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  Does she think that, because this is a private jet, the standards are lower?

  If that was what she thought, what did he have to expect when it came to the level of service she was going to provide him, he wondered anxiously.

  And then there was the fact that she hadn’t even wanted to see the whole plane. She had acted utterly disinterested in the master suite, which was very disappointing, because Grayson did like to take his meals in bed during long flights. Now he felt uncomfortable. Was she going to be weird about bringing him his dinner in a few hours? Was she going to act as though he was asking too much of her?

  In fact, the thing she had seemed most interested in was her own bed! And that really was a red flag. Did she think she would be able to spend considerable amounts of time in the flight attendant’s cabin, relaxing? That was there for overnight flights, so that she would be able to get some sleep. He thought it had been very considerate of him to install it. Technically, he hadn’t had to do it. That area had once been a part of the lounge. He had put in an extra wall, eliminating some of the space that was his own by rights, to make a compartment for his flight attendant. And she wasn’t even grateful!

  He was sitting in his office now, mostly out of a desire to avoid her. He was sure she was making mistakes, and he didn’t want to see them. He didn’t think he would be able to avoid calling them out.

  He looked over at the sandwich she had brought him for lunch. It had been clear, when she’d delivered it, that she had made it a long time before he had been ready to eat it. Why wouldn’t she make it right before waking him up and bring it to him fresh? What was so hard about that?

  He glanced at his glass of soda. It had been empty for almost fifteen minutes now, and he wanted a refill, but she hadn’t come to check on him. What was she doing?

  Probably lying around in her bed.

  Maybe he had chosen badly. Maybe he shouldn’t have picked his flight attendant based on one good experience.

  I suppose I could always fire her.

  He would have felt badly doing that. He knew that she had left her job to come and work for him. But it wasn’t like he owed her anything. Maybe she can still get her old job back.

  He closed his eyes. He didn’t need to decide anything yet. There was still a long way to go before they put down in Rio.

  He reached over and picked up his phone. As soon as he held it to his ear, it began to ring. There was no need to dial.

  It rang and rang. There was no answer.

  Frustrated, Grayson got to his feet. He shouldn’t have had to get up and go looking for her—she was the flight attendant here—but apparently he was going to have to do it.

  He found her in the lounge, sitting in the seat he had directed her to before takeoff. She had what looked like a book open in her lap. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She’s just sitting around and reading?

  He cleared his throat.

  She jumped and rose to her feet, leaving the book on her chair. “Hi,” she said. “Did you need something?”

  “You’d hardly know if I did, would you?” he said. “I’ve been in my office for over an hour, and you haven’t once come to check. Don’t you know what a flight attendant’s job is?”

  She frowned. “I know what my job consists of on a commercial flight,” she said. “You haven’t exactly given me a lot of direction.”

  “How much direction do you need? Do I really have to tell you that you’re supposed to tend to the needs of passengers? What if I had guests on this flight? Would you be leaving them untended so you could sit and read your book?”

  “Read my book?” She scowled. “I’m not reading a book, Grayson, I’m reading the instruction manual for your TV.” She pointed to it. “The only thing you’ve told me about my job since the moment I arrived here was that I was going to need to learn how to operate this TV, so I’ve been learning how to operate it.”

  He was taken slightly aback. “You’ve been studying the TV manual?”

  “You did tell me to learn how to manage the TV,” she said.

  He supposed he had. So perhaps she hadn’t been as out of line as he’d thought.

  But even so… “I was trying to reach you,” he said. “I called you on the inter-cabin phone. You didn’t answer.”

  “That phone is in my cabin,” she pointed out. “I was out here, reading this manual, and I didn’t hear it ringing. Why didn’t you just shout out to me or something?”

  “I shouldn’t have to shout,” Grayson said. “For God’s sake. Is that how passengers got your attention at your last job? By shouting at you?”

  “No,” she said evenly. “They had buttons by their seats to summon the flight attendant. I guess you wouldn’t know about that, as someone who almost never flies commercial.”

  “Of course I know about it,” he said irritably. “That’s why I installed the phone in the first place.”

  “Well, you certainly gave me the impression you didn’t want me to spend work hours hidden away in the flight attendant’s cabin,” she said. “It seemed to me that you wanted me out in the main part of the plane. Was that a misunderstanding?”

  “I think it’s a reasonable expectation,” Grayson said.

  “It is,” she agreed. “But it’s not reasonable if you also expect me to hear the phone ringing. I can’t be in two places at once.”

  “Listen, all I wanted was for you to come into the conference room every fifteen minutes or so and check on me.”

  “Then you should have told me that,” she said.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell you everything.”

  “I’m not asking you to tell me everything,” she snapped. “But you’re going to have to tell me some things, Grayson. You’ve employed people before, I’m sure. You must be familiar with how this process works. Today is my first day on the job. I’m determined to do it well, and if there’s anything you want from me, you only have to ask. I’ll learn to do things the way you like them. But you do have to let me know what it is you like. For all I knew, going into your conference room meant that you didn’t want to be bothered at all.”

