He was silent in the car. Not his usual jovial self.
Jade wondered why her boss was being such a grouch. Maybe it was something she did. Or maybe he was just cranky cos he was hungry. Altho' she knew that was unlikely to be the reason.
"So what's for lunch?" she ventured. They often drove out together at lunch time in search of food.
He gave her a reply that didn't mean anything to her. She didn't really care. It was more the tone she was after.
Perhaps he WAS upset with her. Could it be? All she did was bad-mouth a client to her colleague within earshot of another client. Ok. maybe that *was* an awful thing to do. But it's not like she planned it. Who knew the new (potential?) client was going to step out of Charles' office at that very moment.
Fine, fine, perhaps she should have held her tongue but Jade wasn't the resident storyteller for no reason. Once she got started her tales took on a life of their own.
"Keep it down," he had said in their general direction, "not in front of other clients." He tilted his head towards the new client to make his point, and promptly re-entered his office. The bloke sat himself down on the couch at the reception area, proceeded to make a few calls, then grabbed his coat and left.
----------
"Charles was a grouch at lunch!" she pouted, as she bounced on Daddy's lap and told him about her day at work, something she did all the time.
"Oh? Did he have a rough day?" Josh enquired.
She told him about the morning meeting that went splendidly. She mentioned the letter that a very satisfied customer sent the boss, praising her attention to detail.
She told him everything except what she thought might have pissed Charles off.
Daddy raised an eyebrow - "So why was Chuck grouchy then?"
You see, Josh had gone to college with Charles. That's how she ended up working for him in the first place. She was awesome at keeping house, taking care of the correspondence, and being an all-round on-top-of-things kinda gal.
Charles had lost his last personal assistant when she eloped with her expat boyfriend, and was looking for a replacement when Daddy suggested Jade. She had just finished her last contract job and was in the market for another full-time position anyway.
"And besides," he had joked with his friend, "if she gives you any trouble at work, you have my permission to whoop her ass! Or drop me a text and I'll deal with it at home."
The interviews went well, and after the 3-month probationary period Charles was so impressed with Jade's work that he offered her a raise and made it no secret that she had his favour.
While this did not cause her any problems with her colleagues - she was generally a very thoughtful character, and was well liked by the rest of the staff - she did let it get to her head, and sometimes overstepped the boundary with Charles. It was hard to think of him only as her boss, when he was also Daddy's buddy. In fact, it was thanks to her that they had become closer in the last few months, as prior to her landing this job, the two men hardly met, despite multiple declarations on both their parts to "catch up over a beer or seven". They had *her* to thank for that, she had thought many a time. And in her mind, she could do no wrong.
"Hey little girl, Daddy asked you a question... what did you do THIS time?" he teased.
"It wasn't me! How was I to know that the new client was still around and chose that very moment to come out of his room? I was kinda talking crap about that fool of a client from yesterday, and Charles came out and gave us a stare, and ran back in to do goodness knows what! And then he was a grouch for the entire time we were having lunch!"
"Whoa, what are we talking about now? I was only teasing... but did you really do something you shouldn't have?"
She told Daddy about what had happened, insisting that she didn't know the new client was still in the office.
"Of course I wouldn't have said anything if I'd known! I'm smarter than that..." She rolled her eyeballs impatiently.
"So did you stop when you saw him?"
"No. But it wasn't loud or anything. He didn't hear me."
"But Charles did, and told you to stop. Right?"
"Yes, but then he disappeared back into his room."
"And that's when you stopped talking. Right?"
"... um..."
Daddy sighed and sat her down on the ottoman in front of his chair.
"You are not a quiet person; your voice carries; you tell stories with such flair - and those are some of the things I LOVE about you. But sometimes 'wrong place, wrong time', little girl. And I'm afraid this might be one of those times. If you had been anyone else I'm certain Chuck would have given you a talking to by now. But out of respect for me I'm pretty sure he felt he shouldn't tell you off for fear of souring our friendships - between you and him, between him and me, and sure as hell not when he's feeling pissed off about it at that very moment. I can almost guarantee he's sitting in his study right now trying to figure out how to handle this. Your disregard for his warning could very well cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business. Have you thought about that?"
Jade was feeling awful. Not merely because she knew she'd done something unprofessional, but because if she was being honest, she KNEW she should have shut up right there and then, but let the gossiping get the better of her and went on instead.
--------
"Hey Chuck? I heard what happened today. Couldn't shut her up huh? "
"Hi Josh. I'm sorry, I didn't want to say anything until I knew what to do about it. Besides, I don't want to drag you into things that happen in the office. But I also didn't want to say or do something in haste that I might regret later, seeing as how we're friends and all."
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm the one who should be sorry. It's been handled. Jade told me all about it. And there is a very contrite little girl in bed with a very sore bottom right now. It won't happen again. "
"Sore bottom? Man, you weren't kidding were you? I mean, I get slapping her ass when you're having some fun but, did I hear you correctly? You sound like you said you er, spanked her?"
Josh chuckled. "I'll tell you all about it another day. For now though, just trust me. She's been sorted. Or will be, by the time I'm done."
Daddy hung up and trudged back up the stairs.
"Ok, little girl. Let's continue..." he said, pulling his belt through the loops of his pants.
