Page 6 of Past and Present

Was this woman serious right now? “You can put me through to Lance.”

“I really don’t know, Miss Sullivan. He was pretty adamant that he not be disturbed.”

She sighed. Hiring and firing power was in her purview at Moss Tech, but she didn’t want to seem like a jealous bitch. Not to mention she liked Kimberly, so she ended the call without a goodbye and pushed away from her desk to head for the elevator.

Upstairs, she strode through Lance’s outer office and ignored Jill’s protests as she approached his private door.

She was about to open that door when Kimberly stepped into the room.

“Marissa, is everything OK?” she asked as she set a bag of food on her desk.

Marissa turned and gave her a tight smile. “It’s fine. Just need a word with Lance.”

“Let me tell him you’re coming in.”

Kimberly leaned across the desk and pressed a button. “Mr. Moss, Marissa is on her way in. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.”

Lance’s silky voice echoed through the room. “Excellent. Thanks, Kimberly.”

Jill frowned. “Sorry. He was just so adamant.”

Kimberly gave Jill a sideways glance. “And you really thought that rule applied to his fiancée and co-owner of the company? I’m pretty sure you’re smarter than that, honey.”

Marissa struggled to keep the smirk off her face as she pushed her way into Lance’s office.

“Your floor is lacking Christmas spirit,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

Lance chuckled. “There’s a tree up in the conference room, and I think Kimberly put a wreath on the door. Just because it’s not an explosion of candy and Christmas lights doesn’t mean it’s lacking spirit.”

She wrinkled her nose and looked around his office. “You could at least put a tree in here.”

He laughed. “I’ll get right on that. What do you need, Riss?”

Marissa looked around. “Where is everyone?”

Lance frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Jill wouldn’t put you on the phone for me and said you were in a meeting and not to be disturbed.”

His mouth formed into an O. “I was on a video conference with the New York negotiators. I told her I was unavailable to employees until I was done.”

“Well, have a talk with her about me.

He laughed. “Still jealous? I’ll talk to her. I can always take Cameron off your hands until Kimberly gets back and Jill can come work for you.”

Marissa scowled. “Hands off my assistant, mister. I just need to know that if I lose it and fire her you or Kimberly aren’t going to come after me.”

Lance shrugged. “I won’t lose any sleep over it. No idea how Kimberly feels about her though.”

Marissa smirked. “Judging from the subtle dig she gave her out there just now, she doesn’t have any feelings about her.”

“What did you need, Riss? You’re getting off on a tangent.”

She winced. It was true. Why had she come down here? It took her a minute, but she remembered. “Cameron says Jill put dinner on our calendar for the Friday before Christmas with Nathan Griffin.”

Lance rolled his eyes and reached for his phone. “Kimberly, can you come in here with my calendar, please?”

She stepped through the door thirty seconds later. “I’m already trying to fix it, Lance.”

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