HEAT WAVES IN MANHATTAN can go straight to hell.
This is now day 56 of temps in the upper nineties, and what. The. Fuck.
The two-block walk from the coffee shop to the offices of Platinum Aviation’s headquarters has me sweating like a whore in church under my suit and tie.
Oh, and that coffee shop? It can go straight to hell, too. This section of Midtown can go to hell with both itandthe heat wave for not offering another place within walking distance to get a decent triple espresso and forcing me to go to the place where I first bumped intoher.
Yes,her.
Elle.
The sameherwho’s been temptation incarnate for the past six months; temptation I can only deal with by being a capital dick to her on a damn daily basis. I don’t have the time nor the mental bandwidth to deal with that kind of temptation, and I honestly hate having to be a dick to her, and I don’t understand why she doesn’t just quit already.
Too headstrong and determined and with too much of a point to prove, I suppose.
Her employment has become a stand-off. She won’t quit, and I can’tactuallyfire her until after her six-month review today unless she’s made some kind of other employee faux pas, like excessive absences or showing up late or browsing Facebook or some fucking thing on company time and equipment.
I mean, I probably could just fire her for the hell of it, and I’d do that if I were a real dick, which I’mnot.
My life would be a hell of a lot easier if I actuallywerea dick.
If I were a dick, Archer, my piece-of-shit baby brother wouldn’t be blowing up my phoneagaintoday because I would have cut his ass off years ago.
I’m not a dick. I’m a glutton for punishment and a fucking push-over.
But I won’t be for much longer.
I have a plan to deal with both my leech of a siblingandthe devil-in-a-blue-skirt who’s trying to avoid looking at me while I march through the maze of desks with my too-hot-for-this-heat-wave triple espresso.
I haveneverallowed any woman to jerk me around by the balls, and yet here we are.
I don’t know what it was about her on that first day.
There was something magnetic.
Maybe it was the fact that she justhappenedto be the real-life manifestation of my honest-to-Goddream womanstanding only a foot away from me, smelling like citrus and summer flowers and simplehappiness.
Maybe it was that awkward collision, and her bright, haphazard smile and hair toss along with a breathy and charming,Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.
Maybe it was the fact that she was obviously a kind stranger who was perfectly happy to save my morning by holding my place in line while I dealt with yet another of Archer’s calls.
Maybe it was the fact that she one-upped that kindness by somehow tapping into my shitty morning and paying for my coffee. Andthen,rather than making a big show of her good deed, she was instantly shy about it.
Maybe it was all of the above.
Ineverimpulsively come onto women, and yet Ineededto make sure I had a chance to talk to her again.
Literally everything about my lifesucks. And for a handful of minutes in a coffee shop, I caught a glimpse ofone thingthat had the potential to begood.
I wanted her immediately, but I still had a schedule to keep, and that simply left me mulling over all that potential goodness and her kindness and her uncommon beauty for a whole hour. I spent that hour barely looking over paperwork in preparation for the new-hire meeting, and instead just mentally kicked myself for not asking forhernumber so I could get a jump on pursuing all that potential goodness.
And then I stepped into the meeting room, and the potential goodness disappeared like a curl of cigarette smoke into the night air.
One: I can’t get involved with an employee who reports to me.
Two: She straight-up admitted that she fudged her interview, and she reallyisn’tqualified for the job, and my survival at this company actually does hinge on the performance of all my subordinates. And my survival inlifehinges on my survival at this company because I’ve got a financial black hole known as Archer.
Three: I had no ability to fire her on the spot, and even if I did, it wasn’t like I could follow up with,Hey, how about a drink this evening?
