The Boss's Urgent Proposal

He nodded. “Now I do.”

When she finished explaining the contents of the drawers, Josh stared at her. “You did a lot of my work.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Not a clue,” she said, but inside she was secretly hoping he would offer her a huge raise to stay. She knew it was wrong, but she wished it, anyway, if only because the proposition would be a nice boost for her pride.

“I’m thinking that a regular secretary isn’t going to be able to do half this stuff, and at least for the first year or two I better take over some of it again.”

Because that was a very good idea, Olivia refused to let herself be disappointed that he hadn’t asked her to stay, mostly because she wasn’t going to stay. And her ego was fine. Her self-esteem was fine. She didn’t need his praise. “Probably.”

“Which also means I should get most of these files into my office.”

“We can move them now. We’re wearing jeans, and after tomorrow I won’t be around to help you.”

“Okay,” he said amicably, but Olivia noticed that he gave her another one of those odd looks he had been giving her since breakfast. With his dark eyes he reminded her of a sad puppy, and Olivia almost panicked, thinking that he was again feeling the sense of loss and was on the verge of asking her to stay. But not for purely professional reasons, as the request would have been a few seconds before when they were talking about how much of his work she did. Those sad puppy eyes turned everything around and made the request personal. Very, very personal. They seemed to be telling her he knew he would miss her.

I don’t want to stay. I don’t want to stay. I don’t want to stay. Olivia repeated the quick litany in her head. Particularly since the only new thing she had learned about him was that he could make stupid jokes. And that wasn’t a basis for everlasting love. Or even changing one’s mind.

“Okay,” he said again, shaking his head as if to lose the melancholy mood. “But I only have one empty cabinet.” He took a handful of files from the first drawer. “So, today we can only move the public relations things. I’ll call maintenance before we leave and have them bring up two more cabinets. That way, we can work on this again tomorrow.”

Stifling a sigh of relief, Olivia said, “Good idea.”

They worked quietly while they carried files into his office and set them on his desk. But when all the folders were in four tall stacks, and he started handing them to her to organize in the cabinet behind his desk, the silence felt awkward.

Reaching for any topic to break the sad, oppressive mood, Olivia said, “You know, Josh, I’ve never heard the story of how you got your job.”

“My uncle Hilton came to my house and told me that he needed me.”

“Wow.”

“Don’t be impressed. He didn’t need me, but it took me a year to realize that because I never caught on to all of the coincidences. The real deal was that I was spending the weekend here in Atlanta with my mother…”