Page 64 of The Compass Series

CONNOR

I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks, and my overprotective mother was concerned.

I didn’t even tell her I hadn’t been sleeping, but she always seemed to be able to tell.

“You really need more sleep, Connor Ethan, and a girlfriend,” she’d always say. I didn’t know how, but she somehow managed to toss the word girlfriend into almost every conversation. She was gifted in that way.

My mother was convinced I was going to die alone.

She called me weekly to remind me. On the days she had too much wine, she’d cry about it over FaceTime.

She often reminded me that I was a workaholic and didn’t take enough personal days.

She wasn’t wrong about that. Day in and day out, I worked myself to exhaustion.

At times, my days felt more like years. I was proud of many parts of my life, but being a workaholic wasn’t one of them.

Sometimes I wondered what would’ve come of me if I hadn’t pushed so hard to make a name for myself in the world.

Then again, if I hadn’t pushed myself, I wouldn’t have been able to give back to the world in the ways I’d been able to give.

Every sacrifice comes with its own set of negatives.

I’d take long days and nights if it meant I helped make someone else’s life a bit easier. Still, a few large coffees were needed to get me through the long days.

“I have the afternoon reports and coffee for you, Mr. Roe—I mean, if you aren’t busy. Because if you are busy, I can come back when you aren’t busy, and I mean—if you’re not busy, I can update you now on the calls that came in and the emails that, um, I mean?—”

“Slow down, Rose,” I said, looking up toward the nervous girl who stood in the doorway of my office, pretty much shivering in her heels. “Right now is a perfect time for the updates.”

Rose was pretty much a kid. It seemed odd to say because she was nineteen, and I was twenty-eight, so there were only nine years between us, but I knew for certain I wasn’t the same man I’d been nine years before.

She was the new intern at Roe Real Estate, and the poor girl’s nerves got in her way more often than not. I didn’t mind, though. We all had to start somewhere, and I was willing to put up with her slipups and mishaps. Everyone deserved a chance in life.

Plus, she only came in twice a week in the afternoon, so she couldn’t do too much damage.

Rose took a breath and walked into the room, tripping a bit over her own two feet before catching herself by gripping the back of one of my office chairs.

She stood straight and cleared her throat before setting the coffee on the edge of my desk.

Thankfully she didn’t spill that since I was in desperate need of a caffeine kick.

She looked down at her paperwork and began speaking. Even though she was still nervous about working for the company, I could tell she was becoming more comfortable week by week because her voice didn’t shake as much as it had before. Progress.

“Well, four magazines reached out with massive offers for you to do interviews with them,” she explained.

“I don’t do interviews.”

“Yes. Right. But they are offering hefty amounts of money for an exclusive cover and?—”

“I don’t do interviews,” I repeated. I also smiled so she wouldn’t feel intimidated.

She gave me a half-smile too and continued. “I, uh, your mom called and said you need to stop working so much.”

“Noted. Next message?”

“Your suits are done at the dry cleaner, and I will pick them up this afternoon and bring them back to the office tonight. I know I was supposed to get them before I showed up today, but they got backed up, and well, I’m really sorry. I’ll definitely work later to make sure they are here tonight.”

“Don’t worry about getting them back tonight. I can pick them up on my way home.”

She frowned. “No, really. It’s okay. I just…” She paused before letting out a big sigh. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“Rose.”

“Yes?”

“You’re doing a great job, every single day. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“It’s just…this opportunity is a big one for me, Mr. Roe. I know I’m young and nervous, and you could’ve probably hired someone better for the position. So, I want to give it my all.”

“Which you are. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine.”

Her shoulders dropped a bit as relaxation hit her. Good. I didn’t like the idea that my employees were nervous around me. I wasn’t some big bad wolf. If anything, I wanted everyone who worked for me to feel at home as though we were a big family.

Hopefully, she’d come around. Earning trust goes both ways.

“Okay, well, thank you.” She paused for a moment and nibbled her bottom lip.

I arched an eyebrow. “Is there something else?”

“Well, it’s just that one of the magazines offered you a lot of money. And I mean a lot. Like over one hundred thousand dollars a lot.”

I could see the dollar signs in her eyes as she spoke about the amount. Not to sound like a jerk, but I could have easily made that amount of money in my sleep. And even if I hadn’t been able to, I still wouldn’t have wanted to do some magazine article.

