Natalie entered her brand new office - third from the corner - at precisely 7:48AM. She set her bag down and sighed contentedly at the L-shaped desk that held exactly two items: her brand new computer and a vase full of peonies. A few people had begun trickling into the office and Natalie used the advantage of her early arrival to refresh the water in the vase, double check her makeup and outfit - she kept it simple in a bright blue button-down with contrasting white collar and cuffs and slim-cut trousers in a deep navy blue - and tried not to think about the nerves that had woken her up shortly before 4:00AM.
Thankfully she spotted Graham Martin heading to her office door before her mind could wander through her thoughts.
"Good morning, Natalie," he warmly greeted her with a handshake. "Making yourself at home, I hope?"
"Yes, sir. Did you have a pleasant weekend?"
"Eighteen holes on Saturday and a church barbeque on Sunday. A guy really can't complain, can he?"
She smiled effortlessly at his easy charm and shook her head. "It sounds very nice."
"And you? Do anything to celebrate this weekend?"
Natalie's memories rushed through images of Eden, Serpentine, Bidden, James, their lovemaking...
Okay, that's enough!
"I did a little, yes. Not too much!" Compared to his weekend she was the mayor of Sodom and Gomorrah.
"Good, good. Well I don't want to overwhelm you your first day on the job, so I've set up a few meetings for you which you'll find in your email. Your login has been upgraded with new access credentials so you should find everything you need. If you have any questions or need help just give me a call. Sometime later today get in touch with Hunter from HR and ask him for a few profiles of suitable candidates for your assistant. I believe they've pre-selected a handful for you from the available applications."
An assistant!
Three minutes into the job and she was already hiring someone to work
for
her.
"My assistant, Jenifer, will be dropping by shortly with a few items for you and then shortly before nine I'll come back around to collect you for your first staff meeting. You already know everyone from marketing but we'll have a formal introduction nonetheless. Any questions?"
She was too overwhelmed to have questions. Assistants, staff, meetings. It was all a bit
too
exciting.
"Oh and be sure to go over the budget for furnishing your office. Furniture, supplies, et cetera."
Office supplies!
No more traversing to the supply closet for highlighters and stick-em notes (which always seemed to be out of stock). "All right then. Good luck and I'll see you soon." Graham patted the doorframe as he exited and left Natalie in her office, her thoughts running a mile a minute.
By 10:15 she was formally in the throes of being Junior Vice President of Marketing. She'd churned up the courage to speak confidently in front of the marketing department - it didn't hurt that Quinn was among the gathering of familiar faces - and felt nothing but positive encouragement from their smiling faces and congratulations.
I can do this
, she chanted to herself. She was more than capable and finally she had the chance to prove herself worthwhile.
After a brief meeting with the other heads of marketing Natalie made her way back to her office and nearly collided with a woman of Amazonian-height in an emerald green shift dress.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Natalie cried as she regained her balance.
"No problem. Natalie Harlow?"
"Yes?" Natalie quickly took in the woman's face and racked her mind for any sort of recognition. The woman was in her late twenties, maybe early thirties; blonde haired and golden-skinned; friendly, chestnut brown eyes. Natalie had no idea who she was.
"Audra Robertson." The woman held out a perfectly manicured hand and Natalie shook it, impressed that the woman's grip was firm, not dainty.
Audra Robertson. Audra Robertson
. The name was familiar. "Fitson Entertainment Groupe."
"Ah, yes. So lovely to meet you Ms. Robertson." Natalie somewhat recognized the name from the detailed client list in her email, a list she'd only been able to quickly peruse. Fitson Entertainment Groupe. Founded in 2000. Based in Los Angeles. Properties in a handful of cities including San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Miami. "Please have a seat." She gestured to the two seats placed at the opposite end of her desk before taking a seat herself.
"I'm sorry to drop in on you unannounced. Graham Martin sent me your contact information this morning and since I'm in town I figured I'd come by to introduce myself in person, since we'll be working together."
"I'm pleased you did! I'm sorry, can I offer you anything to drink?"
"Thank you, no. So Natalie, please tell me a little about yourself."
Natalie's ears burned at being put on the spot, her stomach tangling in knots of nervous energy. She started by going over her educational background, highlighting specific areas of study in both undergrad and grad school before going over her contributions to Brighton in her former position, her views on how new media marketing easily surpassed traditional marketing, and how she was excited to be in a new position where she could contribute even more. All the while Audra Robertson watched her with keen interest, occasionally nodding in acknowledgement or making an
mm-hmmm
sound. Natalie felt like she was interviewing for a job she already had. Just when she thought she as heading into blabbing territory Quinn was at her door, knocking loudly.
