Carrying His Baby

But she wanted that, near the water somewhere. She wanted a home, with a husband who loved her, with children they would love. She would have fulfilling work that she enjoyed and she was good at. Maybe she would have her own company – just a small one, where she could do local catering.

Simple dreams could go out of reach if you spent your time daydreaming, she reminded herself, making herself wake up sharply. She had work to do, and work she would do.

She knew she had done all the groundwork to make sealing the deal easy for Valerie. She also knew that her work would be acknowledged, unlike at a bigger organization. She was valued there.

She wondered if Aldous Banks valued his employees. He probably understood that it was profitable to do so. He seemed to know everything about profits, at least.

Curious, she took her tablet out and ran another search on him. This time, she focused on his business, instead of his personal tastes and preferences. After all, he would probably have business associates at his event. Was it a business or personal event? He hadn’t given them any real details in the brief.

Another test, she assumed. He probably wanted to see how prepared they would be for all possible scenarios. Well, when he went through the file she’d put together, he’d see that they were as prepared as prepared could be. Boy Scouts could take lessons from them.

His online presence – at least that of his flagship company, Fine Times, focusing on wines for every wallet because everybody deserves a fine time, and wasn’t that a good tag line – was impressive. That probably also meant that it was carefully plotted and planned. Still, she could see that the company had several subsidiaries. There was an elite line that focused on exclusive and vintage wines. There was a more affordable range. There was even a more experimental range meant for people who were open to taking risks and exploring their palates.

A good spin, she could readily admit. She wouldn’t mind taking a look at some of their suppliers for their events, either. It looked like they had an excellent reputation for service and for quality.

And, she noticed, with some surprise, employee turnover seemed to be fairly low. That indicated that he did value his employees. Most of his leadership across the board had been with the company since the beginning.

She recognized a few extremely famous names as part of sommelier tours. Not just wine tours with an employee of the company – his outfit organized tours with people who knew what they were talking about.

All in all, she was extremely impressed with the setup. That didn’t mean, she reminded herself, that the man himself was anything better than complete scum. He was probably a pretty boy who had all the money. He probably invested in a start-up that was the actual brains and brawn behind the entire thing, and he was just the face for all of it.

Somehow, she doubted that as she left the swaying subway and made her way above ground to deal with the peachy scenario waiting for her.

She stopped almost in Little Italy to find an excellent market with extraordinarily lovely fruits, picked up their entire supply of peaches. That should keep Lori’s panties untwisted long enough for her to get more peaches, bury her in peaches if need be, she figured.

Lori was actually in tears by the time she got there. They changed into tears of happiness when she saw that Hallie came bearing peaches. If the girl wasn’t a genius with all kinds of pastries, she wouldn’t be worth the trouble, thought Hallie as she patted and soothed.

She chased the uncharitable thought away immediately. She was thinking like an unscrupulous billionaire.

He was probably the kind who just had to crook a finger to have girls flocking to him. Well, he would soon discover that not all girls were willing to be at his beck and call. She was amused when she realized that her hackles were already rising. He hadn’t hit on her, nor was he likely to. She’d be invisible to him – part of the help. People like him didn’t see people like her.

She had just about finally found a moment for herself when her phone rang. It was Valerie. For a moment, she felt a huge weight on her chest, as if everything was about to change. She shook it off immediately.

“Hallie?”

Valerie sounded a bit harassed.

“Val, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. We’ve almost got the job. Man, he grilled me, Hallie. He knows what he wants, and he’s determined to have it. The good part is that he absolutely has no problem with paying what we want. He’ll throw in a hefty bonus, too, if we do it to his satisfaction.

“But?”

“Well, he had a few unpleasant things to say. I stood my ground in the end, but… Well, it wasn’t very nice.”

She had known he was an asshole.

“Come back to work and tell me all about it.”

“Yeah, I’m on my way.”

“I do need to talk to you about it. Boy, your first assignment as manager isn’t an easy one!”

Good, though Hallie as she hung up. She liked a challenge. And she’d take his arrogant billionaire down a peg or two if she must, too. She quite looked forward to that.