“What?” I huffed.
“I haven’t seen you this passionate about anything in a long time. Actually, not since the Christmas concert at Carnegie Hall.”
I cringed. “Can you please not remind me of that?”
She loved bringing up my short stint in a boys’ choir as a kid. I used to get really into the gleeful songs until I started to mature and began to see choir as a dorky hobby. I dropped out, and my grandmother continued to harp on the fact that I’d missed my calling.
“Good or bad, that girl has lit a fire inside of you,” she said.
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Glancing out the window at the traffic below, I refused to acknowledge any truth to that statement as heat permeated my skin. “Don’t be ridiculous . . .”
My grandmother had touched a nerve. I knew deep down she was right. Charlotte had triggered something in me. It manifested itself as anger on the outside. But on the inside, it felt like this indescribable excitement. Yes, she had pissed me off for wasting my time during the showing that day. But by the time she’d lashed out at me and stormed out of the bedroom, she’d made an impression on me that I couldn’t quite explain. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her that entire night. I’d worried that I’d been too rough on her, that I’d inadvertently caused some kind of mental breakdown. I imagined her stumbling all over Manhattan with runny mascara, tripping over her own feet in those freaking heels. Eventually, I’d stopped thinking about it and hadn’t thought about her again until she’d literally bumped into me moments ago. And just like that, all that bizarre energy rose to the surface again, once again expressing itself as anger toward her. But why? Why did I even care enough to let her get to me?
My grandmother interrupted my train of thought. “I know that what happened with Allison really killed your spirit. But it’s time to move on.”
The mention of Allison made my stomach ache. I wished my grandmother hadn’t brought her into this.
She continued, “You need a change of scenery. Since you’re not going anywhere, I brought it to you by hiring Charlotte. I would rather see you out there bickering with her than alone in your office.”
“You can’t bicker with someone whose mode of communication is to silently air-type her side of the argument.”
“What?”
“Christ, you didn’t see her doing that?” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “She said she didn’t want to tell me what she was really thinking for fear of losing her job, so she pretended to be typing in the air like a loon to get it out of her system. This is the whack job you hired.”
My grandmother bent her head back in laughter. “That’s a great idea, actually. Some politicians should take lessons from her. We could all stand to learn from thinking before we speak, even if it means typing it instead of saying it. That’s what I mean about her. She’s unique.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s unique, alright.”
Her expression softened as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “Can you do me a favor and at least try to make her feel welcome?”
“Doesn’t sound like I have a choice.” I sighed in exasperation.
“I’ll take that as a yes. You can practice in the Hamptons tomorrow. She’s going to be helping you at the Bridgehampton estate. Lorena is out all week. As we’ve done in the past, the company PA fills in when Lorena can’t be there to assist during showings.”
Great. An entire day with her.
She got up and headed toward the door before turning around one final time. “Charlotte knows a thing or two about a broken heart. You have more in common with her than you think.”
It irked me whenever my grandmother alluded to my breakup with Allison. Not only did it have no place in this discussion, but it also forced me to have to think about things I was trying to forget. I’d really been making an effort to move on from the pain that went along with the end of that relationship.
I stood staring out the window for the better part of the next half hour, twiddling my thumbs and trying to make sense of the fact that Charlotte now worked here. Her ending up here was definitely a bizarre coincidence. There was just no way we were going to be able to work together every day without constantly butting heads.
I decided to head down to her office and set some ground rules—outline what my expectations were for the time she’d be working under me tomorrow.
Under me.
I quickly shook away the visual of her petite body beneath me. That was the funny thing about having disdain toward someone who was physically attractive. It was like a battle between mind and body that under normal circumstances the body would be destined to win.