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Vivian hated that she’d marred Emma’s sunny expression and sought to rectify the situation. “What about you? What do you do when you’re not working?”
“Mostly parenting stuff. I don’t have time for a lot else. Lily and I are both kind of holding onto each other. It’s a big change for both of us. Though I really need to cut back on the ice cream runs—for both our sakes.”
Vivian laughed. “Yeah, you wouldn’t want her bouncing off the walls too often from sugar highs.”
“Exactly. It’s all fine and good when I’m on a sugar high too, but I crash faster than she does, and then I struggle. She’s like a high spider monkey.”
Vivian snorted at the image. “Now that’s something I’d like to see.”
“So come out for ice cream with us. You know all the secret gems in the city, I’d bet.”
“You don’t give up, do you?”
“Nope.” Emma grinned at her. “You’re not as indifferent as you outwardly appear, I’d bet my job on it.”
She was betting her job on it. Emma didn’t know Vivian well enough yet to realize that Vivian wouldn’t fire her simply because she was personally annoyed with her. Emma was risking a lot, just to try to be social with her withdrawn boss.
“I am not coming out for ice cream with you. I’m your boss. This is a professional relationship.”
Emma shrugged, seemingly undeterred. “Suit yourself. Did you know that Nathan and Lindsey are getting pretty serious?”
“Oh, I didn’t know he was dating.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Well, that figures. If you don’t spend time with anyone, how will you learn all the juiciest gossip?”
“I have no interest in juicy gossip. If Nathan has a problem, he will come to me.”
“If it’s a problem you can help him solve, sure, but if he just needs to vent to someone, he’s going to be doing that with his colleagues. You never find out anything if everyone only thinks of you as an emergency option.”
“I am only an emergency option. I’m not… I’m not good at people stuff,” Vivian admitted.
“Bullshit. You don’t get to be a CEO responsible for so many happy employees without being good at people stuff.”
“I’m good at business-related people stuff. But personal stuff? No thanks. Save it for someone more qualified.”
“You don’t need qualifications to be human.”
“Being human is hardly all that’s required to interact socially in a competent manner.”
“Well, no wonder you’re no good at it if that’s how you think about it. It’s not about being competent, it’s about being yourself.”
“I am myself. This, what you see, is who I am.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Emma mused pensively. “I think there’s more to you… and I’m going to unravel it.” She glanced at her watch. “Anyway, lunch is over. See you, Vivian.”
“See you.” Vivian stared after Emma as she left.
What the hell was that?
Emma had been… nice. Nicer than Vivian deserved. Her head spun with the various things Emma had said. No one had ever been so unabashedly straight with her, not letting her position of power hold them back. She wondered if Emma might have a point about—
No. Vivian was not going to go down that very dangerous road. Her life worked fine, and she was perfectly happy with it. Nothing was going to change, no matter what crazy ideas Emma got into her head.
One little ice cream trip with Emma and Lily probably wouldn’t hurt…
Vivian slammed the door shut on that thought right away, wondering whether hiring Emma had been a good idea after all. This was more complicated than she’d thought it would be.
Vivian didn’t get much work done for the rest of the day. She was too distracted, going over her conversation with Emma in her head. It had been years since she’d had so much social interaction. As infuriating as parts of it had been, she had liked the whole thing a lot more than she should have.
