Page 6 of Grumpy Boss's Secret

I raised my eyebrows, bristling internally like a cat about to pounce. Again, not his jurisdiction. He didn't tell me what to do with my life. And he'd called me "Ms. Freiding" again.

“Am I expected to go on this trip to Greece?” I said coolly.

He raised his eyebrows at me in return, incredulous. “Of course,” he said. “It’s been on the agenda for a month.”

“This is my first day here,” I reminded him with mock politeness.

"You would have been notified about the trip when you were hired," Ian said, picking up a paper from the stack before him and getting ready to move on to his following statement. Brushing me aside.

“I wasn’t,” I said.

Definitely not. A trip to Greece? I would have remembered.

“You must have missed it,” Ian said, his tone a little breathy with impatience.

“I didn’t,” I said crispy.

I'd read every word of everything sent to me at least four times.

Ian smiled a mockery of a smile – a robotic turning up of the lips, which stated, “You’re wrong” just as clearly as words would have. “Well, there’s an upcoming trip to Greece, and you are expected to go on it.”

“What if I have a conflict?” I said.

“Such as getting a cat?” Ian said disdainfully. “Please, Jozi. You’ve just moved here. You don’t have any conflicts. You will be there if you expect to keep your job.”

I seethed, breathing in slowly through my nostrils as he continued outlining the trip's details and what Huntington Skies hoped to accomplish with it. It wasn't until about a minute later that I realized he'd called me Jozi.

Chapter Three

Despite how I'd bristled about it to Ian in the meeting, I was excited about the trip to Greece. Like, majorly. It was in exactly a week from my first day at Huntington Skies and lasted for a week. We went to Athens to meet with important clients and do promotional photo shoots. My job was to oversee those photoshoots and create hype around the trip, such as alerting journalists.

I dove into my work with enthusiasm. After the meeting ended, I waltzed back to my office, feeling clear about what I needed to do. I had to hand it to Ian; the man was good at being clear in a concise manner and eager to get some work done. Part of me had felt like I might just go limp with the pressure and forget how to do my job.

I definitely hadn’t. By the end of the afternoon, I knew I had gotten more done than most people would in half a week. I pushed my swivel chair back from my desk with a satisfied sigh.

“Now,” I said, “cats.”

I took a sip of the second cup of coffee I had gotten from the break room earlier and retrieved the list from Janet from my notebook, where I'd tucked it during the staff meeting. Then I turned to my computer.

“Okay, Google,” I said, “Talk to me.”

I looked up all of the cat shelters. Four were an hour away, but most were right here in Seattle. A couple of them were only a short drive from the office.

“I know what I’m doing after work,” I said, grinning.

Ian Huntington couldn’t tell me what to do.

I would obviously wait until after the trip to bring a cat home. But that wouldn't stop me from looking – especially since a few of these shelters had a lengthy adoption process. It still felt like I got to spite Ian and look at small fluffy babies simultaneously.

A perfect day.

I glanced at the clock. Half an hour until the workday officially ended. I’d already gotten plenty done today. I didn’t want to leave early – keeping up professional appearances and all that – but I could just sit here and relax.

I leaned back and began to spin around in my chair, staring at the ceiling.

"Okay," I murmured. "I am going to go look at cats. First, I will get some amazingly greasy cheeseburger and fries at some hole-in-the-wall diner. And a milkshake. Tomorrow I'll get groceries. Today I'm going to treat myself. Then –"

Someone cleared their throat.

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