One Night with Her Brooding Boss: Ruthless Boss, Dream Baby / Her Impossible Boss / The Secretary’s Bossman Bargain. Susan Stephens

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СКАЧАТЬ he said. ‘Not much time for you to arrange things, but that suits my schedule better. Well? Don’t you have work to do?’

      Magenta’s head was reeling with all the things she had to do. Quinn had just brought the party forward with no warning at all. She could throw up her hands and admit defeat, or.

      ‘If you can’t handle it,’ he said, ‘just let me know.’

      ‘I can handle it,’ she assured him.

      ‘Do you have a theme?’

      Did she have a theme?

      ‘If it’s good enough, it might buy your team a second hearing.’

      In that case, she definitely had the theme. ‘I’ve got the theme.’

      Well, she would have in a minute.

      ‘I’m listening.’

      ‘The theme is.’ She had to come up with something mildly original or go to the bottom of the class, risking the girls’ opportunity to advance in the business in the process. ‘Back to the future,’ she said as inspiration struck. Okay, it was not so original, but Quinn wouldn’t know that. ‘It can be interpreted any way people like—but, as we’ve had the first man in space, and the race is on to land a man on the moon.’ Ideas were tumbling over each other in her brain.

      ‘Could be different,’ Quinn admitted.

      ‘Could be fun.’

      ‘Could be.’

      ‘I’m interested to see how you interpret it. And Magenta?’

      ‘So…?’

      She turned at the door.

      ‘I’m going to trial some of your ideas.’

      ‘You are?’ All her personal battles with Quinn were put on hold. She felt like hugging him. Fortunately, after what had happened, she had more sense.

      ‘Tell your team to get back to work on the ad campaign right away.’

      ‘They never stopped working on it,’ she said quietly.

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      ‘WHAT are you complaining about? ‘ Magenta heard one of the men, who she’d heard others address as John, taunting Nancy in the main office as she closed Quinn’s door. ‘You’ve still got a job, haven’t you?’

      The men hadn’t waited long to resume their bullying tactics, Magenta reflected angrily. It was vital the girls won this battle or there would always be conflict between the sexes in the office. But at least Quinn had agreed to give them a chance. She had even persuaded him to let them use the old boardroom as their temporary campaign-headquarters, and she’d planned to call an emergency meeting there now. But overhearing the exchange between Nancy and their male colleague reminded Magenta how far they had to go—that and the fact that she could wake up at any moment, leaving her new team in the lurch.

      ‘It’s tradition,’ John was saying. ‘You women are supposed to make all the homey, holiday preparations. Just because you have a few letters to type, that’s no excuse. We need our mince pies and treats while we handle the real work around here.’

      If any useful work was going to get done, they all had to calm down. ‘I’m afraid the girls won’t be free to run errands for you,’ Magenta explained, shooting a warning glance at Nancy.

      ‘Oh?’ John demanded. Glancing at his cronies, he sat back, staring at Magenta as if he were a headmaster forced to deal with a child he considered very much his intellectual inferior.

      ‘We’re all going to be busy, because we’re all back in the race,’ Magenta explained. ‘Quinn is going to judge both campaigns and choose the one he prefers.’

      ‘But we’ve got all your ideas,’ John said with a laugh in his voice as he traded smug glances with his friends.

      ‘It’s what you do with what you’ve got that makes the difference,’ Magenta argued, stealing a glance at Quinn through the office window. ‘Girls, follow me to our new headquarters.’

      They worked until the end of the day on finessing their campaign, and then the girls insisted on staying behind to help Magenta plan the Christmas party.

      ‘Quinn had a few stipulations to make. Beyond that, we’re free to interpret the theme any way we choose.’

      ‘Within a tight budget?’ Nancy guessed shrewdly.

      ‘This is hardly the best time to go overboard,’ Magenta agreed. ‘But I’m happy to cover any shortfall.’ Though quite how far her office manager’s wage packet would stretch.

      ‘Am I right in thinking you have come up with an idea?’ Nancy prompted.

      ‘I have,’ Magenta confirmed, revealing her theme for the party.

      ‘But no space-food,’ Nancy insisted. ‘The only thing I’m prepared to drink through a straw is a cocktail.’

      ‘You don’t have to follow a space theme at all,’ Magenta explained. ‘All I’m suggesting is that each of us interprets the future as we see it.’

      ‘No long hair, caftans, beads or beards!’ Nancy exclaimed with relief.

      ‘Not if you remember to shave,’ one her friends added with a laugh.

      ‘But the food stays how we like it,’ another member of the team insisted. ‘All the usual, with my favourite, cheese-and- pineapple on sticks. I’ll even volunteer to cover the cabbage with foil.’

      ‘Hang on,’ Magenta protested. ‘I’m good with cheese and pineapple, but since when do we eat cabbage at a party unless it’s in a bowl of coleslaw? ‘

      ‘We don’t eat it,’ Tess said, giving Magenta a sideways look. ‘We cover the cabbage in foil and stab sticks loaded with the cheese and pineapple into it. Surely you’ve seen a finished hedgehog before?’

      ‘A hedgehog?’

      ‘Oh, never mind. You’d better handle the cocktails.’

      ‘My pleasure,’ Magenta agreed, mentally wiping her brow. Her knowledge of sixties food-fads was non-existent.

      ‘It’s just a pity the men are going to be there,’ Nancy observed as the girls started working out who was going to be involved in dressing the office and who would arrange the music.

      ‘I’m glad they’ll be there,’ Magenta argued. ‘I want this year’s party to bring everyone together. We need something to stop this silly bickering. We have to land this colour-magazine job, and to do that we have to work as one.’

      ‘That’ll be the day,’ Nancy snorted.

      ‘Well, at least let’s give it a try.’

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