Chapter 106

Liam’s POV

I knew Aria was lying to me. She was clearly upset about something. But I couldn’t figure out how to broach the topic without making her even more upset, so I decided not to try. If she wanted to talk about it, she had to know that I was willing to listen.

Likely, she was just steaming about something Sophia said. She knew better than to listen to Sophia, so I was certain she’d get over whatever it was in time.

In the meantime, with most of the major crises of the moment averted, I could return to the matter that has been troubling me all day.

“I’ve spent most of the day interviewing trainers,” I said. “They are all terrible. Are you certain that you don’t want to come back to work? Everyone on the team would be happy to have you back.”

Her face crumpled up some, like she was troubled by the idea.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They might have questions…”

“You don’t have to answer them,” I replied. “They don’t need to know more about us than you are willing to tell them.”

She frowned in a way that made me think there was more to this than I was thinking. I didn’t know how, exactly. Maybe she was ashamed of our relationship, or of me. Maybe she was embarrassed that she decided to take me back, at least in part.

I didn’t want to think that she was unhappy with me, but I wasn’t sure what else to think. Unless she was worried about people perceiving bad connotations because I’m her boss. That could be part of it.

“We could go to HR. Everyone would understand.”

“No,” she said firmly. “I’m not ready for this. I’ll find a different job, somewhere else. I don’t want to go back to the track.”

Well, rejections didn’t get much clearer than that.

“Alright,” I said. “You don’t have to. I’ll find someone.” Interview number seven, it was. Now I wished I had taken the incentive to learn his actual name. No matter. HR would know who I was talking about.

The next morning, I made the call. Two days later, interview number seven, a man named Trevor started his first day. By that afternoon, Jackson came storming into my office.

“You need to learn to knock,” I said. Though I hadn’t been doing anything terribly important this time, I could have been on the phone with an investor or something. Jackson was impulsive on his best days, which often gave him an edge on the track. That didn’t always translate into polite office etiquette.

Since he reminded me of my past self so damn much, I often gave him leniency that I wouldn’t otherwise. He still needed to learn, however.

Jackson stopped, turned around, and knocked on the already open door.

Smart ass.

I closed my eyes so he couldn’t see me rolling them. “What is it, Jackson?”

“You have to get Aria to come back,” Jackson said.

“I tried. She has no interest.”

“You don’t get it. This new guy? Trevor? He has no idea what he’s doing.”

“His credentials checked out.”

“Maybe you need to recheck them,” Jackson said. “He was asking me what I thought he should be doing. When I told him that he needed to work on the meal plans, since that’s what Aria would do, I saw him looking up how to do it on his phone.”

That was an incredibly bad sign. With Jackson still in the room, I lifted the phone and dialed HR. When the representative picked up, I asked her, “We did call Trevor’s references?”

“Of course, sir,” the HR representative said. “They were all golden.”

“Did we confirm his former employment?” I asked.

She paused. “I didn’t think it was necessary since the references were so good.”

I pulled the phone away for a moment to take a deep calming breath. Patience, I reminded myself. With the phone back on my ear, I told her, “Please do that now.”

“We’ve already hired him,” she said.

“Please,” I said again.

“Uh. Of course.”

With that, I hung up.

Maybe Jackson was overreacting. He wasn’t a trainer after all, and was only going off of Aria’s old methods. What I really needed was another trainer to observe Trevor, perhaps as a consultant. Then they could tell us if they thought he was legitimate or not.

Grabbing my personal phone, I opened my contacts and dialed Aria.

“If you have some time today, I need to ask you for a favor,” I said.

Aria’s POV

At Liam’s request I returned to headquarters as only a consultant, only for a few hours, to make sure the new trainer is legitimate. After ten minutes of observation, I was pretty sure he had no idea what he was doing. After an hour, I was certain of it.

When he tried to give Jackson a bologna and cheese sandwich for lunch, I finally stepped in.

“The drivers have a very strict diet,” I said. “They can’t be putting all these processed foods in their body before the races, or they will feel sluggish.”

“How do you know?” the new guy – Trevor – snapped at me. “My mom makes me bologna and cheese sandwiches all the time.”

I didn’t bother replying. Instead, I swiveled on my heels and marched straight to Liam’s office and stormed inside.

Without looking up, Liam sighed. “I told you that you need to knock, Jackson.”

“I’m not Jackson,” I said.

Liam startled, looking up at me. “Aria.”

I hitched my thumb over my shoulder. “Trevor has no idea what he’s doing. How did he even get this job?”

“I’m suspecting his resume was fabricated,” Liam said. “HR is looking into it now.”

“I had no idea it was this bad.”

“It’s the middle of the race season,” Liam said. “All the good trainers are taken. Well, most of them.” He gave me a meaningful look.

I sighed. With Trevor in my old spot, things on the team were being severely mishandled.

I didn’t want to return to working here, knowing how complicated things were and were going to be as my relationship with Liam either crashed or progressed. But I wasn’t without affections for the team. I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave them in the hands of someone like Trevor.

“Fire him,” I said. “Don’t wait for HR.”

Liam lifted a brow. “And who would take his place? As I said, trainers are hard to come by right now…”

“I’ll do it,” I said. I shake my head at him. “That’s what you wanted all along, isn’t it?”

“It was, but not if you don’t want it too, Aria,” Liam said, standing. He came around his desk to be nearer to me. “If you are serious about not wanting this job, we can keep looking. We’ll find someone. It doesn’t have to be you.”

He was giving me an out, and while I could appreciate it, I was quickly realizing I would be dissatisfied with anyone taking my place. This was my team. They needed me.

“I’ll do it,” I said again.

Liam started to smile. “I’ll call HR and get the paperwork for you, and to tell them about us –”

“No,” I said on reflex.

He stilled. “No?”

“We can’t tell them about us,” I said. “I’ll work here, but we have to continue to keep our relationship a secret, even from them.”