CHAPTER 2

          Genie knew that tone of voice. And clearly so did Nicole, who emerged from the room looking defeated. Closing the door distractedly behind her, she began walking slowly across the empty waiting room with a genuinely troubled look on her face. She seemed totally unaware of Genie's presence behind the desk, so deep in thought was she. Genie's clearing her throat brought her head up with a startled gasp.

“Oh… Genie… I forgot you were still here.”

“Would you like a cup of tea, Nicky?” she offered. “You seem a little... upset.”

“No, thank you,” Nicole said sighing. “You're a sweet girl. I'd better go home and get dinner started. It's time you went home too, isn't it? It's after five.”

“Dr. Beaumont hasn't finished dictating today's letters. I'll have to stay here until I've typed them up. You know how… meticulous he is about that.”

“Unfortunately! Make sure you put down the overtime.”

“Oh, I will, don't you worry.”

          Nicole gave her a sharp look. She remembered something Genie told her the other day.  

“Are you still having money problems, Genie?”

“I'm always having money problems.”

          The money she earned from her Fridays here plus her waitressing job during the weekend, was just enough to pay the bills, eat decently, pay the rent, and put something aside for emergencies.

“No luck getting a permanent position yet?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

          Despite spending every spare second and cent having her résumé photocopied and sent it off almost everywhere in San Francisco, Genie wasn’t able to find a suitable job somewhere else. The local unemployment office was getting sick of the sight of her, as well.

“I don't understand that at all. I would’ve thought some big flashy company would’ve snapped up a good-looking girl like you for their front desk.”

          Genie just shrugged. She didn't want to tell Nicole the probable reason that her application was passed over most of the time. They obviously took one look at where she'd taken her secretarial course and immediately put her résumé aside.

          Nicole had never asked for a written or detailed application, naively hiring Genie on just a phone call and one short personal interview, blindly believing her when she'd said she'd been overseas for a few years, working in other countries and had no recent employment history in the States.

          Lying wasn’t something Genie liked doing, but poverty did rather make one desperate. She took some comfort from the fact that the glowing personal reference she'd been able to supply had been the genuine article and not a forgery.

          Dear Miss Rowland... Genie was so grateful to have this wonderful lady in her life...

“I did get one interview earlier this week,” she admitted, cringing inside as she recalled the slimy manner of the man who'd interviewed her.

          No way would she take that job, even if it was offered to her.

“Oh? Tell me more.”

“It was with someone from a small car repair company.”

          Nicole's nose wrinkled.

“Are you kidding me? Surely you could do better than that.”

“I was hoping to, it’s not easy being a woman looking for work these days… Well, it never is…”

“Listen, I'll ask Phoenix to find out if any doctor he knows requires a full-time receptionist,” Nicole said kindly. “Not that I want you to go. I'm really going to miss you. My brother will miss you too. He just doesn't know how lucky he is to have you on his team. You're always so willing to work, even extra hours. Most pretty young things out there would never sacrifice a single minute from a weekend, starting Friday.”

“I'm not one of the pretty young things, Nicole. I’m just plain old me.”

“And there is another thing I don’t understand, Genie… How come, at twenty-five you don’t have some lucky man in your life?” Nicole asked a bit bemused.

“So much to do, so little time to date,” Genie replied, smiling wryly as she glanced up at Nicole. “Busy women, independent women are not what these men are looking for. Plus, flings are not my thing.”

          Her smile faded when she turned and saw Phoenix standing in the middle of the waiting room watching her, a drily cynical amusement in his cold green eyes.

          ‘You're right there, darling,’ they seemed to say. ‘You're the type men take to bed, not to the altar.’ That thought that she could read in his eyes made her instantly angry. Who the hell did he think he was, judging her like that, and on such superficial evidence?

          Genie was well aware that she wasn’t the fairest of them all, and that was ok with her. She'd never been the show-off type, she hated flirting, and she only had one lover in her life!

