The Good Luck Potion (The Good Luck Series) (22 page)

“That sounds good,” Keely said.

“We have much to celebrate. Your promotion and you getting married. Darren told me how you and Alex eloped while in Vegas.”

Sue felt her cheeks warm. “Yes, we did.”

“Let’s get started while the babies are napping. I never know for how long. If you’ll open up the folder
, you’ll see the contract. It lists your position, salary, and spells out the company policies. You signed a similar document when you began working for Wright and Associates. Read through it and if you have any questions give me a call later. The next set of documents talks about compensation and the benefits package. This is different than what you already have in place. Again, read through it and if you have questions let me know. All associates have annual leave, personal days and sick time built into their contract. It is up to you how you use these days each year. I encourage you to try to take a vacation each year when possible. I learned my lesson by not doing that.”

“Your office will be on the fifth floor.
You’ll have your own assistant as soon as we can hire someone and you’ll eventually get your own accounts to work on after a three month training period. We have confidence that you can do the job and I’m pleased that you are willing to take this step. Do you have any questions?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good.”

A wail came over the speaker and Jama leaned forward, bringing a whimpering James
back into view with her. From the computer screen, Sue could see his red face and it sounded like he was snorting he was so mad. Jama bounced him, but it did no good.

“Sorry. He’s wet
and I’ve found if there is one thing he hates it is a wet diaper. I need to go change him. If you should have any questions that Darren or Keely can’t answer do call me.”

“I will.”

“Bye.” The video screen went black.

Darren looked at his watch. “I have a client waiting. I’ll pop by to see you later this afternoon once you’ve settled into your office.”

“Okay.” Sue nodded.

“Come back to my office with me and we’ll run through plans for this week and what you’ll be doing. You can also gather your things from your old desk to take down to your new office.” Keely stood. “I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about this new working arrangement.”

“So am I.” Sue picked up the folder and her coffee and followed her down the hallway.

“Pamela is going to fill in as my assistant until we get someone hired. I’d like you to sit in on the interviews. I feel you will have a better insight into who will be right for the job having a first-hand knowledge of what it will take to be my assistant.
”

“Sure.”

When they turned the corner, Sue was surprised to see her sister waiting at her desk. “Kimberly, what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you. I called you several times last night,
didn’t you get my messages? I even went by your apartment this morning, but your neighbor across the hall said you didn’t come home last night. I really was afraid you still hadn’t returned from Vegas.”

Sue sat her coffee and the folder on the desk and gave her sister a hug. “I’m sorry to have worried you. We got back late yesterday afternoon. I should have called you. And I did go home, but I guess my neighbor didn’t notice I was there.”

“I’ll be in my office when you finish,” Keely said.

Sue nodded. “I won’t be long.”

“You’re busy. I can see that. I just had to make sure you were all right.”

“I’m perfect. I got offered a promotion. I’m no longer Keely’s assistant. I’m an account executive. We were just in a meeting about it.”

“That’s wonderful!” Kimberly squealed and hugged her. “That’s a nice picture of you and Alex.”

Sue picked up the frame. “Yeah.”

“O my, that ring, it’s new. Did Alex give it to you?” Kimberly said, reaching for her left hand.

“Yes he did. He bought it for me while we were in Vegas.”

“Is it an engagement ring?”

“No. Just a ring.”

“You’d tell me the truth if it was, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. I’d tell you the truth.”

“Because we don’t keep secrets.”

Sue smiled, despite the pang of guilt she felt for her deception, but it was for Kimberly’s own good. “No secrets.”

“Okay. I better go then.”

“Wait. I still have your credit card. Take it back before I lose it.”

Kimberly laughed as she dug it out of her wallet and handed it to her. “I wasn’t worried.”

When her sister left
, she went to the break room and found an empty box to put her personal items in to take downstairs to her new office. She packed up quickly before knocking on Keely’s door.

Alex threw a Frisbee and Duke
let it fall at his feet, but Queenie scooped it up in her mouth and ran around the yard with it before bringing it to him. “See boy, that’s how you’re supposed to do. Good dog, Queenie.” He rubbed her head and the dog jumped up, placing her front paws on his leg for more attention. “Good girl.”

He heard a car pull in the drive and he turned. Queenie jumped down and ran over to the fence. Sue was home from work. She got out of the car and waved.

He jogged over to the gate and slipped through. “How was your day?”

“Good. Exhausting.” She petted Queenie
and the dog licked her hand. “So much to do. So many new things to think about. How about you?”

“Same old stuff. Except I think I missed you more today than I did before Vegas.”

“I didn’t miss you at all.”

“Liar.” He reached and pulled her to him
. She came willingly wrapping her arms around him and returned his kiss hungrily. When they broke apart, they were breathing heavily and he smiled. “Now tell me you didn’t miss me.”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

They walked into the house and she kicked her shoes off at the door, going over to the sink to wash her hands.

“You know, Keely was right last night. We need to take a honeymoon.
Just because we got married like we did doesn’t mean we can’t have a proper honeymoon.” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She turned around, drying her hands with a paper towel. “I know we can’t really plan anything right now with Kimberly and Phil’s wedding so close. And with you getting the promotion at work I guess you’re in what they call a transition phase of training. But what if we did something a few days before Christmas? Maybe go to Charleston or Savannah? Stay in a bed and breakfast and take in the sights.”

