The Boss (Managing the Bosses 1)

Jamie got up and went to the coat closet in the corner of her room and opened the door, pulling out two dry cleaned suits. “I picked these up during my lunch break,” she said. “I wasn’t sure when you would need them, so I figured the sooner I got them, the better.”

“Thank you!” He grinned as he took the suits. “Remember, I’ll need that press release in fifteen minutes, and please message the IT department for an update on the website bug.”

“Right away, sir,” Jamie said. She turned back to her desk as he went into his office and she smiled. Maybe she wasn’t screwing up as bad as she thought after all.

Chapter 8

“Look, I told you,” Jamie said to her sister. “I’ll help you on the weekends and after work when I can.” Jamie sighed. “Can’t you see how important this job is to me?”

“Can’t you see how important this wedding is to me?” Christine whined. “Tighter,” she snapped at the seamstress. “I don’t want to be mistaken for my sister because the bodice is too big.”

Jamie rolled her eyes and reclined against the dark blue armchair meant for guests during the fittings. “I thought you were worried about looking like a prostitute,” she mumbled.

“There’s a difference between looking like a prostitute and not looking like I’m morbidly obese,” Christine said. “Speaking of which, how is your diet going? It looks like you’ve broken it a few times.”

Jamie was beyond tired of Christine’s comments. “I’m not morbidly obese. If I lose twenty pounds, I’ll be like a size six, maybe an eight, tops. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that size.” She stared at her sister’s reflection in the mirror. “Actually, I lost five pounds. Not that you would notice, wrapped up in your self-absorbed little world.”

Christine gasped.

Jamie took a deep breath to calm herself. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just stressed from work.” And helping you with the wedding.

“That was incredibly mean.” Christine pouted. “I could’ve told you getting a job during such an important time in my life was stupid. I have maybe six months to organize and there’s no way you’ll get everything done in t—Ow!” She glared at the seamstress. “You stabbed me with a pin on purpose.”

“No ma’am,” the seamstress said submissively. “You moved.”

Christine huffed and the seamstress grinned quickly before catching herself. Jamie watched the seamstress, impressed the woman hadn’t “accidentally” stabbed Christine earlier with the way Christine was making a fool of herself.

“How’re the invitations coming along?” Christine asked.

“I sent the last of them out on my lunch break yesterday,” Jamie said. “I also emailed you the final plans about the honeymoon, including airfare, the resort, and even a rental car reserved for you. Believe it or not, I’m not totally useless, even when I am employed.” Hadn’t Stephen said he was going to take care of the honeymoon? Funny how he’d turned around and put it on her.

“You’d be a hell of a lot more useful if you had more time,” Christine snapped. “Living with Mom and Dad also helped. You were at a convenient location. Instead you have to be incredibly selfish and move to your own place.”

“The apartment came with the job.” Christine hadn’t even bothered to come by or ask where she was living. They could be neighbours and she probably wouldn’t notice. Stephen, on the other hand, would probably be over in the drop of a dime if he knew she was living in a suite connected to Alex’s massive house.

Jamie smiled. Christine could insult her and her job all she wanted, but Jamie was never going to regret getting employed by Alex Reid. It had been over a week since he had told her she was good at her job, but it still rang in her ears as if he had said it minutes ago. Was she really this pathetic and needing to please that a couple of sentences of praise could leave her glowing for so long? It didn’t matter. Even though she still didn’t have time to unpack her things and she rarely got more than six hours of sleep a night, it felt so good to be working again. Just then her phone rang with her alarm set for five minutes before her lunch break ended. She got up. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Seriously?” Christine said. “Isn’t your own sister more important than some stupid job?”

“Sure,” Jamie said, pocketing her phone and grabbing her purse. “That’s why I’m going back to work before I kill you.” She blew her sister a kiss as Christine shouted a stream of disappointment at her.

Jamie had cut her commute time to the office a little tight. She ended up having to run from the bridal shop all the way to the office. She took the stairs to save waiting for the elevator and stopped outside her office, breathing hard. A wave of dizziness washed over her and she reached for the wall to steady herself. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog and her blurry vision. As she tried to reach for the doorknob, she missed and stumbled, then everything went black.

“Ms. Connors? Jamie!”

Jamie gasped and sat up, only to seriously regret the sudden movement. She moaned and laid back down on the couch. Strange. She didn’t have a couch in her office. Only Alex had a couch in his office.

“Jamie?” Alex’s voice was clear as day now. He had to be very concerned if he was actually using her first name. Fan-fucking-tastic. “Are you all right?”

Jamie turned her head and opened her eyes slowly. Alex sat right in front of her, holding a glass of water. “Mr. Reid?”

“You fainted. Here.” He handed her the glass. “What happened?”

“I’m not quite sure.” She sat up slowly, grateful for the water. “I helped my sister with her wedding dress fitting and then had to rush back here. I must have taken the stairs too fast.”

Alex tilted his head slightly. “When’s the last time you ate?”

“Um,” Jamie thought back through all of the meal times she had had. “Lunch?”