The following weeks passed in a blur of activity. The New York trip was fast approaching, which meant preparing dossiers and art folders for past and potential clients, supervising the collection of artwork for transfer to Brent Cameron’s house, monitoring its installation room by room, and schmoozing with him day after day. This last part, I found, was much easier without Amelia around. He rarely mentioned Amelia most of the time, and though he flirted with me constantly, I found I didn’t mind, despite my complete disinterest in him. I find it easy to flirt with men I’m not interested in, especially when they’re basically paying for my company. He, however, didn’t seem to mind the farce—which even he must have recognized as one—and it didn’t taint our business association, either. This was, perhaps, how he was used to treating women. At least he was courteous, if a tiny bit sleazy.
I also did my first solo house visit to the older couple I’d met at the charity dinner, complimenting, once again, the wife’s family heirlooms and flattering her otherwise as much as possible on her taste and decorations. The flattery worked not only on her, but also on her husband, and, after another ridiculously rich dinner, I managed to sell far more artwork to them than I’d anticipated.
Returning to the Winterses’ warehouse quite late that evening to start putting in their order, I was surprised to see that Amelia and her secretary Janet were still there. Janet looked haggard and worn. We’d all been putting in extra hours lately in preparation for New York as well as the massive installation at Brent’s house. Still, keeping the poor woman at the office this late seemed cruel.
“You’re still here?” I asked.
She sighed. “Yes. And it doesn’t look like I’ll get out of here anytime soon. Miss Winters is in conniptions over New York. She doesn’t think we’re ready. I keep telling her that she always thinks that before a big trip, but she doesn’t believe me. She has to make everyone else as miserable as she is, or she thinks we’re not working hard enough.” Janet sighed again. “Luckily we won’t have another trip like this until Paris.” She rolled her eyes. “You think this is bad, just wait until she gears up for a Paris trip.”
I clucked my tongue and shook my head, trying to look as sympathetic as I could, but I was nervous about New York too. Up until now, except for some of my supervisory work in the warehouse, I had focused mostly on clients and clients alone, but in New York it would be clients and artwork. I would be responsible for helping to find new artists to promote, and the thought had terrified me from the moment Amelia asked me to start researching them.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it—”
Amelia suddenly came out of her office. “Oh, thank God you’re here, Doctor,” she told me. “Would you mind coming in for a little while?” She turned to her secretary. “Janet, I’m so sorry. It’s almost midnight. Go home and don’t come in until ten tomorrow morning. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch. You know how I am when I have a trip coming up.”
Janet didn’t disagree. “Thank you, Miss Winters. Until then.” She grabbed her purse and nearly ran for the door, obviously afraid of being called back.
I followed Amelia into her office, and she closed the door behind us. Her hair was mussed, her clothes were wrinkled, and her makeup was in desperate need of being either taken off or reapplied. She looked so entirely unlike her usual put-together self I was taken aback. In fact, her resemblance to my dream version of her made me flush with embarrassment at the memory, and I quickly turned away to hide my rising color. She closed her eyes and sighed, resting heavily against the door. After a moment she seemed to shake herself loose and made her way around to sit at the chair behind her desk. I sat down, still shaken.
“I wanted to take a moment before the whole New York thing to check in with you. You’ve been here for almost a month now.”
“Really?” I was surprised. Somehow it seemed shorter.
“Really. It’s amazing how quickly you’ve caught on. Every task I’ve given you, you’ve attacked it head-on and completed it with ease. You had some nervous moments at the beginning, but that’s, of course, expected. You’ve done far better than I could have dreamed.”
I felt awkward, unsure how to react to such praise. “Thank you.”
“I should be thanking you,” she said seriously. “I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last month without you. As you can see I’m still overwhelmed even with you here.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“The Cameron sale is proceeding nicely. You did an amazing job not only in selecting Brent as a potential client, but in selling to him so magnificently. I genuinely believe you could get that man to buy anything at this point. How’s the installation going?”
“Slowly, but well,” I said. I explained the two rooms that we were working on.
“So that’s what, two rooms out of how many so far?”
“Twenty,” I said, laughing. “He’s doing the whole place. He even asked me yesterday to help him pick out new furniture to match the artwork. I said I’d look into it.”
Amelia sat up, eyes blazing. “One of my brothers is in the furniture business. I’ll arrange a meeting with him after New York. You really are amazing.”
I didn’t respond.
“And how did tonight go?”
“Very well,” I said, detailing the sales.
She seemed to take the news as my due. “As I said when I hired you, we need to start thinking about your commission now that you’re making so many sales.”
I laughed. “I don’t think we’re at that point yet, are we?”
“Do you have any idea how much money Brent Cameron is giving us right now, Doctor? Or how much more money he’ll give us in the future? Not to mention this new sale of yours? Don’t sell yourself short. You deserve every penny coming to you. I’ll have Janet draw up a new contract to give you a general sales commission tomorrow—I think it’s five percent—for everything you’ve been involved in, with a one-percent increase, let’s say, every other month for the first year. You can also expect your sales to be reflected in your Christmas bonus.”
My heart raced happily. Having received a couple of paychecks now, I already felt amply compensated for my hard work, but I certainly didn’t intend to turn down a little extra money. Soon I’d be able to get my own place, which was all I’d wanted the job for anyway. In addition to wanting to be out on my own again, Aunt Kate and her boyfriend had begun to drop hints about moving in together, and I wanted to get out of there before that happened. Much as I liked the guy, it was too small a house for three of us.
Amelia was still looking at me, and I blushed again under her unwavering gaze. “What’s that you’re wearing?” she said suddenly.
I was so taken aback by the change in topic that I had to look down at myself to see what she was talking about. “Oh. Some of the clothes Tiffany made arrived yesterday. I was going to tell you about them, but we’ve been so busy.”
“Stand up and let me look at you.” Her expression was unreadable.
Obeying without thought, I stood up, turning around for her once, slowly. My face was red when I turned back to her. “What do you think?”
“It’s marvelous,” she said. “Now you see why I get almost everything tailored.”
I nodded. I’d never had clothes that fit me so well. While the nice things we’d bought ready-made last month were flattering and stylish, it was remarkable having something that fit me and only me. The difference was apples and oranges.
“I’ll send over some luggage for you for New York tomorrow,” Amelia said after a moment. She looked down at her desk and started shuffling papers, her body language suggesting that she was anxious for some reason. “You have the schedule for New York, so you should have a good idea what you need to bring with us. I want you to take tomorrow off so you’ll be packed before the flight Thursday. I don’t want you to pack at the last minute. Remember to include two gowns for both of the dinners—Janet has rented them for you. The paparazzi are even more ridiculous in New York than they are here, so people will notice what we look like.” She glanced back up at me, but her face appeared tense and drawn.
I wasn’t about to argue with her. I’d actually been planning to take a half day off tomorrow to pack, so I welcomed the excuse. Still confused about her behavior, I felt a little strange just leaving and searched my mind for something to ease the mood.
Amelia reached across her desk, holding out one of her hands. Without thinking about it, I took it in mine and she squeezed my fingers.
“Thank you again, Doctor. I couldn’t have done it without you this month.”
My throat dry, I managed to say, “You’re welcome.”
The rest of the night and all the way home, my hand seemed to tingle from her touch.