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“You just got yourself fired from job number four this year already,” I hissed into the open air. The office attached to his was huge, as big as some people’s apartments, with a breathtaking view of downtown. “I better enjoy it for the five minutes I’m here.”
But then, in through the door rushed Sue and Latrice.
Sue grabbed my shoulder and bustled me in behind my desk, turning on my desktop. “We need to get you set up in the system right away, Bobby.”
Latrice let a manila folder drop on my desk with aslap. “Here’s your offer letter. We need you to have a look at it and sign it. It’s generous, not only with pay but with benefits as well, so you won’t be needing to make a counter.” They were both all business when not in front of the boss, and almost as scary as he was. That explained why he kept them around.
The stubborn goat in me shined through as I picked up the manila folder. “Just a second, please. I actually do need to review-” My voice got stuck in my throat when I saw the number on the page. It was so big it made my eyes cross. “Nope,” I said in a choked, reedy voice, “no arguments here. Where do I sign?”
Thirty minutes later, Sue gave a final tap on my keyboard. “And that’s a crash course on the system. Call the office assistant with your lunch order. Whatever you want, it’s their job to get it for you. If you need research done or an errand run, call up an intern and they’ll do whatever you want asap. Your duty is to be available to the boss at all times. You are essentially at his beck and call, got it?” I unintentionally screwed my face up. My goat stubbornness didn’t like the sound of that, unless it was for some sort of French maid scenario. Ooh, now I’m getting ideas.
Sue noticed the look on my face and an amused and somewhat gentle smirk crossed hers. “You don’t like the idea of him being disrespectful or rude to you, I get it. That’s why he likes you.” Likes me? A flush ran through my whole body and settled low in my belly. “He’s gonna snap and snarl a little, that’s just part of the job. He’s a good guy underneath all that roaring, though. You’ll see.” She straightened up and gave me a playfully stern look. “And you will see, because I’m not finding him another assistant. You better stick around, understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” I gave her a mock salute and she chuckled. Maybe, just maybe, I’d start to like it around here.
“Maybe I spoke too soon,” I muttered to myself, as my second week at the office began. We were in the middle of a merger, as our company absorbed a smaller, but still massive, athletic apparel company.
Deadlines had Victor on edge. Everybody in the office scurried around even more than usual, terrified that they’d get caught under his big paws. Despite it all, I was finding Victor to be a fair boss who looked after his employees. His roar could be as bad as his bite, but when you did what he wanted you to do, you were rewarded. It made it easy to respect him, even if we did bump heads all the time.
“Bobbyyyyyyy!” He yelled through the office door.
I hopped up from my desk and jogged over, standing in the doorway. I made a show of clicking my heels together and straightening up my back.
“Yes, sir, ready for my marching orders, sir.” Victor narrowed his eyes at me, not sure if he wanted to bite my head off for being so obviously sarcastic, or laugh from the playfulness of it all. There was another aspect to his stare that was always there. An up-and-down sweeping of my body, in barely-veiled appreciation. I let him look. It wasn’t in my nature to shy away, especially when I was being admired the way I should be. The look in Victor’s eyes was full of possessiveness, a blinking neon sign with one word;mine.
To my surprise, that overwhelmed me. I dropped my gaze then, unsure of what the feeling was racing through me. It seemed like so much more than intense lust. It felt like, maybe possibly, there could be love.
Victor looked away from me, typing on his computer. “We need to figure out how many of the employees from the other company we’re going to give the axe.”
“Report time?”
“Report time.”
“Tell me what stats you want highlighted and it’s done.” He rattled off a list to me, and I made a checklist in my head with my eidetic memory.
“That’s all.” He waved a huge hand at me, never looking up from his computer. “Go.” I wasn’t quite ready to go yet. Maybe I was overstepping with the thought in my head, but I couldn’t quite let it go.
“About the people you’re thinking about firing.”
His head jerked up, and he was scowling, his irritation plain. “What about them?”
“They have families, Victor.”
His irritation escalated to anger, and his voice raised accordingly. “What do you expect me to do, go broke for these people?” I lowered my chin and gave him a look, lightly and playfully scolding him. After a few seconds of trying to keep his face hard, Victor threw up his hands. “Fine. We’ll try to retain as many as realistically possible, and those we can’t they’ll get a severance package that’s more than fair. Is that okay with you, Bobby?”
I smiled from ear-to-ear. “Thank you for doing the right thing, Boss Lion.”
He snarled something under his breath. It sounded like, “Damn, love it when you call me that.”
“Excuse me?” I asked politely, wondering if I’d heard correctly. The slight chub in my pants told me I had. I took a mental note to call him that more often.
“Don’t worry about it.” He waved a hand dismissively. “About this whole layoff thing. If I don’t do what you ask, I feel like you’re gonna try to kick my ass.”
I took another step into his office, flirting, teasing. “Try?”
Thatalmostmade a grin cross his sour face. “Yeah,try. No way you can win.”
I raised a saucy eyebrow. “You don’t know me very well, Vic, but you will.”
