Covet (20 page)

Mrs. C. did
not
like email, and used it as little as possible. She had often declared it to be wholly responsible – along with text messaging - for the decline in polite conversation and the almost complete absence of letter writing. So Tessa knew better than to email her former boss and picked up the phone instead.

“I knew you would make a good impression today,” Mrs. Carrington told her in a rather smug voice. “After all, my girl, you were trained by the best, weren’t you? Though even I must admit that I never thought you’d actually get to work on the executive floor immediately. It was your Excel skills that did the trick, Tessa. Aren’t you glad now that you took my advice about attending the extra training?”

“Yes, of course I am,” replied Tessa. “And grateful for everything you taught me these last three years. I’m just hoping I don’t make a huge mistake on my first day, or make a bad impression on Mr. Gregson.”

“Impossible,” huffed Mrs. Carrington. “Don’t forget that Ian worked for me one summer when he was nineteen, the same age you were when you started. He’s most definitely serious, hardworking, and all business, but he’s also very kind and always a gentleman. And he
will
like you, Tessa. You exhibit the exact sort of characteristics that he admires most in his employees. Speaking of which.”

For the next quarter of an hour, Mrs. C. proceeded to remind her of proper office etiquette and how she should conduct herself when she started on Monday. “You were told to be there at eight o’clock, yes? Arrive at seven forty-five instead. Don’t take your full lunch break, come back several minutes early. Strive to be the last of your team to leave each day, and definitely never the first. No personal phone calls –
ever
– unless it’s a dire emergency. And needless to say, none of that silly emailing or texting or whatever it is you young people like to do these days. The word gossip is not in your vocabulary, so of course you won’t even think of engaging in something so distasteful. And I assume you’re still adhering to the dress code?”

Tessa assured the older woman that yes, she would never dream of wearing a skirt or dress that was too short or tight, or a blouse that could be considered sheer or low-cut, and that she did not even own a pair of shoes with high heels. She promised to be on her best ladylike behavior when she met Mr. Gregson for the first time, and to work as hard as she possibly could every single day.

“I’m proud of you, Tessa,” admitted Mrs. Carrington quietly. “As if you were my own daughter. You’ve had a tough time of it, my dear, but I have a very good feeling that your life is about to change for the better. And no one deserves it more. Now, don’t you dare let me down or embarrass me, young miss. The very last thing I’ll tolerate is a call from Ian asking if I’d temporarily lost my mind when I wrote that letter of recommendation for you.”

Tears had begun to well in Tessa’s eyes at her former boss’s words, especially the part when Mrs. C. had referred to Tessa as her daughter. Despite Mrs. Carrington’s gruffness, she’d always had something of a soft spot for her young protégée, and in many ways had been more of a mother to Tessa than Gillian had ever been.

“I won’t let you down,” she murmured softly. “You’ve taught me well, Mrs. C., and if it’s the last thing I do I’m going to prove that to everyone.”

Tessa only hoped that her brave words were enough to quell the nervous butterflies that had taken up residence in her tummy, and that the fluttering little intruders would have moved on by the time she started her new job on Monday.

Andrew Doherty rarely if ever second-guessed himself. He had been raised by parents who were both well-regarded professors, and they had from an early age instilled confidence, common sense, and an overall no-nonsense approach to life in their three children. It had been all of those traits, along with his degree in Business Administration, ability to speak three different languages, and refusal to be intimidated, that had led Ian Gregson to hire him as his personal assistant several years ago. During the time he’d worked here, Andrew could not honestly recall even one time when he’d had second thoughts about a decision he had made, or an action he’d taken. Until this afternoon, that is. And he just hoped that he didn’t live to regret hiring the very proficient but very young – and very, very pretty – Tessa Lockwood.

Admittedly, he’d had his back up against the wall to some degree with having to hire a new team member as quickly as possible. Sarah, who’d never been a particular favorite of Andrew’s, had been foolish enough to begin a flirtation with the odious Jason Baldwin, knowing full well that the man was both married and a notorious womanizer. But when the flirtation had progressed to a stage where Sarah had felt uncomfortable and uncertain, she’d begun to make noises about sexual harassment.

Mr. Gregson had put a halt to that sort of possibility immediately, taking swift action to transfer Sarah to a position at the local Gregson Hotel. It was a modest promotion for her – one that Andrew knew she certainly didn’t deserve – but the bump up in both prestige and salary had been more than enough to keep Sarah happy and forget all about any potential complaints. But while they had avoided a nasty sexual harassment case, Sarah’s abrupt transfer had also left them a body short on the support team – and at a time when there was a great deal of work that needed to be done.

To make matters worse, Mr. Gregson had left the office day before yesterday on a two week business trip to visit hotels in Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec City. It had been left entirely in Andrew’s hands to interview, hire, and train a replacement for Sarah – and with utmost haste. He had in fact been reading over the stack of resumes that had been sent up earlier in the day from Human Resources when Sheila Horner had called him.

“I think I’ve got someone for you, Andrew,” she’d begun, her normally professional tone sounding more than a little excited. “And if you like her, this could really be an ideal situation all around
.”

Andrew had balked when he’d heard how young the girl was, and that she didn’t have a four-year degree. He’d reluctantly acknowledged that yes, it would make things easier to hire someone who was already an employee of the company, who’d already passed all of the various background checks, and who was familiar with company policies and the internal computer system. And he’d nodded to himself when Sheila had pointed out that placing this Tessa into Sarah’s old spot would be the least disruptive move they could make, rather than transferring someone from another department – an option that was also being considered
.

