Her eyes widened slightly at my ensemble, but she said not a word. She also had the good sense to hand me her own cup of coffee.
“Harold called from the Times, said that he’ll retract the lobster piece, but he wants a sit-down at the company’s annual party on the Fourth of July.”
“Fine. What else?”
“Cynthia called from Denver, said they discontinued that cologne Nick wanted, but she did get some definitive information on, and I quote: time-share adopting a bear.”
“Fine. What else.”
She flipped through her notes at the speed of light, disregarding and prioritizing as she went. “Oh, your mother called—”
“What else?’
“I think...I think that’s about it.”
“Good.” I handed back her now empty coffee and looked down at my dress. “I going to fix this really quick in the bathroom, and then—”
“Abigail!”
I looked up to see Jake waving to get my attention. Both hands on his keyboard, and a blinking phone glued to his ear.
“What was that one guy’s name?” he called from across the office. “The one with that girl from that show that we said we looked like Tommy Tamica’s cousin? Dressed in drag?”
“Ryan,” I answered automatically. Then I looked down at the fading lettering on my hand with a sudden burst of illumination. Oh my gosh—that’s who it was. “RYAN!”
I raised my hands in silent victory, drawing curious looks from the staff, before lowering them back down with a decided smirk. At least one thing was going right today.
...or so I thought.
“Oh—and Nick’s
on his way to the office.”
The smirk melted right off my face, replaced with a cold chill as I glanced automatically towards the elevators. He was coming here?! He NEVER came here!
“What?!” I hissed. “Why the hell didn’t you lead with that?!”
Her eyes widened with confusion as she shook her head.
“You’ve only been here a minute, I thought—”
“You always, always lead with the client,” I snapped, misdirecting a good deal of pent-up nerves. I glanced again at the metallic doors. “Did he say what he wanted?”
She shook her head quickly, looking more and more confused every second. “He said you’d know what it was about. I’m assuming it’s about Ella?”
With a soft gasp, I sank onto her desk. My face as pale as a ghost.
Yeah...I bet he wanted to talk about Ella. I also bet I would no longer be in charge here by the time he was finished.
“Is everything okay?” Allison asked quietly, brow furrowing with concern as she perched on the desk beside me. “Did you two have a fight or something?”
My head jerked sharply. “Why—did he say that?”
“No, I just—”
“What did he say, Allison? Exactly.”
She glanced down at her notes. “Just that he was on his way into the office with Ella and that you’d know why. They need to start planning out events.”