Free Beale Street Blues by Angela Kay Austin

speak with him. The protocol of hierarchy. Whatever. She hadn't seen Darling follow that protocol. Instead, she just walked in and out of Jaxon's office whenever she wanted to.
    The more she thought of him, the more her body ached with anticipation, instead of nearly vomiting at the thought of him as she did with Rodney. One day, she would know Jaxon's touch. As the image of him grew stronger in her mind, her hand slid down her body, doing the things she imagined he would do one day. The feel of her fingers at her core excited her. When the moan left her lips, she flipped over to get a better position and saw an image of herself in the dresser mirror. Damn! This is what she'd been reduced to, getting off by herself, and all because of Darling.
    I'll get her for this!
     
     
    "Barbara, do you have the final numbers for your budget?" Darling asked, again.
    The woman had zoned out, or simply ignored her. It didn't matter because the affect was the same. Everyone in the meeting focused on Barbara, instead of the work that needed to be done.
    "I emailed the report to you, yesterday." The woman's lips barely moved.
    Even though barely audible, Barbara's words were still a lie.
    "I don't have it," Darling replied.
    No matter how many times she'd asked Barbara for her numbers over the past several days, there'd always been an excuse. She was sick to death of the other woman and her obvious tactics to sabotage everything. The changes she'd talked Mr. Slater into would benefit everyone, including Barbara.
    "I need to pull this together for Mr. Slater," Darling reminded Barbara. "Please go print off a hard copy and bring it back to the meeting?"
    "I don't—"
    "What?" Darling leaned forward in her chair and rested her arms on the table in front of her. "They're completed, right?" She waited for Barbara to admit to everyone that she'd been lying. At this point, Darling could use it as a reason to fire her. She didn't need a headache with every request she made.
    "Yes, but—?" Wide-eyed, Barbara scanned the room as if searching for someone to jump in and back her up.
    "Then, we'll wait for you to bring the spreadsheets back to the meeting, so that we can review them and continue." She had penned in some projections for Barbara's numbers, but the actual projections were still needed. She didn't want to fall flat on her face when she presented the final numbers to Jaxon She didn't want him to think she expected any special concessions.
    Barbara returned within moments, reinforcing Darling's conviction that Barbara had the freaking work completed. The damn woman just wanted to be difficult and ignore Darling's authority.
    "Here they are." Barbara slapped the documents on the edge of the conference room table and sat.
    Darling stared at the pages resting on the table beside Barbara. "Do you want to read those aloud, or do you want to allow everyone to have a copy to review?"
    Barbara slid the report over to Kathy who passed them on to Darling.
    After glancing at them, Darling handed them to back to Kathy—her assistant. "Could you please make a set of copies for everyone here?"
    "Sure." Kathy hurried from the room.
    "It looks like my projections for Barbara's group were pretty accurate," she told everyone. "Mr. Slater approved my plan as long as the numbers matched the proposal. He has given us permission to plus up quite a bit for the end of the year. That means a lot more travel for everyone."
    Some team members smiled, while others waited. Maybe because they wanted to know about the part she hadn't shared. The part she'd hoped would get the last remaining hold-outs on team Barbara to switch teams.
    "How does the timeline work for the people with families who didn't travel before you took over?" Barbara interjected.
    Perfect!
    "Because of the increased travel, I've asked Mr. Slater to take another look at everyone's compensation plans. As a result of that and added responsibilities, he's in agreement with me that everyone should receive