once Preston Enterprises put their name
on our company, we’d become a real contender. Think of how much
better things would be for us.”

I slam my hand down on his desk. “You mean
better for
you
! You want a bigger office, a bigger pay
check, and more perks! That’s all you care about! Well, I hate to
tell you this, but none of that’s going to happen. Not on my watch,
and you won’t be here to worry about what kind of contender we are,
because
you are fired.
Pack up your things; I’ll have a
someone from security walk you out.”

Bob went completely white. “Fired?”

“Yes, fired. I’m certain you’re familiar
with the concept. Now, get your things and get the hell out of my
building. You have thirty minutes.” I turn, walk out, and instead
of slamming the door like I want to do, I pull it closed and head
straight for my office. I phone security and instruct them to send
someone up to see Bob out, and then I grab my phone and call Alex.
Screw sending a text; I need to hear his voice. He answers before
the second ring.

“Elizabeth, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I did, however, just fire my CFO.
He and Christina were discussing taking over my company. Can she
even do something like that without your involvement?”

“She has taken point on a few buyouts, but I
know about them all. She has to know I would eventually find out.”
He sighs. “I’m not sure what to do right now.”

What does he mean; he doesn’t know what to
do?

“I can’t just fire her,” he says.

“I don’t care what you do to Christina, and
I’m not asking you to fire her. Just keep her ass away from me and
my
company.”

“I will take care of this. I promise
you.”

“Okay.”

“In the meantime, you should have your IT
department go through every file and every email on Bob’s
computer.”

“I’ll call IT now.”

“Oh, and Elizabeth, you might want to have
them search a few others, just in case. You never know who else
might be working with Bob.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

I hang up the phone and immediately call my
IT department. As soon as Bob walks out the door, I want his
computer searched. As I hang up with IT, Natalie knocks on the
door.

“Come in, Nat.”

She walks in and shuts the door behind her.
“What’s going on? We just saw Bob walk out with all his stuff. Did
you fire him? Or did he quit?”

“I fired him.”

“May I ask why?”

I let out a sigh. The day’s just begun, and
I’m already exhausted. “Bob and Christina Miller from Preston
Enterprises were plotting against me, thinking somehow they’d be
able to convince me to hand over Hamilton. I have no clue what they
thought they would accomplish, but nevertheless, they were sneaking
around behind my back. I cannot have someone working to undermine
me like that, so I fired him. I refuse to have anyone working for
me who would betray me like that.”

“Oh my God, Elizabeth. Are you okay? I mean,
Bob has been with you for a long time.”

“I’m fine, and I’m actually happy he’s gone.
I never really liked him. He was always a jackass.”

“Amen to that. Are you and Alexander
okay?”

“We are fine.”

“Okay. Just checking. Your one o’clock
meeting is in ten minutes. Would you like for me to cancel?”

Crap. Should I cancel? No, probably not.
Keeping to business, as usual, was probably my best bet.

“No. If anything, this meeting is more
important now than ever. Have all department managers in the
conference room in ten minutes.”

“Yes, Ms. Hamilton.”

Natalie leaves the room and goes straight to
her desk. She picks up her phone, no doubt calling the various
department heads. I say a quick prayer of thanks that I can always
count on Natalie to do what needs to be done. Ten minutes later,
she buzzes me over the intercom.

“Everyone is in the conference room, Ms.
Hamilton.”

“Thank you, Natalie.”

I stand up, brush off my clothes, fix my
hair, and check my makeup, before heading to the meeting. On my way
down the hall, I consider the best approach to take with my
employees. What should I tell them?
No, I’m not selling out my
company. Yes, I’m dating the man who was after my company. Your
jobs are in no danger, but I
did
just fire my CFO
. Ugh!
I am so over today. And after such a wonderful weekend, too…
Mondays normally suck, but this is ridiculous.

I walk into the conference room, and all
eyes turn my way. Fear, anxiety, and curiosity show clearly on
their faces. I go straight to the front of the room and stand at
the head of the large, long, dark wood table. Every person I have
working for me could sit around the table. I clear my throat and
begin.