Reggie walked through the outer office of his boss’s suite and stopped short. Was that humming he heard? He crept up to her door, and placed his ear against it. The humming continued until she got to the hook. Then the words spilled out. “You are the reason to love...”

“Well, somebody sure seems happy.” Reggie waltzed into Dominique’s office with the prerequisite lattes and a box of pastries.

“Good morning, Reggie.”

“Don’t stop singing on my account. I love me some Uncle Charlie.” Reggie set Dominique’s coffee on her desk before continuing to the table on the other side of the room. “What kind of donut do you want? I have glazed, chocolate, powdered sugar, or plain cake. Oh, and I threw in some bagels for those heifahs on a lifelong diet.” When she didn’t answer, he turned around. “Girl, you have got to tell me what happened to put that look on your face.”

“What look?”

“Miss Dom, don’t even try it. I asked you a question and you didn’t even hear me.”

“I was engrossed in this interview that Emily did with Kirstie. It’s really good.”

“Yeah. Right.” Humming and reading at the same time? Really? “What kind of donut do you want before I take the rest to the break room?”

“Do you have a bagel?” Dominique asked.

Reggie frowned but said nothing. After handing Dominique a cinnamon-raisin bagel and taking the rest of the goodies to one of two break rooms, he returned to Dominique’s office and plopped down in the chair opposite her desk.

“I need you to pull up all of the references on the Master Cleanse story,” Dominique began. “Shoot me the abbreviated advertiser contact list and send these on to typesetting.” She handed Reggie a folder. “They’ve been approved.”

Reggie made notes on his iPad. “Your first meeting is in an hour.”

“I know. Print out the notes from the last meeting and make sure the entire sales team is in attendance. I knew it wouldn’t be long before a copycat publication reared its ugly head and I just got word that that’s about to happen. We need to step up our game big time and lock in the advertisers that best fit our market.” Dominique scanned her computer screen. “I think that’s it for now.”

“Uh, not quite, Miss Dom.”

Dominique looked up. “What did I miss?”

“The part about what you did yesterday.”

Dominique paused before admitting, “I took your advice.”

“You got tackled by the coach?” Reggie asked, a large smile covering his face.

“Yes. We went into the end zone and now the game is over. Back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Reggie stood, grabbed his coffee, and walked out of the room humming Uncle Charlie’s Top 10 R&B hit.