Deceiving Her Boss (6 page)

 
Anna spoke up then, rolling her eyes.  "And she's leaving out the fact
that her last boss thought that secretarial duties included out-of-office
activities."

 
Paul looked closely at Allie then, and said, "The man may be many things,
but he is not an idiot.  And given the way that he reacted tonight when he
found you talking with me out on the patio, I'm not sure that your strategy has
worked."

 
"Oh, it worked all right.  He just thinks that you're seducing the poor
homely secretary in an attempt to learn all his secrets."

 
"Oh please.  Did you tell him that I'm madly in love with your
roommate?"

 
"I figured that would give him even more ammunition to distrust me.  I
just told him that I wasn't interested in you, and told him that he was being insulting."

 
"And he took that well, did he?" Paul asked with a grin.

 
"Oh, about as well as you can imagine.  But at least he acknowledged that
he was being an idiot, and let me leave."

 
"You should have left with me."

 
"Yeah, if I didn't want a job waiting for me on Monday morning,"
Allie grinned.  "I'm going to go take a good long bath, and then I'm going
to bed.  Have a good night, you two."

FOUR

 
On Monday morning, Allie was in the office early, trying to get through some
filing before the workday officially started.  She was already fielding calls
and answering e-mails when her boss walked in at 8:30.

 
"Good morning, Mr. Greyson," she said politely, putting a caller on
hold.

 
"Good morning, Allie.  How was the rest of your weekend?" he asked,
equally politely.

 
"Fine, thank you.  Gregory Liles' secretary called this morning to see if
we could move your meeting back by a few hours.  I was able to do that, but I
had to make a few changes on your schedule for the day to fit it in.  There's a
print-out of your calendar on your desk.  And I need you to sign the Arrowfund
contract before you do anything so that I can have it notarized and sent out
this morning."

 
Sean nodded.  "I'll do that.  Listen, Allie.  About Friday night..."

 
"Nothing to talk about, Mr. Greyson," she said shortly.  "And
I've got Dan Peters on line one for you."

 
Sean gave his assistant a hard look, but just nodded.  “When is my last meeting
today?”

 
“You’re done at 4:00 today, but you have a dinner date tonight at 7:00 at
Guillermo’s.”

 
“I’m going to need to cancel that.  Can you…”

 
“Make the call and send flowers.  Yes, sir.  I’ll take care of it.”

 
“Thanks, Allie.  I may need you to work late with me tonight, but only if you
don’t have other plans.”

 
Allie nodded, and smiled.  “My plans tonight were doing laundry and cleaning
the kitchen, so you’re in luck.  I’m happy to stay.”

 
“Great.  Go ahead and put Dan through,” he said with a nod, heading back to his
office.

 
After calling Guillermo’s to cancel her boss’ reservation, Allie called his
dinner date for the night.  She hated making these calls, but the women that
Sean dated seemed to know the drill, and while they were often frustrated with
him for changing plans, it never seemed to be enough of an excuse to break up
with him.  Allie frequently took the brunt of their frustration, but keeping
her cool was fairly easy.  And the women were usually history within a few
months anyway.  After hanging up with his date for the night, Allie called the
florist to order roses.

 
Sean’s last meeting ran late, but Allie had plenty to do to keep busy until he
was ready for her.  She caught up on some correspondence and cleaned out her
inbox, both physically and electronically, and was just getting ready to take
care of some more filing from the morning when Sean walked in.

 
“Thanks for staying, Allie,” he said as he shrugged out of his suit jacket.

 
“No problem, Mr. Greyson.  Let me know when you’re ready for me and I’ll be
in.”

 
“Give me ten minutes, and then come on back.  Bring your notebook and laptop –
I want to take care of some long overdue paperwork.”

 
Allie nodded, and as Sean walked back to his office, she pulled out her laptop
and turned it on.  She didn’t use it often, preferring the larger screen and
keyboard of the desktop, but it was occasionally useful, particularly for work
like this, when her boss would frequently dictate entire paragraphs to her
while she frantically typed.

 
She took a quick break to use the restroom and to make sure that her makeup was
still in place before joining her boss in his office.  Moving a table over in
front of her chair for the computer, she was soon ready to work, and just
waited for Sean to join her.

 
The work went smoothly, and Allie was amazed at how much they made it through
in just a few hours.  As before, they took a break after a couple of hours and
ordered take-out food from a local restaurant, and then continued for another
two hours.  By the time they looked up and took a breath, it was close to
10:00.  Sean looked at his watch and cursed softly.

 
"I had no idea it was so late, Allie.  I'm sorry for keeping you so
long."

 
"No problem, Mr. Greyson.  I'm glad we had the chance to work on all of
this -- it takes a lot of issues off of my to do list.  I'll be able to take
care of most of this tomorrow morning."

 
"Feel free to come in a bit late tomorrow, Allie.  There's nothing urgent
on that list, and I can cover for a couple of hours."

 
"Thank you, but I should be fine.  Is there anything else you need
tonight?"

 
"No thanks.  I'm leaving soon too.  Can I give you a ride home, or are you
calling your driver friend?"

 
"I drove in today.  My car is downstairs."

 
"Good.  If you can wait five minutes, I'll walk you out."

 
"That's not necessary."

 
"I know.  But I'll feel better if you don't go out into the garage alone
this time of night."

 
Allie conceded, realizing that she had no good reason to refuse.  Unless she
wanted to tell her boss that she didn't like being alone with him.  Or, rather,
she liked it far too much.  "OK.  I'll get my things together."

 
After she put away her computer and locked up her files, Allie pulled her purse
out of her bottom drawer and hunted for her keys.  She was swinging her purse
over her shoulder just as Sean came walking out of his office.

