“I’m sorry, Harrison, but I can’t. I was just about to leave the office for a prior engagement I need to attend. Why can’t you?”

Now his tone had gone from jovial and conciliatory to brusque and threatening. “You will do this, Jillian. It doesn’t concern you why I can’t go. Refusals of requests aren’t looked at too kindly when promotion time comes around. My recommendation of who should replace me when I retire carries the most weight. Just think about that.”

Jill clenched her jaw. What a fucking low blow. “Where?” she ground out.

Harrison gave her the restaurant, the address, and the names of the three people she’d be meeting with. “Do whatever you need to do to convince them to sign with us. Don’t screw this up.” And with that, he hung up.

Jill squeezed the receiver in her hand and tapped it on her forehead. Suddenly, she slammed it into the cradle and shouted, “God fucking damn it. Ash, get in here.” She went to her closet and grabbed her checkbook out of her bag. As she wrote out the check, she tried to block out the hurt she was about to cause Reagan. She hoped a generous donation would lessen the blow when she didn’t show up.

Ash stood in front of her desk with their hands behind their back, looking hesitant.

She stuffed the check into an envelope with a note which she held out to Ash along with a bouquet of purple lilies she had picked up a few hours earlier. “Give these to Reagan when you go to the benefit tonight.”

“No,” Ash replied, making no move to take the items. “Give them to her yourself. There is no reason for you to skip the—”

“Stop talking.” She didn’t want to hear the rest of what Ash had to say. Their words would probably be the same ones running through her head. This wasn’t a good reason, but she didn’t have a choice. She would just need to get Reagan to understand.

“Jill, you’re going to crush her.”

“Just give them to her. I’ll try to come by after this dinner meeting.”

Ash snatched the envelope out of her hand but took the flowers with more care. Jill heard them mutter “bullshit” under their breath as they walked out of the office.