But it was only when Sheila rather slyly let it drop that the girl had extensive training in Excel that Andrew’s ears perked up. It had been a source of constant aggravation to him that none of the team members seemed capable of handling even some of the simpler spreadsheets that Mr. Gregson practically lived and died for when it came to keeping track of the many and varied hotel statistics. Just last week he’d looked around at five blank faces when he had asked if any of them knew how to nest one pivot table within another. Andrew was quite proficient in the program – he’d had to self-teach himself out of necessity these past three years – but he was usually far too busy with the dozens of other tasks Mr. Gregson assigned to him to carve out enough time in the day to also work on the spreadsheets. If he could find someone who actually knew all of these things – a few that even he wasn’t quite accomplished at – then it would certainly make his life a lot easier. It would also please Mr. Gregson, something that wasn’t always so simple to do. The boss man – a nickname most everyone in the office besides Andrew called him in private – was one tough customer, with the most exacting standards Andrew had ever known
.

So he had stuck his neck out a short while ago by giving Tessa Lockwood the job, knowing full well that Mr. Gregson would think her too young, naïve, and inexperienced to work at this level. But Andrew had excellent instincts, and they were rarely if ever wrong. And those instincts told him that hiring Tessa had been the right decision – for more reasons than one. She
was
young, probably too young, but there had been a quiet dignity about her, a seriousness and maturity that made her seem far older than her twenty-two years. Andrew liked that she was reserved and even shy, and that she seemed all too eager to do whatever she was told. She’d been taught well, conducted herself like a lady, and showed the proper respect. Unlike, he thought grimly, some of the other team members who he had to constantly stay on top of.

Andrew seldom smiled, especially not at the office, but he felt the corners of his mouth begin to twitch up ever so slightly as he tried to envision Mr. Gregson’s reaction the first time he met the newest addition to the team. Because while Tessa was undeniably young, she was also – first and foremost – undeniably gorgeous. Andrew had been more than a little taken aback when she’d walked into his office, finding himself oddly speechless at the breathtaking vision she made – tall and shapely, with long blonde hair and huge blue eyes. She’d reminded him of a modern day fairytale princess – Sleeping Beauty in the Big City, he had deemed her rather irreverently. She would certainly cause a stir among the males in this office – even the ones old enough to be her father, or the happily married men with families. Or even, thought Andrew with rather an evil grin, his formal, stuffy British boss – the same one who had an ironclad policy against dating employees, who never even spared any of the females in the office a glance, and who by his own admission was a confirmed bachelor.

‘Well, we’ll see, won’t we, sir?’ Andrew thought to himself with a rare chuckle. ‘It’s possible –
just
possible – that you’re every bit as susceptible to a pretty face as the next man. That is definitely one introduction I’m going to look forward to making.’

“Well, sweetie, tomorrow morning the wait will finally be over. His Hotness is due back in to the office, and you’ll get to see what all the fuss is about.”

Tessa glanced up distractedly from the spreadsheet she’d been painstakingly constructing for the better part of three hours now at the sound of her co-worker Kevin’s high-pitched, excited voice.

She gave him a weary little smile. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really know who you’re talking about. Guess my brain is a little fried from staring at my computer screen all morning.”

Kevin wrinkled his nose in distaste. “That doesn’t shock me in the least. Have I told you yet how happy all of us are that you’ve had the godawful task of doing those dreadful spreadsheets dumped on your lap?”

Tessa laughed. “A few times, yes. And I honestly don’t mind. I’m not sure I would have got this job if I didn’t know how to do these things.”

Her new co-worker – who was rather flamboyantly and proudly gay – smirked in response. “Well, if we all didn’t suspect that old stick-up-his-ass Andrew there was either gay or neutered, I’d make some sexist comment right about now. Like maybe one of the other reasons you got hired was because you’re a smoking hot babe. But this is Andrew the Robot we’re talking about, so I’m guessing he didn’t have those sort of ulterior motives.”

She felt her cheeks pinken at Kevin’s compliment, not quite used to his brash, often ribald way of speaking. From her very first day on the job, he’d more or less taken her under his wing, showing her around and giving her advice – whether it had been asked for or not. He talked almost nonstop - whether it was about a movie he’d seen over the weekend, what he was having for lunch today, a shirt that he’d seen in the window of his favorite men’s boutique that he simply
had
to have. Unfortunately, Kevin also talked – a
lot
– about his very active and adventurous sex life, and she’d received quite an unwilling education during her time here thus far. He’d used terms and slang that she had honestly never heard of before and didn’t really have a clue what they meant, and spoken in such frank detail about some of his encounters that Tessa had found herself blushing visibly in embarrassment. And
that
had given Kevin cause to tease her rather unmercifully, jokingly calling her a virgin bride and asking if her husband locked her up in a chastity belt while he was out of the country traveling.

But at least he’d been genuinely kind to her, going out of his way to make her feel welcome, which was more than she could say for some of the other team members. Tessa glanced up from her computer screen and wasn’t the least surprised to see Marisol with yet another cup of coffee in hand, Shelby giggling as she continued to exchange texts with someone on her phone, while the two remaining members of the team – Alicia and Gina – had their heads bent together as they gossiped about yet another hapless victim of their almost constant taunts.

In the nearly two weeks that Tessa had worked here on the executive floor, she couldn’t really remember seeing Alicia or Gina doing a whole lot of what amounted to actual work. She’d learned that Alicia was responsible for making all the travel arrangements for the executive staff, and that Gina was in charge of catering for all of the various meetings held on this floor. Marisol kept the master schedule for everyone on the floor, while Kevin used his skills as a graphic designer to create PowerPoint presentations and other sorts of media. Shelby didn’t seem to have any particular set of responsibilities, and more often than not had a lot of the grunt work dumped on her – photocopying, replacing the printer cartridge, filing. All of them, of course, were also given letters to type, reports to compile, data entry projects, and a variety of other administrative and clerical duties.