Off Limits (16 page)

It was great that Trisha was a heavy sleeper. That way she couldn't hear me crying at night time.

Nate

Hiring season was probably my least favorite thing about owning my restaurants. Interviewing countless candidates and handing out rejection after rejection could really crush a guy's spirit. Especially when only a few years ago I had been in my interviewees shoes. So many people applied when we put out our current job vacancies that it would be impossible to hire them all. It made me feel like garbage. If I had wanted to I certainly could have gotten someone else to do the interviewing for me. I was the head of the entire chain and what I said happened. I could put some poor sap in charge of weeding out the completely hopeless candidates to the people who actually had some potential. I had thought about doing just that many times, but it didn't feel right to me.

This was my company and if that meant I had to do the tough jobs sometimes then so be it. The list of vacancies was emailed to me weeks in advance. I liked to hire college kids and recent graduates for a lot of the jobs so we had quite a high turnover from year to year, what with people moving away to pursue internships and that kind of thing. The list seemed to be extra-long this year. For our home state alone we needed twenty waiters or waitresses, two new chefs, four new sous chefs and a seemingly endless amount of cleaners. Things were even more hectic in our PR department, where there seemed to be endless vacancies. It made hiring season all the more stressful for everyone involved, but it was nice to think that we had so many new opportunities for people who deserved them.

I hadn't looked at the list in a while but now that the interview stage was mere weeks away I thought it might be worth giving it a second glance. The first thing that struck me was that we needed a graphic designer to help revamp some of our advertising.

Ruby was the first person who came to mind. She was an amazing artist in every sense of the word so I had no doubt that she would be a fantastic addition to any team. Even if she didn't have much experience with graphic design I was sure that she would pick it up very quickly. She was so smart and adaptable she would fit right in with all her colleagues. God knew she could do with the money too, as it didn't sound like her freelance artwork was a very fruitful venture. I imagined what she'd wear to work. Sexy pencil skirts that showed off her ass in just the right way, sheer white blouses with the buttons undone just enough to let the lace of her bra peek over the top.

We hadn't spoken in days now but I knew that I needed her.

Ruby

Helping Trisha look for a new place to stay had become my full time job. It was a job that I was very passionate about too, because the sooner she could leave my already cramped apartment the better. If she had been irritating before then living in close proximity to her for an extended period amplified every slightly annoying quirk by a million. She snored, first of all. She snored so loudly that it scared the crap out of Lucy and made her scratch me in fear. Trisha also criticized everything I did, from my cooking to my cleaning to my artwork. The latter was coming from a girl who couldn't even draw a straight line if you gave her a ruler. She had to go and if there was any chance that I could speed up that process then I was more than happy to try.

Finding a place that suited Trisha's needs however, was easier said than done. She had ridiculously high standards for someone with as small an income as she had and didn't seem willing to budge on anything. My speculations for finding an apartment had been that I could afford it and that it wasn't infested with anything that was likely to kill me. I told this to Trisha in vain.

"Yeah, and look at what a shit hole that got you!" she said. I was insulted but I hid it. A shitty apartment was better than no apartment at all and we both knew it in our hearts. Even so, the two of us trailed across town as Trisha said no to the places that weren't good enough and said yes to the places that she couldn't afford if her salary was doubled.

On our third day of house hunting with no luck I felt exhausted. My body ached from all the walking and my head was pounding from dehydration. Not to mention the hunger that was causing my stomach to grumble loudly with every step I took.

"We need a break," I insisted. Trisha whined at this at first but I soon won her over. She wasn't one to say no to food. I suggested a cheap and cheerful little cafe on the other side of the street but Trisha wrinkled her nose at the idea.

"Yuck, I'm not eating that crap. You gotta be kidding me. I have a very delicate stomach. If I eat cheap sandwiches then I'll be throwing up all night long," she said. There was no reason for me to argue with her. Even if she was exaggerating, I didn't want to take the risk of her getting sick in my tiny apartment.

"OK, then where do you suggest?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at her. Trisha thought for a second and then smiled.

"We're near the beach, why don't we check out Nate's restaurant. The food is supposed to be amazing. Expensive, but amazing," she saw the worried look on my face and gave me a pitying smile, "Don't worry honey, I'll pay. I know that kind of luxury food isn't in your price range right now. It's all on me."

"That's not the problem," I said, annoyed at her little jab at my finances.

"I'm a little more worried about bumping into Nate. It's kind of awkward between us right now."

Trisha gave me a withering look.

"I can imagine. But can't you just do this for me, please? I really want to try some good food from a good restaurant. I don't care who owns it. If we see Nate we can just ignore him. It'll be fine, I promise!" she said. I said no again but she promised and promised, eventually wearing me down. I gave in and agreed to go to the restaurant.

"Just this once," I said firmly, "And if I see Nate I'm leaving."

Trisha nodded at what I said but I could tell she wasn't listening to me now. Anyway, I very much doubted that I would have the rationality and self-control to simply walk away if Nate was there. I didn't know what I would do, but I supposed that if I was meant to know that we would soon find out. I felt my heart start to pound in my chest as we approached Nate's restaurant. He won't be there, I told myself. He won't be there or if he is he'll be with some bimbo who's taken your place. It's all your fault.

I silently shushed my internal voice of doom and slapped a big smile on my face, pretending to be interested in Trisha's speculations about what the entree choices would be.

