Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Hello, Keegan’s new assistant that he would never, ever be hiring,” Mick laughed confusedly.
“Hi,” Effie smiled self-consciously. “It’s nice to meet you, but I’m not sure I count as a real assistant – I was sort of a…” she searched for the words. “Sort of a ‘rage hire,’ I guess.”
I had to laugh. That was exactly what she was. A rage hire. To begin with. But Effie had been my assistant for a couple of days now, and I was already wondering what I had done before I had her. She had streamlined the office and pointed out several glaring errors in my filing system. And every time Sean came in, he seethed with… well, with something. Anger? Jealousy? Whatever it was that fueled his permanent state of annoyance with me. In other words, Effie was perfect.
“Well, well, well,” Mick was laughing. “You seem to have gotten the measure of our colleague here, Effie. Here’s some advice. Don’t take any shit from him, and make sure he pays you decently. I’ll be meeting you in person soon at the opening of the new office, and we can compare notes on the grumpy bastard then.”
“Sure! I look forward to it.” Effie smiled amiably and then got up and left the papers she had carried in with her on my desk before slipping back out into the main office.
“Why’d you do that?” I rounded on Mick as soon as she had left.
“Do what? You’ll need an assistant to keep you right at the opening, no?” he grinned.
“No!” I cried, my vision of a work-free break back home in Ireland rapidly evaporating.
“She is bloody gorgeous, Keegan,” he scolded me like I was a child. “And if Lucy isn’t working out…”
“It’s not that she isn’t working out…” I again struggled to explain. “It’s just she’s a little bit empty…”
Effie had come back into the office, knocking, I noticed peevishly, as she added to the paperwork she had left before.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Mick groaned. “I find you the perfect woman and she still isn’t good enough for you?”
“I’ve gotta go!” I widened my eyes to silently communicate to Mick to shut up – something that he found hard at the best of times.
“Get the travel details sorted! I’ll even get the first round in!” he shouted before ending the call.
I turned to Effie apologetically. She was making a point of sorting through the paperwork as if she were oblivious to what had been said.
“Mick is a very old friend of mine. We were teenagers together. We don’t always talk professionally to one another…”
“I’m not offended by swearing.” She was unfazed.
“Okay, good, and you’re happy to attend the opening as my assistant? Mick thinks it might be useful to have someone liaise with the press, et cetera.” I waved a hand. “But I totally understand if you can’t – it’s a big ask when you haven’t been here long. And it’s in two weeks.”
“Should be fine,” she answered. She looked totally calm, like I had just asked her to fetch coffee, not fly across the world for a black-tie event. She left the paperwork with me, and made her way out again.
She was always so measured, so careful, with her neat black suit and pulled-back hair. And yet sometimes she showed a glimpse of some other personality. Like when she had basically destroyed Sean, or just now when she had let Mick know in a few seconds that she completely understood why I had hired her – and by extension of that, what an idiot I was. She was a bit of a conundrum. I reminded myself how lucky I was to have Lucy. Beautiful, uncomplicated Lucy, who would never reveal a sudden unexpected feisty side.
Mick was right. What was wrong with me?
I played back my interaction with Effie, and suddenly realized that I hadn’t said the opening was in Ireland. She probably thought it was at some fancy hotel across town. I got up to let Effie know where she would be going, but the phone rang with Sean’s name flashing on the screen.
Fuck.
Chapter 10
FREYA
WORKING AS KEEGAN’S assistant was the same as working as an intern; I just became a kind of go-between from the team to Keegan. He didn’t really know what to do with me, so I made myself useful sorting files and juggling things. The whole point was to get my head around what files he kept, both physically and on his computer system. Taylor had been horrified by my sudden promotion.
“You actually agreed to be his assistant, and now you gotta talk to him every day,” she shook her head. “Are you some kind of masochist?”
“He doesn’t seem that bad,” I replied, but her expression had me worried.
“Well, okay,” she raised her eyebrows. “He might seem all right, compared to his creep brother, but you know, dude has a past.”