do whatever I can to help you. We have two appointments for later this afternoon, with clients who wouldn’t say why they wanted to come in. I wonder if they’ve heard the rumours?’
‘It’s probable, and probable they’ll also want to pull their funds.’ Their meals arrived and he fell silent. ‘If I thought it would do any good, I’d phone some of my key social contacts and demand they reveal the source of the rumours. I will do that, as soon as we get back to the office, but I know it will be a waste of time.’
He jabbed his fork into his steak sandwich and carved off an end with his knife. ‘There’s a code about things like that, maybe because legal action is so easily entered into and can be so time-consuming and costly once it starts.’
‘If your colleagues won’t tell you who started the rumours, what will you do?’ Molly picked a piece of walnut from her chicken Waldorf wrap and popped it into her mouth.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, and then the silence stretched and her skin began to prickle. She glanced up to find her boss’s gaze fixed on her. He had a light of—something—in his eyes, and suddenly she felt uncomfortable, uncertain. Trapped in the beam of a pair of very determined eyes.
‘Um…’ Molly wrapped her A-line black skirt more firmly about her knees, and adjusted the green-and-black top though it needed no adjustment.
‘It’s imperative the company puts the strongest foot forward at this time. I want the person who started these rumours. I want the rumours stopped.’ His face was a tight mask as he spoke the words. ‘And I want any negative impact on my business not only fixed, but put so far behind in the face of my success no person would ever believe such a suggestion again.’
Well, she would have expected such strong assertions. In the three years she’d worked for him, he’d built his business from his own personal investments to a vibrant, diverse service on the cutting edge of financial investment for some very wealthy clients.
‘You want a three-faceted approach to the problem.’ She murmured the words as she thought it over. ‘Catch the person who started the rumours and bring them to account for it. While working on that, fix any negative impact to the company. And, during that process, make us stronger than before so such a threat can’t even touch us in the future.’
‘That’s it, and of course, after Allonby’s offer to you, I also want people to understand you’re staying with me.’ He said this last in a low tone that brooked not even the thought of an argument—from anywhere. ‘You’ll be useful in any case, to help present a consolidated front.’
It was a simple desire to strengthen the company’s position. The first part of his statement shouldn’t have rushed across her senses. That it did was a problem, because it was one thing to have an intellectual admiration for his mind, even his personality, provided she kept that admiration work-related.
Anything else would be inappropriate, foolish. There couldn’t be ‘anything else’. And, yes, she’d had somewhat of a crush on her boss kind of from the beginning, actually, but that fact had to stay subjugated to the power of her will and common sense.
If occasionally she slipped, she understood the danger of it and quickly shored up her defences again.
Molly attempted to do so now. ‘I’ll be happy to put in extra hours in the office, make calls, send out letters. Whatever is needed to set these plans in action.’
‘I do want extra hours from you.’ He linked his fingers in front of him beside his plate.
He had beautiful hands, strong and lean, with a light dusting of hair across the backs.
Molly drew a deep breath and straightened her spine. Now was not the time to dwell on such things about her boss. Particularly when he was looking at her with such…
‘I want those hours from you outside the office.’ He dropped this statement on her without a blink. ‘While we sort this out, I need you at my side for all my working time. We need to move fast and hard to get this thing sorted, one way or another. It’s not about the money. I have enough that I could give up working right now and pay you to do the same. It’s the principle of the thing. My business reputation.’
A reputation he’d formed among Brisbane’s elite. Who were very much not people Molly had ever mixed with, or expected to mix with, other than to offer cups of tea or coffee when they arrived for an appointment at the office with her boss.
She doubted most of them would even be able to recall what she looked like, but it appeared her boss was asking her to…
‘What do you mean, exactly?’ She asked the question with a kind of forlorn hope, but she knew the answer. Until now she had worked in the office, and her boss had worked in the office, but he had also worked among his peers. He needed to have a presence in that world. In his world.
His world, but not hers. Mum, Izzy and Faye might have plied her with fairy tales during her childhood, might have told her she could have the sun, the stars and the moon with sugar on top if she liked, but reality was a whole other thing.
Their lives proved it. No money to speak of. No savings for the future whatsoever. Just a really expansive attitude towards treating themselves when they felt like it, which they justified was okay because they always made sure they could pay their bills on time. And when they no longer had jobs? Had reached retirement age and didn’t have that income stream any more? What would happen then?
Molly pushed the thoughts away. She had enough to worry about at the moment!
It would be dangerous to spend extra time with Jarrod, not to mention she would be so utterly out of her depth. ‘Mollyrella’, in the glittery socialite world of money and privilege? Oh, no. Surely there was some other way? ‘If you’re suggesting I attend social outings with you, I don’t think that would be a good idea.’
‘It’s the best idea.’ He contradicted her with an implacable set to his jaw. ‘That three-pronged plan has a better chance at success with both of us working on it. Two sets of eyes and ears, a dual approach to show them the company is strong and intact, employer and employee included.’
His argument made sense. Darn him. ‘What about contacting your client base now to reassure them? Personal calls?’
‘If I do that, it directly acknowledges the rumours, and that may result in giving them further credence in their eyes.’ He shook his head. ‘I want to see people’s faces while we search for the source of the rumours, while we talk up the business in such a way that those who have concerns will be reassured. Your statistical and other information recall will help with that.’
He ate the last bite of his meal and pushed the plate away. ‘This started in social circles. That’s where it will have to be resolved. It’s as simple as that.’
‘Simple’ was not the word that came to Molly’s mind. Trapped, maybe. Trapped and outwitted and outmanoeuvred. ‘Well, it’s just—’
‘We’ll attend our first function tonight, a private art exhibition in the home and grounds of a couple I know.’ He named one of the wealthiest couples in the city. ‘You’ll come as my guest.’
‘I’ve heard of those people. They’re almost as wealthy—’ As you and your parents. ‘The function is just hours away from now. I don’t even own a suitable evening dress.’
I’m