 
"All set?" he asked.

 
"Ready," she responded.

 
They waited together for the elevator, and took it in silence down to the
basement garage.   Sean was clearing some messages off his blackberry, and
Allie just watched the floor indicator as the car descended.  When the doors
opened, Sean stepped back to let Allie precede him.  Relieved, she waved
casually at him to say goodbye, but Sean pocketed his blackberry and caught her
elbow.

 
"The full service package includes an escort to your car," he said
smoothly.  "Where are you parked?"

 
"I'm over there," Allie said, gently pulling her arm from his grasp
to point in the direction of her sedan.

 
They walked side-by side over to Allie's car, and Sean waited patiently while
Allie unlocked the doors and tossed her purse onto the passenger seat.

 
"Thanks, Mr. Greyson.  See you in the morning," she said as she
opened the driver's side door.

 
"I'd feel better if you let me follow you home, Allie," he said
before she could get in.

 
But Allie needed to get away, and if he followed her home, she knew she'd end
up crashing into a lamppost or something because she wasn't concentrating.  She
forced a calm smile, and shook her head.

 
"It's out of your way, sir.  And I'll be fine.  If you'd like, I'll text
you when I get there," she added,  pointing to his phone.

 
"Do that, please," he told her.  "And if you forget, I'll likely
be knocking on your door in 30 minutes in a panic," he warned.

 
"I can't imagine you in a panic," she said lightly.  "But I
won't forget.  Good night."

 
As she moved to get into her car, Sean reached out his hand and lightly grasped
her arm.  "I'd panic if I thought something had happened to you.  Drive
safely, Allie," he added, bending down and kissing her lightly on the
cheek.  He released her elbow and stood back then, watching until Allie was
sitting in her car with her seatbelt on and the engine started before he began
walking back to his car.

 
Allie was stunned.  She wanted to just sit in her car for a moment to collect
herself, but knew that Sean would come back over if she didn't move to see what
was the matter.  So she took a deep breath, checked her rearview mirror, and
backed out of her spot.  After swiping her employee ID at the exit to the lot,
she turned out onto the road and began driving home.

 
It was a quick drive home, and Allie was parked outside of her apartment in
less than ten minutes from when she had left work.  She pulled her purse from
the car and locked the doors, but hesitated before going inside.  Anna would be
home, and might be waiting up, and Allie needed a few minutes to herself before
she had a conversation with her roommate.  Instead of heading into the
building, Allie walked down the block to the neighborhood coffee shop, which
was thankfully still open at this hour.  She ordered a cup of herbal tea, and
sat down in one of the comfortable couches for a few moments.  Pulling her
phone from her purse, she quickly texted Sean to let him know that she was
home, and then leaned back and closed her eyes.

 
He had kissed her.  It was only on the cheek, and it was obviously a kiss of
affection and not passion, but he had still kissed her.  Why had he done that?
she wondered.  Why now, after a year of working together, were things suddenly
changing between them?  If he didn't stop this new interest in her, she
wouldn't be able to keep her guise going for much longer.  And what would he
say when he discovered the truth about her?

 
She needed to start morphing back to who she was, she thought.  Sean could take
the credit.  She could tell him that she was listening to him, and thinking
about changing her wardrobe.  And she could get a haircut.  And she could... 
she stopped.  She could do all of this, but gradually.  And she needed to do it
for her own sanity, and for her own integrity, not to seduce her boss.  As
attracted as she was to him, she was simply not interested in an affair.

 
Paul and Anna's wedding was approaching quickly, and while they were keeping
the event simple and relatively small, there were still a world of details to
work out.   Allie had gone dress-shopping with her friend months ago, but now
that the date was coming up, they needed to go in for alterations.  So Allie
spent most of the next several weekends with Anna, running errands, checking on
arrangements, and generally keeping her calm as they checked everything off her
list.  And with Anna moving from Allie's apartment to Paul's house, packing
boxes and bubble wrap were soon strewn about her place.

 
"I can never find the damn scissors," Anna complained one evening as
they were tripping over boxes in the living room.

 
"That's why I stopped on the way home from work tonight and bought a pack
of three.  I think there's some scissor-eating gremlin that comes in here every
night after we go to bed.  But I'm tired of hunting for them.  We can't lose
three more pairs, can we?"

 
Anna giggled.  "I give us two days, and they'll be gone."

 
"You're probably right," Allie grinned.  "But maybe we'll have a
fighting chance of finding one pair when we need them."

 
"I can't believe the wedding is on Saturday," Anna said, sitting back
and looking over at her best friend.

 
"I can't believe it either.  I'm going to miss you around here.  Don't get
me wrong, I'm completely happy for you, and I love Paul dearly, but it's going
to be very quiet here without you."

 
Anna reached over and hugged her friend.  "Yeah, well you're not getting
rid of me that easily.  Keep my room ready.  Whenever Paul travels, I'm coming
over here for girl's night."

 
"Anytime, my friend," Allie said as she hugged Anna back.  "I'll
keep the freezer well-stocked with Ben and Jerry's."

 
Sean sat in his home office, looking at the invitation to Paul's wedding that
had come in the mail weeks ago.  He had RSVP'd his acceptance, but now he
stared hard at the invitation and thought back to the evening in his home when
he had found Allie and Paul out in the garden together.  Would Allie be going
to the wedding?

 
He could come right out and ask her, he thought, but he didn't want her to back
out of attending if she thought he was going.  He really wanted to see her in
an environment like this.  To see who her friends were.  To watch her interact
with them.  To see her in something other than a baggy suit and sensible
pumps.  Surely she wouldn't wear THAT to the wedding, would she?