“No, Miss Davies.  I don’t need any time off.  I won’t be late again.”

“Let’s hope not.”

“Oh, give her a break,” Spencer heard a familiar voice say as an armed wrapped around her shoulder.  She turned to see Kyla, the CEO of the company, standing next to her.  “You know you’re not going to do anything.  You couldn’t find a better assistant than Spencer even if you wanted to.  She knows you too well.”  Kyla gave me a small smile, which I returned. 

“Well, if she knew me so well, she wouldn’t have brought this coffee cake.  I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Ashley said, pushing the cake and cappuccino off her desk and into the trash.

Kyla walked over to her and placed a comforting hand on her back.

“Ashley I told you not to go to that party.  But not only did you go, you got drunk.  Don’t take your hangover out on Spencer.” 

Ashley briefly looked up at Spencer, before turning back to Kyla.

“Kyla, she’s my assistant.  I’ll reprimand her however I see fit.”  Ashley said, pausing before adding “But you’re right it would be hard to replace her.”  Spencer’s smile grew at the rare compliment from Ashley.   Kyla had always been the friendlier of the two, she felt almost like a sister to Spencer.  Ashley, though, was always intense when it came to her job and life.  Kyla may have been CEO, but Ashley was the busy one as both the top grossing musician at the company and its Chief Creative Officer.

“Anyway, I just came to tell you that mom said she would be in town for the weekend so you are coming to dinner at my house on Saturday,” Kyla said, walking towards the door, “No excuses.”

“Ugh,” Ashley groaned, “Why do you like to torture me?  I don’t even think I can come.  Don’t I have something to do that night, Spencer?”

“Um…” Spencer said as she flipped through the pages of her planner.  Saturday night was empty.  But when she glanced up at Ashley and caught her pleading look, she didn’t hesitate to make it full.

“Um, yeah, you have dinner that night with that singer you’ve been trying to sign,” Spencer lied, earning a smile from Ashley.