George and May pulled Anne into the kitchen and grilled her with questions until she’d filled them in on most everything that had happened in the past few days. After lunch, Anne cornered Katie to get advice on entertaining her girls when they came to town.
“You know, you don’t have to see everything on this first trip,” said Katie.
“But I’m only here on a trial basis. What if this is the only chance we have?”
“He’d better not fire you, because I’m leaving for good when I get married, even if he doesn’t have a PA.” Katie glanced at his office door to make sure he was still safe inside. “That is, if he doesn’t fire me first when he catches me talking trash about him.”
“I think he’s going to fire me for not getting this presentation ready for the Switzerland trip. It’s frustrating knowing I have so much work to do on it, but I can’t do any more ‘til they get me the information I need. Why do they wait ‘til the last minute?”
“They always do that, and Mr. Gherring is the worst one.”
“Yes, I’m hoping I’ve scared Jared and Jeff into turning in their stuff earlier. But I don’t think my scary-mad-mom voice will work on Mr. Gherring.”
The office door opened and Gherring looked at the two conspirators with suspicion. Both sent him innocent smiles. “Did you need something?” asked Katie.
“Yes, I need Ms. Best for a moment.”
Anne followed him into his private office, wondering whether he’d caught on to her matchmaking efforts already. “Yes sir?”
“You don’t need to call me sir.” He tossed his pen on his desk with more force than necessary. “I have some things ready for the Switzerland group.”
“Oh great—I’ve been stressing about getting that presentation ready.”
“Okay, grab your
laptop and we’ll get started.”
“You mean, together? I thought you’d just give me the information, and I’d kind of work on my own.”
“The information is in here.” He pointed to his head. “So unless I give you my head on a platter, we’ll just have to work together.”
“Okay but it’ll take a long time.”
“Do you have something else to do?”
Anne thought about her daily talk with Henri. She’d have to miss this one. “I just figured you had more important things to do.”
“Not today.”
“Okay.”
What was going on inside his head? His expressions were frustratingly inscrutable.
Anne swiftly gathered her laptop from her desk. She sent a text to Henri telling him she was tied up that afternoon, and then returned to Gherring’s office.
Gherring fired off information at a rapid rate, with Anne working furiously to take notes. After an hour of nonstop input, she stopped the pacing man. “Wait. I need a break. My brain is fried.”
“Let me see what it looks like.” Gherring came around to stand behind her.
“I haven’t even started to put it in the PowerPoint format yet. That takes forever. I need to get it organized first.”
“Then show me what you’ve done from before.”
Anne pulled up the saved presentation on her laptop and started going through the slides. Gherring leaned in close, reaching over her shoulder to indicate a bullet point. “There should be more information on this point.”
Anne felt that familiar warming that happened whenever Gherring touched her. She shifted a little to the side. “There’s a lot more information down below, in the notes section. But we don’t want too much writing on the slide. Just summary information.”
“I see,” he leaned down further and pressed a few keys. “And this is how we access the notes?” She could swear he purposely leaned against her. She felt her heart rate accelerate and her breathing was shallow.