Page 13 of Past and Present

She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.Seriously?He thought.

“If you want to help, you can take Marissa a turkey BLT. I know for a fact she hasn’t left her desk today.”

Jill gave him a tight smile. “Of course, Mr. Moss. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

He glanced at his clock and frowned. David was supposed to have called him by now. With a sigh, he picked up his phone and dialed David’s number.

“I thought our call was an hour ago,” he said.

David was quiet for a minute. “It was. Jill said you were busy and had asked not to be disturbed.”

He growled. “I swear I’m going to fire her before Kimberly even starts her leave of absence. Are you still on with Patrick and Elijah?”

“I am,” David said with a laugh. “It’s fine. We had a lot to talk about with holiday sales, so your timing is really perfect.”

He made a note to talk to Kimberly in the morning and turned his full attention to the conference call.

A half hour later, his door opened and Jill stepped in carrying food.

“Thank you,” he mouthed, although her inability to follow directions irked him.

When he finished his call an hour later, he dialed Marissa’s office.

“Did you eat your lunch?” he asked when she picked up. She sounded distracted.

“Not yet. I’ll grab something in a couple hours, I promise.”

“Did Jill not bring you anything?”

Marissa paused for a minute. “Not that I know of. But I’ve been pretty focused on this app all morning so I might have missed it.”

He sighed. “I’ll have something sent in if she didn’t. You need to eat.”

“I’m fine, Lance.”

“No arguments, Kitten,” he said, deliberately using his pet name for her.

“Fine. I’ll eat.”

“Good girl.”

When he ended the call, he stood and went to the outer office where Jill sat in her office chair with her bare feet tucked beneath her.

“Can I help you Mr. Moss?”

He clenched his fists and then stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep himself from looking too irritated.

“Did you take Marissa some lunch like I asked?”

She shook her head, and he scowled.

“I tried,” she blurted. “But her assistant is a bit of a Nazi and wouldn’t let me in.”

He highly doubted that. What exactly was this girl’s problem?

“First, let’s not just call people nazis. It’s a pretty insulting term with a lot of grim implications and second, if I ask you to take my fiance lunch I need you to make sure it happens. What did you do with the food?”

She gave him a shrug. “I gave it to an assistant on the eleventh floor. Figured it should actually get eaten.”

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