The Christmas Proposal - Miley Maine Page 0,23
I’ll figure out what I need for you to do after I assess the problem.”
I headed over to my desk, sat down, and picked up the phone, dialing the number for Ryan. He picked up on the first ring. “Yes, sir?”
“I am here now. Where is the report I requested?”
“I have it, sir. I figured you would want to go over things together.”
“Bring it here now then.”
I hung up. Ryan’s office was next to mine, so it took less than a minute for him to show up, a stack of papers in hand. He looked over at Serenity, who was currently reading some fantasy novel.
“Who’s this, sir?” he asked.
“An intern I’ve taken on for the holiday month.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?”
“She’s an old family friend who needs the experience and should be more helpful than not. I can personally vouch that she’s not some competitor plant, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“That’s not—”
“You know it was, so don’t try to avoid it,” I snapped, switching from vacation to boss mode just like that. “Now, let’s go over this report.”
The problems were more extensive than I had first expected, and I was quickly realizing that I wasn’t going to have as much time to spend with Serenity as I might have liked. This was definitely not going to be an extension of my vacation or anything even remotely close to that. No, it was going to take a lot of time and work to fix all the things that had fallen out of place during the brief time I’d been gone, and I couldn’t afford to be too distracted.
Still, I could tell that Serenity wasn’t really feeling the most comfortable at the moment, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty for that. She kept glancing over at Ryan and me the whole time that we were going over the issues with the company and seemed unable to concentrate on her book. She didn’t eat much for lunch and was finished with the novel before I had anything to assign to her.
So I decided that it would be a good idea to take her out to dinner before things got too hectic to do so. It would give us time to spend together and catch up on things that we had missed out on. Plus, I’d be able to show her a bit more of LA than the inside of my office.
“Any preferences for dinner?” I asked, leaning over her desk.
She looked up from her phone, seemingly surprised I was speaking to her. “Umm, I don’t know. Is there anything you would suggest?”
“I mean, what are you in the mood for? We could get pasta, or ramen, or sushi.”
“Something lowkey, please,” she said, looking back down and blushing like she always did when she was embarrassed about something. “I don’t know if I can handle anything too high class right now.”
“Alright, I can work with that,” I said. “How about we just get some pasta, then? I know a good place close to here.”
“Yes, please,” she said, standing up and grabbing her bag with more energy than I would have expected.
I let out a laugh. “So eager to get going?”
She nodded. “It’s been a long day and I’m hungry. Why? Is there something wrong with that?”
I pulled her to my side and placed a kiss on the top of her forehead. “No, nothing at all. Come on, let’s go.”
We headed out to my car and then drove to the restaurant. I only planned on us spending a couple of hours there as I knew that I needed to get her settled in the house and we both needed some good sleep before another long day of work, even though my day would be far more stressful than hers.
The place wasn’t terribly busy on a Sunday night, so we were seated almost immediately. I ordered for both of us as Serenity was being indecisive and just wanted me to make the decision for her. “You’ve been here before!” she protested when I teased her about it.
Once our waiter left, I turned to her with a smile.
“I realized I never asked,” I said. “Why was it that you had a crush on me all those years ago?”
She blushed and shrugged. “Ummm, I don’t know, I mean, the usual reasons, I guess.”
“Which are?” I brought my hand up to rest my chin on. I liked it when she got flustered; she was so cute and kind of innocent. It was refreshing and made me forget about