Chapter 3 - “You Were Going to Leave Without Telling Me?”
Grant waited until Daniel walked away.
Then he sat down without being invited.
Claire looked at him.
“I was using that chair.”
“I noticed.”
“Then why are you in it?”
“Because apparently my executive assistant has accepted another job.”
Claire took a sip of orange juice.
“Correct.”
“And apparently I’m the last person to know.”
“You’re not the last.”
“That helps enormously.”
Claire nearly smiled.
Grant leaned forward.
“When were you planning to tell me?”
“Monday.”
“After Miami?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m responsible for this retreat.”
“You’re resigning and you’re worried about my retreat?”
“I finish commitments.”
Grant stared at her.
Of course she did.
“What company?”
“Meridian Arc.”
His expression changed.
“They’re a competitor.”
“Not directly.”
“They’re close enough.”
“Evelyn Shaw offered me chief of staff.”
Grant went silent.
Chief of staff.
Not executive assistant.
He immediately understood why Claire was going.
“How much?”
“That isn’t your business.”
“I can beat it.”
Claire put down her glass.
“There.”
“What?”
“That.”
“What did I do?”
“You heard I’m leaving and immediately assumed the solution was money.”
“Money matters.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me the number.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
She leaned toward him.
“They’re giving me authority.”
Grant stopped.
“A seat in strategy meetings because it’s my job to be there, not because I’m carrying your notes. Direct reports. Equity. A path toward operations leadership.”
“I can give you those things.”
“But you didn’t.”
He looked away.
The ocean glittered beyond the terrace.
Claire’s voice softened.
“You didn’t even know I wanted them.”
That was true.
Grant knew Claire’s competence intimately.
He knew almost nothing about her ambition.
He had never asked.
“Why Seattle?”
“Because sometimes leaving is the only way people stop seeing you as who you used to be.”
Grant looked back at her.
“Is that what this is about? My comment?”
“No.”
That answer hurt more.
“The comment simply made something obvious.”
“What?”
“I’ve outgrown the job.”
He swallowed.
“And me?”
Claire’s expression changed.
“That’s not a professional question.”
“No.”
“Then don’t ask it.”
She stood.
Grant watched her walk away.
For the rest of the retreat, he became unbearable.
Not intentionally.
He questioned Claire’s schedule more than usual.
Appeared wherever she was.
Found reasons to join conversations with Daniel.
At Saturday’s poolside dinner, Daniel sat beside Claire.
Grant sat across from them.
Todd observed everything with barely concealed delight.
Daniel was an architect from Austin.
Not Claire’s boyfriend.
Grant learned this within seven minutes.
He also learned Daniel had met Claire through Emma, Claire’s younger sister.
He learned Claire loved sailing.
Grant had not known that.
She had studied economics at Northwestern.
Grant knew that.
She had once planned to attend law school.
Grant had not known that.
She hated olives.
He had ordered salads containing olives for two years.
She spoke conversational French.
News to him.
She had traveled alone through Portugal at twenty-seven.
Also news.
Grant sat there experiencing the uncomfortable realization that he knew Claire primarily through the ways she served him.
When she finished telling a story about getting lost in Lisbon, Daniel laughed.
Grant did not.
Claire noticed.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Todd coughed into his napkin.
Claire looked suspicious.
After dinner, she walked alone toward the beach.
Grant followed.
“Claire.”
She stopped.
Moonlight reflected across the water.
“What?”
“Don’t go to Seattle.”
There it was.
No strategy.
No polished executive language.
Just the truth.
Claire crossed her arms.
“Why?”
“I need you.”
Her face changed.
Wrong answer.
Grant realized it immediately.
Claire laughed sadly.
“That’s exactly why I have to go.”
“Wait.”
“No. You need your calendar managed. You need someone who remembers your mother’s anniversary and your passport and the fact that you become impossible when you skip lunch.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Grant opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
Claire nodded.
“Good night.”
She walked away.
Grant stood beside the ocean.
Later, he found Todd drinking bourbon in the lobby bar.
Todd glanced up.
“You look terrible.”
“Thanks.”
“Claire?”
Grant sat down.
“Why does everyone know?”
“Because you’ve been staring at her like she personally canceled oxygen.”
Grant ordered bourbon.
Todd studied him.
“You like her.”
“No.”
Todd laughed.
Grant glared.
“I respect her.”
“You also nearly stabbed Daniel with a dinner fork when he touched her shoulder.”
“I did not.”
“You looked at the fork.”
Grant drank.
Todd became serious.
“You know you can’t make this weird at work.”
“I know.”
“She’s your employee.”
“I know.”
“And she’s leaving.”
Grant stared into the glass.
“I know.”
Sunday afternoon, the group returned to Dallas.
Claire sat three rows behind Grant on the corporate jet.
He did not bother her.
Monday morning, she arrived at 7:40.
Grant was waiting.
On his desk sat an envelope.
He already knew what was inside.
Claire entered.
“Morning.”
Not Mr. Mercer.
Not Grant.
Just morning.
She placed the envelope before him.
“My formal resignation. Three weeks’ notice.”
Grant looked at it.
“Three?”
“I want to transition properly.”
“You could leave today.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Are you firing me?”
“No.”
“Then I’m staying three weeks.”
Grant almost smiled.
Stubborn.
He had somehow never noticed that either.
He signed acknowledgment of the resignation.
Then slid it back.
Claire looked surprised.
“No counteroffer?”
“I could double your salary.”
“I know.”
“I could make you chief of staff.”
“I know.”
“Then why aren’t I?”
She waited.
Grant forced himself to say it.
“Because if I offer it now, I’ll never know whether I’m doing it because you earned it or because I’m afraid of losing you.”
Claire stared.
That was the first thing he had said all week that reached her.
Grant continued.
“And you’ll never know either.”
Something shifted between them.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
Claire picked up the resignation.
At the door, Grant said, “One question.”
She turned.
“Daniel?”
Claire’s eyebrows rose.
“What about him?”
“Are you dating him?”
“That is spectacularly none of your business.”
“So no.”
She laughed despite herself.
Grant smiled.
There it was.
The laugh.
Then Claire shook her head.
“You are unbelievable.”
She left.
Grant watched through the glass as she returned to her desk.
Three weeks.
He had three weeks left with the woman who had quietly become essential to every part of his life.
But that afternoon, a more serious problem arrived.
Westbridge’s CFO entered Grant’s office carrying financial reports.
His face was pale.
“We have a problem.”
“How bad?”
“Potentially criminal.”
Grant sat straighter.
The CFO placed a file on his desk.
Someone had been manipulating Westbridge sales projections for nearly eighteen months.
Millions in revenue had been artificially accelerated.
May you like
And every altered report carried approval credentials belonging to the same executive.
Todd Ramsey.
