Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 30858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 154(@200wpm)___ 123(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 154(@200wpm)___ 123(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
“Tell her to get in here the moment she gets off the elevator.”
“There’s also a chocolate delivery for her,” she said. “Would you like me to put that on her desk or just have it in here waiting?”
“Bring it to me.” I motioned for her to move closer with a heart-shaped box. “I’ll make sure she gets it.”
I held back on opening it until she left my office, then I peeled off the sealed envelope and opened it.
Dear Jenna,
I miss what we had before you started working here.
Hoping you can come back to me this holiday season.
Love,
Someone who wants you back.
I rolled my eyes and ripped the note to pieces—same as I had with every monthly attempt from her ex-boyfriend.
Why hasn’t he gotten the point by now?
Annoyed by his persistence, I opened the box and devoured a few of the chocolates. Then I leaned back in my chair, awaiting Jenna’s arrival.
Seconds later, she stepped inside, and I was tempted to have security put her out.
Her tight-fitting dark gray dress clung to her hips, and the bright red lipstick coating her bow-shaped lips made my cock stiffen.
“I’m going to send you the meeting notes in a few minutes,” she said. “I need the chance to go over them first.”
“I don’t care about that meeting,” I said. “I need to make sure everything is set up for my big inheritance meeting this Friday.”
“I’ve had the conference room deep-cleaned three times, the catering is scheduled, and I have a printed copy of the contract for every chair,” she said. “Would you like to go over the new clauses that were added?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Why do you always ask me that?”
“Because you always push it back,” she said. “Since the meeting is in days, you probably shouldn’t push it back anymore.”
“Let’s agree to disagree on that. Are the lists for this year’s naughty and nice ceremony finished?”
She shrugged. “Anyway—”
“There is no anyway, Miss Dawson.” I prevented her from moving on. “Are my nice and naughty lists ready or not?”
“They’re still in boxes, in the basement.”
“How long will it take you to bring them from there to here, so I can work on them?”
“Depends,” she said. “Am I on the naughty list again this year?”
You’ll be on there forever. “I haven’t done my analysis yet, but from the way this conversation is going, things aren’t looking too good for you.”
“I work harder than everyone else in this building, and that’s a fact.”
“No, that’s your opinion…”
“In that case, I’ll try to have someone bring all your boxes up, one at a time, sometime this weekend.”
“You mean sometime today?”
“You have a meeting with F. A. Suarez at three, regarding a new drone delivery system,” she said, avoiding my question. “And then you have a series of sessions with the paralegals.”
“I would like the lists brought up here, Miss Dawson. Now.”
“Tell me what’s inside my envelope first.”
“Get out.” I pointed to the door and watched her curves as she left.
2B
JENNA
“Iswear, if I get fired for this, I’m taking you down with me,” my closest coworker, Diana, whispered.
She shone her phone’s light over the list boxes like we were robbing a bank. “I’m not allowed down here.”
“But I am,” I said, adjusting the light. “Hold it over here, so I can find our letters.”
“Ah! I found mine!” She grabbed it and opened it. “Oh my god!”
“Oh my god, what?”
“I’m on his nice list!”
“Is that all it says?”
“No, he’s also giving me a fifteen percent raise and a twenty-thousand-dollar bonus!” She squealed like a schoolgirl. “I gotta go tell my mom!”
“Wait, what? You’re just going to leave me here alone?”
Her footsteps pounding down the hall answered my question.
Sighing, I took out my phone and continued sifting through the envelopes until I found mine.
There better be a bonus in here.
Letting out a breath, I slowly tore it open.
Dear Jenna Dawson,
I made a list and checked it twice,
to determine if you were naughty or nice…
You are…
NOT SUPPOSED TO BE READING THIS EARLY.
(& I know you are)
I’ll give you your envelope with my assessment in person.
Happy holidays, & you should know better by now…
Nicholas Saint
3
NICHOLAS
Subject: FWD: The holidays.
Dear Mr. Saint,
I HATE that you never let my favorite cousin Jenna come home for Christmas, and I hope Santa sticks hot coal up your ass this year.
Elizabeth
Iwasn’t sure whether to laugh at this person or file charges.
Confused, I went through my sent box. I didn’t see any emails about not letting Jenna have off for the holidays, and last I checked, she always volunteered to work through them.
I was about to tell “Elizabeth” that I was seconds away from filing harassment charges against her, but I caught the issue.
There, at the very bottom of her email, was a message from “me.”
Dear Miss Dawson,
As we discussed before, you are NOT allowed to have the holidays off, and quite frankly, you don’t even deserve to have the weekends off.