Page 47 of The Boss
“Mr. Lexington?”
The name made my head snap up…which then made my head spin. “Come in.”
I should’ve known it wasn’t her. Aside from the fact that she wouldn’t have come to see me after the way I’d treated her, that wasn’t her voice. Still, I was disappointed when my office door opened, and a short brunette with glasses came in.
“Mr. Lexington, I’m Kandace from the art department.” Her eyes darted from me to the iPad in her hand. “Um, I was, uh, supposed to bring you this?”
She said it like a question, and while that would normally have annoyed me, I was even more on edge than normal. When she didn’t immediately continue, I snapped, “Then bring it to me.”
“Right. Sorry.” She scurried over to my desk and held out the iPad. “Here.”
I practically snatched it from her hand. What did the art department need me to look at so desperately that they’d send some intern or whatever she was?
“What is it?”
“Um, I’m not sure. They, uh, said you’d know.”
“That’s unhelpful.”
She winced, and I probably should’ve felt bad for being an asshole, but it wasn’t like this was a new thing for me.
I ignored her and hoped whoever had sent this had provided some direction or heads were going to roll. A little voice in the back of my head told me that I couldn’t go fire my entire art department, but I told it to fuck off. If I wanted to fire them all, then I would. Manhattan Records was mine. I could do what I wanted. Wasn’t that the whole point?
Fortunately for them, I knew exactly what it was they were asking, and it was a simple enough question to answer. So simple that I wondered why they hadn’t just emailed me, but I didn’t bother asking Kandace. She wouldn’t know, not if she’d been sent up here without an explanation in the first place. I made the appropriate notes and handed the iPad back to her.
“Tell them the next time they send a person when an email could do, they’ll be the one running errands.”
Her eyes went wide, and she nodded. I made a dismissive gesture, and she hurried away without another word. I couldn’t decide if she was naturally timid or if my reputation was getting worse. Maybe she’d heard about me firing Flora and calling others into my office to talk. If she wasn’t a gossip, then she didn’t have any reason to worry.
I might snap at the messenger, but I wouldn’t kill the messenger. Probably.
I went back to my computer and read the same email I’d been reading for the past hour. It wasn’t a particularly important email, but it was still one I needed to reply to personally. The problem was that I couldn’t reply to what I couldn’t seem to remember. I did finally figure out that I could do things one paragraph at a time, and that was the way I managed to respond to a few emails before someone else knocked on my door.
Before I could say anything, the door opened, and my partner came in. It was a fairly normal occurrence, Finley coming to see me on Monday mornings, but I’d forgotten about that. What did it say about Ashlee that she could make me forget something that had been happening nearly every Monday for the past decade?
“You look pleasant.” Finley’s words dripped with sarcasm. “Tough night?”
I glared at him. “You’re a bastard.”
He grinned. “Yes, actually.”
I closed my eyes. “Shit. Sorry, Finley. I forgot.”
“Then you also forgot that I don’t particularly care that my parents weren’t married.” He was always so good-natured.
It annoyed the shit out of me.
“What’s got you looking like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” He leaned against my desk. “Or did you just wake up in the wrong person’s bed?”
“I can’t decide if you’re asking because you know me or because you’ve heard something.”
He wiggled his hand back and forth. “A little of both?”
“Dammit,” I muttered. “Guess I shouldn’t have taken her on Friday.”
“Please tell me that you’re using the word ‘taken’ in a platonic sense.”
I glanced up at him but couldn’t meet his eyes. I couldn’t bear to see his disappointment. “I might have intended it to be that way, but…”
