Chapter Twenty-Six

Friday morning, Max’s eyes were watering. Had been ever since he got to work. He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose. “Are you burning a new candle?”

Aggie glanced up from a desk drawer she’d been preoccupied with all morning. “No… Why?”

She looked innocent, but her voice…her voice held a hint of a lie. “My eyes are—” The soft sound of a cat’s meow cut him off. “What the hell was that?” He prayed he was wrong.

She gave him that smile of hers. The knee-buckler. Her eyes sparkled back at him like sunlight on diamonds. “Ummm.” She pulled a tiny bundle of fur out of her desk.

He held out his hand to stop her movement. “Don’t come near me. Stay put.”

She didn’t listen. She walked toward him while rubbing the head of the deathtrap. “Max, meet our mascot, Olivia. Olivia, meet the boss man, Max. He tends to be grumpy when he first meets you but then softens as the days go by.” She held the cat out for him to see.

Max sneezed. “What the fuck. You can’t bring a damn cat in our office and declare it a mascot.” As he spoke, his eyes were swelling shut and his throat tightening.

“See what I told you,” she said to the cat before placing it on his shoulder. And then to him, “Are you okay? You don’t look okay.”

He pointed to the cat which was now roaming down his arm. “Get it off of me. I’m allergic.”

“Allergic?” She nabbed Olivia and carried her back to her desk drawer. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

Max scowled in the direction of her voice. His eyes were watering so bad he could only see a blur. “You should have asked. If you’d asked, you’d known.” He fumbled until he found the Kleenex box, grabbed a tissue, and wiped at his eyes.

“I never ask. You know that about me.”

He loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt.

“Do I need to take you to the hospital? You’re not going to die on me, are you?”

“Just get Olivia out of here.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

“But what about the meeting?”

“I’ll have to cancel.” David Long didn’t like change. He demanded things handled in a predetermined way. This would put the man over the edge. He’d advise Richard they should take their business elsewhere. “I’m sorry, but this time, Aggie, you’ve gone too far.” Of all the meetings for her to screw up. This one had the potential of making it all but impossible for him to lose his bet with Father. But, of course, she screwed it up. That’s what she did. “I have no choice but to fire you.”

“For real fire me?” Her voice came out high-pitched.

“For real fire you.” He wiped his eyes again. No boss worth his title would let this slide.

“We do have a contract, but if that’s what you think’s best.”

He sighed. He could hear tears in her voice. “I’ll pay you for the rest of your time. And you’ll still get your IRA fund.”

“No. No. It’s okay. I don’t blame you. Firing me is a perfectly fine solution to what I’ve done.” He heard the click of her heels as she walked back to her desk. Rubbing at his eyes again, he managed to see her as she slowly pulled her purse out of her desk drawer. “Although it’s not the only solution.”

“What’s the other?” he wheezed. Why hadn’t he ever mentioned to her he was allergic to cats? He normally covered the subject in job interviews.

She set her purse, with the kitten inside it, on her desk. “Perhaps my solution should wait. You look like I need a good criminal lawyer.” She stared at him much like a nurse stared at a critical patient. “Are you sure you’re not going to die on me? And if you’re not sure, could you maybe sign a waiver saying this wasn’t my fault?”

“I’m not going to die.” It would take hours before he was fine, but he would be fine. He opened his middle drawer and seized his inhaler, sprayed antihistamine in his lungs, and held it there for ten seconds. “What’s your other solution?” he asked once he released his breath.

She perched on his desk. “Cancelling a meeting with a difficult client won’t help you win him over.”

“No…shit.” Speaking was becoming more difficult. He reached around her ass and grabbed his bottle of water.

“I could take the meeting for you…”

“You what?” He slipped his suit jacket off and rolled up his sleeves.

“We’ve worked on this together, and I know Mr. Long. I know he’s unique and grouchy. But then, so are you. I bet I could charm him into a contract the same way I did you.”

“You didn’t charm me into anything.”

“If you say so.”

“David will refuse to meet with you. He’ll be insulted I sent in my second fiddle.”

“Since he’s Richard’s second fiddle, I’m not sure he has a reason to be offended.”

She had a point there. “You may be right.”

“If I can talk my way into a few minutes with him,” Aggie said, “I’ll change his mind. He’ll see I know as much about our proposal as you do.”

“I doubt you’ll get past his secretary.”

“But if I do, and if I get the contract, then you have to agree to unfire me and promise to never do it again. It’s getting pretty old.”

He clenched his hands. How had his well-organized life boiled down to this? To her? To Aggie the Horrible in charge of one of his most sought-after pain-in-the-ass clients? God. Why had he hired her? Her answers on his test should have been all the warning he needed.

“Fine.” He drank his water. “Go before my common sense returns and I change my mind.” The inhaler had helped. His breathing had eased. But as long as the cat stayed in the room, his eyes would continue to water and swell.

She clapped her hands like a child who’d been told she’d won a trip to Disney World. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”

Yeah, right. “No contract. No job. Take that damn cat home and change into something conservative while you’re there.” The last thing he needed was for Mr. Long to wonder if he’d sent Aggie to seduce him into a contract offer. “He’s expecting me at his office in one hour. Don’t be late.”

…

Three hours later, Aggie waltzed back into Max’s office, holding a folder in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. “Call me boss lady.”

Max glanced up from his desk and gave her a heart-stealing smile. Like she could feel her heart slipping out of her body and floating over to him. Sweet baby Jesus. She’d been watching way too many rom-coms with Meemaw.

“He signed?”

Aggie nodded. “He did.” Although his eyes were still a little red, Max looked so much better than he had earlier. Thank God.

Max stood. “Wow. When you want to apply yourself, you are something special.” He turned and strolled to the couch and sat. “I’m not sure even I could have gotten him to sign the contract.”

She followed and held up the bottle of champagne and two flutes. “That’s why we’re celebrating.”

He took the bottle and the glasses from her. “How did you get him to speak to you?”

“He has a coffee press in his office. People serious about their coffee have coffee presses. We talked coffee beans. Where the best ones come from. And about the different cuppas a person can attend around town. I knew of one he hadn’t yet been to.”

“Cuppa?”

“It’s like wine tasting, but for coffee connoisseurs.”

He popped the cork on the champagne and poured. He raised his glass in the air. “To Aggie. A woman who has given me more than one gray hair in a short amount of time, but with whom I thoroughly enjoy working with and who is officially unfired.”

Her smile faltered. “Seriously?”

“You have far exceeded my expectations. I will actually hate to see you go when our contract is up.”

Here was her opening. A chance to make a mature choice. “Why does our contract have to end? Why not give me a new job title when your assistant comes back?” The immature choice would have been to continue to try and seduce him. Men were a dime a dozen. Fun jobs weren’t.

He pulled at his ear. “I’ll tell you what. If we can get through the next month with my not wanting to kill you, then we’ll talk.”

She laughed. “I’m growing on you, aren’t I?”

He rolled his eyes. “Like a fungus.”

“And to think…a few weeks ago, you thought of me as algae.”

“Which is worse? Algae or fungus?”

“I could tell you, but where’s the fun in that?” She drained her glass.