Chapter 8

With the album talk finished, Brianna pulled a folder out of her briefcase. “Here’s the correspondence we discussed yesterday and the background on potential partners for that housing project you asked for. And Cheryl sent her preliminary plan to promote the new album.” At the groans echoing around the room, she managed a surprised expression. “What? Promotion isn’t your favourite part of the job?  Cheryl will be devastated. She was telling me how much you all love it.” Cheryl worked for Island/DefJam and was in charge of publicity for the new album. When she’d called to tell Brianna she was sending over the promotion plan, her exact words were: I know they think this stuff is an evil pain in the ass, but it must be done. And no matter what David tells you, I’m not Satan’s mistress!

“What does Satan’s mistress have planned to torture us with this time?” David moaned.

“Oh, just an epk, some radio spots and interviews, that type of thing. Nothing too arduous.” Brianna assured him.

“Torture! She’s evil, I tell you! Evil!” David argued in a voice that would have made Mike Myers proud.

Brianna just rolled her eyes.

While they were talking Jon had been reading the letters she’d written.  Reaching for a pen, he scrawled his signature across the bottom of them and handed them back to her.  In the process of taking them from him, her hand brushed his and she almost dropped the papers, startled at the spark of electricity that ran up her arm. Her eyes flew to Jon’s, but he was reading her research report and showed no sign of having felt it.

She couldn’t have been more wrong. Jon was very aware of the embers waiting to explode between them....and it made him concerned that he’d made a mistake in hiring her. But she’s doing such a great job! The material she’d put together for his pet projects was nothing short of remarkable – exactly what he’d hoped for and more than he’d expected. They were both adults, not hormone controlled teenagers. They could control themselves. He loved his wife. More importantly, he respected her. He had no wish to cheat on her. He could resist temptation, stay loyal to Dorothea and keep what was turning out to be the best assistant he’d ever had. A statistic in the report he was reading leapt off the page at him and he leaned over to get confirmation. “Is this right?”

His heat and the scent of his cologne seemed to envelope her, overwhelming her senses and scattering her wits. Get it together Bri! Ignore it. He’s your boss....and married! And she didn’t fool around with married men. She’d been there, had it done to her, and she refused to do it to someone else. Forcing herself to focus on the paper in his hand, she nodded and pulled her source material out of her briefcase. “Yeah. Surprised me too, so I double checked. Here’s the full stat report. Did you get a chance to look over the latest batch of mail?”

“Yeah. I made some notes. It’s all on my desk in the house.”

“Do you mind if I go look at it? If we’re done here that is.”

“Yeah. Go ahead.” He waved her off, his attention on what he was reading.

As the door closed behind Brianna, Jon felt the stares of his friends and glanced up. “What?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea bro?” Richie nodded towards the door.

“You think she’s going to trash my office?”

“Your office? No. But a woman like that could do some serious damage to your marriage if you’re not careful and your wife finds out.”

“A woman like that?”

“Mmm. Beautiful, smart...” Richie began.

“Sassy, good sense of humour.” David continued. “The kind of woman you have a relationship with, not just a fling.”

Jon knew his friends were just looking out for him, but he didn’t appreciate their lack of faith in him. “Don’t you guys think I can control myself?”

“Just wondering why you’d want that kind of temptation around, especially as close as your assistant needs to be.” Richie pointed out.

Jon glanced down again at the report in his hand. “Because she’s that good.”

Reaching the house, Brianna knocked on the door. After a couple minutes it was answered . “Hi Steph.”

“Hi. Come on in.” Stephanie stepped back to let her in. “You going to the office?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll let Mom know you’re here.”

“Thanks.”

Settling behind Jon’s desk, Brianna picked up the first item on the pile he had set out for her.  She was halfway through her first reading of the stack when a noise in the hallway had her looking up.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

“Hi Bianna!” Jake bounced into the room.

“Hi Jakey.” She couldn’t help but smile at the toddler. He was such a happy little boy. “What are you up to today?”

“Nutin’.” He walked behind the desk to stand beside her. “What’cha doing?”

“Going over Daddy’s mail.”

“Oh.”

Returning to the stack in front of her, Brianna continued reading and making notes, but out of the corner of her eye watched Jake wander around the room. An idea struck and she booted up her laptop. “Do you want to play a game?”

His little face lit up. “Sure!”

She lifted him onto her lap and showed him how to play, not surprised when he picked it up quickly.

When Dorothea popped in to say hello, she found them engrossed in the doings of the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom.

“There’s a crabcake!”

“I gots it!”

“You’re not bothering Brianna, are you Jakey?” Dorothea asked.

Jake didn’t even look up from the screen. “No. We paying a game.”

“Mmm.” She walked closer. “Spongebob?”

Brianna grinned. “Yeah. There’s a whole site of free kids games.”

“You’ll have to make sure you tell Obie about that one.”

Later that night, Dorothea watched her husband climb into bed. “How’s Brianna working out so far?”

“Good. Really good. She’s more anal than I am about my schedule and details, and she seems to understand what I’m trying to say and what I need without me having to explain it to death a hundred times.”

“Wow, that’s scary.”

“What is?”

“Someone who understands the way your mind works.”

“You mean someone other than you, smartass?” He shot back.

Dorothea just laughed. “The kids like her. Jakey says she’s pretty and fun.”

“That’s ‘cause she spent two hours playing Spongebob with him today. Maybe I should be giving her hazard pay.”

“If you’re going to do that, it should be for having to cope with the big kids.” Dorothea suggested.

“They don’t seem to faze her. They tested her and she passed with flying colours. She even managed to turn the tables on Lemma when he tried to punk her.”

Dorothea’s brows lifted. “Really?  Good for her.” Her opinion of Brianna grew even more. If she could handle David, she’d survive just fine. “You should tell her that she doesn’t have to dress for the office when she comes out here though. The corporate look is nice and very professional, but she might as well be comfortable. Especially if she’s going to play with the kids.”

Jon looked at her like she just asked him to flap his arms and fly across the room. “Right. Like I’m going to tell a woman what she should wear. You trained me better than that honey. If you think she should dress differently, you tell her.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I will.”

Jon leaned over to kiss her neck. “Are we finished talking about my assistant now?”

“Is there something else you want to talk about?” She smirked, the expression in her eyes knowing and amused.

“Talking’s over rated. I prefer action.”

“Yeah? Well, come on Action Man, show me what you’ve got.”