Danielle Steel - Malice

“Good.” Grace smiled at her. “I can hardly wait. Then no one will ask me out anymore, and I won't have to think up excuses.”

“You're crazy!” Winnie scolded. “Silly fool,” she clucked at her, and grumbled, and when a legal assistant asked her out the following month and Grace turned him down too, and gave the same reason, Winnie went absolutely crazy. “You are the most foolish girl I've ever known!” the older woman railed at her. “I'm absolutely not going to let you do this! He's an adorable boy, and he's even as tall as you are!” Grace only laughed at her reasoning and refused to reconsider, and in a very short period of time, it became well known that Grace Adams did not date men from the office. Most of them figured that she had a boyfriend or was engaged, and a few decided to meet the challenge. But she never changed her mind, and she never gave anyone a different answer. No matter how attractive they were, or how seemingly interested, she never accepted their invitations. In fact, she seemed totally indifferent to all men. And a number of people wondered about her.

“And just how do you plan to get married?” Winnie almost shouted at her one afternoon as they were about to leave work.

“I don't plan to get married, Win. Simple as that.” Grace looked touched but unmoved by the older woman's concern for her. Winnie was livid.

“Then you should become a nun!” Winnie yelled at her. “You practically are one.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Grace said with a good-natured smile, and Bill, one of “their” partners, raised an eyebrow as he left his office and overheard them. He agreed with Winnie and felt that Grace was missing opportunities. Youth and beauty couldn't last forever.

“Fighting in the aisles, ladies?” he teased, putting on his coat and grabbing his umbrella. It was March and it hadn't stopped raining in weeks. But at least it wasn't snowing.

“She's a damn fool!” Winnie exclaimed, huffing into her own overcoat and getting all tangled up in it as Grace helped her and the partner laughed at them.

“Grace? My goodness, Grace, what did you do to Winnie?”

“She won't go out with anyone, that's what!” She yanked her coat away from Grace, and buttoned it incorrectly, as the two watching her tried to keep straight faces. “She'll wind up an old maid like me, and she's much too young and pretty for that.” But Grace saw then that she was almost crying, and she leaned over and kissed her cheek in genuine affection. She was almost like a mother to her at times, and a dear friend at others.

“She probably has a boyfriend, you know,” he said soothingly to the older of his two secretaries. In fact, recently, he had started wondering if Grace was involved with someone married. Her constant refusals of all the young men in the office sort of fit the pattern. “She's probably keeping it a secret.” He no longer believed that her reticence was entirely caused by virtue and clear thinking, there had to be more to it than that, and several of the other junior partners agreed with him.

Winnie looked up at her and Grace smiled and said nothing, which immediately convinced Winnie that he was right, and that maybe there was a married man in her life after all.

The two women left each other in the lobby and said good night, and Grace went downtown to Delan-cey Street and spent the night caring for the needy.

And the next morning, she looked tired when she came to work, which convinced Winnie that their boss was right, and she had been up to some mischief the night before. Grace actually thought she was coming down with the flu. After her long walk down Delancey Street in the pouring rain, to get to St. Andrew's, she got soaking wet. And she was in no mood for the favor the personnel director asked her for at lunchtime. She got a call at eleven o'clock and was asked to come to his office. She was concerned, and Winnie was clearly worried. She couldn't imagine what he might be complaining about, unless one of the men she'd turned down had decided to make trouble for her. She had lived through that before, and it certainly wouldn't have surprised her.

“Now don't tell him anything you don't have to,” Winnie warned her as she went upstairs. But he wasn't calling to complain, but to praise her.

He told her she was doing a marvelous job, and everyone in her department liked her, as did the two partners she worked for.

“In fact,” he said hesitandy, “I have a little favor to ask of you, Grace. I know how disruptive it can be to have to leave one's work for a little while, and I know Tom and Bill won't be pleased. But Miss Waterman had an accident last night, on the subway. She slipped on the stairs, and broke her hip. She's going to be out for two months, maybe even three. It sounds like it was pretty nasty. She's at Lenox Hill, and her sister called us. You do know her, don't you?” Grace was racking her memory and couldn't think of who she was. Obviously, one of the secretaries in the law firm. She wondered if it would be a step up or down, and whom she worked for. She only hoped that it wasn't one of the men who had asked her out to dinner. That certainly would have been awkward.

“I don't think I do know her,” Grace looked at him blankly.

“She works for Mr. Mackenzie,” the personnel director said solemnly, as though that said it all. And Grace looked confused as she faced him.

“Which Mr. Mackenzie?” she asked, continuing not to understand him.

“Mr. Charles Mackenzie,” he said, as though she were very stupid. Charles Mackenzie was one of the three senior partners of the law firm.

“Are you kidding?” She almost shouted at him. “Why me? I can't even take dictation.” Her voice was suddenly squeaky. She was comfortable where she was, and she didn't want to be under that kind of pressure.

“You take fast notes, and the partners you work for said your skills are excellent. And Mr. Mackenzie is very definite about what he wants.” He looked uncomfortable because he wasn't supposed to admit it to anyone, but Charles Mackenzie hated grumpy old secretaries who complained about working late, and his constant demands. The job needed someone young to keep up with him, but the personnel man couldn't say that to her. As a rule, Mackenzie preferred his secretaries under thirty. And even Grace had heard that. “He wants someone fast, who's doing an excellent job and won't get in his way, while Miss Waterman is gone. And of course as soon as she returns, you can go back where you are, Grace. It's just for a couple of months.” He probably wanted to get laid, she thought miserably. She knew his kind. And she didn't want to play. She loved her job, and working with Winnie. And the two partners she worked for were no trouble at all. They scarcely paid any attention to her, which was why she liked them.

“Do I have a choice?” she asked with an unhappy frown.

“Not really,” he said honestly, “We presented three résumés to him this morning, and he chose yours. It would be very difficult to explain to him that you didn't want it.” He looked at her mournfully. He hadn't expected her to resist him. It would look bad for him if she refused, and Charles Mackenzie was not used to being told he couldn't have what he wanted.

“Great” She leaned back in the chair unhappily.

“I'm sure we could arrange for a raise, commensurate with the position you're filling.” But that didn't really sweeten it for her. More than anything she didn't want to work for some old guy who wanted to chase a twenty-two-year-old secretary around his desk. She really did not want to do that. And if he did, she would quit immediately. She'd have to start looking for another job. She'd try it for a few days, and if the guy was a jerk, she was going, but she didn't say that to the head of personnel. She just made up her own mind in silence.