  “Why would it mean that?”

  She threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Maybe you were working. Maybe you just like your privacy. I hardly know you, and I’m certainly not a mind reader. You have to tell me what you want.”

  Grayson was completely taken aback. He had never been spoken to like that by an employee before. Most of them seemed much more intimidated, afraid that they might lose their jobs if they didn’t speak to him with deference.

  But Halle didn’t seem intimidated by him at all.

  Maybe she doesn’t care if she loses this job.

  At least that means I won’t have to feel guilty about firing her.

  And yet, he realized suddenly, he didn’t actually want to fire her.

  Because she was right.

  He hadn’t given her enough of a chance. He had been much too focused on what she was doing wrong.

  He looked at her. She seemed anxious, as though surprised at the way she had spoken to him.

  She’s probably not any more used to talking to her bosses like that than I am to being spoken to that way.

  “All right,” he said. “You’re right.”

  She blinked. “I’m right?”

  “I should have been clearer about my expectations,” he said. “Going forward, I will be. Okay?”

  “O-okay,” she said.

  “So, put away the TV manual, please,” he said. “You can review it later, if you’d like, when we’re in Rio. I’m not going to need the TV on this leg of the trip anyway. Or, honestly, if you’d like to just leave it here, I can show you how to operate the TV on the flight home. That’s what I’d been planning on.”

  “Okay,” Halle said. “That’s fine.”

  “In the meantime, I do have some work I need to do in the conference room,” he said. “But I work best when my refreshments are continually being replenished.”

  “Then I’ll make sure to check in every fifteen minutes and see whether you need anything,” Halle said.

  “Perfect,” Grayson said. “Thank you. I’ll head back in there now, then.”

  “Do you need anything right now?”

  “My drink could use a top-off.”

  “Right.” She hesitated for a moment, then turned and disappeared into the galley.

  Grayson went back to his work, but he didn’t resume what he had been doing. Instead, he sat there waiting for her, wondering if she was going to come back with the correct drink or not.

  Don’t give her a hard time if she gets it wrong, he chastised himself. Remember, she’s still learning what you like. And he had always been mindful about stocking the plane with a wide variety of drinks so that his guests would be able to have what they liked as well.

  But when Halle reappeared, it was with a can of cherry coke in hand. She also had a fresh glass with three ice cubes, which was the perfect amount. She filled the glass carefully, handed it to him, and took his used glass away.

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Not now.”

  “I’ll be in my cabin, then,” she said. “So you can reach me if anything comes up.”

  He was impressed. She really had been listening. Maybe she was right, and all he had ever needed to do was to be upfront with her about exactly what he wanted.

  Maybe this can be a good working relationship after all.

  “Okay,” he told her. “I’ll reach out to you if I need anything.”

  She nodded, offered him a small smile, and withdrew.

  Grayson looked down at his work, spread out before him, but he found that he was having a hard time focusing.

  I need to get this done. I have a vitally important meeting in the morning.

  He was supposed to be speaking with some investors in the morning about the possibility of opening a new hotel in Rio. It was an idea he was very excited about, since he hadn’t yet expanded into that country. He couldn’t afford to have this meeting go badly. He could be completely losing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  Focus. Get the presentation ready.

  But he found himself looking at the clock and thinking about the moment Halle would next enter the conference room to check on what he needed.

  In spite of himself, he realized that he was thoroughly preoccupied with her. She was more than just a skilled flight attendant. She was the one person he had ever employed who was willing to speak up to him.

  I can’t let that go.

  Chapter 5

  Halle

  Rio de Janeiro was a beautiful city, unlike any she’d ever visited before.

  The streets were loud and bustling, full of people in bright clothing going about the business of their daily lives. Halle wandered, not sure of where she was going, knowing only that she didn’t want to spend the whole evening in her hotel room.

  It was a nice hotel room, of course. Grayson didn’t appear to have spared any expense there. And she appreciated that. She had worked for airlines who did their best to save money by putting her up in the cheapest rooms they could find during layovers, and that was always uncomfortable. On more than one occasion, Halle had actually considered leaving the room that had been purchased for her and finding another hotel room on her own dime.

  She’d never actually done it, but she had certainly come close. Especially on one occasion, in Florida, when she’d been put up at a cheap motel that hadn’t felt entirely safe.

  Her lodgings here couldn’t have been more different. She was staying in a high-rise luxury hotel, on the seventeenth floor, and her room offered a beautiful view of the city. She knew she would be entirely comfortable tonight.

  Still, who knew when she would ever be returning to Rio? She wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to explore the city.

  She’d thought about asking the hotel receptionist for ideas about where to go, but in the end, she had decided it would be more fun to simply explore on her own. Now she was walking down a narrow street lined with vendors’ stalls and food trucks. Voices called out to her, trying to lure her over to them, trying to encourage her to spend her money.

