The Delivery Girl

15. Employee

Callen

"Mom's been bugging me about you again."

I groan and lean back in my chair. "About what?" I ask, even though I'm certain I already know.

Eliza chuckles softly. "She's afraid you're going to die alone, Callen," she teases. "It's been ages since you've been in a real relationship."

I'm tempted to hang up on her. She's having way too much fun lately with me being the problem child for once. "Fucking hell," I grumble. "My relationships are none of her or your business."

"I swear it's because you're so cold!" she scolds, blatantly ignoring me. "You've broken dozens of hearts. Those poor girls fell so hard for you until they started to feel like you didn't care about them."

"I disagree."

"Would it kill you to be a bit more personable? What ever happened to my sweet and caring big brother?"

"I had to take over a company," I say dryly. I had quickly learned how to separate my personal and professional life. Having only been twenty four when I took over, I did as much as I could to be taken seriously. If that meant people thinking I was cold and heartless, then so be it.

"Hey, I offered to do it."

I actually laugh out loud. "You were in high school you idiot," I say. "But anyways, you just got engaged – shouldn't mom be focused on you right now?"

"We spoke this morning, I'm not starting on wedding planning for a while," she says. "I'm waiting till I graduate first."

I'm sure mom is going to spend the entire time hoping they call off the engagement. On top of Eliza only being twenty three, mom thinks Luke is a tool. Dad seems to adore him though, Luke is the only person who actually listens to his conspiracy theories that he's really gotten into over the last few years.

Julie quietly enters the room. I give her a brief nod as she takes off her coat and sits down at her desk.

"I have to go. Talk soon."

"Don't forget, I can always set you up with some-"

I hang up. "Good morning, Miss Leong. How was lunch last week?" I do my best to keep my tone measured and professional – I don't know what the hell got into me last week, but that was no way to be thinking about my employee.

She quickly looks up from her computer. "Good! The interns are all really nice," she says, smiling.

I've started to notice that her smiles are usually trying to mask her nervousness, though I don't understand what she's nervous about. Regardless, I like seeing her genuine smile. It's soft and sweet and sometimes even calms me down, especially on my more stressful days.

Since when do I call things sweet? I swear I'm losing my fucking mind.

I clear my throat. "Glad to hear."

"They um... racked up quite a bill at the restaurant. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to all the extra drinks they were ordering," she says sheepishly.

Ruby from accounting was not amused when she came into my office with the expense reimbursement form Julie had submitted.

"It's fine." I wave my hand dismissively. "I've had plenty of clients do much more damage than that."

I've learned where to draw the line, though, and its worked out fine. I once took a look at dad's old accounting records. With all of the free food and gifts, I swear he was breaking even on some clients. While he seemed to make his decisions on a whim, all decisions I make are thought out and strategic. It's no surprise our net revenue has substantially increased since I took over.