Professional Boundaries (4 page)

“Um … Thank you.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome.”

As soon as we walked in, we were hit with the sound of their live salsa band. I had forgotten Fridays were their salsa night. I looked at Ian, and I could tell it made him a little uncomfortable.
Perfect
, I thought.

We didn’t even make it to the seating hostess before Alicia accosted me. “Kelli!” she said as she squeezed me to death. She looked me over like a fine Mexican momma. “Eres Hermosa.”

Another reason to love this place, it was a great self-esteem booster. “Gracias. Y tu.”

She kissed my cheek and then she noticed I brought company. “Ahh, who is this, Hermosa?”

I wanted to say, “Don’t get your hopes up.” She was constantly trying to set me up.

“Alicia, this is Ian. He’s the new Marketing Director at Chandler.”

She looked at me with sadness in her eyes. I probably shouldn’t have told anyone I was hoping to fill that position; I could have done without the pity stares.

Thankfully, Ian took his cue and shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She eyed him carefully. “You should know Kelli is muy talented.” She grinned at me. I shook my head at her and smiled back.

Ian also looked at me. “I’ve heard that a lot today.” He sounded sincere, but there seemed to be a hint of annoyance mixed in.

On that note, Alicia showed us to a booth toward the back. It was the furthest away from the band. I could tell that pleased Ian. She took our drink order and then kissed my cheek before she left to fill it.

Ian kept staring my way.

“Do you want to know what’s good here?” I asked.

He grinned. “Sure, but I was also wondering, does everyone in this town know you and love you?”

I laughed. “I think you’ve met most of my inner circle today.”

“Yes, and it’s been painful. I may be the most hated man in Nashville at the moment,” he responded ruefully.

I couldn’t help but grin and be delighted about that, but I kept my sarcastic comments to myself. It sounded like he’d had enough for the day. I may not have liked him, but I wasn’t one to pour vinegar in open wounds, at least not all at once.

He leaned forward ever so slightly. “So, Kelli, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot today. I’d like to start over if we could.”

“You think?” I responded.

He smiled at me and sat back. “How about this, let’s not discuss business for now.”

“Then whatever do we have to talk about?”

“Well, we haven’t seen each other in almost thirteen years.”

I took a chip from the bowl and dipped it in their homemade salsa all while wickedly grinning. “Really? Has it been that long? I guess time flies when you’re having fun.”

Yeah, he didn’t know what to do with me by the concerted look on his handsome face. Of course I knew how long it had been since I had last seen him. Unfortunately, that memory was forever etched on my heart and time-stamped in my brain, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I barely recognized you today when I first saw you.”

I raised my eyebrow at him and practically choked on my chip. “Well, ok. Most men would lie and say, ‘The years have been good to you, Kelli. You look great.’ But I guess honesty is the best policy.”

His face turned red.

I just picked up my menu and began to read it even though I had it memorized and knew what I would order. I had never had anyone point blank tell me I was unattractive and unrecognizable. And I’ll admit it stung coming from someone that used to call me beautiful on a regular basis.

He cleared his throat. “Kelli, I didn’t mean to imply that you are anything but Hermosa?”

I looked up from my menu. “Do you even know what that means?”

He smirked. “Your belly dancing classes have definitely paid off.”

“Hmm …”

“Really, Kelli, I just meant to say you look grown up now.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Now you sound like my dad.”

His eyes sparkled with delight at my response. “I’ve heard that somewhere before.”

I was supposed to be pretending like I didn’t remember a thing from our relationship.
Darn it!

“How
is
your dad?” he said, still grinning like a fool.

I completely set down my menu and placed my hands in my lap. “He passed away six years ago.”

That wiped the grin right off his face.

“Kelli, I had no idea. I’m sorry.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “How would you have known?”

“I just keep screwing up here, don’t I?” he asked.

I almost felt bad for him, so I threw him a bone. “Tell me how your family is.”

