“Okay. Call me when you’re done. I want to hear all about your day.”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.”
I dropped my phone into the cup holder. Then I tried to concentrate on driving for the rest of the trip. I rolled into the parking lot with ten minutes to spare. Just the way I’d hoped. Now, if I could avoid seeing Shane all day today, that would probably be a good thing.
Fingers crossed, but hands still trembling a bit, I hurried up to the building. At the main reception desk, I checked in with the receptionist. She told me to wait. Someone would be coming down to meet me shortly. Then she went back to work and I sat down and tried to pretend I wasn’t about to throw up.
What felt like an hour later a woman came out to the lobby, looked at me, and said in a clipped tone, “Miss Deatrich? I am Gail Fortune. Please follow me.”
I got the vibe Gail Fortune didn’t like me already.
We rode the elevator up to the second floor in uncomfortable silence. She escorted me into the human resources office, pointed at a table and then, before I’d sat down in the chair, handed me a stack of papers. “Please complete all these forms.” She exited the room through a door in the back and I went to work.
Ah the joys of starting a new job. Endless, tedious paperwork.
An hour later, I gently knocked on the door I’d watched her disappear behind. She opened it, accepted the stack I handed her then told me to wait while she called down the individual who would be training me.
I sat.
And sat.
And sat some more.
By eleven, I was beginning to think there was a problem. I did everything I could to avoid looking upset or nervous or restless. Finally a very young woman—maybe fresh out of high school—shuffled into the office. Although she was young, she was dressed very conservatively, no different than the friendly (not) HR person. White blouse, black skirt, black jacket, hair pulled back and very little makeup. “Sorry for taking so long,” she said, extending a hand. “I’m Holly Quade. This way.”
“It’s okay.” I gave her hand a shake then followed her out. It was great getting out of that HR office. I was getting chills from Gail’s icy reception.
Holly didn’t say anything until we were in the elevator. “This is a great place to work, though the Powers-That-Be have some strange rules. I hope you’ll be happy here.”
Strange rules? “Me too.”
“You won’t have any problems if you just follow the procedures.”
“Got it.” Knowing Shane personally, I had expected his company to be a somewhat conservative corporate environment. But this…from the looks of this girl, it was a lot more conservative than I’d ever imagined.
“Did Gail give you an employee manual?” Holly asked.
Employee manual? Oh dear God. Please tell me I won’t be tested on it. “There’s a manual?”
“There is.” She screwed her pretty face into a mask of confusion. “I don’t know why she wouldn’t have given you one.”
I shrugged. “Maybe she forgot.”
“I guess I’ll have to go down on my lunch hour and grab one for you.”
“Thanks.”
The elevator stopped at the sixth floor, and the door rolled open.
There he was.
Shane.
The man I hadn’t spoken with in days.
Heat rushed to my face.
His gaze met mine but then quickly jerked away. “Miss Quade,” he said.
“Sir.” She motioned to me. “This is a new employee. Her name is Bristol Deatrich.”
“Miss Deatrich,” Shane echoed, giving his head a slight nod. His expression was completely unreadable. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. While I didn’t want my coworker to know I had been in a personal relationship with our boss, I wouldn’t have expected him to be so good at hiding his feelings.
Maybe he wasn’t hiding anything. Maybe we were done. Over. Finished. My insides tightened. It hurt.
“Sir,” I said, offering a smile.
He didn’t return it. Instead he gave one to my escort, saying, “I trust our new employee is in excellent hands. Excuse me.” After Holly sputtered a thank you, off he went.
My new coworker gave a little sigh. “Don’t laugh, but when I started working here, I had dreams about that man,” she whispered.
“He is handsome.” I stole a quick glance over my shoulder. He was gone, out of sight. Somewhere.
“He’s utter perfection.”
“Nobody is perfect.”
“Shane Trant is.” She motioned to the right and started walking. “Our department is this way.”
I nodded as I followed her lead.
“Call me crazy,” she whispered, “I know he’s a lot older than me. But if I could, I’d sleep with that man. There’s something about him, a strength, an aura of power. I’d love to see how he lives when he’s out of this place.”
My heart jerked. How many other girls in this place felt the same way? How many had actually gotten what they wanted? “Sometimes the people you think have it best are actually living a nightmare. You just never know.”
“I suppose you’re right. And I know that sometimes a fantasy is better kept to the imagination. Reality doesn’t measure up. But still…” she sighed again. “It’s not like it’s ever going to happen anyway. I heard he’s married. To some woman in Europe somewhere.”
Now that was one rumor I hadn’t heard. Married? His wife was dead, and supposedly he had something to do with that, if Jill was to be believed. It had to be an old, false rumor. Jill would have told me if he had a living wife somewhere. “Where did you hear that?” I asked, pretending to be indifferent.
“Oh, I don’t remember.”
Ah, then it had to be false. I decided to clear things up for my new coworker. “I heard he was married, but his wife died.”
Holly waved off my statement. “Oh. Sure. Everyone knows about his first wife. No, he married Wife Number Two right after her death. And as far as I know, he’s still married to her.”
Wife Number Two?
Oh, God.
Wife. Number. Two?
Shane? Married?
Oh. My. God.
If that rumor was true—which was still a big if—then I might have dodged a bigger bullet than I had realized. If things had continued…if I had married him someday, I might have become the wife of a…polygamist
If he was really married.
If we married.