Free The Assistant by Ramona Gray Page A

“You
know as well as I do that Mr. Wright has taxi chits for everyone.  Hell, you
were the one handing them out earlier.  C’mon, girl, relax and have a glass of
wine, enjoy yourself.  You’re about to have eight whole days of freedom.”
    She glanced around the lobby of our office
building.  “Mr. Wright might be a bastard, but the man knows how to throw a
party.”
    I followed her gaze.  Nearly everyone in
the office was milling around, chatting and drinking wine and eating
appetizers.  It was the last day before we closed for the holidays and I had
spent the last four days preparing for an impromptu office gathering.  I had
been stressed out until the last minute with calls to caterers, decorators and
trying to find a band that would play on short notice.”
    “Yes, he does,” I said dryly.
    Amanda grinned.  “I guess I should say that
you know how to throw a party.  You did a great job, Lina.”
    “Thank you, Amanda,” I said as a server drifted
toward us.  He was carrying a tray filled with glasses of wine and Amanda
scooped one from his tray before snatching my glass of water and placing it on
the tray.
    “Here.  Drink this,” she ordered.
    I sipped at the wine.  It wouldn’t hurt to
have just one.  I deserved the damn thing.
    “So, are you hitting that or what?”  Amanda
asked conversationally.
    “What?”
    She raised her chin in Jamie’s direction.  He
was talking animatedly to the director of marketing and I shook my head.
    “No, I’m not hitting that.”
    “You should be,” Amanda replied.  “The man
has it bad for you.”
    “It’s not good to sleep with your
coworkers.”
    “Oh, pul-leease.”  She rolled her eyes.  “Coworkers
hook up all the time now, girl.  There’s not nearly the stigma there used to be
about it.”
    I sighed.  “It’s just asking for trouble,
Amanda.”
    She laughed.  “You could use a little
trouble in your life, Lina.  You’re way too well-behaved and sweet for your own
good.  I thought maybe you had changed when you screamed at Mr. Wright, flipped
him the bird and quit on the spot, but then you came back.”
    “Not that I’m not glad you’re back but I
don’t know if I ever told you how badass that was,” she added hastily.
    I laughed.  “It wasn’t badass.”
    “Fuck, yes it was!”  She insisted.  “The
office gossip mill was talking for days about how you ripped Mr. Wright a new
one and he went to your house begging you to come back to work for him.  People
were actually starting to think he had feelings.  Until he fired poor Cynthia a
week later.”
    “Cynthia was smoking weed in the
bathroom!”  I replied.  “Of course he was going to fire her.”
    “Yeah, but he did it in a spectacular
fashion.  You have to admit it.  I’ve never seen a grown woman cry so hard in
my life.”
    I didn’t reply and Amanda nudged me
lightly.  “Seriously, Lina.  You should go out with Jamie.  He’s got a bit of a
reputation as a playboy but personally, I think that’s exactly what you need. 
Get out there and have some fun, for fuck’s sake.”
    “I’ll think about it,” I said quickly
before changing the subject.  “When do you leave for Hawaii?”
    “Day after tomorrow.  Just me and Kathleen
for seven glorious days.  I tell you, we’re going to make this our new
Christmas tradition.  No listening to her grandmother tell us we’re going to
burn in hell, no listening to my Uncle Jack try and convince us that all we
need is the right man to turn us straight.  It’s just me and my smoking hot woman
in a bikini, lying on a beach.”
    I grinned.  “It sounds like fun.”
    “What about you?  Your folks coming out?”
    I shook my head.  “No.  They’re going to my
sister Kate’s house this year.  I was going to join them but it’s an expensive
trip.  I’m going to fly out after the holidays when there are some deals on
flights.  Besides, I just know Mr. Wright is going to ask me to come in at