Page 2 of Big & Bossy

I swiped the notification away, needing desperately to not think about what ‘excellent woman’ meant to my mom. In the back of my mind, I knew she was only trying to help, but I didn’t want any help and I definitely didn’t want whatever woman she had in mind.

I had moved to Boulder for a reason.

A knock on my door dragged my attention away from the distracting thoughts, and a second later, a mop of blonde hair poked into my office.

“Jack,” Angela, my assistant said, shuffling her body between the frame and the slightly-open door before shutting it behind her. “I just got a call from L&V Interiors.”

My back went rigid as I slid my phone back into my pocket. “Okay.”

“I know you said you wanted both owners in attendance…”

My fingers clenched around the armrest of my chair, my jaw steeling. “Don’t say it.”

“I’m going to say it, Jack.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her expression stoic. If she wasn’t such an excellent secretary, I’d have fired her long ago for her attitude. “Only Mr. Voss will be there.”

“You’re fucking joking, right?”

“No, I’m not joking.”

“Call them back. Insist Ms. Littleson be in attendance as well,” I snapped.

“Jack.”

“Angela.”

“Do you honestly expect me to do that?” She leaned back against the door, arms still tightly crossed against her chest. “You want me to embarrass myself by calling back?”

“Yes,” I replied. I leaned back in my chair, then slowly lifting one foot after another, I placed them onto my desk, crossing them at the ankles. “Tell them the meeting won’t go ahead if she’s not there, and as such, the deal will be off.”

“Fuck’s sake,” she grunted, pushing off from the door and opening it once again. “You’re lucky you pay me enough to deal with this shit.”

If she doesn’t attend, the whole thing is pointless. All of it. Entirely, horribly pointless.

Chapter 2

Mandy

“No.”

“Mandy. Come on.”

“I said no, Harry.” I grabbed my sweater from the counter in our back office, shoving it into my bag as quickly as I could. I almost wished I’d left my hair down today, at least then I could use it to shield my face from Harry’s too-hard gaze. “I’m not doing it. End of discussion.”

“They insisted you be there,” Harry said, leaning his ass on the table as if I hadn’t told him off for doing that exact thing a million times.

“Yeah, you said that.”

“No,” he replied, crossing his arms over his broad chest as I peeked at him through the corner of my eye. “They called back. They said that if you don’t show, they’ll pull out.”

The expression ‘seeing red’ was suddenly far too real for me. My hands clenched around the straps of my bag, my jaw muscles straining. He can’t do that. That’s not fucking fair. “What did he say exactly?”

“Well, it was his secretary, I think. But she said that if you don’t show up, they’ll hire someone else to do their interiors. We can’t afford to lose them as a client, Mandy. They’re the biggest contract we’ve got.” Harry sighed into the silence that hung thick between us, the little puff of air sending one of his face-framing curls flying upwards. “You have to go.”

“He’s just doing this to be a fucking asshole,” I snapped. I was so ready for the day to be over—it was ten past five, and normally, I’d be sitting in traffic right now, blasting my radio, soaking up the last rays of sunlight before it hid behind the rocky peaks. But no. I was in our business’ break room, knee deep in bullshit. “I guarantee if you call them back and tell them that I have some previous engagement, he’ll suck it up and back off.”

“I think you’re the only one who has to suck it up, Mands. We have to keep this contract, and I’m not going to risk losing it. It’s our only way to be noticed outside of Boulder,” he urged, throwing his hands up, emphasizing he had no other ideas.

He was right, though. This contract was the best one we’d ever received, and we’d barely had to fight for it. If we wanted to get bigger, to have a shot in Denver, Aspen, or hell, even outside Colorado, we’d have to keep J.B. Tech as a client.

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