“What do you need?” I ask.
“To not lose anything else.”
“Be more specific, Ashley. Right now, in this moment, what would help you sort this mess out?”
“An assistant who’s qualified and can take over someone else’s mess and sift through it without dropping any balls.” She smiles at me, a weary smile. “A unicorn in other words.”
“Well, I don’t have a unicorn as such but I do have a team of assistants. I’ll call Tyson and see which would be the best placed to work in the charity sector and you can borrow them for a month or two until you find someone, or have them train a new person.”
She shakes her head.
I raise an eyebrow. Surely, she’s not too proud to borrow a member of my staff if it means keeping her charity afloat?
“I appreciate the offer Finn, really I do, but the charity can’t afford to pay the kind of salary a company like yours pays, and no one is going to come and work for me for less money.”
I see the problem and I know exactly how to deal with it in a way she won’t see as me taking pity on her. “Oh, no you don’t. I see what you’re doing and it’s not going to happen.”
“Huh?”
“Trying to get them off my payroll and onto yours so you can keep them? I don’t think so, Ashley. It’s a loan of a member of staff, nothing more than that,” I tell her. “I’ll be paying their salary and while they will be at your beck and call for the time you need them, there’s a two-month limit on that.” I pause and shake my head. “I can’t believe I made a nice gesture and you saw an opportunity to poach someone from my staff.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she corrects.
“A likely story,” I reply. “Now, do you want me to make the call on my terms or not?”
She nods slowly.
I stand up and start to head to my office to make the call.
As I cross the room, Ashley calls out from behind me, “Finn?”
I turn back.
She smiles at me. “I know what you’re doing… and why you’re doing it. Thank you.”
I smile back at her, afraid that if I confirm what she’s thinking, she’ll change her mind. I go to my office and call Tyson. I explain to him what I need and he recommends Andrea, a young and ambitious team member who came to us from a nonprofit company which she left when she saw there was no path for betterment there for her. I tell Tyson to call her and have her meet Ashley at her office at eight in the morning, and to make it clear to Andrea that this is a personal favor to me and not a demotion, or a way of getting her out of the back door.
Tyson texts me within five minutes, saying it’s all sorted and Andrea will be there.
I go back to the living room.
Ashley looks up as I walk towards her.
I shake my head, my face grave. “I’m sorry Ashley. We won’t be able to give you a unicorn.”
Her face drops.
“But…” I pause dramatically, “…we will however be giving you Andrea, a professional assistant with experience working in the nonprofit sector.”
“Oh, you bastard,” Ashley breathes with a grin.
I laugh. “I think the words you’re looking for are thank you, but whatever.”
“Seriously, you almost gave me heart failure there. But yes, thank you. You have no idea what this means to me, Finn.”
I sit back down beside her and smile at her. “It’s my pleasure. Now, what else do you need?”
“Nothing,” she says, smiling again. “Really, that’s just taken a huge weight off my mind. When will I meet her?”
“She’s meeting you at your office at eight o’clock tomorrow morning. After that, you can set her hours to suit you both.”
“That’s good,” Ashley chimes, staring off into the distance for a moment. “That’ll give me enough time to go over everything with her and get her set up before I have to meet your mom for a dress fitting.”
“About that…” I start.
“Oh, God what now? Finn I can’t cope with anything else changing right now,” she grumbles.
“It’s nothing. My mom just asked me to remind you about it, that’s all.”
Now isn’t the time to talk about the new will. If she hears the words “the wedding’s off” she’s actually going to hear the words “the deal is off” right now. And in the frazzled state she’s in, I’d never get her to hear me when I tell her that I’m still going to be donating the money as we discussed it. She isn’t the one who broke the deal and her charity shouldn’t suffer because of it. Hell, I’m actually happy to be giving her this money. My grandpa’s moment of nostalgia has already caused enough upheaval as it is.