Page 14 of Pucker Factor

“Sarah!” my boss shouted.

“Shit, I am in so much trouble. What’s up his ass today?”

She shrugged, grabbing her coffee off the desk, spinning in her chair lazily. She didn’t have a care in the world. Of course, nobody else was under pressure to make sure Mr. Nelson had what he needed. That laid firmly on my shoulders.

“Ginny told me that he didn’t leave the office until after ten last night, and then this morning, he came in and started tossing his office.”

Ginny was his assistant, and she always told us what kind of mood he was in. He wasn’t the friendliest person, but I’d never seen him quite like this before.

“Fuck, I can’t believe this! Where’s the file?”

“What file?”

“From my trip,” I answered, my high-pitched voice giving away how much I was freaking out. “I was picking up some documents for Mr. Nelson because God knows he couldn’t wait the three days it would have taken for the company to send the information he needed. And apparently, it couldn’t go in the mail because it was sensitive,” I said mockingly, using air quotes and everything. “And now I’m screwed because I can’t find it!”

I upended the bag as Ginny came around to my side of the desk and started helping me sort through everything. “Okay, relax. You put it in your bag, right?”

“Of course.”

“And where was the bag when you were with your midnight lover?”

I glared at her. I was not in the mood for teasing, but she had a point. “It was at my hotel.”

“Any chance someone could have broken in and taken the papers?”

I sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. Why would anyone do that? And how would they even know who I was?”

“Corporate raiders,” she nodded.

Was that a real thing? I just couldn’t imagine someone breaking into my hotel room over documents. Nothing at this company could be that important. “But hotels don’t just let people into other people’s rooms. It doesn’t happen!”

“Girl, you have so much to learn. Money can buy anything.”

“Sarah!” my boss shouted again.

My head jerked up and my pulse pounded. I was in so much trouble. As he stared me down, the blood drained from my face and I scrambled through the papers, not even seeing what I was doing. “He’s going to kill me.”

“He’ll fire you,” she waved me off as if that wasn’t a big deal.

“I can’t afford to get fired! I have an apartment and a very needy cat. And a goldfish!”

She grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me hard. “Would you relax? Go in there and tell him you must have left the documents in your other briefcase.”

“I don’t have another briefcase!” I said, panicking and sweating out of control.

“He doesn’t know that. Just buy yourself some time.”

“But I’m a terrible liar!”

She gave me a deadpan look. Yeah, I didn’t buy that either. “Fine, I’ll just…make something up as I go.”

“That’s the spirit!” she said cheerily. “Man, I wish I had one of those spy cameras right now so I could see his reaction when you tell him.”

And now I felt panicked all over again. “You said this would be fine!”

“Actually, I think I said the worst he could do was fire you,” she said thoughtfully. “You’d better get in there before he eats you alive.”

She gave me a firm shove from behind, nearly making me stumble and fall. Somehow, I managed to regain my footing and walk with very little confidence across the room. If I lived through this, I was going to kill her. Clearing my throat, I knocked on his door, wincing when he yelled for me to come in.

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