Erik

“Sir? Did you hear me?”

Erik was quickly pulled from his thoughts. “Hm? What?”

His secretary, Brittany, stood there in his office. “I said I’m sorry about earlier. Miss Juniper was a lot…scarier than I expected.”

He nodded with a light laugh. “Agreed.”

Well, scary wasn’t exactly the right word. Persistent and troublesome were more accurate. Erik had really been hoping that the newly branded ‘solo consultant,’ May Juniper, could easily be dissuaded, like so many before her. According to his research, she worked out of her own apartment and only employed one assistant. He had assumed that meant she was either new and inexperienced, or bad at her job. In this case, it clearly meant that she was simply smart enough to work alone.

“Before she left, Miss Juniper said that she’ll be back tomorrow. Should I let her in right when she comes? Or, do you want me to call you first?”

Erik rubbed his head, which was now throbbing, with both hands. He wondered why his father couldn’t just back off and leave him be. His company wasn’t doing that badly. They nearly broke even last quarter! So, why all the fuss?

“Maybe if you actually wanted me to succeed, you wouldn’t have forced me to change my major mid-semester! Blasted old man…” he grumbled.

“Pardon me?” Brittany said.

Erik quickly recovered his smile. The young secretary blushed, as most women often did, and returned a bashful grin.

“I’m sorry, Brittany. I’m just venting out loud. You can go now.”

“Okay. But, um, what about Miss Juniper?”

“Well, I’d hate to see her upset you again, so send her right in when she gets here. Alright?” he replied.

As expected, Brittany looked touched by his concern. “Thank you, Mr. Clayton.”

“Not a problem.”

As soon as she left, Erik’s eyes were drawn to the unbearably large stack of papers on his desk. At this rate, he’d be up reading well past midnight!

Just then, his phone started to ring. It was his personal assistant, Michael, so he answered it.

“Please tell me you have some good news?” Erik asked with a groan.

“Well, according to public record, Miss Juniper’s reputation and work history are spotless.”

Erik paused. “That isn’t possible. There’s got to be something I can use to get her off my back! A controversial social media post, or an embarrassing photo. Anything!”

“Sorry sir. The only thing I managed to dig up was that your father offered to pay her triple her asking rate, just to finish the job.”

“What good does that do me?”

“Like I said, sir, not much. And I checked your finances, but you’ve already spent too much this month to be able to pay her off.”

“What about next month?”

“Sir, you just bought another boat and upgraded your apartment. You’d have to save up almost half of your earnings for two or three months to be able to bribe her. And even then, it might not work. Miss Juniper doesn’t seem like the type of person to engage in unethical practices.”

“Okay, just keep looking. Thank you, Michael.”

Then Erik hung up and put his phone back down on the desk. His father was really something else. Even though Erik had been forced to live under that man’s thumb for all 27 years of his life, he still found himself baffled by how relentlessly controlling he could be.

After winning custody of him as a child, Mr. Clayton shipped Erik off to a boarding school where his mother couldn’t afford to fly out and see him every other weekend. After that, the man refused to finish paying for Erik’s college, unless he changed majors and took courses that were more well-suited for the life of a businessman. Then, to top it all off, he started trying to get involved in his love life! And now he had the gall to send yet another know-it-all consultant to tell him how to run the company he never even wanted in the first place?

Erik wished his father could see how much he’d grown. He no longer stayed out late to party out of anger; he did it to unwind. And he wasn’t entertaining women out of shallowness anymore; most of them were lovely and smart, and they would end up having fun just spending time together. Still, his father wasn’t happy with him, because those weren’t the types of things he wanted his only son to be doing. Because everything always had to be about control with him.

He took one last look at the stack of papers left behind by his father’s consultant. For a brief moment, Erik thought about reading them over, but then he took a look at the clock and saw that it was almost ten, which meant it was almost time for lunch. After that, he was supposed to stop by a friend’s house, then go out for drinks. So, the issue was, he really didn’t have time for his plans and Miss Juniper’s “game plan.”

Erik immediately smiled and picked up the office phone to call Brittany at the front desk. “Hello? Brittany? Yes, it’s me again. Do me a favor and give Miss Juniper a message for me first thing tomorrow. Tell her that I had a late night at work and won’t be in until ten o’clock. No, don’t call her now. Just let her know when she comes in tomorrow. Yeah, thanks.”

He chuckled. If little Miss Juniper wanted to make his life difficult, he’d simply have to beat her at her own game. Even if she was kind of cute, he still wasn’t going to let her lead him into another one of his father’s well-laid traps.