Page 10 of The Boss
But if I did any of those things, I’d lose my job.
If I refused him, I’d probably only get suspended, but I had no doubt that if I caused problems for him, he’d do whatever he could to get me out of his company.
And I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to stay at Manhattan Records, even if it meant letting my boss think he could force me to go on a date with him.
Besides, it wasn’t like this was some private function where he could manhandle me. Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas would even be there. I could approach this as a learning experience, seeing first-hand what A&R did at events like this. After all, I’d already been working on it. For all I knew, I would’ve been invited anyway.
I was justifying it to myself, and I knew it, but when I weighed my options, this was the comparatively better answer.
“I’ll go,” I said. I held his gaze for a moment, then dropped my eyes. “May I go back to work now? If I’m the only one doing the assignment, it will take me twice as long to finish it.”
I made my voice as flat as possible. If he took that to mean that I disapproved of his methods, I hoped he’d feel bad about it, but I doubted it. The sort of man who’d blackmail an innocent person by accusing them of something they didn’t do wasn’t exactly the kind of man who’d care about the approval of a subordinate.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll get you the details about this weekend.”
I didn’t bother to acknowledge the last statement as I left the office and headed back down to A&R and my desk. I had no doubt I’d have to be the one to eventually explain to Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas what’d happened since neither Flora nor Nate would do it, but if I had at least some of the work done by then, they’d hopefully see that I didn’t intend to slack off just because I was the only one left.
To my surprise, Flora was standing by my desk when I arrived, but I wasn’t even going to bother hoping that she wanted us to talk to our bosses together. The expression on her face was mutinous, to say the least.
“I figured we could walk out together,” she said. “Strength in numbers, you know.”
Shit.
I licked my dry lips. “I–”
“I can’t believe he suspended us for a whole week just because we were talking about the same rumors that everyone else here talks about. It wasn’t like we were insulting him or anything.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to remind her thatwehadn’t said anything at all, but when I considered that she hadn’t even bothered to apologize for lying about the conversation being about a book I was reading, I knew it wouldn’t do anything but make matters worse. Especially since I had the feeling there wasn’t any way I could get out of telling her that I hadn’t been suspended at all.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get shit-faced. It’s not like we have to work tomorrow. You’re buying the first round since I had to wait for you.”
“I can’t,” I said, mentally crossing my fingers that she’d let it go at that.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you can. That’s what people do when they have a shitty day at work. They get drunk and maybe even get laid.” She reached for the bottom drawer of my desk. “Where’s your purse? If we make it out without being seen, he’ll have to tell Hancock and Lamas himself. I can’t believe I was actually thinking about how much I’d like to fuck him. Douchebag–”
“Flora,” I cut in. As I’d learned not too long ago, she wouldn’t stop unless I interrupted. “I can’t leave. I still have to work.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He put off your suspension until tomorrow?”
I shook my head, wishing there was an easier way to do this. “I wasn’t suspended.” Her mouth dropped opened, and I seized the opportunity to spin a little white lie. “Because he didn’t hear me say anything, he couldn’t suspend me without risking me going to HR.”
Okay, not exactly alittlelie, but it was a necessary one.
“Right,” she sneered. “I’m sure as soon as I left the room, you told himallabout our conversation. Probably threw in a few extras too, right? Maybe embellished some of the things I said.”
I shook my head, but she didn’t give me a chance to tell her that it hadn’t been like that.
“Or maybe you didn’tsayanything. You weren’t up there long, but maybe he doesn’t have the stamina that rumors claim.”
Her voice kept getting louder, and I looked around, fully expecting people to be staring at us. Fortunately, she wasn’t as loud as it seemed.
“Was that it, Ashlee? Did you offer to blow him right there in his office or did he want you to meet him after work? How long do you have to fuck him to make up for him not suspending you?”
“Enough!” I snapped. “I get that you’re pissed about what happened, but it’s not my fault. You should probably go before Mr. Lexington realizes you’re still here and calls security. I’m sure you don’t want to be escorted out.”
A flicker of fear within the anger told me I was on the right track. If she was the one in charge of making the scene, she was okay with that, but she didn’t want to be embarrassed by losing that control. She glared at me for one more moment, then spun around and stomped away.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I slumped into my chair, but it was short-lived. I now knew for certain that I had to find some way out of my ‘date’ this weekend. If Flora was already assuming that I’d traded sexual favors for not being suspended, everyone would believe I was sleeping with the boss if I showed up at an event on his arm.
