Chapter Six

Wednesday late morning, Aggie stood in the middle of the outer office and surveyed the controlled chaos. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun on the job. Being given carte blanche on her task to refurnish the offices left her giddy. She didn’t normally do giddy. Cynical was more her style. In that way, she and Max were a lot alike.

This morning, they delivered the new standing desks. This afternoon, everything else. She’d banned Max from the office until further notice. She wanted everything to be a surprise.

He had grumpily agreed, but only after he informed her in his uptight voice he had several parcels of land and old buildings to check in person and now would be as good a time as any to take care of the matter.

While he did his thing, she’d transformed their offices into something you might find at Apple or Warby Parker. Very current. It turned out magnificently—if she did say so herself. Meemaw would be pleased.

Aggie had painted the outer office walls a pale gray, and a matching rug covered the floor. A faux fireplace now sat flush against the back wall, and on either side were cabinets for all of their files. Two royal blue ottomans sat in front of the fireplace, and two matching plush chairs sat on one side of a coffee table. On the wall opposite of the chairs, she’d put the coffee bar, complete with state-of-the-art coffeemaker, grinder, and mini-fridge.

The receptionist desk, a large white rectangle on funky legs, could be raised to allow for standing and working. On the other side were two square chairs in a gorgeous shade of red.

In Max’s office, she’d painted the walls a dark shade of gray. His desk was black and hers a lighter shade of gray. Her desk, because of space limitation, was about half the size of his. Both could be raised or lowered.

The new furnishings for the sitting area hadn’t yet arrived. They’d come tomorrow. She couldn’t wait to get them all in place. The crème de la crème piece for the sitting area would be a gorgeous white leather couch. It would go in the space currently hosting his lackluster rock garden. Across from it, she would place two module chairs that shouted a modern-day man works in this office. She’d modeled his area off of a picture she’d found on Google of what Apple’s offices looked like.

She couldn’t wait to see his reaction when it was complete. She grabbed her phone and called him.

“Hello.” His phone voice gave her a delicious shiver. It was like he’d forgotten to add the thread of disdain he normally added when talking to her. The result…yummy.

“Hi, it’s me. Aggie.” Did he know her voice without her telling him? Did she sound stupid announcing herself? It’s not like he didn’t have caller I.D. Of course, he probably didn’t even have her cell number in his phone. She really should get her asset sheet to him. He’d asked for it a couple of times now. Next time, she’d just say hi.

“What can I do for you?”

She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Did I get you at a bad time?” What just happened to her voice? She didn’t do coy. “I can call back?”

“Now will do.” And there it was. His normal voice.

She let go of the strand of hair. He really wasn’t her type. “I’m calling to remind you not to come back to the offices until given the green light.”

“I made no promises.”

“Do you take pleasure in being difficult?”

“I take pleasure in being the boss. The one who gets to make the rules, not follow the rules.”

The UPS guy showed up in the doorway. His name was Smith. She waved at him. “Oops, got to go. There’s a hunk flexing his arm muscles here to see me.”

“Does the hunk have a name?” If Aggie weren’t so attuned to Max’s normal voice, she might not have picked up on the thread of jealousy. But she did. Weird.

She glanced at Smith. He’d heard the question, because she had Max on her cell’s speakerphone. “He does.” She winked at Smith and placed a shushing finger to her lips. “It’s Bill.” Who knew mentioning Bill on the interview questionnaire would come in handy later? She clicked off before Max could make a public response and quickly explained to Smith she was messing with her boss.

Too late, she remembered her decision this morning to start behaving 100 percent respectable instead of continuing to yank Max’s chain. She had decided to let some other woman teach him how to loosen up and have fun. Part of the reason for this decision was to make Meemaw proud, but not all of it. While she could and would—if challenged—defend her career impacting choices over the last eighteen months, she had realized she’d gotten into something of a bad habit. Perhaps pulling the quit trigger a tad prematurely.

She wasn’t going to do that this time. She would prove to Meemaw and herself that she did have it in her to see something through. The good. The bad. And the grumpy.