Ireland took her seat, and the waiter came right over. “May I get you something to drink?”
I looked to Ireland. She smirked and unfolded her napkin. “I don’t usually drink during the day, but since I’m unemployed, not driving, and he’s paying, I’ll have a glass of merlot, please.”
I tried to contain my smile. “I’ll just have a sparkling water.” I glanced at Ireland. “Since I am gainfully employed.”
The waiter disappeared, and Ireland folded her hands in front of her on the table. Ordinarily, people deferred to me to lead the conversation, but this woman wasn’t ordinary.
“So,” she said. “I spoke to my attorney, and he says I have a case against your company for harassment, breach of contract, and emotional distress.”
I sat back into my chair. “Your attorney? And who might that be?”
“His name is Scott Marcum.”
I knew the name from her background investigation a few years back. He’d been her boyfriend at the time. I wondered if they were still together.
“I see. Well, I came to offer you your job back, with an apology and perhaps a small raise. But if you’d rather go through our attorneys, that’s fine, too.” I started to get up from my chair—calling her bluff.
She fell for it. “Actually, I’d rather not deal with attorneys. I was just letting you know what mine said.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Letting me know so you can use it as leverage against me?”
She folded her arms across her chest, mimicking my stance. “Are you going to sit down so we can have a conversation or stomp out like a child?”
The woman had giant balls; I had to give her that. If she only knew how her attitude made me want to take a peek between her legs and check for some. We stared at each other for a full sixty seconds, and then I caved and sat down.
“Alright, Ms. Saint James. Let’s put our cards on the table. What is it that you want?”
“I heard you fired Bickman. Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like the methods he used to monitor his employees.”
“Good. Me either. Plus, he’s a dick.”
My lip twitched. “Yes, there’s that, too.”
“Did you follow me to the coffee shop?”
“No. And for the record, I don’t follow women or my employees around. I happened to walk in to grab a cup of coffee. My phone had rung in the car, and the connection was bad and dropped the call. I needed to compose a text to the caller so she wouldn’t worry.”
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were when you realized who I was?”
“I already answered that question for you the other day. It was a coincidence that I sat down at your table. And then when I realized…I was intrigued about what you might say.”
The waiter brought her wine and my water, and Ireland alternated between watching him and looking at me.
“We’ll need a few minutes,” I said. “We haven’t looked at the menus yet.”
Ireland’s eyes were on me again when the waiter disappeared. She seemed to be mulling something over.
“Any other questions?”
She nodded. “Who was on the phone?”
“Pardon?”
“You said you were on the phone while you were driving, and the call got dropped, and you didn’t want the person to worry.”
I sipped my water. “My grandmother, not that it’s any of your business. Are we done with the interrogation now? Because I was considering putting the drunken emails you sent me behind us. But if you’d like to rehash every last interaction we’ve had, we can discuss those, too.”
She squinted at me and drank some of her wine. “I want a twenty-percent raise, and consideration given to Madeline Newton for Bickman’s position.”
Interesting. I scratched my chin. “One thing at a time. I’ll give you ten percent.”
“Fifteen.”
“Twelve and a half.”
She smiled. “Seventeen.”
I chuckled. “That’s not the way this works. Once you go down in a negotiation, you don’t get to go back up if you’re not liking the way things are going.”
She frowned. “Who said?”
I shook my head. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you your fifteen, but for that, you’ll also have to sign a release form, giving up your right to any potential lawsuit for anything Bickman might have done during his tenure.”
She thought about it. “Okay. That’s fair. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t going to sue you anyway. I think our society is litigious enough. Plus, I don’t like dealing with lawyers.”
“What about Scott Marcum?”
“Especially Scott Marcum.”
Good to know. “So we have a deal then?”
“As long as you’ll give consideration to Madeline Newton for Bickman’s position. She’s the best person for the job, and has been passed over twice.”
“If she applies, I’ll make sure she’s given due consideration.”
“Thank you.” She put out her hand. “Then I guess we have a deal.”
I shouldn’t have noticed how tiny and soft her hands were, how much her skin felt like silk, but I did.
I cleared my throat after we shook. “I’ll let Mike Charles know you’ll be taking the reins back immediately. I have to admit, I’m surprised you won’t try for Bickman’s position yourself.”
She shook her head. “I’m not ready for it. But Madeline will do a great job. Unlike Bickman, she’s smart and fair, and people respect what she says. Well, actually, to be fair, Bickman was smart, too. Just not when it came to women.”
This woman just kept surprising me.
“You thought Bickman was smart?”
She nodded. “He was. It was everything else that was horrible.”
“How did you two manage to co-exist for so long if he was that bad?”
“He was rude and demeaning, and I got my joy from the little things I did that drove him nuts. I pretended it balanced things.”
My brows narrowed. “What little things?”
She smirked. “Well, he had certain pet peeves. For example, he couldn’t stand when someone tapped their foot. It would make him turn the color of a tomato while he held in exploding about it.”
“Okay…”
“So I would tap my foot and watch the vein in his neck pulse when he pissed me off.”
My brows rose.
“He also once mentioned that he hated when people wore too much perfume or cologne. So I kept a bottle in my desk drawer for those times when I saw him ogling a woman’s ass. I’d douse myself before going into his office and pretending I needed help with a story.”
“Creative,” I said.
“I thought so.”
Ireland Saint James had a wicked side, that was for sure. I probably shouldn’t have, but I found it rather sexy.
The waiter came back over to take our order, but we still hadn’t checked out the menu. “Have you decided yet?”
Ireland held her menu up to the waiter. “Actually, I’m not going to be staying for lunch. So it’s just Mr. Lexington.”