Page 3 of Second Chances (Passion and Perseverance #2)

Chapter Two

Only thirty minutes late. Not so bad, right?

Beth grimaced as she sat down at her desk and opened up her computer, waiting for the emails to roll in.

Knock. “Beth?” Phil opened her office door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

“Hey, sorry I’m late this morning. It’s been a crazy weekend,” she apologized lamely.

“That’s alright. I know your family has had a lot going on lately but I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things,” Phil began, taking the seat across from her desk.

“Of course.” He looked serious and Beth wouldn’t blame him if he threatened to fire her, she’d been so distracted lately.

“First, about the DeBourgh account, Mrs. DeBourgh did contact me and she does still want to continue to use us; however, she asked that I, personally, be in charge of her account. I don’t know what happened, but after your email I was prepared for the worst. However, while she was very displeased with you, for what seemed like personal reasons, she doesn't want to change firms at this point. So, if you could email me all of your files and notes for that account I would appreciate it.”

“Of course.” She hesitated for a moment out of surprise at his revelation.

She was sure after their last conversation that Mrs. DeBourgh was going to fire Gardiner - or worse, because of her.

What was she planning?

Her thoughts immediately went to an ulterior motive. There was no way this wasn’t part of some grander plan to ruin her or at the very least spy on her. Beth knew how determined Mrs. DeBourgh was that Darcy should end up with Anne and this could only be another move to make sure that came to pass .

“I’m sorry about that whole situation. All I can say is that because of my family and our relative closeness to certain people, she was using me and our business relationship for personal reasons that I wasn’t comfortable with; when she began making demands on my personal life, I had to put my foot down.

I don’t trust her and I would be very careful in how you handle your future dealings with her. ”

“I see. You know you are like family to me and I know that you would never do anything to purposefully jeopardize the work that we do here. Having spoken with her, I get the sense she isn’t used to people standing up to her or denying her what she wants.

So, I can understand where the conflict might have arisen and I will be cautious with her in the future. ”

Beth nodded in agreement.

“I also wanted to talk to you about, well, you,” he began again, “I know we try to keep our relationship professional but I’m asking you this both as your boss and as your family.

Are you ok? Your father and I have both noticed how distracted and lost you’ve seemed lately; it’s really been out of character for you and I just want to let you know that I’m here if you need anything. ”

Lost was an understatement.

“Thank you. I’ve been struggling with some things but I think I’ve got a handle on it now. I appreciate your concern,” she replied sincerely, feeling blessed to have such caring people in her life.

“That being said, I’ve been very understanding with everything going on with your family and about the DeBourgh situation; however, I can’t continue to cut you slack here at the office, even though you are like family to me, and I don’t think you would want me to.

I expect you to be here on time and performing - you are the head of this team for a reason,” he concluded sternly.

“Of course. It won’t happen again. Thank you,” she responded, knowing how hard it was for him to reprimand her like that but she understood and was grateful. She couldn’t continue to take advantage of their family relationship; plus, she needed some semblance of normalcy in her life right now .

“Great. Now, I have a new client for you. She’s just back from Europe, a pretty well-known artist over there and wants to do a few select exhibits of her work here.

Obviously, the whole press thing you will have under control; however, she also asked if we could recommend any event coordinators and on a whim, I told her that you also do event planning, because you do, and you are excellent at it. ”

At Beth’s shocked and silent reaction, he continued, “I know you enjoy it and after my brief discussion with Mr. Darcy the other week, I’ve really been thinking about expanding the company to include more comprehensive event planning as well as the associated PR.

I think strengthening this could be huge for the company; I want potential clients to look to us for all their event needs, not just for ones associated with specific PR goals. What do you think?”

“Well, I, um… yeah, I mean I think that is a great idea,” she stammered, trying to quickly process what she was being asked to do.

She’d only ever planned her family’s events and a few select parties for old clients of hers, aside from helping with the DeBourgh party, but it couldn’t be much different, right?

