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raise, a credit card, what the hell was he thinking.
    “Thank you!” I cut her off in mid-sentence.
    “Is there a problem?” She looks at me questioningly, surprised by the tone in my voice.
    “No, no problem,” I lie. “I just need to look over these and get them back to you.” Yeah, sure, I’ll get them back to her, after I shred them!
    “Oh, well take all the time you need to read them, but Mr. Ambrose was very clear, you have to sign them before you leave my office.” Of course I do. I take my time reading every word, hoping for a reprieve. Maybe some call for an accountant emergency that would pull Mrs. Stratford away so I can slip out. I’m still sitting there forty-five minutes later with no such luck.
    “Ms. Bryant, are there any questions I can answer for you?” I can tell she wants me to hurry up so she can get on with her day.
    “No, no I’m ok, just wanted to be sure I understand everything.” I take a deep breath and begin to sign each paper. There, I did it, but I don’t have to be happy about it! I’m treated to a brilliant smile from the obviously relieved accountant. I’m sure she thinks I’m crazy for not jumping at these things, but it’s just not me. I only want the things I earn. I don’t want to just be handed things, it’s almost like cheating. I pick up the packet touching as little of it as I can and leave her office.
    By the time I make it past the gossiping secretaries in accounting and back to my desk, I am so irrationally pissed off that I can barely contain myself. I don’t care how gorgeous he is, I’m going to tell him what’s what.
     

Chapter 11
    The door to my office bursts open and I am treated to the radiant glow of anger flying off of Victoria as she rushes in yelling at me and shaking a manila folder at me. At first, her words are just a jumble, but finally she starts making sense and I swallow my chuckle.
    “How dare you! Who the hell do you think you are? No, just who the hell do you think I am?” She’s reached me at this point and I am thankful for the desk that stands between us. “Do you really think that I am going to just sit around and spend company money? Seriously?” It takes me a moment to realize what she’s referring to and another minute more to realize that she’s waiting for an answer.
    “I guess you’ve been down to accounting.” I turn away to hide my smile. “Victoria, as my secretary you will be running a lot of errands, and there may be times when I need you to entertain people, clients for example, by taking them to lunch. There may be dinners that I need you to attend, and judging by the suit you wore yesterday, you’ll need to buy appropriate attire.” The shade of red she turns at that comment can only be described as tomato. “I would never ask you to spend your own money on that when your job with me is temporary.” She seems to calm at that reasoning.
    “Fine, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.” She departs as quickly as she had burst in. Damn women are crazy. Something about her just sets me abuzz. After witnessing her mad, I am more convinced that I need to know more about her. My first stop is calling human resources for a copy of her personnel file; you’d be surprised how much you can learn about a person from background checks.
     

Chapter 12
    Did I really just do that? Did I really just yell at my boss? I laugh at myself slightly; damn lucky he didn’t fire me. I take a moment to file away the paperwork from accounting before slipping the sleek black American Express card into my wallet and heading out the door to finish my to do list.
    Leland’s errands take me all over the city, dry cleaning, Godiva chocolates from Lenox Mall, VIP passes to the Georgia Aquarium. As if that wasn’t enough, he called halfway through my list and told me to “go by that bakery and pick up a dozen assorted cupcakes”. Well at least that gave me an excuse to see Sage and catch her up on my new boss. Now, as we