There was no sign of Nate when we entered the restaurant and the two of us were quickly seated at a booth together. I looked all around me but there was no sign of a familiar face anywhere. My heart ached in disappointment.

It didn't matter though. I was here to have lunch with my annoying cousin Trisha. Nothing more.

"What do you feel like Rubes? I'm in the mood for pasta," said Trisha.

I forced myself to sound excited about the various dishes but I didn't really care. I hated admitting it to myself but I had wanted to see Nate. Now that he wasn't here I felt ridiculously disappointed.

Despite my misery, I put on a brave face and chatted with Trisha about what we were going to order and how nice the desserts looked. I didn't bother telling her about the last time I had been here with Nate and how we had gone skinny dipping in the sea together. That seemed like a distant memory to me now. It was almost as if it had happened in another life.

A waitress came by to take our orders. She was pretty and petite, vaguely familiar though I couldn't quite place her. She recognized me a few seconds before I recognized her.

"Oh, it's you!" she said, before blushing a little bit at her impertinence,

"Sorry, excuse me I didn't mean to blurt that out. I just thought I recognized you."

Trisha gave me a funny look. The girl's back tracking wasn't exactly convincing. It suddenly clicked with me who she was and I had to swallow my pride and talk to her.

"Katie, right? Nate told me about you. I'm Ruby and this is my cousin Trisha," I said. Trisha gave Katie a curt nod though the girl didn't even acknowledge her.

"He told you about me?" she said, sounding surprised, "That's new." Trisha kicked me under the table and I knew she wanted an explanation.

"Katie and Nate are...Katie is Nate's girlfriend," I said, though every word pained me. I could tell by the way she was talking about him, by the way she was looking at me. It was true. Even that voice mail had given it away. He would probably be happier with her anyway. She seemed a little bit boring to me but boring meant less complicated, less difficult. Boring was good. I wished that I could manage to be boring enough.

Katie and Trisha looked equally shocked at what I said.

"Nate has a girlfriend? Seriously?" Trisha exclaimed. I nodded in confirmation but Katie shook her head, letting out a nervous giggle.

"Sorry Miss but you've got all wrong. Nate took me out for dinner and he's done some very nice things for me but we're not in a relationship," she sighed dreamily, "I'm pretty sure we won't ever be. In fact, he spent our entire date checking you out. It's not fun, but I'm moving on. Anyway, can I take you ladies' orders today? Today's special is the carbonara.”

I couldn't tell if the girl was lying to me or not but I figured that she had no reason to lie. I suddenly felt strange and slightly woozy. Trisha and I both ordered the specials and Katie told us they'd be ready really soon and went back to the kitchen.

"Good to see you again," she said as she was leaving.

My fingers itched above my cell phone's keypad to call Nate, but I put it away in my bag. It might happen tomorrow, but not today. Today I was going to enjoy my lunch.

Nate

I had taken it upon myself to call all of the candidates who had successfully earned an interview for the PR jobs. My co-workers called me crazy. They didn't understand my motives at all. What was the point of being the boss if you couldn't leave the shittiest jobs to the little guy? I had to call well over forty people, who displayed highly variable levels of enthusiasm, in order to tell them that their resume had been impressive enough to warrant an interview. It wasn't exactly fun, though I did enjoy being able to deliver the good news to those who really appreciated it. I wondered how they would react if I told them that it was the head of the chain calling to deliver this news, but I decided against that. I wasn't that far up my own ass.

All in all it took me two hours of calling and calling to get through my long list. Luckily, it was a job I could do laying on my bed because otherwise I would have been driven nuts by the monotony of the whole thing. At the end of those two hours I had successfully made contact with every single person on that list. Apart from one person.

Ruby hadn't submitted an application for the graphic designer position. How could she, when she didn't even know that there was a vacant position? It wasn't fair really. That's why I had taken it upon myself to put her name down on the list of successful candidates. Maybe it wasn't one hundred percent fair, but it was my chain and I generally only used my powers for good. A little bit of evil now and again never hurt anyone.

My hands shook as I dialed Ruby's number. I was calling from my land line, which gave my call a better chance of not being ignore, but I still felt nervous. I willed her not to hang up on me as soon as she recognized my voice.

"Hey, it's Ruby. Who is this and how did you get my number?" she asked upon answering. Fuck, just hearing her voice made my cock hard. I had forgotten how sensual it was. I missed hearing it moan my name when she reached her climax. But I couldn't think about that now. This was a business call.

"Ruby, hi! Nate Watson here, I'm calling in regards to an application that you submitted for the graphic designer position at my company," I said, letting my business voice take over. It eased my nerves to treat her the way I had treated the other people I had called that night. It didn't matter that I knew it wouldn't go down well.

"Nate? Is that you? Why the fuck are you talking like that, are you high or something?" she said. I couldn't help but laugh at her indignant tone, but she wasn't finished ranting at me yet, "and what's all this shit about an application? I didn't apply for a job at your company. That must be a mistake."

I composed myself though I couldn't quite keep the smile off my face. Annoying Ruby had long ago become my favorite past time and I had missed it a lot during our time apart. The best part was how easy it was.

"That's funny, because I have the application right here," I said, shuffling some random papers close to the phone so she could hear them, "Ruby Heron, BA in Art and Art history. You write great cover notes, by the way. My staff were all very impressed with how articulate you are."