Don’t Love, Don’t Lose

Chapter 2

Jasmine sat back and took her glasses off with a frown.

This was turning out to be more difficult than expected. She was beginning to feel some grudging respect for Anthony Malone.

Jasmine wasn’t sure how it had happened, really. She’d settled down at her desk at six, after taking the rest of the afternoon for herself, as was her habit. Everybody needed to take time to themselves. It was important. Jasmine didn’t forget important things.

But at six, she’d decided to do a little digging. Nothing much – just enough research to find out how employees felt about Malone’s business practices. Then she’d gotten herself sucked in a little, and she’d found herself poking at the business itself.

It was amazing how much you could find out about a business if you could sneak your way into a few databases. But apparently, Malone knew that little secret, too, and everything she found seemed to suggest that he was that rare kind of rich man who didn’t cut corners.

She’d been intrigued enough to try to find out just what kind of shady deals he used to maximize profits, and there she had hit a wall. She could find nothing.

Maybe it was because there was nothing and he was an actual honest businessman, but Jasmine just didn’t believe in honest businessmen. Honest people rarely got rich. It was definitely difficult to stay rich if you had that rare thing called integrity. It was more than just difficult to get anywhere near as rich as Malone was.

She couldn’t even find any nuisance lawsuits against him.

Strange man, thought Jasmine, leaning back and stretching. But it didn’t seem like he made life difficult for his employees, and it didn’t seem like he had any over the top security requests, so he probably wasn’t at risk of violence. At least, not more than most people were. The world seemed to get worse every day.

Della didn’t have to go to work. But it made her happy to do it.

It looked like Anthony Malone wasn’t any worse to work for than most rich people. She’d found quite a few former employees who had started their own businesses, which meant he paid well enough for them to be able to provide collateral for business loans, or helped them with connections for capital.

Either way, Della could probably do worse than Anthony Malone’s setup.

It wasn’t ideal, but then Jasmine wouldn’t have considered Della working for anybody ideal. Della ought to be running a kitchen of some sort – a restaurant, a food truck, even running a soup kitchen. With her culinary skills and her organizational brilliance, she’d be wonderful.

But Della always said that she would only cook for love, and not for money.

They’d have to deal with it and go on with life, and she would make sure that she was with Della every Sunday, for lunch and dessert.

Della and Rita were all the family that Jasmine had. She’d always do her best for them, too.

Always.

“Where the…”

Anthony bit off the swear. Jennifer did not appreciate strong language, and if she decided to implement the swear jar system, as she’d been threatening to for the last ten years or so, then she would.

Anthony took a deep breath and pressed the button on the intercom.

“Jennifer, I need the McElderry Park files!”

“Mr. Malone, Ms. Anderson has stepped out, but I’ll have the files for you in two minutes.”

Anthony frowned before he remembered – Jennifer would be leaving for the afternoon flight. She’d hired somebody else. Somebody named…

“I’m Della Simone, Mr. Malone. I started working for you today.”

“Right, of course. I’m sorry, Ms. Simone, I should… It’s not nine yet.”

“I came in early to get the lay of the land. I… Would you like me to come into your office now? Would you like coffee, or something to eat? Or would you like me to get on the files immediately?”

“Come in with the files, please.”

Anthony released the button and sat back, frowning. It had slipped his mind that Jennifer was leaving. That, in itself, was unusual. Things didn’t slip his mind like that. He had an excellent head for details. He had to.

Anthony was still frowning when the door opened and Jennifer walked in.

“I think you’re all set, Anthony. Della will take care of you. Or at least, if you need taking care of, she will. I like her. Keep an open mind and you will like her, too. She’ll keep things running well after you’re ready to leave the office in Jerry’s capable hands. Now, is there anything else you need?”

There was a knock on the door, and it opened a crack.

“I have the files you asked for, Mr. Malone, and I’ve emailed them to you as well. Would you like them now?”

Anthony nodded.

“Yes, I would. Come in, please.”

Jennifer smiled warmly at the older woman who walked in. Obviously, Della Simone believed in taking care of herself, because she still looked very good. Luminous dark skin that looked wonderful with the peach dress she wore, delicate gold-rimmed glasses that did nothing to hide the intelligence in those brown eyes, a welcoming up efficient smile – yes, Della definitely made a good first impression.

The fact that she had laid the files on the table and he already had the soft copies in his inbox – exactly the files he had needed, including the addendum from the planning commission, about their proposal – showed him why Jennifer had decided that Della would be the right person for them to hire.

She was definitely a very capable woman.

“Della, are you sure you’re all settled in?”

“You’ve done almost all the work already. You have everything organized perfectly, and your notes are better than I could’ve expected. I’m good.”

“Yes, you should be. Well, Anthony, this is Della. She will keep you in line if she has to, trust me on that. I hired a tough woman who can go toe to toe with you if necessary. Della, Mr. Malone has a habit of forgetting to take care of himself when he’s working, so I’ll be depending on you to make sure that his planner includes breaks for meals and his run, as well.”

Della grinned, and Anthony saw that there was definitely a sense of humor there, too.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Jennifer. Now, I should get back to my desk and get myself familiar with everything. Is there anything else, Mr. Malone?”

“No, thank you, Della. This is all I need for now. Jennifer, stay for a moment, please?”

Della nodded to both of them and left.

“I see you hired me somebody as like you as possible.”

“You need somebody you can depend on. Della is dependable, and very capable of doing the job. And she will care. Sometimes you forget that you are human and need that, too.”

Anthony smiled. He wouldn’t have taken that from anybody else. Jennifer wasn’t just an employee, she was almost family.

“You worry too much, Jennifer. Well, you’ve made sure I’m in safe hands. Have a good trip home.”

Jennifer nodded, and when she left, Anthony grabbed the files and flipped through them. Everything had been scanned and uploaded as well, but he needed to go back into records from about twenty years ago. Everything hadn’t been digital back then.

He’d had to use a little ingenuity to get these records. Some of it had been sealed because of a court case that had been long and drawn-out, and there had been some gang involvement in it, as well.