Page 9 of Unexpected You

Eloise

What was wrong with me? I’d barely gotten any sleep on Sunday night. Having someone new in my house and around my work was clearly messing with my head. It was only a trial period but trusting someone new wasn’t easy for me.

Still, this level of fluttery nervousness was unusual for me. My morning routine was all over the place. I forgot how to make coffee and spilled my creamer and burned the toast. I’d scheduled Cadence to arrive mid-morning to give me some time to prepare for her. I had the paperwork ready, her list of duties, and I had her new work laptop all loaded with everything she would need. It was a risk, giving a new employee something like that. Hopefully she wouldn’t steal it. Nothing in her background check had come up about theft, but you never knew.

Cadence arrived right on time, which was a good sign. I opened the door after she rang the doorbell once. Truth be told, I’d been hovering in the entryway for at least ten minutes beforehand.

I hadn’t felt like this in years. Breathless and unsure. I didn’t like it.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling and making something inside me flutter. I clamped down on it and gave her a professional smile in return.

“Good morning. Come on in.” I held the door open for her and she walked in wearing pumps and a nice green dress with a black cardigan. There was a gold brooch pinned to the dress on her shoulder and I could tell she’d made an effort with her outfit. Her hair was pulled neatly back into a low bun that didn’t suit her.

“Wow,” she said and then bit her lip as if she hadn’t meant to say it.

“Would you like a tour first?” I asked. Normally I wouldn’t have, but she was gazing around with such naked appreciation that something made me ask.

“Yeah, absolutely,” she said, setting her bag down on the table in the foyer.

I took her around the house, not showing her everything, but still showing her more than she needed to know. And telling her more than she needed to know. I was proud of the upgrades I’d done over the years. The house had been a mess when I’d bought it and I’d put a lot of blood, sweat, and money into making it exactly what I wanted.

She seemed to take everything in, and I enjoyed watching her move around my house. Her eyes lit up when we got to my library and her mouth dropped open.

“Oh my god,” she said, a little whispered exhalation.

There was awe in her eyes that was so open and sweet that I had to look away from it. I was finding out Cadence was an expressive person during this tour. I’d seen glimpses of it during the interview, but it seemed like her guard was down a little more. It wasn’t until we made it back to the kitchen that I realized I hadn’t asked her if she wanted anything.

“Can I get you some coffee?”

She smiled and for a second I forgot what I’d asked her. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that? As your assistant and all. Shit, should I have brought you coffee?” Her eyes went wide and I struggled to follow her quick words. “Oh shit, I shouldn’t have said shit.” She covered her mouth in horror.

It was so cute that I couldn’t stop a laugh from escaping from my mouth.

“Don’t worry about it, Cadence. As long as you can speak professionally when it counts, I don’t give a shit if you swear otherwise. As long as it isn’t excessive. Clear?” I said, and she nodded.

“Got it.”

It seemed like a good idea to move from the kitchen back to the office so I could show her what she needed to know. Her mouth dropped open in shock when I presented her with the laptop and gave her the passwords.

“This is for me?” she squeaked.

“Yes. It has everything on it you’ll need, including my sites, which are already bookmarked.”

She swallowed audibly as she touched the keyboard as if it was going to bite her.

“I can get you a keyboard and mouse if you’d rather use it as a desktop. Anything you need to make your job more comfortable, don’t hesitate to let me know. It’s a tax write off for me.”

She blinked a few times and nodded so I assumed she understood.

It was still up in the air as to whether she was going to handle all of this, but she’d brought a notebook and was taking a lot of notes, so that was a positive sign. She listened, but I did catch her eyes wandering every now and then and she’d sort of shake herself before looking back at me. Cadence also fluttered her hands randomly and did these little dances with her fingers that were interesting.

Observing her while she was with me was somehow more interesting than any of my work I was supposed to be doing. She’d thrown my whole schedule off and I knew it was going to bother me later tonight, but right now having her with me was enough of a distraction.

Tomorrow I’d enforce my framework. Today was her first day and I needed to ease her in.

My main need for her was to wade through my inbox and prioritize emails, flagging the most important and making me aware of them right away. And then there was the endless website management. I’d had a website with a thriving community for decades at this point and moderating it and updating was a full-time job in itself. I’d been doing my best, but it had gotten way out of hand and the site was suffering as a consequence.

“This is a really impressive site,” she said, once I’d taken her through everything and logged her in the back end.