“I’m sure he’ll understand. This was an extraordinary circumstance.”
“Maybe but I can't take that chance. It’s in the contract. And I don’t want to give him any reason to screw around with us. We need this too much.”
As I’m jogging down the hall, I hear Tara call out “Don’t let him give you a hard time!"
Things have been better with Finn but I still remember vividly how much he enjoyed taunting me about Andrew. He'd had me on the verge of tears that day but then he did the incredibly sweet thing of sitting in his car for an hour just so I didn’t have to walk alone to my car at night. It was the kind of thing he would have done when we were teenagers.
Part of me thinks he's just trying to screw with my head by being evil one minute and nice the next. But when we talk, he seems so sincere. He was a sweet boy but he's become an incredible man. As if I need any other reason to regret the stupid decisions of my youth. The more time I spend with him, the more I realize that what I gave up with him would have likely been the best thing in my life.
By the time I get to Finn's building, it's a quarter past eight. I race through the lobby, waving over my shoulder to John, the morning concierge. The elevator seems to take forever and by the time I burst through the front door, my breath is coming fast and hard.
Finn is sitting at the counter in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. He looks up when I burst through the door.
"I'm sorry. One of the girls had an emergency. Her baby is sick. I had to rearrange some things."
He doesn't reply just spoons up another bite of cereal.
I wilt a little at that. He doesn't look particularly sympathetic. This is what he does. He appears calm and collected and then he lets loose one of his cutting remarks that can slice you open just as surely as a blade. When he's only messing with me, it's one thing. My ego can take it. But this is about the company's future. All those women who won't have jobs if he decides not to pay us.
"You aren't going to void the contract, are you?"
The spoon lowers and he frowns at me. Now he really looks pissed. "Christ, Rissa. I’m not heartless. Your employee, is her baby going to be okay?"
Now that I know he's not angry, I relax a little.
“Yeah, he just has a cold, I think. But it means I'm in for a really long day. Carrie normally helps me at my evening client and there's no one I can pull in to help out. The other girls already have as much as they can handle.”
My heart is still racing from running down the hallway so I rest my arms on the counter. Then I rummage through my bag for my phone. Once I find it, I pull up the last employee schedule Tara emailed me. There's got to be someone that I can move around to make things a little easier.
“I’ll help you.”
Now that gets my attention. I put my phone down on the counter and peer at Finn skeptically. “You're going to help? Cleaning?”
He looks amused. “Sure. You used to help me with my chores at home, remember? I figure I owe you one.”
"This is slightly more complicated than mopping a kitchen floor, Finn. We're going to be covering a large area. Are you sure you want to volunteer? Because if you are, I'm not going to say no. I'm that desperate." I walk to the couch and set my bags down on the floor.
"If it'll help you out, then yes, I'm serious." His eyes fix on mine and I shiver beneath his gaze.
"Yeah, it'll help me out a lot."
"Then it's done. Just let me know what I need to do."
My phone rings. "Can you check who that is? It might be Tara."
He picks it up and his smile vanishes. When he hands it to me, I see the name Andrew. I quickly hit the button to silence the call.
When I look up, Finn is watching me.
This is definitely not something I want to talk about, no matter how much better things have gotten between us lately. I clear my throat. "I'll be back to pick you up around nine then. Usually it takes a few hours to clean the whole store and then I'm out of there by midnight."
He stands. "First, I'll pick you up. My driver will take us over and pick us up at the end of the night. You're already exhausted and I don't want you driving when you're this tired. Second, I want you to relax with me this morning. This place is still perfect from yesterday's cleaning. So sit down and take a load off. We'll watch something on television."
What he's offering is so tempting but a shade too close to charity. He started out wanting to rub my nose in his wealth and now that we've cleared the air he's probably feeling guilty. But I don't take a paycheck for nothing.
"I'm fine, Finn. Really. I don't need to be chauffeured around and I'm not that tired."
"You are. And you already know that I'm a complete ass when I don't get my way. So sit."
He's not going to give up on this, I can tell. So I drop down on the couch and then glare at him. "You're the boss."
He grumbles under his breath. "If that was true, we wouldn't be wasting time watching TV."
* * * * *
Finn turns on the television and we settle on the couch. I grab one of the pillows and squeeze it to my middle trying to pretend that relaxing in a place that looks like a layout for Architectural Digest is no big deal. I'm also determined to ignore what he just muttered under his breath. Things felt different last night, like we reached an agreement. But that doesn't mean I trust him.