94-Weather Forecaster

**PIPPA**

Xaver needs to know what Julia told me.

I promised to be honest. If he hears it from someone else and finds out I knew...

Then the other half of my brain speaks.

Julia is probably lying. Spreading rumors like she did with that PA, Tammy. Maybe her bathroom theatrics were a trick. Maybe she wants to hurt Xaver for firing Craig. It’s not true. It can’t be. Xaver is too smart—

My phone buzzes with a call from the man himself. He has been locked in his room, or attending meetings, most of the day. I am grateful, as it has given me an excuse to delay the inevitable.

“Pippa, can you come here for a moment?” He ends the call before I can say yay or nay.

Kat looks up at me, grinning. She probably thinks I might come back with more tea about the Farkas Firing.

If she only knew the half of it.

In the executive bathroom, I had finally settled Julia down, suggest she go home, and tell her that, in a few days, I would call with the possibility of another job.

She may be all that Kat says she is.

To me, she has been nothing but nice. I also hate the thought of anyone without a job, so close to the holidays.

Now it is decision time regarding my news.

It’s damned if I do and damned if I don’t.

*Don’t ever lie to me again, Pippa.*

Xaver had told me that in LA after I neglected to tell him I was a virgin.

He meant those words. I saw it in his eyes and the set of his mouth.

*Damn that Julia.*

No. Damn *Sonia.*

Walking into his office, I can’t help think my destiny is unsure.

“Close the door, will you?”

I peek around the huge Monstera plant. Its broad, green leaves do a great job of hiding the couch.

Not that anyone has ever caught us using it.

I come from around the plant, careful to stay out of his vision. I want to take him in, unobserved. To capture him rested and relaxed before I bring the world as he knows it crashing around his head.

I don’t doubt he’ll need time to process Sonia’s betrayal and Craig’s role in it. Whatever he needs, I will give it to him. I will be there to help him through it.

Xaver is the picture of relaxation. His navy-blue jacket and striped tie lay folded on the back of the couch. His pale-mauve shirt is unbuttoned at the collar and the white undershirt is a perfect complement for his olive coloring. His shoes, side by side, are underneath the coffee table and his cell phone, buzzing with notifications, rests on top of a stack of business magazines.

“Come here, Pippa.”

His voice, smooth as the sun’s rays, warms my skin.

I move so he doesn’t have to twist his head to see me. I can’t help notice how his broad shoulders fill the width of the couch and then remember how he had filled me…

“How are you feeling?”

*Does he suspect anything?*

“I feel great. Why?”

*Fraud. Phony. Faker.*

“That is good to hear.”

His eyes narrow and I play with my hands. Through sheer will, I stop.

“Uh, if that’s all, Mr. Sayle…”

He sits up in one liquid motion. “No, that is *not all*.” He doesn’t look at me, just puts on his attire.

“Then what else is there?” Anxiety at what he may or may not know builds, brick by brick, in my chest. My fear is the mortar that holds them together.

“How was your day?” He tugs on one of his costly shoes, then the other, slipping them on his feet.

“Busy,” I say to his profile. “Not nearly as… interesting as yours.”

Xaver ties his shoes, pulling the strings so tightly it is a wonder they don’t break.

“Are you going to tell me what happened with Mr. Farkas?”

He stands and walks to his desk. I follow, sitting in a chair opposite.

“Not much to tell. I fired him.”

Xaver shoves a few bounded folders in his laptop bag, and then his laptop, closing the zipper with more force than necessary.

“What about Julia?” I press.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. Opening them again, he squints around his fingers. “What about her?”

His attitude is pissing me off. He won’t confront me about what is wrong and I am too stubborn to ask.

“Well, Julia doesn’t have a job. It’s not her fault… whatever happened.”

His eyes flicker away from me to a point in the wall.“True.”

“So?”

“So.”

I throw up my hands.

The movement makes him look at me.

“So, are you going to help her, or not?”

He knuckles the desk, his eyes probing mine. “Why are you so concerned?”

“I feel sorry for her, is all. She was crying.”

“Well, don’t. Julia will be taken care of.”

“I told her I would let her know about a job—”

“That is HR’s duty, don’t you think?”

He puts the laptop bag on his shoulder and retrieves his phone.

