Slowly, she stepped sideways to the left.
Mrs. Gale snapped her fingers. “Sit down. No one excused you.”
Before the sentence was even finished, Maggie slammed her butt into the soft leather chair. Mr. Gale was her boss, which made his mother her even bigger boss, so she didn’t exactly have a choice. “This really isn’t what it looks like, Mrs. Gale. I—”
“Don’t bother, Maggie.” He frowned. “She won’t believe you.”
Mrs. Gale shrugged. “You’re right. I won’t.”
He rubbed his jaw. “You can’t come in here and order my employees around. If Maggie wants to leave, she’s allowed. She’s not a prisoner in my office.”
She stood again. “Great. Thank you. I’ll be on my—”
“Your employee?” The other woman laughed, but it didn’t sound like humor at all. “Oh, that’s just rich. You have one of your workers under your table doing…doing…”
Shoot me. Shoot me now.
“As we already told you,” he said, his tone tight with exasperation. “It’s not what it looked like.”
“Oh, but it was. And there are rules against such things.” Mrs. Gale focused her cold gaze on Maggie. “Get out. You’re fired.”
She exhaled a big breath of air, dread punching her in the stomach. She’d been in the city for half a year, fighting her way into this hard-to-attain position at Gale Incorporated, and now she’d been sacked over suspicion of going down on her hot boss—and she hadn’t even done it. Great. Just great.
She had to get out of here, with her head held high, and then she’d cry. But not in front of this horrible woman. She nodded. “Right.”
“Don’t even think about walking out of here.” His icy look froze her to the spot. “Sit down.”
She sat again, feeling a bit like a marionette on strings, and wishing she were anywhere but here with these two people. A funeral. Even the dentist.
Or the gynecologist, with her feet in stirrups, and an apologetic doctor holding a speculum between her thighs going, “Sorry, but this will be cold and uncomfortable.”
Literally. Anywhere else.
Mrs. Gale sniffed, crinkled her nose as if she smelled something foul, and crossed her arms. “How dare you bring one of your paramours into the company as an employee. What would your father say?”
She stiffened, every nerve within her screaming for her to tell this pompous woman exactly where she could stick her old-fashioned attitude. She stood again, nails digging into her palms. “You know what? You can take your—”
“Father would say nothing.” He smoothly stepped in front of her and cut her off, all without even glancing her way. “We were working and had a dinner break together. We were both fully clothed, and she just happened to be under the table. That’s it.”
Mrs. Gale cast a glance at the table in question. “Oh, dear me. I didn’t realize that wine at a business meal was now standard. Shall we serve that all day long at the break station, instead of coffee and tea? Perhaps throw in a few hard spirits, as well, to liven up the day? Some leftover medication that didn’t pass FDA approval?”
Maggie’s nails dug even deeper into her palms, but she miraculously managed to keep her mouth shut. She had a suspicion that this had nothing to do with her at all, and everything to do with them. Mrs. Gale was a force to be reckoned with. Word on the street was that she never stopped pushing till she got her way, no matter what stood in her path. Apparently, that ruthlessness extended to her son, so Maggie speaking up in his defense wouldn’t do anything to help diffuse the situation.
If anything, it would only rile the monster even more.
Mr. Gale crossed his arms, not even close to losing his cool over his mother’s…well, coolness. If anything, he looked mildly amused. The man was like a machine, all cold, hard logic and no irrational emotion at all. “That’s not the same thing. It’s after seven, and we’re both finishing up a twelve-hour day on a Friday. Since my original dinner meeting was canceled, I invited Maggie to join me before I go home—alone, I might add. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Then why was she under the table?” Mrs. Gale lifted her head and somehow managed to stare down her nose at her son, despite their height differences. “Let me guess. You were playing hide and seek. She seems to be of the age and intelligence level that she’d enjoy such trivialities.”
Maggie gasped. “Excuse me. I graduated top of my class at—”
He interrupted with, “She dropped a fork and was picking it up.”
“Ah, but no one will believe that.” His mother shook her head. “Not once I tell the board the disgraceful behavior I witnessed. Interoffice relations are forbidden.”
“Not always,” he said, still looking completely bored.
If she had known she was going to get fired anyway, maybe she would have had a little bit of fun under that table first. Mr. Gale was an attractive man, and the way he’d been looking at her right before the interruption…
It had been scalding hot, to say the least.
Panty-dropping, to be more accurate.
Mrs. Gale snorted. “Well, unless the two of you were secretly dating before she came here, you don’t have a leg to stand on. And you are well aware of it, too.”
Maggie’s boss looked at her, but remained silent.
It was almost as if he was asking her…no. No.
Surely he didn’t mean…no.
“As I thought. She’s fired, and that’s that,” his mother said, shooting Maggie a disdainful look. “It’s time you stopped messing around with loose women, and did your duty as heir and primary share holder of Gale Incorporated. I set you up on a date with a lovely woman last night, and you didn’t even show up, which is why I’m here in the first place. Do you know how long it took for me to smooth the waters with Sheldon?”
Maggie crept toward the door. Time to slink away.
He grabbed her hand, holding her in place.
“No, and I don’t give a damn, either. I told you not to set me up with his daughter,” Mr. Gale said, his voice clipped. “That’s on you. You’re the one who refuses to give up on the idea of me marrying some snob you handpicked for me.”
“With good reason.” His mother’s nostrils flared. “I don’t give up once I’ve decided on a course of action. It’s a pity you didn’t inherit my determination to win and stubbornness to be the best.”
Maggie tried to discreetly wriggle free, not wanting to draw attention to herself, but failed. Her boss wasn’t letting go. She glanced up at the ceiling. If ever a meteorite was going to swoop down on the city and kill her, now would be the perfect time.
“Funny that you think that. You tried to kick me out of this position,” he pointed out, brow raised. “And yet here I stand. Holding steady.”
“This is not a conversation for outsiders.” She gestured to Maggie, her nose again scrunching up at the sight of their joined hands, as if she smelled the peasant on her. “Let her go. She’s fired.”
Mr. Gale shook his head. “No, she’s not. And she’s not going anywhere.”
“Very well then. You want to dig yourself a deeper hole? Go ahead.” She threw her hands up dramatically. “I’m through trying to protect you.”
“Protecting me? When the hell have you ever—?”
“Language,” his mother snapped, her face flushing. “You listen, and you listen well, young man. You will go on the dates I set up for you, and you will do it with a smile on your face, and you will pick one of them to become your wife. It’s what your father did before you, and your father’s father, and your father’s father’s father. It is what’s expected of you.”
His jaw flexed, but he remained silent.
Apparently, Mrs. Gale wasn’t finished yet. “You will be charming and every inch the gentleman I raised you to be. You will find a suitable woman to settle down with, and you will propose. Enough of these dalliances with low-class women—it’s time to do your duty as heir and the head of this company. You wanted the position badly enough to fight me for it? You have it. Now it’s time to take full responsibility for that position. It’s been almost six years. It’s time to be the man you’re supposed to be. A man your father might possibly be proud of. If not, I swear, I’ll—”