Page 23 of Come A Little Closer

While I doubted she was the litigious type, it remained a problem I couldn’t ignore. Mostly though, I just didn’t want to lose her.

Not as a project manager and, strangely, not from my life. I was growing used to the role she played in it as the anti-me, and as the days passed, I was beginning to enjoy the challenge she presented me with to dig deeper within myself.

When Jake opened my door, I turned to face him, unfazed by the interruption for once. I hadn’t been getting any work done anyway. I folded my arms on my desk and looked at my friend. “What’s up?”

“I have the portfolio of vendors Tallulah has put together for the festival. We need your approval for the new additions.”

I shrugged. “Just do whatever she wants. I’ve already signed off on her ideas, so whatever she needs to make them happen is fine.”

He nodded, sliding the folder he’d walked in with under his arm, but instead of leaving my office, he shut the door behind him and strode closer to my desk. “Okay, you’ve been off all day. What gives?”

“Nothing. I’m just busy.” I was supposed to be busy, in fact. “There’s a street fair for Halloween coming up in the Garden District and I’ve been asked by my neighbors to design a haunted house for a party after the event. I offered my place for it weeks ago and I forgot, so I’m paying for it now.”

“Just have Tallulah throw it together,” he suggested easily, his brow still furrowed as he swept his gaze across my face. “I’m sure she’d love to help with something like that, and it’ll allow you to see what she’s capable of for future projects as well. So far, she seems to be doing a great job for the festival, but it might be worth letting her take a stab at something else so we know what to expect for the smaller events she’d be organizing year-round if you decide to keep her on.”

“We’re keeping her on,” I said listlessly. “You were right. I was wrong. She’s the best person for this job. Honestly, I can’t believe we didn’t think of most of her ideas by ourselves, but we didn’t, and in addition to all that, she seems to have a tendency for sniffing out finer details that’ll bring everything together.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Can you repeat that please? I was what?”

“Right,” I repeated, rolling my eyes. “I was wrong. Do you want to go grab your phone and make a video of me saying so for you to get off to later, or can we move on?”

“Nah, you can record it later and email it to me.” He ran a hand slowly through his hair, still looking at me like he was waiting for a neon sign to light up above my head telling him what was going on with me. “Anyway, I’ll ask Tallulah about the street fair.”

“It’s happening on Friday night,” I argued. “That’s not enough time for us to spring it on her now. I’ll handle it myself.”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “Yourself? Really? You’re going to put together a massive party and a haunted house for your entire neighborhood all by yourself in four days?”

I shrugged. “I’m just going to have to.”

“Just let her do it,” he said, exasperation in his eyes. “You just said it yourself that she’s the best person for the job. Why are you still fighting me on this?”

“We can’t expect her to drop everything for a party I forgot about,” I said. “It’s not fair. But she’s a new employee, so if you ask her, obviously she’s going to say yes and we’ll be the assholes she’ll be telling her friends about.”

“Since when do you care about being the asshole your employees tell their friends about?” He frowned. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No. I just don’t think it’s right to expect this of her while she’s busy with the festival as well.”

He blew out a frustrated breath. “If anyone can pull it off in so little time, it’s her.”

I sighed, but he wasn’t wrong. I needed help with this, and at least now, I had a legitimate reason to call her. “Fine, but I’ll talk to her about it myself. We’ll offer her some extra hands if she needs help.”

His eyebrows rose slightly before he nodded and took a step back. “Very well. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“There won’t be, but thanks.”

Lingering in the center of the room as he backed away from my desk, he finally just came right out with it. “Do you still have a problem with her? Is that what’s going on with you today, or is it something else?”

“I don’t have a problem with her,” I said. “My mind is simply elsewhere. That’s all. It’s none of your concern.”

“Are you sure? Because you seem really out of it.”

“I’m not,” I lied, but I looked him right in the eyes as I did and he seemed to buy it. “Goodbye, Jake. From now on, remember that Tallulah can have whatever she needs for the festival. You made the right call when we hired her. I won’t stand in the way of her doing her job.”

These days, it really was true that good help was hard to find. When I managed to find it, I went out of my way to keep it and we had hit the jackpot when Jake had found Tallulah. I respected the work she’d put into this project enough so far to trust her to bring it together.

I’d keep overseeing things as I should, but I wasn’t into micromanagement. If I thought I could do it all myself, I would have. The fact was that I couldn’t and my attention was better served on my actual business than the events we put on, which was why I’d been searching for someone to manage those projects in the first place.

Jake nodded, strode to my door, and glanced at me once more when he reached it. “Are you sure that’s all it is?”