“I refuse to jump every time Greg says so,” I said. “I have a company to run, and the Q3 earnings report deadline is coming soon.”
“I bet he’s going to do something crazy like buy a small country.”
“I’m not contributing any money to that,” I warned.
“Maybe he got someone pregnant!”
I glared at Walker. “Do you have anything useful to say, or are you here in my office to harass me?”
“Just being brotherly.”
Owen, the CEO, popped his head in.
“Dude,” he said, walking over and placing the back of his hand to my forehead. “Are you feeling all right?”
“He does seem a little warm,” Walker said, also coming over to try and touch me.
“Get away from me!” I batted their hands off.
“You have the whole office whipped into a froth,” Owen said. “There are rumors going around that layoffs are happening.”
“For the love of…”
“And we have that big presentation to AstraDrone, and your assistant is gone,” Owen continued.
“She’s not supposed to be at the meeting,” I said, massaging my temples.
“Did she finish the presentation before she left?” Owen asked.
Fuck.
“Your new temp is here,”Owen said, appearing back in my office. Mark Holbrook and Finn Richmond from AstraDrone would be arriving in an hour. The presentation still was not finished.
Owen peered over my shoulder at the presentation I was working on and whistled.
“If Tess made that, I see why you fired her.”
I shoved him away.
“I made it; we needed an extra slide.”
Owen bit back a snort.
“Fortunately, the temp knows all those design programs,” he said, waving in a willowy redhead.
“Hi! I’m so happy to meet you!” my new assistant gushed. “I’ve heard so much about you and your company, and I really enjoyed your TED Talk on efficiencies and—”
“This is the presentation,” I said, handing her Tess’s old laptop. “These are the changes. You need to have it done within the hour.”
She blinked at me.
“Now,” I snarled. “There is a multimillion-dollar contract on the line.”
“Of course.”
I needed my tea. Usually, I sent Tess to fetch a very specific tea order at the café in the lobby of our building. But we needed the presentation done first.
The temp settled at Tess’s desk and started slowly flipping through the pages of notes. I was really regretting firing my old assistant.
