“It’s because of Natasha, isn’t it?” Denise asked. She never was a person to mince words.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” I said, smirking.
“Natasha Morgan, the woman who has been making your life easier in the office since she started here a little over five months ago. The woman who has you distracted and focused all at the same time.”
I knew I was blushing.
“So, the secret is out?”
“Hell, Marty, if that’s how you keep a secret remind me to never tell you the pass code to get into my house.”
Denise looked at me over the top rims of her glasses and smiled.
“She’s very likeable, Marty. And she’s a very good secretary considering the distraction she has to face every day.” Denise stepped into my office tucking some random file under her arm and clasping her hands in front of her. “Can I be honest?”
“Aren’t you always. Sometimes to the nth degree.” I said, making her smirk back at me.
“If you are going to continue on the path you’ve started with Natasha, I would take her out somewhere. I’ve taken the liberty of making a reservation for the two of you at Angelo’s. It’s quiet. It’s not over the top. It’s for next Friday. That will give her plenty of time to run for the hills if she’s smart.”
“You’re really putting it all out there tonight, Denise. What is this about?”
Stepping further into the office and leaning on one of the chairs in front of my desk Denise became very serious, more serious that I had ever seen her over any issue at work.
“Last week, Wednesday I think it was, I had forgotten my umbrella. Remember, it was raining something fierce out that day. I came up here and heard you and Natasha talking like you had been now for a couple of months together. I peeked in and saw you.”
I could have made a dozen smart remarks to tease Denise about her softer side but I didn’t. From the way she looked I determined she had something worth listening to say.
“It was like I was looking at my own son when he had his first girlfriend over to the house. He wanted his father and I to leave them alone in the family room downstairs. We did, only once in a while checking to make sure things were still vertical. Which they were.”
“Denise. I’m not a sixteen year old boy.” I said gently.
“Neither was he. This is my son were talking about. The girls starting coming around when he was fourteen. He’s got his father’s black, naturally curly hair and my brains. Anyway, my point is that he took out the girls who made him look like that. The ones who made him smile and laugh. You were talking and laughing with Natasha as if you were old friends.”
This was a weird turn of events for me. To get a blessing from Denise on anything that didn’t have to do with signing my name on the bottom line was near impossible. And yet here she was condoning something I was sure she would have disapproved of.
“Can I ask you a serious question, Denise?” She nodded her head and pursed her eyebrows together. “What do you like about her?”
“That shouldn’t really matter, boss. The truth is that I just do. And I think if you are going to pursue her you should make a bold move.”
“You mean I’m not going to get a lecture on dipping my pen in company ink or mixing business with pleasure or any of the other breeches in office politics?”
“It’s your company.” She said, rolling her eyes. “I’m just trying to help you stay the gentleman I know you are. Keep it above the table. Your mom would agree with me.”
Denise turned and left. Shouting goodnight from her desk outside my office she left me with quite a bit to think about.
Natasha had come to my office last night just a little after five to tell me some joke she heard. It was a terrible joke, I don’t remember the punch-line but she thought it was hilarious. As I had been doing for the past couple of months since I had to work late I invited her to stay, help me with some work and join me for dinner in my office.
Denise was right. Natasha did make me laugh and smile when she was here. But she was also serious about her job. But I think it was her total lack of interest in my finances that made the whole thing so refreshing. Never once did she ask me if I went sailing or where my most exotic vacation was. How many cars do you have, Marty? How much did it cost you?
How were people brought up these days? It seemed as if women with any kind of discretion were few and far between.
“Have you been on the conference room floor?” I had asked her one night, just before we parted ways. I was trying to think of something to keep her in my company just a little longer.
“I was just there for a second when I almost got off the elevator on the wrong floor. But I didn’t look around. No.”
Two floors below this one was what everyone referred to as the conference room floor. Twelve conference rooms of varying sizes filled the entire floor. Each one had a view of the city but of course, the main conference room, the one we hosted dignitaries and shareholders in had the most spectacular view. It was beautiful during the day. But at night it was as if a person was on another planet. The lights in the buildings around floated in the darkness as below red tail lights and front high beams made luminous snakes that wove their way across the ground. Stoplights blinked red, yellow and green and store windows made incandescent designs in rainbows of color. But it was the steady glow of the streetlights that I enjoyed to most because there were so many of them. It reminded me of the Christmas village my mother used to set up every year when I was younger. I would sit for house in front of the tiny town, just thinking and making up stories of the things the Lilliputians were doing. And at night, when all the other lights in the house were off the holiday lights would still be lit and give off the same kind of glow the city did every night.
Sometimes, if I had a particularly vexing problem I’d come and sit here alone. There were many times I came there because I was alone. Since meeting Natasha I never realized how alone I was.