I’d seen what being in the spotlight could do to a person’s mental health and their actual businesses.

Nothing good came from giving the world a view into your life.

They’d love you at first, maybe, yeah, but the moment they needed a reason to turn on you, they’d twist your words and call you the devil.

Life was easier with me being a bit of a mystery.

All they could do was assume, and anyone who had time to assume about someone else’s life was clearly not living their own to the fullest. I wasn’t into that world—the gossiping scene.

Since I’d moved to New York, I’d learned that the gossiping habit didn’t stay in high school.

I’d crossed paths with individuals in their sixties still shit-talking about people.

Whenever it happened, I’d exit stage left.

The less drama, the happier life was to me.

Rose’s mouth twitched once, and I smirked.

“What else did they offer me, Rose?”

“The cover of People magazine for sexiest man alive! And oh my gosh, Mr. Roe, they only do that for celebrities! Like real celebrities! Like Ryan Reynolds and Idris Elba! It’s so cool. Like that’s the dream.”

I laughed. “Is that it?”

“Absolutely.”

“So what do these guys get from holding the title of sexiest man alive?”

She looked at me as if I were idiotic for not understanding what an honor said opportunity was. “Uh, the sexiest man alive title! You literally hold that title for life.”

“Wow. Well, as wonderful as that sounds, I think I’ll pass this one up. But thank you, and please let each outlet know I am honored but kindly turn down the offers.”

“Well, okay, Mr. Roe.” She paused and arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want me to pick up the suits tonight?”

“Positive. Thank you, Rose.”

She left my office, and just as she exited, Damian walked in with a grimace on his face.

“Good afternoon, Damian,” Rose stated.

He moved past her as if he hadn’t even noticed her existence. Not a hello, not a hey, nothing. A completely and utterly silent response.

Rose was a very attractive girl, and Damian was her same age, just a year younger. I would’ve thought he’d develop an attraction to her just as the rest of the guys in the office were, but he seemed far from interested.

Then again, that was Damian’s norm for the most part. He was extremely good at not caring about pretty much any other human being. He and I were the complete opposite. He was cold as ice, and I was known for my warmth.

Still, to me, he was family. I’d met Damian two years earlier when I was looking for a kid to help mentor through a program, and I was paired with him—the grumpiest sixteen-year-old I’d ever seen in my life.

For a long time, I took his bad attitude personally, but then I realized it was a defense mechanism.

He’d grown up in the foster system being tossed around from home to home, never really finding a stable life, so he closed himself off to everyone around him.

He had trust issues that ran deep. He tried his hardest to push me away because so many people had pushed him away in his lifetime.

Too bad for him that I was an annoying motherfucker who didn’t give up when something was challenging.

I’d stayed in his life for the past two years, and I had no plans of exiting anytime soon.

When he told me he didn’t see himself going to college, I made sure to get him a position working for me.

I didn’t believe everyone was meant for the college life track, but I knew Damian was smart as hell and could do amazing things if given the opportunity.

It turned out, he was one of my best employees—grumpy self and all.

“You didn’t say good afternoon to Rose,” I mentioned as he moved to sit in the chair across from my desk. Unlike Rose, there was nothing nervous about his entrance into my office. He moved with confidence.

“Why would I say hi to her?”

“Because she greeted you first.”

“She’s a fake, shitty employee. I don’t like her.”

“To be fair, you don’t like anyone.”

He parted his lips to respond but then shut it when he realized there was nothing but the truth in my words.

“What makes you think she’s fake?” I asked.

“The whole clumsy, stuttering, innocent girl act. She only puts it on around you. When you’re not around, she’s busy flirting it up and pushing her tits in the face of any person who will look.”

“No way. She’s a good worker.”

He sighed. “Must be hard believing everyone in the world is a good person.”

“I don’t think Jason Rollsfield is a good person.”

“Congratulations, Connor. You don’t like one person out of seven billion on this planet,” he sarcastically remarked. “Then again, you hate him and still gave him a job. Shocking. If you knew about Rose’s past?—”

“No!” I hollered, tossing my hands up. “Don’t tell me. Every time you tell me about a person’s past, it changes how I view them.”

“As it should.”