Chapter 6: Out of Ideas

Nico Vann was ready to give up.

June had easily been one of the worst months of his life. First Granddad had dropped the “I’m dying and you better get married or you’re disinherited” bomb, and a scant few hours later his right arm, his assistant Gloria, had narrowly escaped being killed at a crosswalk by a stupid drunk executive who chosen to drive back to his office after his three-martini lunch.

Thank God, Gloria was going to be all right eventually, but her doctors estimated she’d be off work for at least twelve weeks. Nico had done all he could there—he’d sent flowers, and made sure HR was on the ball about getting the short-term disability paperwork done—but that didn’t solve his immediate problem of being without an assistant.

His first idea was to poach someone else’s assistant for a while, but after talking to HR, he realized there was no one left to poach. The admin department was already short-handed thanks to several colliding medical leaves, both scheduled and unscheduled.

Lena, the head of HR, had offered to contact a few of the temp agencies they’d recently signed on with for an emergency replacement, and he’d gratefully taken her up on it. In the meantime, he felt like he was drowning in work, and worse, he had little motivation to do any of it.

He could barely function anymore thanks to Granddad’s ultimatum. It was all he could think about. How was he going to find a girlfriend, let alone a wife, in the next twelve months? He’d never even had a serious relationship.

He’d dated, sure, but whenever the person he was with would drop hints about wanting a deeper commitment, he’d backed away fast. Since becoming COO he’d barely dated at all, preferring to work most nights instead.

And now that he had to work without an administrative assistant, he had even less time to find someone. Assuming he would go along with Granddad’s crazy scheme in the first place. Maybe he should start passing his resume around, or start his own company.

Even as that thought occurred, Nico shook his head. He loved Vannevar and had worked here his entire professional life. Besides, there was a non-compete clause in his contract, so he’d have to work at or start a company that did something other than create computer software and smartphone applications. His degree was in software development and he had no desire to do anything else.

At least he didn’t have to worry about money on top of everything. He had his trust fund that his grandfather had set up at his birth and which had been put under his control when he turned twenty-one, and he also had his salary from Vannevar. Even if Granddad fired him from the company and left the Vannevar fortune to charity, Nico could live reasonably well on his trust fund. It stung, though.

There had to be a way to persuade his grandfather to discard the changes to his will, but if there was, Nico was out of ideas.

His brooding was interrupted by a knock on his door. “Come in,” he called, missing Gloria more than ever. Usually she would field appointments, and would text or instant message him rather than interrupt his train of thought by knocking.

The door opened and the head of Vannevar’s HR, Lena Colton, poked her head in. “Mr. Vann? Good news. Willow Employment Solutions had a temp admin candidate immediately available and she just arrived. She’s signing some paperwork now but she should be up here in a few minutes.”

He checked the time on his phone. It was four-thirty—hopefully the temp admin wouldn’t mind working a few more hours tonight. If he could train her in the basic job duties and systems, and if she was competent, they could hit the ground running tomorrow morning.

“That’s great,” he said in relief. “Please show her in immediately once she gets up here.”

Lena closed the door again.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. There were employment agencies—were there *marriage* agencies for people who didn’t want to date? Or—were there still mail-order brides? He vaguely remembered reading an article about that somewhere.

Perhaps that was the solution to his problem—he could find someone who needed a green card or something, and they could come to a business agreement. A temporary marriage that could be dissolved as soon as... well, as soon as it was no longer necessary.

He’d probably need to discreetly hire a firm to do some background checks, and he would insist on a prenuptial agreement, as would the company’s lawyers.

It was an idea worth considering... but later, as there was quick knock on the door, a sign that the new admin had arrived. Lena opened the door and gestured to someone outside.

The new admin walked in, and Nico felt a zing of electricity go up and down his spine.