"Hi," Natalie greeted. Her eyes fell to the enormous vase filled with at least three dozen long-stem roses in the softest shade of pink she'd ever seen that Quinn carried. "Oh my god, Quinn! You didn't have to!"
Quinn chuckled as she set the large arrangement down on Natalie's desk. "Sorry, Natalie, but I can't take credit for these. I'm just the delivery girl." Quinn turned and smiled brightly at Audra before exiting the office.
"Secret admirer?" Audra asked.
Natalie stood and breathed in the rosy fragrance. She plucked a white envelope from within the arrangement and quickly pulled out the card it contained within.
'Natalie. Congratulations, Miss Junior Vice President. James.'
"Not-so-secret admirer," Natalie replied to Audra, trying to hide the enormous smile that bloomed in her cheeks. "Uh, sorry, where was I?"
"You were impressing me after I put you on the spot." Audra offered a serene smile before she stood, smoothing down the fabric of her dress as she did. "It was very nice to have met you, Natalie." Audra extended her hand for a second handshake, which Natalie obliged. "I'm flying out to Miami for business but I imagine you'll be meeting with my partner soon. He's very hands-on with our newer projects while I prefer managing the more established ones. I'm sure our company is in good hands with you."
Natalie beamed at the vote of confidence. "Thank you so much. I look forward to meeting him and you again." She showed Audra to the door and then made an immediate beeline for the flowers, inhaling their scent again and wondering just how the hell James got her work address. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since they last saw each other. Not that she minded a little spoiling.
She peeked up just in time to see Quinn sneaking back into her office, a conspiratorial look on her pretty face as she closed the door behind her.
"Okay, who was that and why is she bringing you such gorgeous flowers?"
Natalie sat behind her desk and shook her head. "The flowers weren't from her. They're from James."
Quinn sat and leaned forward on the desk, looking more and more intrigued. "How does
she
know
him
?"
"What? No!
She
is a client. Audra Robertson. The flowers are from James."
Quinn's eyes widened. "Exactly!"
Natalie felt utterly confused. "Am I missing something?"
Quinn leaned in towards the desk further and lowered her voice. "I was in reception when that woman - Audra - came in with
these
flowers. She must have assumed I was the receptionist because she asked me to deliver them to your office in five minutes. I thought they were from
her
!"
Natalie opened the card to double-check that she hadn't hallucinated the words on the card. She hadn't.
'Natalie. Congratulations, Miss Junior Vice President. James.'
She slid the card across the desk to Quinn as she moved to her computer, pulling up the document containing the details of her client list that she'd examined earlier. She scrolled down until she found Fitson Entertainment Groupe and scanned through the information again, re-reading dates of establishment, various property titles, and down to senior management names and titles. There in digital black and white was the answer.
Audra Robertson, Chief Operations Officer (COO)
James Fitzgerald, Chief Creative Officer (CCO)
"You have got to be shitting me."
The pieces had been in front of Natalie's face the entire time, and yet she still felt like she was struggling to put them together.
Fitson Entertainment Groupe.
James
Fit
zgerald.
Audra Robert
son
.
"Here it is! It's still open in your browser." Quinn held Natalie's phone in hand and swiped down the screen. "Audra Robertson, COO of Fitson Entertainment Groupe. Looks like they formed the company shortly before graduating from Princeton. It became a family company when-" She stopped abruptly.
That's when all the pieces came together.
"When James married Audra's sister, Celine Robertson, whom he also met at university," Natalie finished.
"The sister of your lover's soon-to-be ex-wife just brought you flowers signed by your lover. That's some soap opera level drama right there."
"Thank you, Quinn," Natalie groaned before retrieving her phone from Quinn's grasp. "Unfortunately that's not my biggest problem right now."
Quinn scoffed. "What could possibly be bigger than that?"
Natalie glanced up to double check that her office door was closed. "James is a client."
"And?" Quinn asked.
"And I've
slept with him
!" The words came out as an aggravated hiss, but what Natalie really wanted to do was scream. "I've slept with a client!" she clarified, because the full effect of her words seemed to be lost on Quinn. "And now I'm the Junior VP assigned to his company's account. That doesn't strike you as being a little too convenient?"
"But you got the promotion before Vegas?
Oh
. Shit." Finally, Quinn understood. "You first slept with him five months ago."
The more the potential ramifications of her situation unraveled the more she felt her heart constrict, her palms sweat, her head ache. This was bad. This was
very
bad.
"I have to get back to work," Natalie said finally. She picked up her head and looked Quinn square in the eye, trying with each passing instant to gather herself. Suddenly she didn't feel so worthwhile and accomplished. Suddenly it seemed more and more likely that she wasn't given the promotion because she earned it, but due to nepotism.
"If you need anything...
Anything
."
