Page 102 of Getting Down to Business

After a few seconds had passed, there was a man at his feet bleeding from the mouth and one of Chanda’s statues was on the ground in pieces.

The small orb rolled over to his foot and he realized it was the center of Blended Family. He’d destroyed it.

He looked across the chaos to see Chanda and knew he’d just destroyed them as well.

* * * *

Things felt different between Grayson and Alyssa. The feelings she experienced during their visit to Connecticut hadn’t faded; they just changed into something else. Something comfortable. And Alyssa didn’t do comfort with men.

Comfort meant trust. It meant letting down her guard. It meant not paying attention to the details. All things she now realized she had with Gray.

Originally, their relationship had mostly revolved around sex and fun. Now there was something else in the way Grayson stroked her hair while she fell asleep, or the way he smiled when they passed each other in the office. Like he was doing now.

“You want to grab some lunch?” he asked, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening. She was the only person who knew he wasn’t actually asking her to lunch.

“I can’t. I have a meeting with Mr. Hasher.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He wouldn’t fire me, right? I mean he’d have someone else do it, like a henchman?”

“He wouldn’t fire you or have henchman do it. You’ve been working your ass off. Maybe you’re getting a raise.”

“That would be great.” She could use the extra money.

Years ago, when she believed in things like trust, she’d taken cash advances from her credit cards to buy Donnie a real lawyer. He’d convinced her that the public defender was lazy. It turned out that the public defender was faced with a client who refused to plead insanity even though he was obviously insane.

Unfortunately, it had taken a few more weeks and eighteen thousand dollars for Alyssa to figure it out.

She was down to the last sixteen hundred she owed. Soon it would all be over and she’d be able to put it behind her forever.

Alyssa’s meeting was moved from eleven to two and then from two to three because Mr. Hasher had other things come up. Did bigwigs just move stuff around to make themselves feel important, or did they do it to toy with people’s nerves?

“I’m not getting fired. Just breathe. The last time it was a good thing. This is a good thing.” She muttered to herself as she walked to his corner of the floor.

She waited the normal twenty minutes, and then went into his office when his assistant gave the nod. She was moving, though she couldn’t really feel her legs.

He gave her a warm smile and gestured to the chair in front of him.

“Hi Alyssa. Have a seat.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ve been talking with the team and everyone was impressed with the presentation you gave for the Pinecrest parking complex.”

“Thank you.”

“We’re always looking to expand, but just because we have the clients, expansion isn’t possible if you don’t have the team in place to give the clients what they expect from Hasher Borne.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve done so well with the Pinecrest account that we would like to give you their other accounts as well. They run a number of companies and they requested you specifically. Of course, your salary will be increased to compensate you for the extra workload. For now, I’d like you to run everything through Melanie and Grayson.”

“Grayson?” she blurted without thinking.

“Yes, he’s the financial lead on this account. And Melanie was the previous account manager.”

“I see. Okay.”