I was honestly very interested in his answer. I had adored his parents and sister. His parents lived on a cattle ranch outside of Glenwood Springs, nestled in a beautiful valley surrounded by the mountains of Colorado. I was so surprised the first time I met them. They were so different from Ian. I couldn’t imagine Ian growing up on a ranch, but he had. I really enjoyed the time we spent out there, and I would have liked to have stayed longer, but Ian, at the time, was very busy, and I always kind of got the feeling that wasn’t who he wanted to be. I don’t think he was embarrassed of his parents. They were salt of the earth kind of people, but I think he just always wanted more in life. Being a rancher is back-breaking work, and sometimes for not a lot of pay, but I had never met happier people.

His sister, Noelle, and I really hit it off too. I met her during the one and only Thanksgiving I spent with them. She was home from school. At the time she was attending the University of Texas as a junior. We had actually kept in touch for a while after Ian broke up with me. She thought he was the biggest prat ever for ending our relationship. I think she had even tried to talk some sense into him, but once Ian made his mind up, that was it. Over the years, I had thought about her and wished we had remained friends. She was even more sarcastic and feisty than me; we were quite the pair.

He looked at me thoughtfully. I hoped they were all still alive.

“They’re doing well. My parents still work too hard.”

I smiled at the news. I couldn’t imagine them being any other way.

“Noelle’s married now and lives in Houston. She and her husband Sean have a two-year-old son named Jax.”

I grinned wider at that news. “That’s wonderful. I’m happy for her.”

“She wanted me to tell you hi and that she would love to catch up with you,” he nervously replied. 

That was a pleasant surprise for me. “I’d like that,” I said quietly.  But then I thought it was weird he would have talked to his sister about me.

Thankfully, by that time Alicia returned with our drinks and was ready to take our order. “Are you having your usual tonight, Hermosa?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I responded as I handed her back the menu with my design work on it.

 Ian hadn’t even cracked open his menu. “I’ll just have what the lady is having.”

That was weird and a very un-Ian like thing to do. Anytime we had ever been out to eat, which wasn’t often, he was picky about what he ordered, and he would ask lots of questions of the server.  He had liked to cook for me, and of course that was more cost efficient for us as college students. I think he practically fed me for an entire semester, at least for dinner. I smiled at the old memory.

“What are you smiling about?” he inquired.

I quickly put on my
I have no idea what you’re talking about
look. He would not be getting access to my thoughts, especially any which placed him in a fond light. That was dangerous territory, and I needed to tread lightly there, or better yet, stay away completely. Honestly, I thought I had. We needed to switch gears ASAP.

“So, tell me more about your first day at the office.” I grinned evilly. We needed to get off the personal train.

He raised his eyebrow at me and thought for a moment. I could see the wheels spinning beyond those dark eyes of his. “We’ll get there.”

I didn’t like him taking control of the conversation direction. Hmm …, “Then what do you want to talk about?”

Oddly, he acted like he was reaching out to touch my hand, but he stopped. That was a good thing, too, if he wanted to keep it.

“Kelli, it’s been a long time. Tell me about you.”

“Didn’t you read my personnel file today?”

“Come on, Kelli.”

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

He knew he was getting on my nerves, and he seemed to take pleasure in it as he sat back and surveyed me.

“Tell me about Vanderbilt.”

So he
had
read my file. I wasn’t surprised. I was only surprised that he even cared.

“I received my MBA at Vanderbilt around seven years ago.”

He held his hand out waiting for me to elaborate. “And …?”

Fine, he was getting my life story in a nutshell. “I graduated top of my class. I started working for Chandler Media. I’ve been the Regional Manager for three years until today. “

He ruefully smiled, but that didn’t stop me from giving him the very watered downed history of my life after him. “When I’m not working, I’m either with my sister and her family or volunteering or belly dancing, among other activities. Oh, and I have a cat named Charlie. Is that enough for you?” 

He grinned. “How’s Amanda?”

I was taken aback that he remembered her name. It’s not like they’d ever met. “She’s perfect. She and Zane just celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary, and they have two daughters. Courtney’s ten and Samantha’s seven.”

