Page 6 of The Boss

“No. Once I finished my list, I left it on his desk to review. He’d already given me permission to look into all of the requests…” I paused, realizing I was saying too much. “Sorry, ma’am. You didn’t ask for details. The answer’s no, I’m not waiting on his approval for anything.”

“What did he have you working on?”

“Seeing how many of Unraveling’s requested perks are feasible.” I kept my answer concise.

She gave me a searching look. “How long have you been his assistant?”

“Three months, ma’am.”

A long pause, and then she nodded as if she’d decided something. “I have something I’d like you and Flora to do.”

I listened as she explained the task, asked two clarifying questions, and then went out to find Flora. The two of us knew each other, of course, and we’d talked in passing as well as when we were waiting on our bosses. We’d even both worked on the same project, but we’d had our own individual tasks and had barely interacted. I didn’t think she was the kind of person I’d ever really be good friends with, but I figured we could work together without a problem.

“She wants us to do what?” Flora asked.

She was pretty, with fashionably-short caramel-colored curls and the type of slender figure that she enjoyed flaunting. She wasn’t like the catty girls I’d gone to school with, but she did seem to enjoy the attention.

“We’re supposed to check out whatever musical acts that are going viral,” I repeated, “and make notes. She wants to know a summary of the comments, both positive and negative. We’re also to make suggestions for possible ways to market each act, as well as what we think are their biggest strengths and weaknesses.”

“Is that really an assistant’s job?” Flora asked as she perched on the edge of my desk. “I mean, I get that’s what A&R does, but doesn’t it seem weird to you?”

I shrugged. “Not really. I mean, as assistants, isn’t it our job to do what our bosses tell us?”

Flora leaned closer, a gleam in her cyan eyes. “I like Ms. Lamas and Mr. Hancock as bosses, but you have to admit, wouldn’t it be amazing to work under thebigboss?”

She didn’t have to say his name because, even though, technically, Manhattan Records was owned by both Nate Lexington and Finley Kordell, everyone knew that Mr. Lexington was ‘the big boss.’ And I had a feeling this particular conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere good.

“Could you imagine what it would be like to beunderhim?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes. “Really? That’s the innuendo you’re going with?”

“I can do a lot better than that,” she said with a grin. “He can boss me around anytime, especially if it means I get to find out just howbigthe boss is.”

“You do realize that’s not innuendo, right? There’s no subtext there. Just text.” I clicked on a popular video, then cursed under my breath as it tried to load.

I needed to call IT to check the network. Something had been making the connection screwy for the past two weeks, and everyone was tired of it, but the only thing any of us could do was call IT and wait for them to do whatever it was they did and hope it worked.

Personally, I had a theory that they were messing with us as some sort of massive practical joke that was going to get the entire department fired soon. In all honesty, I didn’t understand how they hadn’t been fired already. Mr. Lexington wasn’t known for being the most understanding of bosses. He wasn’t a monster or anything, but he expected his employees to do their jobs and do them well.

Maybe it was Mr. Kordell who was keeping the IT guys around. Since he was the co-owner, he might’ve used his position to prevent Mr. Lexington from doing a mass firing. He was probably that sort of guy. I’d never met him, but I’d heard good things. He’d been the original financial backer, taking a chance partnering with Mr. Lexington, but didn’t want to be in the public eye. He came to the company Christmas party every year, but mostly kept to himself. I didn’t think it was out of a dislike of people but what did I know?

“You’ve got it bad, girl.” Flora pushed my shoulder.

“What?” I blinked up at her. “What do I have?”

She leaned closer to me and put her hand to her mouth as if she intended to tell me something private. “You were thinking about how big Nate’s cock is.”

“Flora!” Heat flooded my face. “You can’t talk like that about our boss!”

She shrugged and smoothed down her skirt. “Come on, Ash. You can’t tell me you haven’t fantasized about him.”

“Ashlee,” I corrected her for what felt like the thousandth time. “And no. I leave work at work.”

A lie, but a little white one and not something that had anything at all to do with Nate Lexington. I figured that meant it didn’t really count.

“Not even with those rumors?”

I frowned. “We really shouldn’t be talking about this. It’s completely inappropriate.”

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