ENTANGLED TO THE CEO

Jake’s [POV]

There was a split second of silence from the other line.

“Mr. Middleton, I spoke to you about this last Friday,” she said.

“I told you that I would need to leave early today. I told you I would need to leave by seven at the latest.”

“Fuck,” I said before I could stop myself.

“Excuse”

 “I’m sorry,” I said quickly.

“I’m just… I completely forgot. I thought you said tomorrow night.”

“I didn’t,” she replied crisply.

“I have a doctor’s appointment to get to, Mr. Middleton.”

“Right,” I said.

“You said your father is going through something.”

“Cancer,” Janet said tersely.

“He’s going through cancer.”

“Of course, I’m sorry,” I said quickly.

“The thing is… I can’t get away today. I have two important meetings that start in five minutes, and that must be there.”

“Mr. Middleton”

 “I’ll double your pay for today,” I said, cutting her off before she could tell me off.

“Mr. Middleton”

“I’ll triple it,” I said. There was another second of silence, and then I heard a loud sigh.

 “I suppose I will have to call my sister and ask her to go with my father for chemotherapy.”

“Thank you, Janet,” I said, sighing in relief.

“I can’t thank you enough.”

“I gave you a week’s notice about this, Mr. Middleton,” she said, and I knew she was upset.

“I expected you here by six.”

“I know,” I said, trying to control my sense of irritation.

 “And, I understand you have an emergency. But when I hired you, I made it very clear that I would need you on call twenty-four-seven. You promised me that you would make yourself available to me whenever I required your services.”

“That was before my father was diagnosed,” Janet replied curtly.

“Again, I understand. It’s just... I pay you extremely well, Janet,” I said.

“I’m paying you to double what full-time au-pairs are being paid in France’s richest homes. And, I made it very clear what I expected of you when I hired you.”

 “I suppose we’ll have to come to some sort of understanding in the future,” Janet replied.

 “Or I will have to move on.” There was nothing veiled about that threat. I gritted my teeth and forced myself not to reply.

Her father was going through cancer; she was going through a hard time, and I didn’t want to seem like a complete asshole.

 I was pretty sure I had crossed the asshole line a few sentences ago, however.

 “We’ll discuss it later… When I’m home,” I said.

 “Alright.” I sensed the suppressed anger in her tone.

“Is Noah around?” I asked.

“Hold on,” Janet said. I heard a few seconds of static as the phone was passed over and then I heard a clear, high-pitched voice that made me feel sad and happy all at the same time.

“Daddy?”

“Hi, buddy,” I said, hating that I wasn’t there to see his face.

 I imagined him sitting on the stool by the phone in his dinosaur jammies, holding the phone with both hands, as he had grown accustomed to doing.

“I ate noodles today,” Noah informed me.

I frowned. Janet was a decent babysitter, but she was a lazy cook.

 I gave her an allowance each week for food and groceries, but she spent it all on microwaveable meals and instant noodles because that meant she could avoid cooking something nutritious.

 “Again?” I asked.

 “Uh-huh,” he replied.

 “I poured the packet in. Janet let me.” He was talking about the flavor packets that came with the instant noodles.

 I had already spoken to Janet about not feeding Noah those noodles last week.

She had chosen to ignore me. The sad fact was that I was so hard up for a babysitter that I had no choice but to swallow my words half the time and accept certain things as necessary sacrifices.

“What are you up to now?” I asked.

“Watching TV,” Noah replied. Again, I gritted my teeth.

“It’s after six, buddy,” I said gently.

“You’re not supposed to be watching TV.”

“But I wanna see the Ninja Turtles.”

“Why don’t you play a game with Janet, instead?” I suggested, hoping to tempt him away from the television.

“She’s sick today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her head is hurting.”

 “She’s got a headache?” I asked.

“Uh-huh.” I frowned, but I didn’t say anything else. Instead, I suppressed my reservations and put on a light tone.

“I’m sorry I can’t be there to tuck you in tonight, kiddo… I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

“Okay,” Noah said agreeably. I smiled.

He was a sweet kid and was always ready to forgive.

He had my dark brown hair and my blue eyes, and even at the age of four, he was a looker.

 I was intensely proud of him, but there were moments when parenting weighed heavily on my shoulders.

“Goodnight, buddy.”

“Goodnight, Daddy.” I hung up and sighed, wondering what I was going to do about Janet.

It was obvious that she was unhappy babysitting, too. No matter how great the money was, it wasn’t making up for anything.

She had come highly recommended.

She even had a degree in child psychology, but I was starting to realize that all the qualifications in the world didn’t inspire a love for children or the ability to look after them properly.

I changed my shirt and left my office.

 Kristen was still sitting behind her desk, her head poured over paperwork.

She looked up when I passed.

“Goodnight, sir,” she said.

“Shouldn’t you have left at six?” I asked, realizing that she was usually gone by now.

 “I wanted to organize all the files for the Milton collaboration, sir,” she replied.

“It’ll come in handy for the meeting next week.” Impressed with her work ethic, I gave her an approving nod.

 “You’ve been doing a really good job,” I told her.

Her face ironed out into intense relief, and then she gave me a brilliant smile.

Again, I noticed the dimple on her right cheek. When she smiled, she looked younger and more beautiful.

 “Thank you, sir,” she said.

“I appreciate that.” “Not all my previous assistants have understood my military management style.”

“Well, that’s understandable,” Kristen smiled.

“Considering your background.”

“Right,” I nodded awkwardly.

“Well, anyway… I better get to my meeting.”

“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow, sir.” I nodded and headed out, wondering what it was about her that I was missing.

She was uncommonly pretty, and I realized with a sharp pang that I found her very attractive.

Perhaps that was it. Perhaps what I found unsettling about her was my feelings about her. Maybe it was nothing more than guilt.