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“Soon, I hope.”
“And you can’t borrow a car from one of your many family members?” he asked, and there was that condescending tone again. But I would not react.
“I don’t want to ask them. I’m trying to prove that I can do things on my own. I just graduated from college, so it’s time to be a grown-up.”
His lips twitched the slightest bit, and if I was reading Maddox Lancaster correctly, I’d say that he liked my answer. But I had the feeling that he’d never admit it.
“I understand that. So, let’s go over your duties.”
I pulled the feather cap off my pink pen and slipped it onto the back, crossed my legs, and balanced the notebook on my lap.
He proceeded to spend the next thirty minutes giving me the most exhaustive list of duties. I would be doing everything from getting coffee, ordering lunch for the office, sitting in on his meetings and taking notes, to picking up his dry cleaning and setting dinner reservations. He would also occasionally have me read blurbs and give feedback, and we’d be adding in other things ashe saw fit.
So, basically, I’d be a coffee and errand girl if I didn’t prove that I was up for more.
But I planned to impress the hell out of him.
Odd sports may be my specialty, but difficult men were a close second.
Game on, Bossman.
four
Maddox
Our team was findingtheir rhythm here in Cottonwood Cove. My new assistant had two weeks under her belt and had started her third week with the same gusto. She’d surprised me with her work ethic several times already, although this was still a trial period.
I’d learned that many people come out of the gate strong with a new job, and then they’d fizzle out. Georgia Reynolds had handled everything I’d thrown at her with ease thus far, which was saying a lot because I’d been known to go through assistants faster than most people went through a cup of coffee. And I’d hit her with everything I had in my arsenal. Sending her on bullshit errands and giving her tasks I didn’t think she’d finish; yet every single time, she’d come back with a smile on her face. I expected a lot from the people who worked for me, and I rewarded them well for it. I hadn’t rewarded her yet because it was too soon. The jury was still out on whether she’d make it here.
If there was a popularity contest at Lancaster Press, Georgia would be the queen of the office. Everyone loved her already, and she’d only been here for a few weeks. She knew how to turn on the charm, and I admired people who knew their strengths and capitalized on them. Where most people made an effort to be friendly, there was a genuineness with her that was rare to find in people. Her name was at the top of the whiteboard for the ongoing ping-pong game that they all played every day on their lunch break, as she’d wasted no time taking part. She only took twenty minutes a day for lunch, which I noted, because I was prepared to call her out if she spent an hour in the break room with the staff playing games. She’d go down, play one game, apparently dominate, and then eat her lunch at her desk while she worked. She’d also brought donuts in the last two Fridays to celebrate her first week on the job, and this past week for Virginia’s birthday, and that had won her big points. I believed in doing something special for employees that had been with you for five, ten, and even twenty years. But a party to celebrate a week on the job? Who the fuck did that?
Like most new employees, I was prepared for her to go at a slower pace at the start of week two and then again at the start of week three. It was common, and I had no intentions of easing up on her. But she’d upped her game last week and hadn’t lost an ounce of steam.
I’d just arrived at the office, and I parked next to that goddamn white contraption that she drove to work, which pissed me off. It was cold as hell out, and she shouldn’t be driving something that wasn’t safe. And why the fuck did I care?
I’d come earlier today, an attempt to be first, but she’d beat me again. I didn’t need to be here this early, but the fact that she had arrived before me every day since she’d started had me getting out of bed a little earlier than usual.
And how long does it take to fix a fucking car?
Was her family okay with her driving this death trap on wheels to work every day?
Why did it annoy me so much?
Maybe I was just in a mood because I’d woken up with a raging boner after a dream about my assistant straddling me at my desk while wearing no panties.
It wasn’t the first time I’d dreamt of her either. And that shit pissed me off.
I wasn’t that guy.
I didn’t fantasize about women I worked with.
When it came to women, I was always in control.
So, I had a bad case of blue balls, and it only added to my already irritable disposition.
I moseyed into the office, and I was immediately hit with seventies music, as I had been every day since she’d started. From Karen Carpenter’s “Close to You” to the Knack’s “My Sharona”, the girl blared her music until I’d arrive every morning, and then she’d hustle and turn it off with no argument from me. I wasn’t a fan of the seventies, so I’d just use my Shazam app that could tell me the name of a song right on my phone. That way, when I complained about it to her, I would act like I knew what I was complaining about. I did not need to Shazam today’s song, as even I was able to recognize Abba’s “Dancing Queen”. I made my way up the stairs and found her in my office with her back to me as she stood at the filing cabinet, singing at the top of her lungs along with the music that was playing from her phone.
She sang like she was on an episode ofThe Voiceand shimmied her hot little body down to the floor like it was her life’s passion. It was sort of how she did everything from what I’d assessed over these last few weeks.
