Best of Bosses 2008: In Bed With Her Italian Boss\Taken by Her Greek Boss\Blind Date With the Boss (41 page)

‘Here's an everyday, non-invasive question,' she said, hurrying, before the silence became too much. ‘What kind of music do you like?'

She was surprised by the evident pleasure in his face. ‘That's easy. I like all sorts of music. My grandmother was a classical pianist and I guess I've inherited her love of music but, unfortunately, none of her talent.'

This was a layer to the boss Sally hadn't anticipated, but at least they'd stopped talking about dancing.

‘I don't know much at all about classical music,' she admitted. ‘Chloe used to take me to concerts though, and since I've been living in her house I've been listening to her CDs. They're mostly classical or jazz and some of them are just gorgeous.'

‘Is there any one piece you particularly like?'

‘Well…' She paused. She'd never had a serious discussion about music and she felt a tad pretentious. ‘I've discovered
an amazing violin concerto. It's kind of uplifting and sad and joyful all at once.'

‘Which composer?' Logan was suddenly alert, leaning forward, his dark eyes keenly focused on her.

‘Brahms.'

‘Ah, yes,' he said softly, almost reverently, and, for no reason that she could explain, fine hairs lifted on Sally's arms. ‘The Brahms violin concerto is one of my favourites too.'

‘The music's so powerful,' she said. ‘And there's a passage towards the end of the first movement.'

‘Where the music suddenly slows down?'

‘Yes, it's so beautiful. There's such a depth of feeling.'

Logan nodded. ‘You have to stop everything and just listen.'

‘And it touches you deep inside in a way that's impossible to put into words.'

Her boss was looking at her now with an expression of such intense fascination that Sally, without warning, felt as if she wanted to cry.

‘Goodness,' she said, blinking quickly and trying to make light of the moment. ‘We almost got deep and meaningful there. And you said that's against the rules.'

He smiled slowly, almost sadly.

‘We'd better think of another question,' she said. ‘What about travel?'

For a moment, Sally had the distinct impression that he would have preferred to continue talking about music, but then, with a little shrug, he asked, ‘Have you travelled?'

‘Not outside Australia. But I'm very keen to go overseas.'

Logan had relaxed again, sitting with an elbow hooked over the back of his chair. ‘If you only had the opportunity to travel to one place overseas, where would it be?'

She grinned at him. ‘You're really getting into the swing of this.'

‘Answer the question, Miss Finch.'

‘
And
you remembered my surname.' She looked down and saw that he'd read her name-plate. With a cunning smile, she said, ‘One place overseas? Let me see. I think that would have to be Paris. I'd love to see the Seine and the Champs-Elysées.'

She hesitated, frowning. ‘No, wait a minute. I think, if I can only have one place, it would have to be in Italy. Florence or Venice. Yes, I think I'd definitely choose Venice.' Chloe had so many beautiful photographs of the canals. All those gorgeous arched bridges and the gondolas and the old crumbling buildings. ‘Everything there is so full of history.'

‘Brahms loved Vienna.'

‘Well, Vienna would be good too. Oh, hang, I don't think I could ever settle for just one place.'

Sally grinned and Logan grinned back at her and the world seemed, suddenly, to be a brighter and more beautiful place.

‘Are you two still chatting?'

They turned to find Janet Keaton bearing down on them.

‘Didn't you hear me? Time's well and truly up.'

Sally looked about her and realised that all the others were back in their places and were watching the two of them with wry amusement.

‘We were late starting,' Logan muttered smoothly and then he stood and was very dignified as he returned to his seat next to Hank without a backward glance at Sally.

Not surprisingly, Janet now wanted everyone to introduce the person they'd interviewed to the whole group, sharing what they'd discovered about that person.

Logan hardly heard what they others said. He was too busy trying to work out why his newest employee had such a disturbing effect on him. She was pretty, certainly, but not as beautiful as many of the women he'd dated.

Those golden curls continued to intrigue him, but it was
more than that. Sally Finch radiated warmth and vitality and there was something very wide-eyed and fresh about her that stirred memories of the strangest things—the first exciting day of the long summer holidays, waking as a child on Christmas morning.

He'd never met a woman quite like her. But he wasn't going to admit that here. In the end, when it was his turn to introduce Sally, he spoke simply about her family, about her country girlhood and her desire to travel. He certainly didn't mention the moment of spine-tingling connection while they'd been talking about the Brahms. For him, it was one of those rare experiences, like the music, that remained beyond the reach of mere words.

He wondered if Sally would mention it when she introduced him. As she got to her feet, he was on tenterhooks, fearful that this outspoken young woman might reveal too much about their conversation. But, to his surprise, Sally was extremely circumspect. His business CV was more personally revealing than her careful introduction.

Janet Keaton caught his eye, her expression faintly bewildered. What had she expected? That Sally would spill one of his deep, dark secrets?

Perhaps they'd both underestimated the newest employee.

 

For Sally, the rest of the workshop was every bit as much fun as she'd anticipated. There were all sorts of problem-solving exercises which brought out different people's strengths and weaknesses and showed the benefits of working in a team. She found that she was a lateral thinker, good at listening and at being empathetic, but she wasn't so hot when it came to logic and spatial skills.

In groups, they hunted for errors in messages, tried to find triangles inside pentagons and to draw circle-and-dot dia
grams without taking their pens off the paper. There were even moments of self-disclosure where they shared fantasies.

