It’s been a week, I thought while trying to remove my Resting Hate Face.
“I was just heading to lunch, but I can reschedule if you need something?” Michael offered.
August came striding up like he was late. “Sandra! What a pleasant surprise.”
“We didn’t receive our grant receipts this week,” she said unhappily.
Michael shared a look with me. “Sandra, I’m certain we sent those over to your office on Monday.”
I nodded. “I put them in envelopes and gave them to the courier.”
The unofficial Queen of Fort Perth snorted. “That figures. They’re supposed to be on my desk, but… I really ought to fire my personal assistant.”
August leaned close to me and whispered, “She won’t, because he’s her boy toy.”
I tried not to giggle.
“What was that?” Sandra asked him.
“I said Ginny is being coy,” August replied smoothly. “We can print out some copies of the receipts for you, no problem.”
“If you don’t mind.” Her tone implied we hadbetternot mind. “We can sit down and have lunch in your conference room while your intern prints them out.” She gestured dismissively at me. “I’ll order sushi. I have a craving for California rolls.”
“Ginny isn’t an intern,” Michael said defensively. “She’s the grants administrator.”
“Also, I’m leaving for an appointment,” I said apologetically.
“On a work day?” Sandra blinked in surprise at the other two. “I thought you ran a tight ship here, August.”
“It’s her lunch break,” Michael said simply. “She can do whatever she wants with that hour.”
“And if she’s a minute late, I’m sure you’ll reprimand her,” she said, acid dripping from every word.
August cleared his throat. “Make sure you’re back by one o’clock, Ginny.”
He didn’t say it rudely. And I knew he was just placating their biggest donor. But it felt like I was being snapped at, that I was doing something wrong. I mumbled my goodbyes and left in a hurry.
24
Ginny
The clinic was busy when I arrived for my appointment, but I didn’t have to wait long. I was called into an examination room, where blood was drawn. Then I had to give a urine sample. Once that was done, I returned to the waiting room to wait for my results. Unlike most places, I would receive these within thirty minutes. I needed that before my show with Kai tomorrow night. We could use protection, but it was sexier without it. I had done my research: videos with condoms only got half as many views as those without.
Safe sex wasn’t sexy, apparently.
As I sat in the room with the other patients, I thought about Sandra Trout. I was still flustered from our unscheduled meeting. Every time I saw her, I wanted to hurl my coffee mug at her face. I wanted to grab a handful of her hair and demand to know why she kept raising the rent on all her properties.
I need to keep it together,I reminded myself.Pissing her off will probably get me fired. If I lose my job, then all of this was for nothing.
To kill some time, I texted Kai.
Me: Want to talk about tomorrow night?
Kai: Normally, I would tell you I’m too busy to discuss our work in the middle of the day. But lucky for you, my boss isn’t here right now.
Me: Perfect! So, what are you going to do to me?
Kai: What do you want me to do?