“I thought you didn’t like cats.”

“Yeah, well, turns out I do.”

I didn’t really, except for Charlie. My sister bought him for me on my thirtieth birthday, and she said she would be buying me a new one every five years unless I got married. She was setting me up to be a spinster cat lady. At first, I told her to take him back, but he was just so dang cute, I couldn’t help but love him. But I warned her, no more. I didn’t care if I never got married.

“Husband? Kids?” He just about laughed.

“Really? Don’t you think that would be the first thing I would have mentioned?”

That made him really laugh. What was up with him?

I folded my arms. “Are we done now?”

“Don’t you want to know about me?”

“What more do I need to know?”

A playful grin spread across his face. “You’re not curious at all about your new boss?”

“You’re not my boss.”

I
was
a little curious, but heck, I could google him. And believe me, I would.

The playful grin still danced across his face. “I forgot. I’m getting ahead of myself.”

“Way,” I responded.

“So, what’s it going to take to win you back?”

I looked at him strangely. That was a very odd way of putting it.

He got a tinge red. “What can I do so you’ll rescind your resignation?” he corrected himself.

“Quit,” I said, hopefully.

His countenance dropped some. “You can take that off the table.”

“A girl can try.”

“Kelli, I don’t know if you remember or not, but we used to work well together. And I think if you gave this a chance, we could do great things for Chandler.”

Before I could respond, Jose brought our smothered burritos out to us. He greeted me with a kiss on the cheek too.

I figured I should be polite and make introductions. “Jose, this is the new Marketing Director for Chandler, Ian Greyson.” Those words tasted like one hundred year old vinegar in my mouth. It was so bad it left an aftertaste.

Jose also gave me a look of great pity before responding to Ian’s handshake. He turned his attention quickly back to me. “You can’t leave without dancing with me tonight, Bonita.”

Now that was something to smile about. Jose and Alicia had been teaching me how to salsa. It was almost as fun as belly dancing. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

 “So you salsa too?” Ian asked after Jose left.

“On occasion.”

“I see you still enjoy life and learning new things.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Can you please try this?” he practically begged.

I raised my eyebrow at him. “Ian, why are you here?”

He responded by taking a large bite of food and chewing very slowly. He didn’t verbally communicate, but his eyes danced with delight. Since he was in no hurry, I began to eat. I was starving, and the food smelled way too good to let it sit untouched any longer. Besides, I couldn’t stand looking into those warm chocolate eyes; it brought back too many memories. We ate in silence for several minutes, but there was a serious staring contest going on between us. The whole time I wondered why he was avoiding answering me. It was a simple question really.

“The food is excellent,” he finally said.

“Tell me something I don’t know. Like why you’re here?”

He thought for a moment more. “I’m here to find … success.”

“Because selling your own company for millions wasn’t enough?”

He took a deep breath. “Kelli, the digital ad software you’ve helped develop is a very unique concept, and I believe, with the right feature enhancements and marketing, it could put Chandler Media on the map as the leader in digital marketing software.”

“I still don’t get it,” I said exasperated. “You could have just started something on your own again.”

“I like a challenge, and this is a unique challenge.”

The way he said that and looked at me, I couldn’t tell if he was just talking about my product. Ok, it wasn’t just mine. It was my idea, but it was Matt, our software developer, who made it into reality. I was just the architect and the one who made it look pretty after Matt worked his magic.

“Fine, then why didn’t you tell Gary you knew me?”

He smirked. “Why does that matter to you?”

Oh, the nerve of him. I grabbed my bag and retrieved some cash and threw it on the table. It would more than cover my half of the meal. “Goodnight, Ian.”

His eyes widened and he jumped up. He hesitated, but he gently reached for my arm. “Please don’t go.”

“Why does it matter to you?” I threw back at him.

What was wrong with me? I wasn’t usually this snotty. He definitely brought out the worst in me. He didn’t used too. In fact, he used to bring out the best in me. But in my defense, I cried for months over him once upon a time, and now he’d taken my job.