“Are you ok with that?” Phil asked again, still waiting for her acceptance.

“Of course! I’d be happy to. Sorry - I wasn’t prepared for that at all, but I can definitely do it, not a problem. Who is the client?” she replied more confidently.

“Well, I think you met her briefly but, it’s actually Charles’ older sister, Caroline Bingley. All the more reason I thought it would be a great place to test out this new aspect of the business.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Beth exclaimed. She barely remembered meeting Caroline, thanks to the champagne she’d consumed the night of Jane and Charles’ party, but she recalled a tall, voluptuous blond who’d greeted her warmly; if she was anything like Charles, working with her was going to be a treat.

“Awesome, I’ll email you her contact info and we’ll go from there,” Phil said as he stood up to leave, “And remember, Beth, anything you need, I’m here for you. ”

She gave him a small nod and a smile as he left the room.

Opening up her calendar, she reoriented herself to her schedule - three events this weekend.

Her assistant, Cindy, would be handling the new book release for the latest James Patterson novel on Saturday; her other assistant, Alaina, would be attending the soft opening for one of the newest restaurants in the city, ABC Kitchen.

Beth would be working the major event of the weekend - a masquerade to celebrate a combination birthday party/movie premier after-party for her client, Renée Zellweger’s, latest film - Bridget Jones’ Baby; she was actually excited for that one.

Her office line began to ring.

“Hello, this is Beth.”

“Hey, I just tried your cell but you didn’t answer,” Jane responded from the other end.

“Sorry, I put it on ‘Do Not Disturb’ - trying to focus on work this morning.”

“It’s ok. I just wanted to check in. You haven’t been home all weekend; I thought maybe you had decided to stay with Char for a bit on account of Charles and me, but I just saw her this morning and she asked what you’ve been up to because she hasn’t heard from you…” Jane trailed off.

She’d kept the whole staying-with-Darcy quiet, letting everyone assume what they wanted as to where she was. It was only one weekend; who was going to notice? Of course, Jane would.

“Sorry - I was going to tell you. I’ve been staying with Darcy,” she said, pausing afterward to allow for Jane’s reaction.

“Oh, I didn’t realize,” she replied, clearly startled, “So, everything is ok between you? What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Understatement. “We are trying to figure things out between us. I’ll talk to you about it later though but, if you could keep in on the down-low for now, especially from mom; I don’t want any unnecessary drama or gossip to crop up,” Beth begged her sister .

“Oh, ok. She’s pretty preoccupied right now anyway but I can cover for you. I just want to make sure that you are doing what’s best for you; I know you love him but I don’t want to see him take advantage of your feelings.” Jane’s concern for her was evident.

“I’m good, really. Thank you,” Beth tried to sound confident, even though she wasn’t right now, “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ok, bye.”

She appreciated her sister’s concern, but she needed to figure this out on her own.

What happened between her and Darcy was theirs and it was hard enough for the both of them to let each other in; it was only going to make things more complicated if she tried to bring other people into the mix.

She needed to be stronger with him; she needed to control her emotions, and no one was going to be able to help her do that but herself.

The ding of an incoming email had Beth return to her computer.

She did a double -take on reading the email address of the sender: [email protected] .

She couldn’t suppress the smile that stole over her face.

Someone was definitely feeling guilty. She also couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Mr. Cool-and-Collected asking his IT guys for a company email for “Mr. Intolerable”; it was such a small thing, but it achingly tempted her to forget her anger and disappointment from this morning.

No, Beth. You have to stay strong. He’ll never change if you don’t make him.

Acknowledging that, she opened up his email.

Subject: Dinner

Beth,

I know we didn’t leave things on a good note this morning, but I look forward to seeing you for dinner tonight. And to making it up to you afterward.

Please.

Yours,

Mr. Intolerabl e

P.S. - I put a keycard for my place in the outside pocket of your bag.