Neon

“Jade.”

At the sound of her name, Jade perked up and hit the intercom button on her phone. “Yes, Mr. Champion?”

“Coffee.”

“Right away,” she muttered, heading to the breakroom.

She stood there, waiting for the coffee to brew, wishing she could be anywhere else. Three days into working for this man and he was already driving her up the wall.

“Morning!”

Jade spun around to see Davis in the doorway. “Good morning,” she greeted him with a smile. “How are you?”

“I’m great,” he replied, grinning. “Ah! Making coffee?”

“Yep, want some?”

“No, no, it’ll make me too jittery,” he said, shaking his head before walking away.

Jade turned back to the coffee, only to jump when Davis spoke again. “By the way, Lucas likes his coffee─”

“One cream, one sugar. Found that out the hard way yesterday,” she said, forcing a smile.

“You’ll get used to it. He’s a good guy. Just has his priorities mixed up.”

Jade turned back to the coffee. “He’s got everything mixed up,” she muttered under her breath.

She returned to her desk, setting down her own coffee before walking into Lucas’s office.

“Coffee,” she announced, placing the cup on his desk.

He waved her away without a word. Jade stood there, hands on her hips, no longer willing to put up with his attitude. He looked up at her with a shrug. “You can go.”

Jade continued to stare at him, hoping he would finally get the message.

Lucas sighed, rolling his eyes. “Thank you, Miss Harris.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Champion,” she replied, grinning. “See? It doesn’t kill you to be decent.”

“Yes, but I don’t like you,” he retorted, earning a glare from Jade.

“I don’t like you either, yet here I am fetching your coffee even when you don’t ask nicely. Enjoy,” she said before leaving the office.

Lucas stared at the door as she closed it behind her, then looked down at his coffee, suddenly wondering if she had spit in it. He shook his head, dismissing the thought before cautiously taking a sip.

He had to admit, she was doing a decent job with the little tasks he had given her. A wicked thought crossed his mind.

He was going to give her a big responsibility…something that would get her fired when she failed, as he was sure she would. He would throw her into the deep end.

Without a life jacket.

Lucas spent the rest of the day brainstorming something to give her. He knew he had to be careful.

He couldn’t give her a task that would harm the company if she messed up. But it had to be big enough to get rid of her.

He flipped through his books, looking for ideas, until he landed on a page in his appointment book. He smiled. “Perfect.”

At the end of the day, Jade walked into his office, her eyes tired. “Anything else?”

“Actually, come in,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. “Sit, please.”

Jade looked at him suspiciously. He wasn’t usually this nice. “What do you need?”

“Well, I have a task for you,” he said, trying to hide his amusement.

“We have a long-time client coming in on Monday. It’s just some relations work, but they expect to be catered to the entire day they are here.”

“Catered to?” she asked quietly.

“They need someone to show them around, guide them to meetings and such. I’m double-booked and can’t do it. You will be in charge of doing it.”

Jade perked up. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I have no other choice. You said you wanted an opportunity like this, so I’m giving you one.

“Can you handle it? Because I won’t tolerate failure on this, understand? I won’t lose their business because of you.”

Jade shook her head in disbelief. “No, I can handle it.” She stood up, smiling. “I’ll do it.”

“Good,” he said. “I’ll send you the schedule so you can start preparing over the weekend.”

Jade nodded before leaving the office, excited about this chance to prove herself. Customer relations was something she knew she could handle.

She was going to nail this and finally prove to him and to herself that she could do this job.

When Jade got home, her phone dinged. She found an email with the schedule for the visit attached. She sighed as she looked at the packed day of meetings and excursions.

“I can do this…” she whispered before changing into sweats and sitting on the couch with a notebook, ready to plan out her success.