Chapter 10

“Shit,” Mandy muttered. She was going to have to kill her family. Over and over. Then go to jail for murder. Either way she was going to lose her job. “Mr. Salvo, I will definitely understand if you need to... let me go.” She sighed. “My family alone makes more hassle than necessary and if I’m not mistaken, a personal assistant is supposed to take away some of the hassle.”

“You’re right,” Carl said. “A personal assistant is supposed to take away the hassle.” He paused and she leaned forward, anticipating what he was going to say next. “And that is exactly what you’ve done.”

Shock ran through Mandy’s body. He actually thought she was worth something, even with her mother begging him to fire her? Even after that embarrassing scene in the gym that clearly said incompetence like nothing else? “R-really?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Yesterday was the easiest workday I have had in a long time. And clearly you’re a good personal assistant if your sister wants you as her wedding planner-PA thing this badly. Believe me, I’ve no intention of firing you.”

Mandy smiled, still not sure what she should do with the praise. “Thank you, Mr. Salvo. I’m glad I can be of use to you.”

“You are of a lot of use to me,” he said. “I hope you keep up the good work.”

Mandy found herself blushing and really wished she was wearing a pound of foundation on her face to hide it. “Thank you, Mr. Salvo,” she said again, wishing she could find something more intelligent to say. She looked at him, unsure if that’s all he wanted or not, and was unsure how to ask him.

Carl blinked as if falling out of a trance. “Oh, uh, dry cleaning? Can you pick it up?”

Mandy got up and went to the coat closet in the corner of her room and opened the door, pulling out two dry cleaned suits. “I picked these up during my lunch break,” she said. “I wasn’t sure when you would need them, so I figured the sooner I got them, the better.”

“Thank you!” He grinned as he took the suits. “Remember, I’ll need that press release in fifteen minutes, and please message the IT department for an update on the website bug.”

“Right away, sir,” Mandy said. She turned back to her desk as he went into his office and she smiled. Maybe she wasn’t screwing up as bad as she thought after all.

***. ***. ***

Look, I told you,” Mandy said to her sister. “I’ll help you on the weekends and after work when I can.” Mandy sighed. “Can’t you see how important this job is to me?”

“Can’t you see how important this wedding is to me?” Claudia whined. “Tighter,” she snapped at the seamstress. “I don’t want to be mistaken for my sister because the bodice is too big.”

Mandy rolled her eyes and reclined against the dark blue armchair meant for guests during the fittings. “I thought you were worried about looking like a prostitute,” she mumbled.

“There’s a difference between looking like a prostitute and not looking like I’m morbidly obese,” Claudia said. “Speaking of which, how is your diet going? It looks like you’ve broken it a few times.”

Mandy was beyond tired of Claudia’s comments. “I’m not morbidly obese. If I lose twenty pounds, I’ll be like a size six, maybe an eight, tops. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that size.” She stared at her sister’s reflection in the mirror. “Actually, I lost five pounds. Not that you would notice, wrapped up in your self-absorbed little world.”

Claudia gasped.

Mandy took a deep breath to calm herself. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just stressed from work.” And helping you with the wedding.

“That was incredibly mean.” Claudia pouted. “I could’ve told you getting a job during such an important time in my life was stupid. I have maybe six months to organize and there’s no way you’ll get everything done in t—Ow!” She glared at the seamstress. “You stabbed me with a pin on purpose.”

“No ma’am,” the seamstress said submissively. “You moved.”

Claudia huffed and the seamstress grinned quickly before catching herself. Mandy watched the seamstress, impressed the woman hadn’t “accidentally” stabbed Claudia earlier with the way Claudia was making a fool of herself.

“How’re the invitations coming along?” Claudia asked.

“I sent the last of them out on my lunch break yesterday,” Mandy said. “I also emailed you the final plans about the honeymoon, including airfare, the resort, and even a rental car reserved for you. Believe it or not, I’m not totally useless, even when I am employed.” Hadn’t Stephen said he was going to take care of the honeymoon? Funny how he’d turned around and put it on her.

“You’d be a hell of a lot more useful if you had more time,” Claudia snapped. “Living with Mom and Dad also helped. You were at a convenient location. Instead you have to be incredibly selfish and move to your own place.”

“The apartment came with the job.” Claudia hadn’t even bothered to come by or ask where she was living. They could be neighbours and she probably wouldn’t notice. Stephen, on the other hand, would probably be over in the drop of a dime if he knew she was living in a suite connected to Carl’s massive house.

Mandy smiled. Claudia could insult her and her job all she wanted, but Mandy was never going to regret getting employed by Carl Salvo. It had been over a week since he had told her she was good at her job, but it still rang in her ears as if he had said it minutes ago. Was she really this pathetic and needing to please that a couple of sentences of praise could leave her glowing for so long? It didn’t matter. Even though she still didn’t have time to unpack her things and she rarely got more than six hours of sleep a night, it felt so good to be working again. Just then her phone rang with her alarm set for five minutes before her lunch break ended. She got up. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Seriously?” Claudia said. “Isn’t your own sister more important than some stupid job?”

“Sure,” Mandy said, pocketing her phone and grabbing her purse. “That’s why I’m going back to work before I kill you.” She blew her sister a kiss as Claudia shouted a stream of disappointment at her.