“Go home, Fern.” Addison Stone appeared in the doorway of her office, frowning at me.
“I will, I just need to—”
“You need to go home or I will fire your ass.”
I lifted my head to look up at my boss, offering her a smile. “The place would fall apart without me.”
She walked forward until she was directly in front of my desk. “It would, and I would have to hire you back tomorrow at twice the price, but I’d do it if it meant you left at a reasonable hour for once.”
“I—”
“Nothing. You have nothing else to do tonight. Please, Fern. Things are going to get crazy around here while Mav and I are off on parental leave, and I need to know you’re going to cope.”
I stared at her for a moment. Addi ran the record label I worked for. She kicked ass in a male-dominated industry; a superwoman with balls of steel. I mean, she survived a plane falling from the sky, blowing it up so they could find her. And now she and her husband, Maverick, were about to take some time off to spend time with the two children they were in the process of adopting.
“Fine, but only because you’re making me. I have so much to do. There’s the label’s party, the new bands, the—”
“I’m getting you an assistant.”
I laughed. “I am the assistant. Who ever heard of someone being the assistant’s assistant?”
Addi perched her slight frame on the corner of my desk. “Fern, you know and I know that you’ve been more than an assistant for, well, ever since you arrived here. You and Neo run this place while Mav and I take off for three months a year and now, there’ll be a year where it’s all on you two or I’m only here part time. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you do for me and the label. Which is why I’m promoting you to head of communication. Effective immediately. And I’m doubling your salary.”
“Addi, you don’t have to—”
“Okay, tripling it. Don’t leave me.”
“W-what?” I stuttered.
She tucked her sleek blond bob behind her ear. “You’re so talented. You’re going to leave me eventually and I don’t know how to do this job without you. It’s been me and you since the start. What can I do to make you stay?”
I shuffled in my seat. “Nothing. You don’t have to do anything. I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon. I love my job.”
“And you’ve been doing it for three years. You don’t take holidays, you don’t ask for time off, you’re always working. Eventually, someone is going to steal you away from me.”
I laughed at the thought of ever wanting to be anywhere else. “No, Addi, they’re not.”
“So, you’ll take the promotion?”
“You’re serious?” I asked, confused.
“Of course. I want you to take over PR for all the bands and Neo and I will take a more strategic role.”
And like he’d heard his name, Neo Knight stepped out of the elevator. His ever changing hair color was lilac today. Dressed head to toe in black, he walked toward us, leaning heavily on his silver cane. He hugged Addi, pressing a kiss to the four inch scar that ran down the side of her cheek. “Ice Queen. Have you asked her yet?”
“I was just doing it.”
Neo nodded, shifting the weight on his feet, trying to hide the obvious pain he was in. “Sweets, I’ll be honest. You’ve been a godsend for years, but we have more bands than ever signed to us and more on the way. We need to share the workload, otherwise Addi and I will have to work more and our husbands are way too hot to do that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not sure you can call me Sweets if you promote me, Neo.”
“I will always call you Sweets, Sweets.”
I watched Neo walk slowly to the sofa across from my desk, where Addi’s visitors usually waited when they came to the penthouse offices. I hated how much pain he seemed to be in today. He was in the same plane crash as Addi and his cane and pinched expression when he was struggling were reminders of the near-fatal injuries he suffered. Addi wasn’t as seriously hurt, but still nearly died, and she wore the thin scar on her face as a reminder of how precious life was.
“You’re both serious? I have no idea how to head up a department.”
They both looked at each other before bursting out into howls of laughter.