MARISSA
“Hello my blonde beauties!” Denise’s voice rang out from the hall before she turned the corner into the kitchen.
The fuzzy purple hat sitting on top of her fiery red hair was dotted with white snowflakes. She’d pulled off her coat already and was working on her gloves as she flicked on the kettle and plopped down in her seat for breakfast. “Man, is it coming down out there. I’m frozen.”
“And apparently you’ve taken a dislike to knocking and doorbells,” I told her, unable to help the smile pulling at my lips. I loved that she felt so at home here she no longer knocked, but I had to give her at least a little grief about it.
Rolling her olive green eyes, she piled some egg onto her fork and bypassed my comment. “Why are all men the same?”
“They can’t help it. It’s because of their—” I trailed off, suddenly remembering Annie was in the room with us. “Anatomy. It’s because they’re so much bigger.”
Denise winked at me, but then she sighed. “Bigger, yeah. Got you. Still, guys suck.”
“Justin doesn’t suck,” Annie chimed in, adding, “He got a dragon. I think it probably bites. Maybe it’s still a baby and it still sucks.”
“Okay, okay,” Denise conceded. “Not all guys, just guys my age. I’m giving up on dating.”
“I’ve been telling you that since I met you,” I told her. The kettle started boiling and I got up to fix us some coffee. “What happened?”
“Dating is gross,” Annie stated, as though it was a fact we should have been very well aware of.
“Yeah, dating is gross,” I agreed, adding a dash of milk to our coffees before carrying them over to the table and handing over Denise’s mug.
She shot a look in Annie’s direction and shrugged. “Let’s just leave it at me taking Annie’s advice. Dating is gross and I’m done with it. Let’s talk about something else.”
“I’ve got the rest of the week off,” I volunteered. “Annie and I talked about doing something fun later. Maybe ice skating.”
“You and I would look like giant blobs at the ice rink, but yeah, that could be fun.” Denise and I were both what people would caller bigger, beautiful women. We weren’t shy or embarrassed by our body types, though. We owned it and often joked about it.
I had never been, and never wanted to be, stick thin, and Denise felt the same way. We’d bonded over it shortly after I met her. Real women had curves, and that was how we felt about it. We were not unhealthy, we exercised whenever we could fit it in, and enjoyed the occasional ice cream.
It was society’s obsession with girls who had their ribs sticking out that was unhealthy. Not the girls, necessarily, but the obsession with it. The way I looked at it, your build was your build. You could either accept and embrace what ‘mother nature’ blessed you with, or spend the rest of your life being unhappy and feeling bad about yourself.
Denise drew my attention back to reality. To the kitchen where I was enjoying breakfast with my family and not, in fact, busy delivering a motivational monologue to the crowd of women I was talking to in my mind.
“When do you go back to work?” She asked, smiling. “Next week there’s a ballet starting I thought Annie might like to watch. Do you want to come with us?”
“I love ballet,” Annie said, dropping her cutlery to clap her hands together excitedly. “Do you think we’ll get to dance?”
Denise's eyes remained on mine and clearly she could see there was something wrong. “Sissy? When do you go back to work?”
She had started calling me Sissy a few months ago, a play on my name, but also a sentiment about how close we’d grown. I’d never been a sister to anyone before, but I had always wanted one. I had found that in Denise, a kindred spirit I saw as my sister.
I shrugged, not wanting Annie to get alarmed about my job or our conversation about it. She was so sensitive to my feelings. “I have no clue. Since my boss passed, no one really knows what’s going to happen. Human resources just told us to take the week off.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Denise assured me. “In a company that size, the boss doesn’t really matter.”
“In mine it does,” I told her, doing my best to keep my voice even. “People hired us for him, not the firm. There’s no one to take over work only he could do.”
“They’ll figure something out,” Denise said. “Plus, who knows, maybe your boss left you some money.”
“Yeah, I wish, but I know that’s not the case.” It would’ve been nice though, to receive an unexpected windfall.
Denise, Annie and I would have been able to live out the rest of our lives without worry for a fraction of what he was bound to have had in his bank accounts. It would be nice not to have to worry, but hey, worrying was what moms did anyway.
