The Boss (The Boss 1)

Penelope and I had gotten along okay when she’d been second assistant in Gabriella’s office. Tall and willowy with ginger hair and cat-like green eyes, she had often been mistaken for a model in her early days at Porteras. But she had a photographer’s eye for detail, and she zeroed in now on the pink sapphire winking in my ear. “What lovely earrings. Tiffany, right?”

“Oh my, Neil Elwood must pay his assistant editors much better than I did,” Gabriella murmured, raising one eyebrow and pursing her lips as her gaze flickered over the menu. I honestly don’t know why she ever bothered to look at the damn things; any restaurant in New York would make her whatever she asked for, and she knew it.

I ordered a cheddar and kale salad with baked eggs. Gabriella had her customary salmon. Jake, having the totally unfair metabolism of a dude, got eggs benedict with the muffins swapped out for portobello caps, and Penelope stuck to water, since she was doing a detoxifying cleanse. As we ate, we chatted amiably about what Gabriella had been up to since leaving Porteras.

As much as working for her had stressed me out, I did like Gabriella. I respected the hell out of her for getting what she wanted out of life, and not allowing the usual roadblocks of gender and stereotype to hold her back. And I had to admire how quickly she’d gotten a new magazine organized and staffed, even if their first issue wasn’t due until February.

“It will be completely digital,” she said with languid pride. “I must admit, I’ve never liked the idea of a totally paperless publication. I thought it cheapened the brand when Porteras began offering a digital edition, but we just weren’t thinking outside of the box then. Jake has shown me that a magazine can be beautifully presented, with quality content, and transcend the limitations of print.”

“Wow, Jake. I had no idea you were so talented with the computer stuff,” I said, truly impressed.

He smirked and lifted his water glass to his lips, pausing before he drank to say, “Well, in my new role at Mode, I’m able to take some pretty big risks.”

“You’re welcome,” Gabriella said easily. She dropped her napkin on her plate. “Sophie, you could be taking those risks, as well. How would you feel about... assistant creative director?”

I was so grateful I didn’t have a mouthful of anything, because I would have sprayed it all over the table.

“Excuse me?” I looked from Gabriella to Jake. Across the table, Penelope was smiling the benign smile of someone content to wait for her day to come. “You’re not serious.”

“Totally serious, Sophie,” Jake assured me, looping one arm over my shoulders in a buddy-buddy gesture. “I told Gabriella about the work you’ve been doing in the beauty department, and how hard it’s been for you guys to find worthwhile products to feature. She picked up the January issue—”

“Ghastly,” Gabriella said under her breath. “Not your section, of course.”

“And we agreed that with the parameters you’ve been given, you exceeded beyond expectation,” Jake continued.

“Right, but there are two other people working with me in the beauty department. It’s not just my work you’re looking at. India does a great job—”

“India does a great job drinking during the work day,” Gabriella said, her gaze sliding slyly to Penelope, who smirked and shook her head. “And we already have Jessica Nguyen working for us in another capacity. Sophie, I’m not going to beg you. You either trust me when I say that I know you can do the job and accept the position, or you toddle out of here and go back to Porteras.”

“She can’t go back to Porteras,” Penelope said, sipping her coffee. “You’re getting fired, aren’t you?”

My stomach dropped. “How the hell could you possibly know that? It just happened.”

“Twenty minutes ago.” She held up her phone, displaying a text message. It said, Scaife’s out.

“Who—” I shook my head. Who wasn’t important. Well, it was. But that would be important later. “I had an idea I was getting canned.”

“Because of your involvement with Neil Elwood?” Gabriella asked quietly.

“What? No. I’m not involved with him.” I looked to Jake, because I couldn’t handle the pointed stares from the other side of the table.

He shifted uncomfortably and couldn’t meet my eyes.

“Jake tells me you had a locked-door interlude with Elwood,” Gabriella said, fixing me with her x-ray vision that I swore would see right into my soul. “Your work attendance changed drastically once he was installed. You took a long lunch with him on the second day he was there, and you took two half-days and a sick day...”

“I was a little shaken by the fact that the boss I liked working for suddenly wasn’t my boss anymore, and I didn’t know how secure my job was,” I said, as politely as possible. “How do you know all of this?”