  Halle stopped at a cart and bought a tray of food—some kind of meat on a stick over a bed of rice. She had no idea what it was. The sign was in Portuguese, and the vendor didn’t speak English either, but he smiled as he handed her her food, and Halle returned his smile. She gave him some of the Brazilian reals she’d exchanged her US dollars for back at the hotel, realizing as she did so that she had to be thankful yet again for Grayson’s generosity. Most hotels wouldn’t have had a currency exchange.

  Oh, I don’t want to be in a good mood with him!

  The undeniable fact was that he had been very difficult on the flight over here. She’d assumed that he would be easier to deal with on his own plane than he had been on a public airline, but that hadn’t really been the case. He had been as difficult as ever.

  I wonder what Dina would say about everything that’s happened.

  She could call her friend, she realized suddenly. Ordinarily, an international phone call was something she wouldn’t have considered. But with the high rate that Grayson was paying her, she could afford it now.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, found her friend’s name in her contacts list, and hit call.

  Dina answered on the third ring, as she always did. “Halle? Where are you?”

  “Rio,” Halle said.

  “I thought so!” Dina said. “Today was your first day on the new job, wasn’t it? How did it go?”

  “Honestly, it could have been better,” Halle said. And she related everything that had happened on the flight from La Vega to Rio.

  “He’s just so difficult,” she finished up. “It seems like he has a problem with every single thing I do.”

  “Well, you knew he was a difficult customer when you took the job, didn’t you?” Dina said. “You said you didn’t mind because of the salary bump.”

  “I know,” Halle said. “And I can’t disregard that. It would make such a difference for my dad. I want to make this extra money for him, I really do.”

  “You sound like you’re thinking about quitting,” Dina said.

  Halle sighed. “I’m considering it,” she admitted.

  “Halle! After one day? I never figured you for a quitter.”

  “Does it make sense to stay at a job I don’t like just because I don’t want to think of myself as a quitter?”

  “You don’t know that you don’t like it,” Dina said reasonably. “You’ve had one flight with the man.”

  “But he’s so critical.”

  “Do you remember what it’s like to work commercial flights?” Dina asked. “You can’t have forgotten already. All the passengers are critical. I had a passenger today who wanted to file a complaint against me because I couldn’t get him the soda he wanted. It was hardly my fault! We were forty thousand feet in the air!”

  Halle laughed. “What did you do?”

  “In the end, I gave him a cola from another brand and pretended it was the one he wanted.”

  “He fell for that?”

  “Yeah. He was the kind of guy who just wanted to raise a stink, and when he thought he was getting what he wanted, he was so preoccupied with acting superior that he didn’t even notice it didn’t taste like what he’d asked for.”

  “So what happened then?” Halle asked.

  “I apologized for being difficult,” Dina said. “And I had Bryce come over and pretend he was my manager so the guy could think he had made some kind of official complaint and that I was going to get into trouble.”

  “You’re working with Bryce now?” Halle felt a stab of jealousy.

  “Well, we knew I’d be assigned to someone else, didn’t we?” Dina asked. “Oh, don’t be jealous, Halle.”

  “You could tell?”

  “Sure I can tell. I’ve known you for years. Bryce can’t compare to you. He’s fun and everything, but I miss you on every flight. I don’t think it’ll ever be the same.”

  Halle sighed. “Maybe that’s the biggest problem with this new job,” she said. “I miss having you with me in the air. Working as a flight attendant just isn’t fun when you’re on your own. If you’d been on this flight to Rio with me, I think we would have had a great time laughing about how ridiculous Grayson was being.”

  “So it’s Grayson, is it?” Dina asked. “On a first-name basis with the new boss already?”

  “He doesn’t like to be addressed formally,” Halle said. “Although he does want me to wear heels, so I guess he’s not super clear on how formal he thinks things should be.”

  “You two will figure it out,” Dina said. “Don’t quit just yet, okay? Give it a week.”

  “What’s going to change in a week?” Halle asked.

  “You’ll have spent more time in the job,” Dina said. “You’ll have a better idea of whether it’s something you can do long-term. And you and this Grayson character—”

  “This Grayson character?”

  “You’ll know each other better,” Dina said. “You’ll be used to what it takes to work with each other. Maybe things will get easier.”

  “In a week?”

  “It could happen,” Dina said. “And if things don’t get any better, then you can quit. But at least you’ll know you gave it a fair chance.”

  Halle sighed. “I should have known you would say that.”

  “You did know!” Dina said. “That’s why you called me. You knew I would tell you to stick it out, and you wanted someone to say it.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Halle admitted.

  “I am,” Dina said. “This is what I’ve always done for you. It’s what we’ve always done for each other. We buck each other up after hard days.”

  “I’m going to miss that most of all,” Halle said.

  “Well, that doesn’t have to stop,” Dina said. “We might not be flying together anymore, but you can always call me. And you’d better believe I’ll be calling you, especially when I have to deal with customers like the guy from today’s flight. I need someone to vent to.”