Natalie nodded and tried for a smile but came up short and dismissed her friend with something more resembling the act of suppressing vomit. As soon as Quinn was gone she took a deep breath and focused her attention on her work. There were still documents and files to go over, emails to read, meetings to schedule into her calendar, and...
who am I kidding?
Natalie cradled her head in her hands and fought back the sobs that were attempting to push through her eyes.
What am I going to do?
The question haunted her the rest of the morning and well past lunch. She had no idea how she managed to sit in on meetings and shake hands in introduction to people when she was questioning the very merits of her position. But she couldn't very well march up to Graham Martin and ask him if she was chosen for the promotion because she'd slept with one of the company's biggest clients. And on the chance that everything was on the up and up - a chance that seemed less and less likely the more she thought about it - she couldn’t jeopardize her position by letting her personal drama affect her professional life.
There was only one person she could find the truth from, and he was the
last
person she wanted to speak to at the moment. She couldn't even think of his name without swelling with irrational anger. Even if he had nothing to do with her promotion there was still the fact of the matter that she had slept with a client. Not even her ignorance to his professional connection to her exempted her from the ethical violation it posed, especially when considering their relationship was not yet finished.
Natalie opened Pandora on her computer and turned on some Chopin to focus her attention on the work quickly piling up for review on her desk. She'd managed nearly thirty minutes of uninterrupted productivity when her office line rang.
"Natalie Harlow," she answered automatically.
"Natalie, it's Jenifer from Mr. Martin's office. He would like to see you if you have a moment."
She tried not to panic. It was only her nerves and paranoia that made her instantly think something was wrong.
Stay calm and get through work. You can explode at home when no one with firing power is around to hear you.
"I'll be right there."
She had to give herself a pep talk as she rode the elevator up one floor to Graham Martin's considerably larger office. His assistant, Jenifer, a severe looking woman whom Natalie decided to never piss off, nodded in the direction of Graham's office with her phone receiver pressed between her ear and shoulder. Natalie knocked and opened the door.
"Ah! Natalie, thank you for coming," Graham greeted her with a handshake. "I'd like to introduce you to a client whose account you'll be heading. Natalie Harlow, this is James Fitzgerald, CCO of Fitson Entertainment."
No! No, this can't be happening!
James rose from where he was seated opposite Graham Martin's desk and held out a hand. He didn't smile, but Natalie could recognize his signature intensity a mile away. It was always those damn blue-green eyes that gave him away.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Harlow," James spoke first.
Natalie took his hand and squeezed it tight, perhaps a bit
too
tight. In any other circumstance she would delight in the smallest of physical contact with him, but all she could manage was something akin to seething horror.
"Likewise, Mr. Fitzgerald." She kept her voice cold, distant. She wasn't putting on a show like he was, pretending they hadn't already been intimately acquainted.
Graham stood between them and continued with the introduction. "The newest gem in the Fitson Entertainment crown is a luxury resort in Vegas called Eden."
"Yes, I'm familiar with it," Natalie responded, smiling warmly at her new boss. "There couldn't be a more apropos name in a place called Sin City." She could feel James' eyes on her but she didn't dare look at him.
"I could not agree more," Graham chuckled. "I can't remember who came up with the name first. Was it you or Audra?" he asked James.
"That was definitely me," James replied with a modest grin. "Audra has far more class than I do."
Graham chuckled good-naturedly and turned back to Natalie. "You'll meet her soon, Natalie. Audra is-"
"Mr. Fitzgerald's partner and COO," Natalie interrupted. "Yes, we are already acquainted." From the corner of her eye she could see the humor fade rapidly from James' handsome face. "Ms. Robertson came by this morning to introduce herself. She brought me the loveliest bouquet of pink roses, too." Natalie looked pointedly to James, whose eyes had narrowed into an all-too-familiar intensity.
"Excellent," Graham nodded. He looked up suddenly through the open door of his office and held up a hand. "Would you excuse me for a moment? It appears my wife is on the list of surprise guests today." He smiled at the both of them before exiting his office, closing the door behind him. Natalie and James were alone.
"You look stressed," he said first. "First day nerves?"
Oh, the irony!
"Something like that," she said without looking up at him. Then, because she knew it would arouse his suspicion if she outright ignored him - and she wasn't yet ready to confront him with the mess of facts she'd cobbled together so far - she glanced up and offered what little smile she was capable of. "Thank you for the flowers."
"You're welcome, Natalie. I hope Audra-" But he stopped short when Graham came bustling through is office door.
"My apologies!"
"Not at all," James smiled at him. "Graham do you mind if I borrow Natalie for the remainder of the afternoon? I have some ideas I'd like to discuss with your new junior VP but I have an appointment across town."
"Please!" Graham offered to Natalie's mild disappointment. "What better way for Natalie to get her feet wet than to dive straight in?"