Significant Others by Marilyn Baron Page B

She claims she couldn’t sleep. Like the princess and the pea.”
    “What?”
    “She refuses to stay at a hotel if the bed sheets don’t have a thread count of at least 300. She prefers 100 percent Egyptian cotton or pure silk.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Totally. I think she’s convinced she’s a member of the aristocracy or the royal family.”
    “And she’s the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the country?” Note to self. Now I know what I’m going to buy my best friend for Christmas. A set of Frette deluxe bed sheets.
    “Hard to believe, isn’t it? And she makes me buy this special liquid hand wash—Molton Brown—that they use at Buckingham Palace, for her executive washroom. It costs more than $25 a bottle, and she insists I get it at Neiman Marcus. And you know how her Royal Pain in the “HighnAss” expects me to take the seeds out of her grapes? Well, yesterday she caught me with a grape in my mouth, trying to spit out the seed.”
    “What did she say? We are not amused, as in the royal ‘We’?”
    “No. She yelled and screamed and lectured me on the value of being sanitary. I think she was just outraged because our stock is tanking, but I was hoping she’d fire me.”
    “And?”
    “No such luck. She told me I’d better not put that grape in the good crystal bowl.”
    “Can’t you just buy her seedless grapes?”
    “She prefers the taste of the big red seeded ones, so I’m the unfortunate one stuck with pitting them. She can’t fire me because no one else will do what I do. It’s humiliating. I don’t know why I put up with her.”
    “Because she pays really well? And she can’t run the company without you? I thought you said it would be a cold day in Hell before you worked for Annabelle Crawford again.”
    “It’s pretty damn cold out here right now,” Vicky answered. “And working for her is like childbirth. You forget how much it hurts the first time and then you find yourself pregnant again. There’s that—and the ironclad employee agreement I signed.”
    “It’s always something,” I said. “No job is worth that aggravation.”
    “I know. But being assistant to the CEO is my dream job. Other than wanting to be CEO myself someday. And I’m the best Assistant To in this city.”
    “Okay, who am I to stand in the way of Annabelle Crawford’s high thread count? But I know you didn’t get your MBA to spit seeds out of your boss’s grapes.”
    “Actually I’m getting plenty of opportunities to practice the skills I learned in business school—accounting and marketing. Accounting for my whereabouts every single minute of every day and doing Annabelle’s marketing at the grocery store, not to mention picking up and delivering her dry cleaning. Keeping track of that woman is like herding cats.”
    “You know you can always come to work for Palladino Properties,” I offered. “We could really use you right now. If this merger goes through, you’d make a great CEO. Mom, Donny, and I can sell houses, but managing a business, that was Dad’s forte. We don’t have the time or the expertise.”
    “Are you kidding? I’d kill for the opportunity to be CEO of a Hammond Reddekker company.”
    “Let me talk to Mom and Donny. Maybe you coming to work for us would make a difference to my mother. She says she’s made up her mind about selling, but I think there’s still a chance she may agree to a merger. She’s not in a very good place now. But I need your help on a personal level. Can you drive and talk at the same time?”
    “Of course I can. I’m a woman; I can multitask. What can I do for you?”
    “Well, first I want to check on Winnie the Pooh.”
    “You mean Winnie the Poop?” Vicky asked dryly. “When I undertook this assignment of dog sitting, I didn’t realize she would be doing her business all over my house, including on my formerly priceless Oriental rugs.”
    “Sorry. You knew she’s not potty trained.”
    “That’s an