When I got there, it was the same shock. I expected some comment from him, but didn’t get anything. As I sat down at my desk, in my own little office two doors down from his, there was a pile of paperwork on my desk and my inbox flashed a number that would keep me reading emails all morning.

It was nearing lunch when I got my first clue.

Mr. Hudson said from my opened door, “How was your vacation?”

I jerked back, my heart pounding. He never knocked, not even a courtesy knock. “Vacation?”

I stared at my boss. It took me a moment to comprehend and then I sputtered out, “Oh. Um. It was good. How was the week here?”

Mr. Hudson stared at me behind his glasses and pinched the top of his nose. He was a big man, but bigger since he had stopped working out due to a back injury. He had gained fifty pounds over the last year. He carried it all in his belly now, which made him unhappy. Everyone knew Mr. Hudson used to think of himself as a player type of guy, but with his hair starting to gray and thin, he couldn’t keep up the image. Annoyance had his nostrils flaring and he clipped out, “The week was fine, would’ve been better if we had proper notice of your vacation.” His eyes narrowed and he lifted the top of his lip in a sneer. “Word came down from the top. You never told me you knew someone at the top, Martins.”

I straightened in my chair and lifted my chin. “The vacation was a surprise to me as well. I apologize for any strain it might’ve had on you or others.”

He huffed out, “You can thank Theresa for doing most of your work. She couldn’t do all of it, since you’re my actual assistant, but you can touch base with her. She’ll bring you up to speed on everything. We’ve got a big deal coming up. There’s a conference in New York. I want you there.”

New York? My eyes widened. I was going to New York?

“Is that okay with you, Ms. Martins?” There was an edge to his tone.

“Uh, yes, Mr. Hudson. Of course, Mr. Hudson.”

“Good.” He rolled his eyes. “We have to present to Mr. Tomlinson in New York. I want you to do the presentation.”

“What account is that, Mr. Hudson?”

“It’s a new account. There should be an email about it. If you can’t find it, ask my secretary.”

“Alright, Mr. Hudson.” I pasted a professional smile on. He couldn’t know how much I wanted to strangle him. A new account? There was an email about it? He spoke to me like I was two.

With another eye roll and a disgusted sigh, he marched back to his office. I was left in my office with my hands digging into my desk. I wanted to get up. I wanted to follow him. And I wanted to do some damage. He had never talked like that to me before.

What the hell had been told to him? And by whom?

The only thing I could do was scroll through my email again, but an hour later I still didn’t see what he was talking about. There was no email from him or any from the higher administrative offices so I pushed back my chair and went in search of Theresa Webber, another assistant that worked underneath The Director of Sales. I could’ve gone to his secretary, but she was slimy like her boss. As I got to Theresa Webber’s office, she was frowning at her computer with a pencil between her teeth.

I knocked on her door. She jerked away from her computer. Her hands flailed in the air and the pencil went flying. She grabbed onto her desk to keep from falling off her chair. Her hair had been pulled back in a low pony tail, but half of it had come undone from her startled movement. With green eyes wide in surprise behind thin glasses and her shirt already half unbuttoned, Theresa groaned from embarrassment.

“Am I interrupting?”

“No, no.” She waved towards a chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat.” Her hand quickly did up the buttons on her shirt and she tried to smooth out her hair. She failed. Half of it fell down on her shoulder. The other half was still in the pony tail. “Sorry. You gave me a fright.”

I hid a grin. Theresa was always like that. I didn’t know her that well, but she had a reputation. Whatever she was doing held her concentration completely. A nuclear bomb could’ve gone off, and it wouldn’t have fazed her. “What are you working on?”

“What are we working on,” she corrected me. She gestured to her computer. “It’s the account Mr. Tomlinson asked for you to present on.”

My eyebrows shot up. Mr. Tomlinson asked himself? I instantly grew wary. What account was it? I hoped Carter wasn’t a part of it, but I already knew he was. He had to have been. I held my breath as she gestured for me to come around to her side.

“See, here.” She tapped the computer screen.

As I started to read, shock spread through me. It was an account to develop our own liquor as a brand. I shook my head. What did this mean?

Theresa must’ve sensed my confusion. “Mr. Tomlinson wants us to pitch this to the board. This bourbon’s been a bestseller in the restaurant and bars. Other venues are starting to request it. He wants it advertised as a product and distributed nationally. This is a big deal, Emma.”

“How am I involved?”

She shrugged and went back to the computer. “Who knows why Noah picks who he does. He always has a reason and it always works. The guy is a genius.”

Noah? I grinned at her. “First name basis?”

Her fingers froze and a blush spread up her neck.

My grin widened. “You know office gossip, Theresa. The little biddies are going to be over this like white on rice.”