Her Forbidden Millionaire

Everyone standing there waiting for the elevator looked at her funny. She rolled her eyes and continued, “Sometimes life happens. What you’re going to do is send a bouquet of flowers to Mrs. Aimsley on behalf of the company with our condolences. After you do that, you are going to call her and apologize for her loss and tell her that if she needs help with anything to call my cell. She has that number. You will stop any billing hours until I sort the rest of their account out. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Brandon stated before scurrying away to some unknown destination. Phoebe stepped onto the elevator with some other associates knowing that what she just said would be taken way out of proportion, but she didn’t care. She was the head bi*ch in charge, and there was no one better than her.

She stepped off the elevator to head toward her office when another trainee approached her. Phoebe hated when her day greeted her before her chair. The young woman had a heavy looking file that she clutched to her chest with an arm underneath to make sure nothing spilled out. Phoebe took a deep breath. “What’s going on, Shanice?”

“Well, good morning, but I just wanted to show you a few discrepancies I found in a Brand-” Shanice began.

Phoebe cut her off. “Shanice, no one likes a su*k up or a tattletale. If there’s a problem with the files then take it to the employee who made the discrepancy. If they don’t need my signature then why are you bothering me before I’ve even stepped into my office?”

Shanice’s cheeks flamed red with embarrassment as she looked around to see if anyone heard Phoebe chastise her. “I just thought since he was your intern, that-”

“That I would fire him or discipline him in some sort of way when the civilized thing to do is correct someone on their mistakes so they don’t make it again.” She raised her eyebrow in a scolding glare hoping that Shanice would get the hint.

“Never mind,” Shanice stated as she about faced and went back to her desk in Compliance. Phoebe couldn’t stand her. Shanice was a young new start with tons of potential but her vindictive spirit was palpable. She didn’t want that kind of energy around her any longer than necessary.

The walk to her office was turning out to be more of a workout than a start to her day. Phoebe had barely made it past the break room when Fred, the IT guy for their floor, raced out of there with hot coffee and a bagel in his hand. “Ms. Grissom! Ms. Grissom!”

Phoebe blew out a puff of air as she stopped walking to turn around. “Yes, Fred? How can I help you this morning?”

“So I’ve been working on the program that you were interested in and I’m pleased to tell you the we got all of the necessary approvals for the functions and remote access, but we’re waiting for some signatures from your clients to come back in so we can test it out,” the man rambled off as he wiped jelly from the corner of his mouth after taking a huge bite from his bagel.

“That’s great! So what’s the start date once we get the clients to sign off on the program?” she asked him.

“I’d say 48 hours to be safe. It will probably be the same day as the last signature but I don’t want to jinx it. I want to be sure to test for glitches before you put it into action,” he told her.

Phoebe nodded. “That sounds great. I’ll work on those signatures and you work on making sure there won’t be any glitches.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Fred nodded in agreement and took off back to the break room to finish his breakfast. Phoebe felt like she was running an obstacle course, with her office nowhere in sight. After taking another deep breath, she tried again to make it to her office, determined to ignore anyone else who stopped her along the way.

Phoebe garnered the attention of many as she walked by. Her hazel eyes contrasted greatly against her dark brown complexion. Her hips swayed side to side as she wore her emerald green pencil skirt suit. Her thick curly black hair was always pulled up into a high bun, with a tendril or two hanging in her face. She had the body of video vixen but always kept it hidden under clothes. She wore her modesty and integrity more loudly than any garment she owned. And still, she got the attention, wanted and unwanted, that most women would kill for but remained oblivious to it.

She was power walking fast to get to her office but felt the presence of someone trying to catch up with her stride. Bobby Ellis had been the managing partner of Warner Waters for years and Phoebe was his first promotion to Senior Advisor. He was doing his best to keep up until he finally stopped. “Phoebe, wait a minute!”

Phoebe relaxed a minute when she heard it was him as she turned around. “Sorry, Bobby. I thought you were going to be someone else with a problem this morning. I still haven’t made it to my office yet, and it’s nearly 7:30.”

“I get it, I’ll walk with you to keep them off ya,” he said with a wink. Bobby liked how hard Phoebe worked at her job. As long as she kept it up, he would continue to look good in front of the President and CEO. She was always early and always cooperative, but most importantly, she was headstrong and intelligent.

“So what’s on the agenda for today?” he asked Phoebe as she turned on the TV in the corner of her office. She liked to have the finance channels and news channels playing simultaneously so she knew what to expect with her upcoming day.

“Apparently, Mr. Aimsley died yesterday. So I want to set some time aside to call Mrs. Aimsley personally,” she said, thinking about Brandon’s worrying.