LAYTONLike most people, I wasn’t particularly fond of lawyers. My father’s lawyer, specifically, was a piece of work. There was a reason the two of them got along so well. They were both stubborn and stoic men who believed the world belonged at their feet.Going to the office of Clayton Reeve was not an errand I was looking forward to, but it had to be done. Dad’s estate had to be wound up and Clayton was the one entrusted with making it happen.But apparently he needed my signature on a couple of things before he could do his job. When his assistant called me to set up the appointment, she told me to get there at ten sharp.Glancing down at my watch, a bulky silver thing that was a gift to myself when I finished my first project, I saw I still had some time before I was expected at Clayton’s office. The financial district was the nerve center of business in downtown Boston, and naturally, it was where the lawyer’s office was located.Given that half the people who worked in the area
LAYTONThe lawyer was waiting for me when I strode into his office at ten o’clock on the dot. He stood, a somber expression on his face as he shook my hand. “Layton, I’m so sorry for your loss.”“Thank you,” I replied automatically, the same reply I’d been giving for days now.Motioning me into one of the high back black leather chairs around the conference table in his office, he took his own seat at the head. There was a thick brown file lying on the table, with a smaller manila envelope on top. “Your father left you this letter,” Clayton started, sliding the envelope off the file and handing it to me. I took it, but didn’t open it. “Would you like a moment of privacy to read it?”I shook my head. I didn’t need to read it, especially not while sitting in this lawyer’s stuffy office. It was lined with books I would bet he hardly ever opened, and filled with oversize furniture. There were oil paintings on the walls. Not of dogs playing poker, but of birds in flight.If I was ever go
MARISSA“Look Mommy, I can make snow angels!” Annie called out excitedly. She flung her little body onto the ground and started demonstrating before I could say a word about it.Luckily, she had the hood up on her coat and unless she went completely crazy, she wouldn’t get her clothes beneath it wet. “I see, baby. Well done! That’s a perfect snow angel.”She beamed up at me, rolling over to repeat her movements on an untouched patch of grass next to the first angel. I laughed, happy that I was getting to see how much she enjoyed the snow.Denise, Annie and I had decided to take a walk in one of Boston’s massive parks after a light snow had fallen. Snow was still a novelty to Annie and if I were being completely honest with myself, it made me feel slightly excited too.“You guys have been here nearly a year, you’d think she’d be used to the snow by now,” Denise commented, smiling as she watched Annie’s antics on the ground.“Nah, we arrived toward the end of winter last year. She didn’
Marissa Unlike most, Denise didn’t nod in understanding and move on to the next topic. Her head tilted slightly to the side, her eyes locked on mine. “That’s it?”I nodded. “That’s it.”She didn’t look away. “Then why do I sense that there’s more to the story than that lame answer?”Making sure Annie was out of earshot, I spotted her carefully maneuvering her way along the low crossbars. If she slipped, the ground was no more than an inch below her feet. Satisfied that she was both safe and couldn’t overhear us, I replied to Denise.“Probably because there is more,” I told her honestly.As much as I had always dodged the question before, I knew it was time I told Denise everything. She asked, and I wouldn’t lie to her outright. Telling her anything other than the truth now would be lying, and I didn’t want to do that to Denise. She didn’t deserve to be lied to, least of all by me.I was about to tell her the rest of the story that she had correctly sensed there was, but before I coul
LAYTONMonday came too soon, just like it always did. It didn’t matter too much to me, since I spent the weekend catching up on work anyway. It would have been nice if the weekend had been a day or two longer, though. I could have used more quiet time to catch up.The office was best for me when there weren’t a lot of people around. Fewer interruptions, and fewer other things requiring my immediate attention. When I hired all those people on, I thought getting them to do some of the jobs I had been doing when I was still alone in the firm would lessen my workload, and it had, but only by so much. I still had to sign off and give the final say about most things.I wouldn’t complain about it, though. It meant business was good, and since I’d spent my life focused on building up the business, it meant life was good.The morning passed by quickly, in a haze of pencil lines and paperwork. I was relieved and satisfied to see the number of new projects we were being requested to take on for
LaytonShrugging, I shook my head. “I don’t know. All Clayton Reeve told me was that the only condition placed on my receiving the inheritance was hiring her.”A deep line appeared between his slightly bushy eyebrows. “That’s pretty weird, but it’s a good deal, I think. Hire some woman and get the inheritance?”“Yeah, it’s a good deal,” I agreed. I didn’t have exact figures yet, since I hadn’t gone through the paperwork Reeve sent over, but it was a safe bet that her lifetime salary would be a drop in the bucket of what I stood to inherit. “I’m interviewing her soon. I didn’t want to make the offer flat out without even having met her.”“Good thinking,” he said. “I get it, but just think carefully, okay?”“Will do.” At that moment, there was another knock at the door. Before I could invite her in, a woman swept into my office. I wasn’t used to people coming in before I told them to, but I bit back any comment because this had to be her.A quick glance at the antique clock above my doo
MARISSAThe last thing I expected walking into the interview this morning was to find a guy who looked like this one sitting across from me. I mean, wow. How any of the women in this office got anything done with a boss who looked like him was beyond me.Granted, my last boss was older, so I didn’t have much experience working with men around my age, but this one was bound to make it harder to concentrate for anyone with a pulse and even the vaguest interest in men.He was nothing short of gorgeous, and having seen how hot his eyes grew when he was looking me over when I walked in, I was feeling way more aroused than an interview had the right to make me feel.As inconvenient as my arousal was, I could hardly blame myself. It had been a long time since I’d noticed a man the way I noticed him, the way that made me feel less like a mom and more like a woman. A woman with needs my trusty vibrator didn’t always fulfill as well as it could have.This man looked like he could fulfill those
MarissaThe flush spread from my cheeks down to my neck. I fought the urge to pull the collar of my dress away from the hot skin there. “I’ve been told I can talk an Eskimo into buying ice, and a man in the desert into giving me his last bottle of water.”“Jeffrey told you the latter, didn’t he?” Layton guessed. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite place. It had to be sadness. His father had been strict and firm, but fair.I hadn’t been exaggerating when I said I learned a lot from him. He was a good man to work for. A mentor to me, in a way. Losing him as a father must have been a thousand times more painful than losing him as an employer and mentor.I nodded, a fond smile curling on my lips as I remembered the day Jeffrey told me I would be able to talk a man in the desert into giving me his last water. We’d been going over the numbers of a project a large company wanted to commission him for.He wasn’t sure if the work would be worth the money. I told him I would try to