Free Worst Week Ever (A Long Road to Love) by Liza O'Connor Page B

like to ditch your boss and become a groupie?”
    Trent didn’t
care for the question, but graciously answered for her. “My business would go
under if she left me. Before I hired this enthusiastic college grad, it was
headed toward bankruptcy. I had no idea what a gem I’d found. I just hoped her
perky personality would mean she’d actually do her job. Never did I think her
‘can do’ attitude and the brilliant brain would literally save my company from
disaster.”
    Tall and Tiny
both smiled at Carrie in admiration. She leaned across the table and whispered.
“It proved harder than I expected. He has, hands down, the worst employees
imaginable. None of them would tell me anything when I came to work, not even
the location of the bathroom. I just had to wander about and find things.
    “When I
introduced myself to the lady sitting at the first desk in the main room, I
expected her to welcome me and tell me her name, but she just stared at me as
if some alien creature had dropped in asking for a cow to eviscerate.”
    Tiny chuckled
and wrote something on a pad from his pocket.
    “I learned a
month later, Miss. Schnell heads the payroll department. As long as she didn’t
meet me, she didn’t have to put me in the new system, which she hates. She
prefers ledgers, which she no longer keeps, since that’s not what the boss
wants anymore.”
    About to take
a sip of wine, Trent paused and set the glass on the table. “So how are people
getting put on payroll?” If they weren’t receiving a paycheck, it could explain
why they didn’t feel the need to actually work.
    “Jack learned
how to put people on payroll so his boss could hire all his family and
friends.”
    His stomach
roiled. “And that’s how you got put on payroll?”
    “It took me a
whole month to discover who could put me in the system, and another month to
discover Jack loves cookies.”
    “You didn’t
get paid for two months?” Tiny asked in outrage.
    She chuckled.
“I’d been working for eight-seven days when I received my first and rather
sizable check.”
    Trent frowned,
having no recollection of this. “Did you tell me you weren't getting paid?”
    She sighed.
“No.”
    “Why not?”
    “To be honest,
given how often you threatened to fire me, I feared if you knew I had yet to
become a legal employee, you’d just send me packing and call it fate.”
    God, what a
bastard she’d thought him and, listening to her side, he couldn’t blame her. He
gripped her hand and stared into her blue eyes. “I know it’s late in the game
to say this, but I am really sorry for the way I treated you back then.”
    She covered
his hand and smiled. “I didn’t take it personally. After all, you yelled at the
others far more often than you yelled at me. And the first time you identified
the portrait of the angry man behind your desk as your deceased father, I
understood your Jekyll and Hyde act.”
    Tiny scribbled
frantically in his notebook.
    Their dinners
arrived along with a huge mound of calamari. Trent saw no hope of eating half
this food. He stared in amazement as the magicians attacked the  calamari.
    Man, could
they make food disappear!

Chapter 6
     
    Two hours later,
three empty plates cluttered the table. Only Carrie’s plate remained barely
touched.
    When she
pushed the dish far from the table’s edge, Tiny eyed her plate. “Was your fish
not good?”
    His face
puckered with such displeasure, she feared he might storm into the kitchen to
shadow box the cook. She touched his small, delicate hand. “Best fish I’ve ever
eaten. I’m saving room for dessert. I’ll ask the waiter for a doggy bag and
take this home.”
    All three of
her companions choked in unison and stared at her with rounded eyes.
    “Do people not
ask for doggy bags here?” She looked to Trent for the answer.
    “I’ve never
seen anyone request one.” He smiled. “But by all means, give it a try.”
    Tiny leaned
forward. “Do you have a dog tied up outside?”
    She