Page 55 of Off-Limits Bosses
I started sending messages out to get things delegated while I wondered whose idea this high tea actually was. Had Reggie noticed me spiraling, or were Landon and Bryant behind it? WasNolan going to be the one serving the tea? Were all three of them going to show up there to talk?
I could feel my stress levels skyrocketing with every question that ran through my mind, but I managed to keep moving forward.
When I stepped into the dining room, I was relieved and a little disappointed to see that it was only Reggie and one of the senior waitresses present. Reggie already had a pot of tea in front of him with two cups. I took a seat beside him, my head still filled with everything I had to do and everything I had to face.
“Listen,” Reggie said firmly as he started pouring tea for each of us. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this tea is about relaxing. I won’t have you sitting there all stressed out. It’s getting on my nerves.”
I tried to change my posture as well as my face. “I’m sorry. I’ve had a long week with the wedding and everything.”
“Yeah, I doubt that’s all of it,” Reggie answered, dropping two sugar cubes into his own cup. I added three to mine. “But it isn’t my business, really. I don’t need to know what’s going on in your personal life.”
I noticed the look on the waitress’s face, but she turned away and left the room quickly. Probably to gossip while she fetched the scones.
“Still, don’t try and pretend that it’s work that’s got you pouting like this,” Reggie continued, looking at me like he could figure out what the problem was if he stared hard enough. “I would never believe that. You’re the best damn concierge this place has ever had, at least as long as I’ve stayed here.”
I studied him for a minute, slowly stirring my own tea. “You’re just saying that.”
“Am not,” he insisted like a kid arguing with a sibling. “No matter what’s been thrown at you, you’ve tackled it with calm elegance and a vicious efficiency.”
“Did you get that from a thesaurus?” I laughed, though his words were affecting me.
He wasn’t wrong. I had been good at my job from the beginning. But I didn’t know if that could be true without Nolan, Landon, and Bryant. Each one of them had helped me build my confidence and focus in a different way, and it felt like I’d lost all of that now.
“You might be surprised at how smart I actually am,” Reggie answered with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “You might even say that I’mwise.”
I laughed again, feeling some of the weight washing off of my shoulders. “I’m not going to argue with a guest.”
“That’s good,” Reggie nodded as the waitress came back in with our scones. He waited for her to leave before he continued speaking. “Because you need to be listening to me.”
“Right,” I nodded, working on cutting my scone in two and putting butter and cream on it while Reggie kept going.
“You didn’t get this job because you’re a yes-man, or an idiot. You got it because you areexcellentat it. You’ve gotten some of the hardest issues out of the way without batting an eye. Whatever’s got you hung up, it’s not enough to ruin you. It would take a whole lot more to bring you down. At least, that’s what I believe.”
I paused and watched him fix up his own scone, managing to smear some of the cream on his jacket. Despite his clumsiness, the man had a knack for making salient points.
Only the cream of the crop worked at the Pacific, and I was one of them. I’d always put my personal issues aside to be the bestat what I did. I’d never chased after men to get where I was. I’d gotten here all on my own, and I’d faced incredible challenges along the way.
Maybe I could still make it. On my own. Even if the men did make me feel like a stronger person, that didn’t mean that I was weak without them. It was my ruthless ambition that had drawn them to me in the first place.
“This is real good,” Reggie muttered as he took a bite of the scone. “Don’t you think?”
I glanced down at mine and realized how hungry I was. I ate gracefully, aware that I was still accompanying a guest and expected to stay professional. In my mind, I went over what Reggie had said again, finding a deep sense of confidence building in my soul.
“You know what, Reggie?” I said halfway through my scone. “If I make it through this shift, I’ll have you to thank.”
“I’ll remember that,” Reggie answered with a splash of joking malice in his tone.
After the tea, I felt a lot better about myself, ready to take on the world. I knew that I could do this, I knew that I was here for a reason. I just needed to focus and put aside everything that had been dragging me down.
Then, as I walked down the hallways to get back to work, I got a call. I froze when I read Landon’s name on the screen, but reminded myself that I could do this.
“Adriana,” he said when I answered. “Dahlia’s wedding’s been moved up by three weeks.”
“What? I—”
“Just get it done. Or else.”
26
