The Boss Project

She shrugged. “He seems nice enough when you talk to him one-on-one, which I’ve had occasion to do when Will was out. But you never really know what’s going on in his head. My friend Marissa was a manager here. When her boss left, she wound up reporting to Merrick for a while. After a few months, he called her in to talk about her position. She thought she was getting a promotion, that he was giving her the open position her boss had held.”

“That didn’t happen?”

“Merrick fired her instead. Can you imagine? She went in thinking she was getting a promotion, and instead, she got canned.” She shook her head. “I’ll stay where I am with a layer between us. Besides, my income isn’t limited by my position. It’s only limited by my abilities and what I put into it.”

I did my best to smile, but her comment hit home.

By midday, the tossing and turning I’d done last night had started to catch up to me, and I needed a cup of coffee. There was none made in the break room on my floor, so it was the perfect excuse to take a trip upstairs. I had to walk past Merrick’s office on my way. Unfortunately, his lights were on, but no one was inside, and his assistant was on the phone. My shoulders slumped as I made my way down the hall. When I walked in, Will was standing at the coffeemaker.

I walked up next to him. “Oohh… You just made a fresh pot?”

He offered his usual grin and pointed to the coffee dripping down. “This is the good shit. From my personal stash.”

I smiled. “Are you going to share the good shit with me or hog it all for yourself?”

“I’ll share. Although, I should warn you, my stuff is not cheap, but it is addictive.” He winked. “Kind of like me.”

I chuckled. Hannah was right. Will was pretty great.

The pot finished brewing, and Will filled my mug before pouring himself a cup. He leaned a hip against the counter. “So how long is the boss gone for?”

My forehead wrinkled. “Gone?”

“Yeah, he sent me an email yesterday saying he was flying out to California, but he didn’t say when he’d be back. I figured you knew.”

I couldn’t hide my frown. “No, I didn’t even know he wasn’t in today.”

One of the reasons Will was successful was because he was very perceptive. His eyes swept over my face, and he quickly changed the subject. He lifted his chin, motioning to my mug. “So what do you think?”

I sipped. The coffee was good, but at the moment everything had a bit of a sour taste to it. I forced a smile. “Delicious.”

By six o’clock that night, I still hadn’t heard anything from Merrick, so I bit the bullet and sent him a text.

Evie: Hey. Just checking in. Heard you were in California. You hadn’t mentioned the trip, so I wanted to make sure all was okay.

Even though I wasn’t an emoji person, I included a smiley face at the end, trying to make the text feel casual. I sat at my desk, turning a piece of sea glass over and over between my fingers as I waited for a response. After a minute, the text went from delivered to read, so I held my phone in my hand, expecting a message to come in any minute.

But a few minutes passed.

Then ten minutes.

A half hour ticked by.

And suddenly it was almost seven thirty and still no response. Of course, I tried to give myself a pep talk again.

He was probably in a meeting.

It would be rude to text.

He’d message me back soon…

Unfortunately, soon didn’t happen until after ten o’clock that night. And the response did little to alleviate my bad feeling.

Merrick: Just a business trip. If you need anything, Will should be able to help you.

I frowned. I definitely needed something, but it wasn’t Will who could give it to me.