Page 11 of A Matter of Time

“Oh shit,” I groaned. “Are you kidding me?”

“What’s the big deal?”

“Sonja,” I whined. “C’mon.”

“I forgot that you told me she wasn’t to be put through.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “So when she told me she was coming by, I asked her if she wanted to speak to Mr. Harcourt.”

“Perfect,” I grumbled. Wednesday was getting better and better. “Anything else you wanna tell me before I go in there?”

“I put Mr. Reid through too.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose and counted to ten. My friend Evan always said that it was about visualization. You had to imagine your happy place and you would be there instead of in that moment. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working. It really wasn’t such a big deal that he was irritated; he was irritated with me ninety percent of the time. The problem was sitting through the lecture that always followed. The man lived to reiterate my mistakes.

“I’m dead. I’m so dead.”

“Why? It’s my fault, not yours.”

“But I’m responsible for everything that happens to him at work.”

She giggled. “C’mon, J. You’re taking yourself a little seriously right now.”

I shook my head. “No, I mean stuff that has to do with the office, that’s my baby. I’m supposed to make sure things run smoothly here.”

“I don’t think it’s really that big a deal.”

“If you knew him better, you’d know what this is really about.”

“What’s it about?”

“Following directions,” I told her just as the door to Dane’s office opened and he filled the doorway. I couldn’t stifle my groan in time.

“Has the meaning of the word ‘now’ escaped you completely?”

“No, sir,” I mumbled, following him into his office. I was careful to close the door quietly behind me.

“I want you to make arrangements with the temp agency to have Miss Lawson transferred out of this office as soon as possible. I think our contact over there is Darcy something. Call her.”

“Pardon?” That, I hadn’t expected.

“I want her out of my office. Preferably today.” His words were clipped, and really, it was so early for that.

“But she does such a good⁠—”

“I don’t care where she goes,” he said crossly, cutting me off. “I just want her out of here. She can’t follow simple directions.”

I knew it. Directions. It was a thing with him. Well, to be fair, most bosses liked whatever orders they gave to be adhered to, but that wasn’t what he meant in this instance. Not as it pertained to her.

“Why? It was a simple mistake about letting Miss Warner and Mr. Reid talk to you this morning.” I sat down in the chair in front of his desk. “It won’t happen again. I’ll explain that⁠—”

“Do you see that?” he asked sharply, cutting me off again. He motioned to the flowers on the side table between two windows, now being pelted with rain, that I hadn’t noticed. They were long-stemmed red roses arranged with baby’s breath, and they were absolutely beautiful. The vase they were in was lovely too, very expensive.

“Yeah.”

“Yes,” he corrected me. He hated yeah.

“Yes,” I repeated.

“And?”