Page 7 of Serving the CEO

She took it. “What am I doing with it?”

“She was fired. Turn it over to personnel to be filed appropriately.”

“Reason for termination?” There was no mistaking the edge to Anamaria’s question.

I glared at her. “She made a mistake on a project that could have cost us a lot of money.”

“She made a mistake thatcouldhave cost us a lot of money. I see.” Displeasure dripped from her voice and the look she gave me was nothing short of complete disgust. Without another word, she turned on her heel, walked out, and closed the door behind her.

Loudly.

Now the headache was real, pulsing at the base of my skull. I grabbed my coffee, downed half of it, and glared at the door like it was directly responsible for the pain in my head.

Neither the headache nor the weird rub of guilt in my gut disappeared. I jerked open the top right drawer of my desk and grabbed the bottle of over-the-counter painkillers. I washed down two with my coffee, then turned on my computer.

Headache or not, I had work to do.

I pulled up the file for the book I’d been writing for the past few months, hoping that this time I could get some actual work done on it. I kept stalling on it and couldn’t figure out the problem.

My phone buzzed, and I picked it up to see it was a text from Amelia, my one and only sibling.

The woman I’d just fired was probably about the same age as my sister, I realized with a grimace. That flash of guilt flared back up, hotter, brighter.

She screwed up a job. I hadn’t built a billion dollars business by keeping incompetent employees on the payroll.

In the back of my mind, I heard the echo of an angry male voice, cold and cutting.It was a simple task, Derrick. Why couldn’t you do that one simple task without messing it up?

My father. I silenced it with a growl.

I’d stopped accepting failure from myself—and anybody else—a long time ago.

Reading the text from Amelia, I banished the other young woman from my mind.

Want to grab lunch with me sometime this week?

Even though I said yes, I grimaced. I adored my sister, but she constantly nagged me to lighten up and have fun. I did have fun. My way.

We texted for a couple more minutes, but my mind kept straying to the project waiting for me on the computer, and I was glad when she ended the conversation.

Leaning back in my chair, I read through my most recent notes, still unsure of what was holding me up. I never had writer's block.

Maybe I need a fresh outlook on it.

I picked up my phone and texted Drew, my best friend, and the CFO of Broker Publishing.

Dinner tonight? I want to bounce an idea off you.

He responded in the affirmative ten minutes later, and I grinned as I suggested a local place we both liked. Even though it would technically be a business dinner, I enjoyed spending time with my friend.

After nailing down our plans, I read through my notes once more, giving myself twenty minutes on the task before calling Anamaria into my office to update me on the day’s schedule and meetings for the week.

THREE

JESSICA

I pickedup a file of notes for a book cover conference and headed out of my office, mind already on the meeting. I’d only gone a few steps when I stopped, my heart hitching when I saw Jami bent over her desk, hands shaky, face blotchy as she tried not to cry.

“Jami.” Not wanting to draw more attention to her, I kept my voice low. I rushed to her and wrapped my arms around her, instinctively knowing that she needed a hug. “What happened?”

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