“What about my folks? They’ll want to see me.
”

“And they will. We can head down to visit them
for Christmas before returning to Knoxville.”

“What about Keely? This would have been your first Christmas with her in three years.”

“We can have Christmas with her when we return. So what do you say?”

“I like that idea.” She sniffed. “Did you cook?”

“Nothing major. A casserole and a salad.”

“But you cook
? I guess I never knew that.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of things you don’t know about me.”

“Yeah. Or that you don’t know about me. When you look at it that way, we really rushed getting married.”

“Every marriage has its ups and downs and its trials. I’m sure we’ll have our own.”

“But knowing we were drunk when we got married, don’t you think that is going to always be forefront in our mind? Stacking the odds against us?”

“Only if we let it, Sue.” He moved to the sink and washed his hands before going over to the stove. Picking up the pot holders he turned back to stare at her. “Where is this doubt coming from? I thought you said you didn’t have any regrets.”

“I don’t…I didn’t…I don’t know.” She shook her head and went to the table that he had already set for them before she arrived home.

He
brought the casserole over to the table and found her playing with the necklace she wore, staring at the wall, deep in thought. “What’s on your mind?”

“Kimberly came to see me today. She noticed my ring and wanted to know if it was an engagement ring. I told her it wasn’t. Should I have said it was?”

“But it isn’t. I thought we’d go look at rings this weekend.”

“Okay.”
She looked up at him. “I hated lying to her.”

He went to the refrigerator
and got out the salad and the dressings. “What did you lie about?”

“She reminded me we didn’t keep secrets from each other and I agreed. No secrets. But I am
keeping one for a good reason.”

“Maybe you need to tell her. If it is going to weigh so heavy on your mind it may be better for you to come clean
otherwise she’ll sense something is going on. And you don’t want that happening do you?”

“She’ll be hurt either way now. I know her.”

“Well it’s up to you what you decide to do. Just tell me so I can be sure not to say the wrong thing.”

Chapter S
eventeen

Sue left her apartment for work the next morning after spending the night alone. It had been a unanimous decision since she knew her nosy neighbor across the hall apparently was keeping tabs on her without her realizing it. Plus, Alex didn’t want to leave Queenie again for the night just yet. It also gave her time to think about their relationship and how she really felt. She’d taken the wedding DVD with her and watched it several more times trying to jog her memory, but finally had to face the fact she may never remember their wedding.

Maybe they did need to have a wedding with their friends and family present to put all these negative thoughts out of her mind. She knew she wanted to be with him. She even knew she loved him, but something about the whole affair seemed off. And until she figured out what that was she didn’t know if she’d be able to feel truly married to him.

Getting off the elevator on the fifth floor seemed strange, but she knew she’d get used to it eventually. As she passed the other account executives she received more congratulations for the promotion and was glad when she finally reached her office so she could hide behind the closed door.

She went to her desk, stowed her purse in the bottom drawer, and turned on her computer.
There were several file folders on her desk for her to review and a note from Keely that the temp agency had sent these over as possible candidates for assistance.

Great.
One more thing for her to juggle on top of everything else being thrown at her this week.

Her phone rang and she answered it. “Hello.”

“It’s Keely. Do you have the paperwork filled out yet? Judith needs to process the forms if you are going to get paid your new salary this month.”

“Yes. I’ll bring the folder up.”

“Actually, just take them to Judith’s office. Also, production has the boards for our presentation we designed yesterday. If you’ll pick those up, we can go over them.”

“Sure.”

“Did you see the files for assistants?”

“Yes. I was just beginning to look them over.”

“Excellent. We’d like to begin interviewing Friday morning. So let me know if you see anyone that looks promising.”

“I will.”

“See you in thirty?”

“I’ll be there.”

When she hung up the phone, she dug out the folder of forms from her briefcase that her parents had given her for graduation, but she’d never used since she took the job as an assistant instead of an account executive. It was nice to finally be able to put it to good use. Her parents had been thrilled when she called them with the news last night. Again she felt like a liar keeping her marriage to Alex a secret from them. But until she was certain about things she really didn’t think it was a good idea to tell them. It was bad enough that Lucinda had told Keely and Darren and that Darren had told Jama. She was sure Kyle knew as well. Then there was Lillian. Lucinda would have shared the news with her too. Eight people knew the secret and in her opinion that was far too many.

Alex met up with Brandon and Phil for lunch at a stretch mall off of Pellissippi Parkway. He was looking forward to seeing Phil, but he wasn’t so sure about Brandon. They hadn’t spoken since the weekend.

“Hey, there he is. You did find it,” Brandon called from the booth they’d snagged at the deli.

“Yeah. GPS works great when you have an address.” Alex sat down across from him beside Phil.

“Too bad you didn’t have your GPS on you while in Vegas. Maybe you and Sue wouldn’t have gotten lost and missed our flight back.”

“No. We shouldn’t have done those jello shots you ordered for Phil and Kimberly. That was our mistake.”

“No fighting, guys,” Phil warned. “It’s a week until the wedding. Can’t the two of you call a truce?”