          The only time when she acted… differently than usual, was during the months she had been Jared’s girlfriend. Her wardrobe was filled with tight tops, short skirts, and dresses, the most outrageous kind of lingerie… He was her god and, under his spell, she was unable to say no to him. Even if that meant to cancel the real Genevieve Mitchell. Jared hadn't minded other men looking at her either, had seemed to enjoy their wanting what he had.

          After what he did, she toned down her sex appeal, using no make-up and wearing her long honey-brown hair in a simple ponytail most of the time. She never used lip gloss on her full mouth, only chopstick and did her best to keep her smiles to a minimum after her sleazy landlord made some disturbing remarks about how amazing her cool and sparkly grey eyes were every time she was smiling.

“Is there something I can do for you, Dr. Beaumont?” Genie asked, congratulating herself on the coolness in her tone.

          He arched a cooler eyebrow back at her.

“Yes, Miss Mitchell. I have three letters for you to type and a couple of e-mails that I need you to send. After that, you are free to go home.”

          Nicole looked at her brother and made an exasperated sound.

“For pity’s sake, when are you two going to start calling each other by your first names? Nix, she is Genie for everyone around here, you know that.”

          ‘Probably when hell freezes over,’ Genie thought sharply.

“Miss Mitchell wouldn’t appreciate my being familiar with her… Am I right about this, Miss Mitchell?”

          Their eyes clashed and Genie saw the mockery in his. She decided that two could play that game.

“I think it’s better for everybody that I call him Dr. Beaumont during surgery hours. Of course, if he wants me to call him Phoenix or Nix after hours, then he only has to say so.”

          Her steely gaze was drily challenging, but it didn't melt the robot one bit.

“I think we'll keep the name situation exactly how it is now,” he countered without batting an eyelid. “Shouldn't you be off, Nicky? It's getting late.”

          Exasperation was written all over his sister’s face.

“One day, Nix… You mark my words!” she muttered as she walked out, banging the door behind her.

          Genie hoped that she'd be around to see this unlikely punishment. But she doubted it. Phoenix Beaumont couldn't be emotionally hurt because he had no heart or soul. Or did he? Nicole's earlier accusation that he was still getting over some woman named Whitney popped back into Genie's mind.

          She stared at him, wondering if that could explain his attitude towards her. Had he been rejected once by some pretty young woman? Was he still resentful years later? Genie could appreciate how that might happen. She also knew that it would be many years before she got over what Jared had done to her. But she'd never attributed such sensitivity to the male sex, and especially not to a man like Phoenix Beaumont, who didn't seem to have a sensitive bone in his body.

“Do I have something on my face, Miss Mitchell?” he asked mischievously. “You keep staring at me.”

“Sorry, Doctor. I wasn't really staring at you. I was off in another world.”

“Judging by the look on your face, it was an unpleasant world.”

“Yes, it was,” Genie agreed drily.

          Memories of Jared and what he'd done to her were still tormenting her mind day and night, sending her off in a dark world.

“You know, Miss Mitchell, you are the most tongue-tied woman I’ve ever met…” he said, a flash of irritation crossing his normally iron face. “Well, here! Make sure you type the letters, send those e-mails, and then you can go!” he said as he handed over the small tape recorder, then whirled to stride back into his office, his white coat flapping rather angrily around his legs.

          Genie stared after him with rounded eyes, aware that she'd just seen Phoenix Beaumont not quite his usual, cool, and composed self. What caused that? His earlier argument with his sister? Surely not his discovering that his latest lady friend wanted more of him than the occasional dinner date.

          No, it had been something to do with her. Probably her staring at him. He hadn't liked that one bit. He also hadn't liked her not revealing things about herself. Well, that's too bad, Genie thought caustically as she settled down behind her computer to begin typing up the letters.

          She hadn't typed more than a heading when a bitter smile tugged at her mouth. She could just imagine Dr. Beaumont's reaction if she'd told him she was thinking about her bastard of an ex-boyfriend, and how his betrayal had sent her to prison for four years… four long, hard, soul-destroying years.

          Genie didn't think that what had happened to the dear doctor by the hands of that Whitney woman would match what Jared had put her through. If anyone had the right to be bitter and wary about the opposite sex, it was her, Genevieve Mitchell!