Page 13 of Tell Me What you Think

"Oh. Right, sorry."

Out of nowhere, Olga feels the color rushing back into her face, her cheeks burning as if there were embers under her skin. She panics and instead of hitting the regular coffee button, she presses decaf—which she thinks is quite possibly the most disgusting thing she's ever tasted.

"Damn it," she mutters under her breath.

"What's wrong? Did you press the wrong one?"

"No, no, it's fine. I like decaf," she lies without blinking. "You know—so I don't get so jittery."

Her hands are moving like she's shaking something off, completely beyond her control, and Marina studies her with a slightly confused look while Olga is swamped by a wave of embarrassment at being unable to hold it together in front of her boss.

"Are you okay?" The question only makes Olga want to run.

How is she supposed to answer that she gets so flustered around her that her behavior becomes completely erratic—that even she can't believe some of the things she hears herself say? She can't tell her that she's so drawn to her that when she looks directly into her eyes she can't hold the gaze, afraid she'll get lost in it and come across as a total creep. And she absolutely cannot tell her that when she touches her, her skin tingles for hours afterward, and that sometimes she's tempted not to shower for days just to keep her scent a little longer on some part of her body.

"Yes, thanks for the coffee," she answers without breathing.

Olga turns and walks away so fast that Marina doesn't have time to say a word. The new Executive Vice President of Strategy gets her coffee and drinks it standing by the machine. She's always been aware that Olga gets nervous around her, though she mistakenly chalks it up to that deference toward authority that a lot of employees have with their managers—and now she finds herself wondering whether her assistant will ever be able to relax around her, or if every one of their interactions is going to go like this.

She tosses the empty cup and when she comes back, Olga is in the office again, setting some papers on the desk. Marina pauses in the doorway again, debating whether she should announce herself or wait for Olga to turn around on her own so she doesn't scare her a second time—but she's barely had a chance to decide when Olga turns and lets out another anguished shriek that makes Marina laugh.

"For God's sake, Olga—anyone who heard you would think I was trying to kill you," she says, clearly amused.

"I know, I'm sorry." Her assistant fans herself with her hand. "I just can't get used to it. Ricard was very predictable, but I don't know your routines yet."

"It's the first day—we both have a lot to get used to, I'm afraid. What did you leave there?" she asks, trying to lighten the mood.

"Your schedule for today—I printed it out like you said. You've got a pretty packed day for a first one in the role, so I've highlighted a couple of things I could move to other days if something comes up."

Marina's eyebrows lift in surprise and she nods, knowing she made the right call choosing her. She walks to the desk and picks up the two sheets.

"Thank you, Olga."

Her assistant tries not to look at her directly so those features don't pull her under, but just hearing her name in that voice is enough to nearly walk her right into the doorframe as she turns to leave the office.

"Sorry," she says without looking up, and Marina stays still until she's gone and the door clicks shut.

She finally sits down, adjusts the chair to get comfortable, and gets to work. Despite having met with Ricard several times, there's a lot she doesn't have a handle on yet, so the hours fly by between sorting through what's pending and getting through her scheduled meetings. Olga joins her for two of them, and at first Marina isn't entirely sure she needs her there—but when her assistant comes in at midday and hands her a flawlessly organized summary of the key points, she decides she'll ask her to come to all of them from now on.

"I've sent it to your email too," Olga explains, "but I printed it so you can mark anything you'd like changed—I don't know if the order works for you or if there's anything you'd want added to the report."

"Okay, I'll take a look and let you know. What's everything highlighted in yellow?"

"Those are the points that directly affect you. The figures you'll need to track and the projects that are waiting for you to review and close out. The green is part of the open threads around new projects—these are the ones that will almost certainly land on your plate, so you can take a closer look at them."

Marina looks up, impressed.

"I hope you're wrong about a few of them, or we're going to be working until the end of time," she says with a smile, and Olga gives her a warm smile back that makes Marina hold her gaze a beat too long.

She can't remember ever seeing her smile before—at least not in her presence—and it's a nice thing to see.

"May I?" Both women look up to find Jordi in the doorway.

"Yes, of course, come in," Marina says. "What do you need?"

"Nothing, really," he says, smoothing his tie as he drops into a chair. "I just wanted to see how your first day was going and invite you to lunch—if this woman hasn't kept you too busy," he teases, shooting Olga a conspiratorial look.

Olga feels another one of her hot flashes when Marina glances up at her with a smile, and she decides that curve of lips should be illegal on the grounds of being a probable cause of cardiac failure.