Page 16 of Irresistible

Chapter 8

Acouple of days passed, and Scarlet spent her working hours fetching various things for Richard and making runs to the post office. It was fairly standard fare for an executive assistant. But the tone between them had changed noticeably in that time. Where before they were variously flirting and exchanging somewhat intimate details of their backgrounds and personal lives, the tone changed to one of strict and curt professionalism. It was what everyone in the working world would want for a relationship between an executive and his assistant, but Scarlet was no longer sure it was what she wanted. She could not tell for a moment what Richard wanted now that the awkward moment had passed.

The immediate pullback and hesitation she felt when Richard offered to take her out for drinks was quickly fading. It was to the point that Scarlet could no longer access the feelings that made her react as she did initially. Her lust and interest in Richard only grew, and now at a much faster rate since she was now as much a part of why they now viewed their relationship as forbidden. She tried to get things back on track. Every once in a while, approximately once a day, she would try to strike up a conversation that was reminiscent of the one they had over their first lunch. Something would remind her of a story from her past, and she tried to talk to Richard about it in a vain attempt to regain that flicker of intimacy. But he wasn’t having it.

Every time she tried to broach the unspoken matter again, Richard brushed her off. He insisted that he had work that he needed to finish or that he had an upcoming call and couldn’t have the longer conversation that Scarlet so craved. Of course, he always did so with the utmost courtesy and professionalism. To the uninitiated outsider, nothing would even appear to be amiss. But Scarlet knew that something was wrong, and she was increasingly interested in taking things back to the way they were.

“Richard?” Scarlet asked quietly, breaking the silent tension that had been escalating in the room for the past few hours.

“Yes? Can I help you, Scarlet?” Richard said, transfixed by an email that had just popped up on his screen.

“I hope I’m not speaking out of place. But I just can’t help but think that the tone between us has changed since we had our lunch from Charlie’s a couple of days ago,” Scarlet said cautiously.

“I’m…I’m not sure what you mean. If I’ve said anything to upset you, I absolutely apologize. I’ve just been very busy the past couple of days. That’s probably why I seem more distant.”

“Of course,” Scarlet replied, sounding as though she was about to drop the subject. “But…”

Richard sighed and looked up from the screen. He knew this was about to be the start of a longer talk. As much as he dreaded speaking with Scarlet any more about this, he figured it was better to just get things out into the open. After all, he was a man who by and large believed in honesty. He had spent at least a few minutes over the past two days talking to Scarlet about how important honesty was in the business world.

“I think, and forgive me if I’m mistaken, but things changed as soon as I turned you down for drinks the other day. I don’t want you to think that’s because I don’t like you. I really enjoy the conversations we’ve had. But it just seemed like it wasn’t the right time or place for that sort of thing,” Scarlet continued.

“No. Of course not. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea, either. It just gets a little lonely out on the road, and it’s been a long time since I’ve had a friendly connection with someone like I had with you. But the last thing I want to do is overstep my boundaries, and I apologize if I did that.”

Scarlet knew this wasn’t working. He was still talking in corporate-speak. He was basically reading from a press release, and she knew she couldn’t get the truth out of him if he was stuck in this mode. She only hoped that she hadn’t cast him into this zone permanently with her earlier freakout.

“You didn’t overstep your bounds at all. I’d honestly like to talk with you more about it if you have any time. I know you’re incredibly busy, but I just didn’t want to lose that ‘friendly connection’ you just mentioned. It’s been a while since I found something like that with someone, too,” Scarlet said, revealing her vulnerable side, something she was not accustomed to doing.

“I’d love to talk more about it. I’m a little tied up for most of the afternoon. But why don’t we have a cup of coffee later? Nothing alcoholic, just coffee in a coffee shop, in public. No overtones, no nothing. Can we do that?” Richard said. The man had a way of getting down to the point.

“Absolutely!” Scarlet exclaimed. “When would you like to go?” she asked, looking down at her watch. “I’m free for the rest of the day, barring anything you might need me to do.”

“Great. Why don’t we say three o’clock? I’ll need you to call IT in about an hour to see if we can get an update regarding what’s going on with the interface between the branch system and the central accounting software. They told me a yesterday that things were looking promising, but they’ve been radio silent since then. Other than that, I have a call at two-thirty, but I should be free to go after that.”

“Great. That works perfectly for me. Friends?” Scarlet asked, extending her hand.

“Friends,” Richard said, shaking her hand with a firm grip, cultivated by years of meetings and networking events.

The next few hours passed quickly. Scarlet took the call from the head of IT for Local Citizens Bank. It looked as though the process was going well, but they said it would be at least another week before a full reconciliation between the two systems could be confirmed. Scarlet was just as skeptical as Richard had sounded earlier, but she knew next to nothing about IT. For all she knew, he was telling the truth. It didn’t much matter to her, anyway. All she knew was that she would be getting coffee with Richard soon and she would be able to set things straight.

Scarlet snuck away to Jim’s office shortly after getting off the phone with the head of IT. The two had not spoken much over the past couple of days. Subconsciously, she blamed him for a large part of her initial hesitation to get drinks with Richard. If only she hadn’t made that stupid promise to him. But she valued her friends over her romantic prospects, and she always would. That didn’t stop her from harboring a small grudge, though.

“Guess what I’m doing in a little bit?” Scarlet said, tiptoeing into Jim’s office.

“What? Hitting on Richard again?”

“No. He asked me to drinks a couple of days ago, and I instinctively tensed up and rejected him. I thought I may have offended him, honestly,” Scarlet explained. The smile on her face told Jim there was clearly something more at play.

“Good. That’s exactly what you should have done. Remember the promise you made me?”

“Of course I remember that promise. It’s a pretty big part of the reason I said no. I kind of hate you for it. Not really, just kidding. But a little bit,” Scarlet said, alternating between smiling and shooting a vicious glare toward Jim.

“You know it was the right thing to do. But given the fact that you can’t stop smiling for more than two seconds at a time, there’s more to this story. Right?”

“Maybe…” Scarlet equivocated.

“Just tell me. I have a lot to do.”

“You don’t, but fine,” Scarlet snapped.