“Oh, I’m sorry. Was that a request? Sounded more like a demand.”

“Will you get me a cup of coffee?”

“You didn’t say please.”

“Please,” Jill said through gritted teeth.

“Now, was that so hard?” Ash turned and walked out.

The amount of snark she tolerated from her assistant in private would surprise most people. But after five years of working together, Jill supposed Ash had earned a little latitude. She accepted it from them as long as it came with perfection in their work.

Jill opened a small closet and inspected herself in the mirror hanging on the inside of the door. She fixed a few stray hairs that had escaped her tight bun before hurrying out of the office. She reached for the cup of coffee in Ash’s hands, but they pulled their hand away and raised an eyebrow.

“Thank you, Ash,” Jill mumbled, ignoring the smirk on their face.

Jill needed all the coffee she could handle to deal with her boss, Harrison Gibbons, the vice president of marketing. After working as the director for five years, she longed for the day he would step down. Though his prowess had helped make their company the top advertising agency in Indianapolis, he came across as a person who hadn’t worked very hard to get to his position. Most of his days were spent at the country club or taking long client lunches. She didn’t envy that; it annoyed her. If working hard meant doing the dirty work that her boss didn’t want to do, such as firing people, she would do whatever she could to advance her career.

Jill knocked on Harrison’s open door and walked in the room.

“Jillian! I see you got the files. Sorry for the late notice, but I just wrapped up the deal with them last night at dinner. They didn’t send all of this over until late morning.”

“It’s fine.” Jill held back a sigh. She added yet another mental tally mark counting the times he had given her a last-minute assignment. Dick.

“Well, sit, sit. We have lots to go over.”

Over the next hour, they discussed the client’s portfolio, their vision for their partnership, and the dynamics Harrison had observed since he’d begun contact with them. While Jill loathed many aspects of his management style and personality, he knew advertising without question. They collaborated on the best approach for their campaign, and Jill made notes to schedule internal meetings with members from their design, finance, and production departments.

Jill gathered her notes. “I think I have what I need to get this rolling.”

“Excellent,” Harrison replied, shifting his attention to his phone. “We’ll be presenting our full proposal to them on Monday.”