Chapter 15

“Bite me Alex! My life is no business of yours anymore, and I sure as hell don’t give a shit about yours! It’s not my fault that sales slumped at the same time wife number three wanted to own an island in the Caribbean. The judge said you have to pay so you have to pay.  Guess she’ll just have to settle for eating at home instead of restaurants for a couple weeks. Blame your lawyer, he wrote the prenup. Maybe you should check with him, and see if it would be cheaper to just divorce her. After all, her time is just about up isn’t it? Time to move on to wife number four?”

“Now now Brianna, your bitterness is showing.”

She snorted. “Gee I can’t imagine what I have to be bitter about.”

“Neither do I. You were treated fairly.”

“That’s a matter of opinion.” She waved a hand in the air, not wanting to have the same old argument with her ex-husband again. “Whatever. It’s also not my problem that your new assistant is making a mess of the office and not living up to your expectations. Maybe when you interview candidates you should focus more on their qualifications to do the job rather than their potential as your next conquest.” She smirked. “After all, you won’t find too many that meet all your requirements.....like I did.”

Alex snorted, but refused to admit just how right she was, and what a huge mistake he’d made letting her go –at least as his assistant. “So you refuse to help me?”

Brianna rolled her eyes at his surprised tone. Talking to him was like talking to the wall – except the wall was a better listener!  He truly didn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to jump at his call to help him. “Sorry, I’ve got a new job now, with a boss that actually appreciates my abilities and treats me with respect and politeness.” Until recently anyway. “I don’t have time for anything else, even it if I did feel so inclined – which I don’t. You’ll have to find another sucker Alex, I’m done being your doormat.  Goodbye.”

Hanging up, Brianna blew out a breath and covered her face with her hands. Men! Or maybe it’s just the CEO types. She prided herself on being able to cope and understand their temperaments and reactions, but she was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t as good as she thought. Something was going on with Jon, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure it out.  For the last couple weeks, he’d cancelled her trips out to the house, often didn’t return her calls and when he did, he was curt and abrupt. She’d gone over and over every aspect of her responsibilities and their recent interactions, looking for some cause of his obvious displeasure, but came up empty. Besides, up until now, if he’d had a problem with her performance he was very upfront about it.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the ringing of her phone. A glance at the display had her wondering for an instant if she’d conjured him. She took a deep breath before answering, bracing herself for whatever his mood might be. “Hey boss. What’s up?”

“I need you to come out to the house. There’s a pile of correspondence that needs to go out and I need to talk to you about my schedule.”

“Okay. Sure. When do you want me to come out?”

“Now.” His tone indicated she shouldn’t have needed to ask.

Brianna winced. “Right. I’m on my way. I’ll see you in a bit.”

The only response she got was the click of a disconnecting line.

She sighed and began packing up her briefcase. Doesn’t look like his mood has improved any.

Waiting for the gates to open to allow her to pass through, Brianna took several calming breaths and reminded herself that she was capable of dealing professionally and ably with whatever awaited her inside.

Stephanie opened the door. “Hi. Come on in. Dad’s in the office. Hope you brought body armor...he’s in a mood.”    

“Thanks for the warning.” Brianna grimaced. “How’s school going?”

“Pretty good. I like all my teachers so that helps.”

“Yeah, it sure does.” Brianna agreed with a smile. “Wish me luck, I’m going in.”

“Yell if you need first aid.”

Brianna laughed and started down the hallway. Reaching the office, she hesitated then knocked on the door. She took the grunted response as assent and entered. Her “Hi Boss” was greeted with another grunt and a brief glance as she sat down.

“Here. These are ready to go out.” Jon held out a file folder full of correspondence without looking up from reading his email.

“Okay. Thanks.” She handed over a folder of her own. “Here’s the latest batch.”

With another grunt he set it aside.

Brianna sat quietly looking through the folder he’d given her and waited for him to speak. Normally they chatted easily and pleasantly during their meetings, but today she sensed she was better to keep silent.

Finally, he sat back and picked up a piece of paper that was lying on his desk. He read it over several times, debating, then held it out to her. “These dates need to be blocked off on my schedule.”

“Whole days?” Her brows rose in surprise as she took the paper and read it quickly. They were in full on album promotion and the tour was scheduled to start in a little over a month. While she hadn’t been through this before, she doubted this was a good time for him to be taking so much time off. But he was the boss. It was his business, his life.

“Yes, whole days!” Jon snapped.

“Anything I can help with?” The professional in Brianna made her ask despite the risk to her neck – and possibly her job.

“No.” Jon struggled to bring his temper under control. “I’ve got some personal business to take care of.”

“Okay. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.” When he didn’t say any more, she prodded him gently. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”

She stood. “Is Dorothea around?”

His head snapped up. “What do you need her for?”

Brianna’s brows rose at his aggressive tone. “I haven’t talked to her in awhile, I just wanted to say hi.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw “I’ll pass it on. She’s busy.”

 Okaaaay. She stood and put the file in her briefcase. “I’ll be going then. See you later.”

His grunt followed her out the door.

“We need to tell her.” Dorothea spoke from the doorway. She’d heard the end of their conversation as she walked down the hallway, but wasn’t fast enough to catch Brianna.

“No we don’t.” He argued without looking up. “It’s nobody’s business but ours.”

 “You’re treating her like an incompetent...servant. She deserves to know why you’re crankier than a bear with a belly full of cubs and that it has nothing to do with her. And as closely as she needs to work with you....” Dorothea trailed off and studied her husband’s stubborn expression for a moment.  “We need to figure out how to tell the kids too.”

His head snapped up. “There’s no point in scaring them.  On the days you don’t feel well we’ll just tell them you have the flu or something. It’ll only be for a few weeks.”

“For the first round of treatments.”

Jon frowned. “Positive thoughts, remember honey.  Worrying about what might happen never helped anyone.”

“Neither does sticking your head in the sand and pretending it can’t happen!” She sighed. “Honey, I’m going to fight this with everything I’ve got....but we’ve got to be realistic....”

“No!  You heard the doctor. She said radiation and chemo are our best options...our best chance to shrink the tumour so that they can operate.”

Yeah but her eyes told me that chance was slim. And she’d done her own research. The prognosis was not good. But she wouldn’t take away his hope. She wasn’t giving up her own either, but she also had to be realistic. She would keep her promise to fight as hard as she could, but if it looked like it wasn’t going to work, she would do what she always did  - whatever she could to make sure her family had what they needed.

And that meant not fighting with him now. Walking behind his chair, Dorothea wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck. “Okay honey.  I hear you. We’ll leave it be.”

As she walked to the door she stopped to frown at him, remembering.  “But you need to stop being such an asshole to Bri.  If she quits, especially this close to the tour, you’ll be screwed – and not in a good way. Plus, she doesn’t deserve it.”

Jon sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I know.  I’ll be nicer. I promise.”

Dorothea nodded and turned to leave, a sad smile curving her lips. She knew this was hard on him and she had a feeling it was only going to get worse. She hoped they both had enough strength to see it through to the end.