Page 59 of Family Affair

Chapter 14

“Who gave you the right to discuss the particulars with a client?”

This was not the greeting Coco had anticipated upon returning to work on Monday. Still suffering from a minor headache, no doubt a hangover from the mighty potion Ross had made for her, she nevertheless deemed herself recovered enough to come to work.

Maybe it was a bad decision. She should've called in sick and avoided Aaron’s manufactured outrage over whatever it was that was causing him to feel butthurt today.

“Good morning, sir.” Coco coughed a little to clear her throat. “What happened?”

“You talk to people behind my back, that’s what happened. But your sneaky ways can’t get past my office.”

She maintained silence, waiting for him to give her a clue as to what he was talking about.

He wriggled in his seat and raised a finger. “I don’t care what you did before coming to work here, but here you are an assistant. Got it? A secretary! Your job is to provide administrative support, no more no less!”

Coco had never seen Aaron that angry before, and the sight didn’t impress her. With his flushed face, twisted mouth, and brows knotted low over his glasses, he managed to look even more like an apple-cheeked, petulant boy.

“Yes, sir, I understand.” Coco eyed a thatch of hair standing up on top of his head like a uni-antler. “Ahem… Excuse me. Would you tell me what is wrong?”

“Ms. Amber Cuoco, that’s what’s wrong!” he exclaimed in a high pitched, hysterical voice. “You providedinformationto her!”

“You mean, Amber from EcoModule in Virginia?”

“Yes!” wailed her overwrought boss, appearing to be on the verge of succumbing to a case of vapors. And here she was, fresh out of smelling salts.

“I did speak with her,” Coco admitted. Not that it had been some clandestine call to begin with.

“And what did she want?” Arron’s left eye squinted, telling Coco that he already knew the answer but wanted to catch her in a lie.

“She had an issue with the interface we’ve designed for them, and she was looking for someone to help her troubleshoot.” He was making her increasingly upset and resentful for being treated with that much suspicion. It wasn’t the first time, and the pattern was growing old.

“And did you transfer her to the appropriate department?”

“Well, no. There was no need. It was a small enough issue, a user error on their part that I was able to help with. Amber hung up quite happy with Heated Designs,” Coco felt compelled to add.

“She ‘hung up happy,’” Aaron repeated in a poor imitation of her voice. “The question is, was it the first time a client hung up happy? Or the second? Or is there a trend of interactions between you and our clients? Neither client relations, nor writing software specifications are part of your job description.”

He looked triumphant, having clamped down on her overstepping her bounds.

“I happen to have expertise in a software similar to what we’re using, so of course I was glad to help.”

That silenced Aaron. His clear eyes bored into hers, oddly transparent on his flushed face.

“You have the expertise.” It was a statement.

“Yes, sir, I do.”

Aaron’s teenage-sized hands held on to a pencil with a death grip, and she was curious to see if he had the strength to break it. She knew it was unkind to make fun of his size, but mean thoughts assaulted her every time she found herself in his presence. He was such a prize.

Finally, Aaron threw the pencil on the desk and leaned back in his chair. A mistake on his part, for his executive chair was designed with an adult-sized executive in mind. The chair swallowed his diminutive form, and from where she stood, he resembled a child in a car seat, minus the restraints.

“Coco, I find it strange that you work here.”

His question surprised her. “You do? Why? Like I mentioned, I do have some knowledge… ”

He didn’t let her finish. “Exactly. You could have an equivalent of my position.”

Taken aback, she shook her head in denial. “I don’t want your position.”