Chip brought in the Chinese take-out I'd ordered. We had been working nonstop for hours now, preparing for the board of trustees meeting the next day. It was almost seven and I was famished.
"Ms. Caulfield, they didn't have any duck sauce." He handed me an eggroll in a waxed paper sleeve.
"Oh well, we'll have to soldier on without it."
Chip was my new executive assistant and he was shaping up well, able to keep up with my grueling pace. This was not the first time he had worked late with me, but we had never had the office to ourselves. Even the cleaner had gone home.
As I dipped into the sweet and sour pork, I noticed his tie dangling into the General Tso's chicken carton and narrowly avoided choking on my mouthful.
"Chip," I laughed, "You're a mess."
I watched him as his handsome face took on the comical shape of surprise and embarrassment. His fashionable tie was dripping sauce, threatening his crisp white shirt. I leaned over and caught the tie in a napkin. His hands brushed mine as he took over the napkin and tie.
The contact sent unexpected ripples of excitement through my chest, startling me.
I had noticed his trim waist, broad shoulders and long legs when I hired him, but had only registered these features in passing. But now I studied him more closely. He was of an unusual coloring, with black hair and blue eyes, and his tan forearms hinted at a toned physique. As I watched, he loosened his tie and slipped it off.
I found myself wondering what he looked like under his dress shirt, then jerked my thoughts back in line. I had no business looking at him like that.
I focused on my food, trying to distract myself with maneuvering my chopsticks. When I looked up, I found Chip looking at me intently.
"You need to relax, Ms.Caulfield. Tomorrow's meeting is just a meeting. You're getting too tense about it."
It was true I was tense, my neck and back muscles knotted and aching.
"You're right. But it's hard, so much is riding on this presentation. If Henderson doesn't go for our pitch, it could mean-"
"No," Chip interrupted. "You need to relax, not think about Henderson. Forget him for a minute."
Relaxing went against my grain. I was a type A, always working, always striving to achieve my goals. Relaxing was something other people did. Chip must have seen this on my face.
"Before I started here, I was a massage therapist. It taught me how much more productive people are when they take time to destress. Here, let me help. Slip off those shoes. I'll give you a foot rub."
I hesitated. This was not inappropriate, per se. My last assistant, Angela, had occasionally massaged my temples when I developed migraines. But Angela was a middle-aged, maternal woman. Not a hot young man.
"C'mon," he coaxed. "It'll do you good."
I continued to waver.
"It's been a long day and I bet those shoes are uncomfortable."
I decided that if I got more pleasure than was professional, he didn't have to know. I could satisfy the rising itch when I got home, armed with a vibrator and a vivid imagination.
"Sure, Chip, that would be great."
He pulled over the ottoman I liked to put my feet up on when reading long reports. Seating himself, he picked up my right foot and let it rest on his knee.
"Those shoes are bad for your feet. Your tendons and joints become misaligned."