I follow him around, like a dog begging for a scrap of food from the table.

“So, they will call her?”

He sighs, looking through me to a point on the wall. “Yes, Pippa. They will call her.”

“Mr. Sayle—”

“I’m ready to go.”

Folding my arms across my chest, I nod my head toward his private entrance. “You can leave. I’ll walk.”

Since we have come back from Florida, we have ridden to the office together. I can’t imagine being in a confined space with him now. Not with the tension as thick as soup between us.

“You are coming with me, Pippa.”

“Mr. Sayle—”

“We can stop the pretense, okay?”

My heart drops and I scramble to pick it up. “W-what do you mean?”

“Call me Xaver. From now on that is all I want to hear from your mouth. No more of this ‘Mr. Sayle’ shit. It sounds weird as fuck. Now let’s go.”

I am relieved he hasn’t learned my secrets, but I am angry he feels he can take his frustration out on me.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Xaver. I won’t put up with your shit. Not today.”

His mouth pops open and then he smiles. “You cursed.”

He sounds like such a tattle-tale, I give him a big smile. “It just came out. You made me so mad.”

He puts his bag down and when he looks at me, his eyes are no longer amused. “Where did you go today, Pippa?”

_____

**XAVER**

“How do you know I left?” she asks.

“One of my managers told me.”

Jesse, an Accounting manager, had called, telling me he had removed Craig’s credit card access. He said one of his subordinates had seen Pippa, alone, headed towards the subway.

Since Pippa hardly ever goes out to lunch, it was big news on the floors down below. I pretended I had sent her out on an errand, in order not to look like a dumbass. It chapped me raw to lie and yeah, I am pissed because of it.

“I went to see Dr. Chopra.”

Now I feel like a real shit for assuming the worst. I didn’t think that she was seeing anyone behind my back. Though, it worried me that she was *hiding* something.

“Are you okay? You’re not bleeding again, are you?”

“I’m fine, really. Everything is okay.”

“You didn’t tell me you had a follow-up appointment. I would have gone with you.”

“Really? With all those meetings you had?”

“I promised to take care of you and keep you safe, Pippa. Doctor’s visits included.”

“Did you go with Sonia on her OBGYN visits?”

I don’t miss the jealousy in her tone, and I am not happy about it. Not after the shit day I have had. “As a matter of fact, I did.” And to drive the point home, I say, “Don’t get any ideas. I don’t want kids.”

Her eyes fall from my face to my chest. “Never?”

“Maybe when I am fifty. Not right now. We are having fun, right? Just the two if us?”

She doesn’t answer. Instead, she picks up her bag and heads towards the private entrance. I let her go. I want to drop the subject as much as she does.

And yeah, that is the second time I have lied today. Well... more like hedged around the truth. The scare with Pippa made me realize I’m not ready to go through the heartache if something goes wrong.

When we get home, Pippa heads to the bedroom to take a shower. I go to my office to get a little work done before Mrs. Lettner calls us for dinner.

My phone rings. It’s Agustin Ibañez, the office manager in Chile. He is a one-man show down there until the rest of the crew gets hired. Agustin is in place to handle any inquiries from the government concerning the filming of the Sayle Group’s first movie. When I fired Craig, I had HR to send memos to all department heads.

Agustin is probably calling for more details.

“Agustin,” I say, toeing off my shoes and unfurling my toes.

*Dress shoes can be a bitch sometimes.*

“Mr. Sayle? Ah, Mr. Sayle… uh… there is a big problem. Our government contact, Mr. Molinero, is threatening to void all of our contracts. It seems Craig promised Molinero’s daughter she could help on the film.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“Well… he… uh… he said she could have the role of supporting actress.”

*WTF!*

That bastard. He probably slept with her, promising her the stars, the moon, and Jupiter.

“They won’t talk to me. I think you should come down here.”

*What a crapfuck this is.*

“I will leave tonight.”

If this deal falls through, it will set the first movie back at least eight months, if not a year. Everything is in place to film in Chile. I will have to go down there and sort it out.

*Pippa…*

My first thought is to take her with me. As much as I would like to, I can’t. I will be busier than a broken-legged man in a kicking contest. There will be no time for entertaining. She also has the launch to consider.

*Damn that weak-chinned prick! Damn him to hell.*