Read Online Up Close and Personal by Magda Alexander - Free Book Online

Mrs. Armstrong. She can’t make it. Neither can her husband.”
    Not a disaster. We’re down to ten. “Okay.”
    “Mr. Jeffrey Sellers has an emergency he needs to handle. And Mrs. Simmons’s daughter just flew into town so she can’t attend.”
    Sensing a pattern here, I ask. “How many guests are left?”
    “Four.” She rattles off the names of three lesser luminaries from the Washington elite, plus Brandon Lattimer, my Vice President of Finance, whom I’d invited as well.
    “More food for us then.”
    “Yes, Sir.” She sounds relieved.
    I hang up. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make them pay for the snub.
    When I arrive home, the place hums with activity. People coming and going. And Ms. Bennett barking out orders like a five-star general. “Mr. MacKay! You’re home.”
    I don’t question why her voice makes me happy. Not after the morning I had. “I do live here, do I not?”
    She giggles. “Yes, of course. I just didn’t expect you back til this afternoon.” When something crashes in the distance, she lets out a soft curse. “I’ll go find out what that was.”
    “You do that.” My lips turn up in a smile. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
    “I won’t.” She yells running off. Hope whatever broke wasn’t expensive.
    When I arrive at my desk, I pull up my company staff listing and ask my computer to dial a few of their phone numbers for me. Apologizing for the late invite, I ask six of them to the dinner party. Happily, they all accept. Good. I’ll enjoy conversations with people I actually like. As soon as I hang up with the last person, I call Caitlyn into my office. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say about the change of plans.
    “I invited six people to the party from the office. So we’re back to twelve for dinner, including you and me.”
    “Ahhhh.”
    “Is there a problem?”
    “No. Sir. No problem. It’s just I told Chef Henri there would be only six.”
    I grin, anticipating the Gallic outburst from my French chef. “Well, go tell him that number has doubled.”
    “Very well, Sir.”
    “And Ms. Bennett?”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    “If you run into any problems with Chef Henri, let me know.” I pay my chef an obscene amount of money, more than enough for him to jump through whatever culinary hoop I ask him to jump through.
    The dinner party is not the disaster I expect. My employees, of course, know each other so it’s easy to see why their conversation flows. But I’m pleasantly surprised by those of the Washington elite who managed to attend. They’re actually interested in my business and ask intelligent questions of both my staff and me. The abundance of premium spirits—wine at the table, top notch liquor afterward doesn’t hurt. After dinner, we retire to the music room where I arranged for a string quartet to play for us. Caitlyn vanishes, probably to check things in the kitchen. God only knows what she promised my cook to get him to cooperate.
    While she’s gone, one of the lesser luminaries of the Washington elite, Connor Gardner, makes his excuses. He has another engagement to attend. Strange. He sounds like he’s in pain. Maybe he’s not a fan of string quartets. At midnight the last of our guests stumbles out, half inebriated, to where his limo driver waits for him. I return to the living room to thank Caitlyn. But she’s not there. I go searching for her and find her in the library, searching the shelves.
    “What on earth are you doing?” Going by where she’s standing, she’s not looking for light reading. The only books on that shelf are business books.
    “Looking for a book that Brandon suggested.” Brandon Lattimer, my head of finance. They’d been thick as thieves during dinner. “Ah, here it is.”
    “What is it?”
    “ Valuation for Mergers and Acquisitions . He recommended I read it before Hong Kong.”
    “I should have known Brandon would waste his time at the dinner table talking shop.”
    “He didn’t. Well, not