Sally's fantasy was to have long, straight, dark hair. The boss surprised everyone, except Sally, by claiming that he would love to have played Rugby League for Australia.

Logan disappeared at lunch time and missed the rather delicious smorgasbord served in the dining room.

Maeve pounced on Sally. ‘Poor you. What was it like being grilled by the boss?'

‘Nerve-racking until he thawed out. Then he was close to normal.'

‘I must say you looked pretty into each other by the end.'

Sally tried to make light of it. ‘We were just talking about travel. How was Prince Charming?'

‘Fabulous.' Maeve's eyes danced with excitement. ‘I'm going out with him tonight.'

‘Tonight?' Sally gaped at her friend. ‘Wow! That was quick work.'

Maeve grinned happily. ‘Our chat session was as good as a date. A kind of blind date in the workplace.'

In a strange way, so was mine
, Sally thought.
Good grief.
What would Logan say if he could read her thoughts?

Now she really was getting carried away.

The boss returned in time for the afternoon session. They were broken into competitive teams and given a kit of materials and instructed to build an ‘anti-grenade' that would protect the shell of an egg. The time limit was thirty minutes.

Sally was hopeless at this and happy to cheer on her team mates. After they'd built their device from reinforced cardboard and crumpled paper, they went to a ‘test site' in the park, where they had to throw their constructions.

Sally's team broke their egg.

The boss's team won, launching their device the furthest distance and keeping the egg intact.

He hadn't been in Sally's team for any of the day's team activities, and he'd paid her no attention, but during the entire time she was ridiculously super-aware of him. It was awful, like having a high school crush on a senior boy, but so much more painful because it was so pointless.

Because it wasn't supposed to happen.

After a scrumptious afternoon tea of scones with strawberry jam and cream, along with piping-hot tea, Janet announced that it was time to draw some conclusions from the day's activities.

‘But, before that,' she said, ‘I'd like you to return to the pairs you were in this morning, when we had that first ice-breaker session.'

Sally's stomach tightened. From across the room, she saw Logan stiffen and glance her way. But his expression remained deadpan as he beckoned to her to come and join him.

Flashing hot and cold, she crossed the room.

‘This time, I'm going to give you a list of questions,' Janet said as she moved between their tables, distributing sheets of paper. ‘Feedback from others is the most important form of reality check we can have. It's a matter of lowering your façades and seeing yourselves as others see you and it's very illuminating self-knowledge.'

Sally cringed. Receiving feedback from her boss would be bad enough, but giving it would be incredibly risky!

 

With trepidation, she read the questions on the sheet.

What was your first impression of me?

Why did you have that impression?

Who did I remind you of? Why?

How accurate do you now think that impression was?

Ouch!
How could she be honest about her first impression? She'd met Logan Black on the day of the interview when he'd found Rose under his desk and she'd thought he was an arrogant prig.

Looking up at him now, she saw a dark red stain creep up his neck.
He's as uncomfortable with this as I am.
She dropped her gaze to her hands and twisted them nervously.

Logan made a small throat-clearing sound. ‘Trust Janet to save the punchline for last.' He shot Sally a piercing look from beneath half-lowered lids. ‘Would you like to start?'

She tried to smile and failed. ‘I'd rather not.'

Drawing back an immaculate white cuff, he looked at his watch, which was, of course, beautiful and gold and very expensive-looking. ‘Actually, I'm not sure we can do this. I have a meeting at four.

‘Yes, you mustn't miss your meeting.' Sally was as glad to escape as he was.

Logan stood, but Janet Keaton was too quick for them.

‘I hope you're not planning to wriggle out of this, Logan,' she said, loudly enough for several others to hear.

‘I have an important meeting at four,' he said, jaw jutting at a distinctly antagonistic angle.

‘That's fine. You still have plenty of time for a quick recap.'

Sally waited for Logan to pull rank and to insist that he couldn't possibly stay. It would be dead easy for him to leave now. But, to her surprise, he caught her eye and smiled conspiratorially. ‘I guess we'd better do as we're told.'

As Janet moved away, he sat down again, rested his elbows on the desk and leaned closer to Sally. ‘Don't look so worried, Sally. I'm not going to eat you. As a matter of fact, I'm prepared to admit straight out that my first impression of you was completely off track.'

Sally gulped. ‘Really?'

‘I assumed you were a single mother,' he said. ‘And a rather careless one at that.'

‘When I was actually a careless aunt,' she suggested with a small smile.

The responding warmth in his eyes sent a sweet shiver over her arms. She was about to comment that Logan seemed to enjoy his role as an uncle when he asked, ‘How is the little boy who had the asthma attack?'

Sally swallowed her surprise. She had no idea her boss knew about Oliver. ‘He's much better, thank you. They've put him on some kind of preventative medicine that seems to be doing the trick.'

Logan nodded, then looked down at the sheet of questions. ‘I'm expected to say who you remind me of.'

‘Please don't say a corn cob.'

‘Why on earth would I say that?'

‘It's what my brothers called me. And then everyone at school.'

‘Because of your hair?'

Sally sighed. ‘You guessed it.'

His gaze rested on her hair for longer than was necessary, but he made no comment. ‘Actually, you're rather like my sister, Carissa,' he said. ‘You're totally different physically, but she has the same kind of vibrancy as you.'

Vibrancy?
The boss thought she was vibrant?

‘And you like to talk. You and Carissa both
really
like to talk.'