Slipperless Series (Book #1)(23)

For the next several minutes, I brought her up-to-date with my work on the Link Protocol and concluded with the meeting Gabe called earlier in the day. I explained how the competition worked and how the winner would receive a big raise and a promotion.

She listened intently. At least that was the case until I got to the part when I told her Gabe spoke to me in private after the meeting wrapped. For no sooner had I done so than my grandmother looked up at me in silence over the edges of her reading glasses, lips pursed.

“What?” I asked.

With a subtle smack of her mouth she said, “Are you sure this possible promotion is the only thing your boss is interested in?”

The space between my eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as I looked at her.

“What? I don’t understand what you mean.”

My grandmother raised her arm, extending an accusatory index finger in my direction in the process. “Romance in the workplace isn’t good idea, Fiona. In fact, it’s a terrible one.”

“What are you talking about? Who said anything about romance?”

As I finished speaking, she glared at me for several seconds. With her mouth closed, my grandmother slid her tongue across the front of her teeth in suspicion as I watched.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Come sit over here Fiona,” she said, as she patted on the mattress with her palm.

By now, I’d stopped eating as well. As she issued her command, I crossed my arms at my chest.

“No. I don’t need a lecture, if that’s what you’re thinking of doing.”

“It’s not, dear. I just want to talk about your boss’ sudden interest in you.”

I groaned, tilting my head upward at the same time. Straightening my arms, I closed my fingers tight around the sleeves of my shirt.

“My boss does not have a ‘sudden interest’ in me. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Come. Sit,” she ordered as she pointed at the mattress.

“Fine,” I grumbled. Carrying my tray with me, I got up from the chair and a moment later, plopped down at the foot of her bed. “Okay. I'm listening.”

“Well, let’s start at the beginning,” she said. Wiping at the tips of her fingers with her napkin, she laced her words with a tone of curiosity. “Why would he single you out do you suppose?”

“He told me why,” I replied, without hesitation. “Because he expects me to win and was offering me encouragement. Nothing more.”

“Oh, uh huh, I see,” she said, tenting her eyebrows at me. Shaking her head back and forth in a deliberate manner, she continued, “And, does that seem strange to you at all? That he would do such a thing?”

I swallowed hard as she finished her thought.

“No,” I scoffed. “What’s strange about it? Are you suggesting he doesn’t think I can do it on my own merit? Why are you assuming there’s some sexual undercurrent? When has that ever been the case with me and men? Hmm?”

My grandmother eased her head back into her pillow as her expression changed once again. Through squinted eyes she said, “My, my, you’re quite defensive aren’t you? You’re lying to me about something Fiona. Out with it.”

“I am not, I…”

She cut me off and said, “Are you having an office fling with your new boss!?”

“What!” I protested. “That’s... ridiculous! Of course not. It’s not like that, Gabe is just…”

“Oh, it’s Gabe is it?” she said with a sarcastic chuckle. “Mmm, hmm. I see.”

“What do you ‘see’?”

“Oh come now, Fiona. The man goes above and beyond to encourage you over everyone else, then you’re referring to him by his first name…”

“Of course I refer to him by his first name!” I exclaimed as I interrupted her. “When he introduced himself to me at the bar, he didn't do it as Mr. Hawkins and…”

As soon as the words sputtered from my lips, I reached up and slapped my palms against my mouth. As I did, my grandmother’s eyes widened. She clapped her hands in front of her face in a gesture of smug victory.

I rolled my eyes.

“So you met him the night before your interview?” she said, as the memory returned to her. “When you went out with your friends?”

Although I went out with them on occasion, to say we were ‘friends’ was quite a stretch.

Ellie’s parents hired me as a tutor when it looked as if she would flunk out in her freshman year. She dragged me kicking and screaming into socializing with her. After a time, I got used to it but aside from the occasional evening out, I didn’t spend much time with them.