Page 17 of (Mostly) Human Resources

“What’s your energy bill like?”

Alexys shuddered. “You don’t want to know.”

“So, have you called Elliot yet?” Natalie asked.

Alexys cringed. “Actually, he calledme.First thing this morning.”

Natalie smirked at her. Righteousness was strongly implied by her raised brow. “Was it Ghost Elliot or Alive Elliot?”

Alexys rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m an idiot, and you’re always right.”

“And don’t you forget it.” Natalie winked.

Drinks in hand, they headed back to the second floor, stopping a few times to chat with other colleagues. Almost everyone at Entity was pleasant to work with, so Alexys couldn’t complain. The other HR leads were people she regularly spent evenings with, and the girls in marketing too. The only people she didn’t particularly enjoy being around, orperson, she should say, was Nic.

Nic Know-It-All Dyre.

And that was exactly who she was thinking about when she sat back down at her desk and roused her computer.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: PoA Report

Keane:

Given time constraints, there will be a delay completing your Plan of Action report. I’ll have it with you by EOD Tuesday.

Regards,

Nic Dyre | Research & Cataloging | South Carolina

Office | Entity, LLC

“That insufferable …” Alexys ground her teeth together and snatched up her office phone. She dialed Nic’s extension. He answered on the first ring.

“Ah, Keane, I imagine you’ve seen my email.” It wassolike him to screen his phone calls. Alexys wanted to reach through the receiver and throttle him.

“What the hell, Dyre? YouknewI needed it by Tuesday morning at the absolute latest. And now you’re saying Tuesday night? That’s bull, and you know it.”

“Good morning to you, too. I’m well, thanks for asking. Yourself?”

Alexys could have screamed. “Not great, you glorified search engine.”

Nic tsked. “There’s no need for name-calling. It’s rather juvenile, don’t you think? Even for you.”

This man!

“I need that report signed off by early Tuesday morning. I told you. I’m flying out Wednesday and need to have enough time to review the latest sightings, Silver Giant file updates,andsend the whole thing to Kristin.” She could hear him typing in the background. He wasn’t even paying attention to her. “You’re supposed to be the head of your department with an entire team of researchers at your disposal. Why is a simple POA going to take youthis long?”

“I’m very thorough,” Nic chided.

She scoffed. “And I’mthoroughlyannoyed.”

“You should try switching to tea instead of coffee,” Nic suggested. “It might temper your irritability.”

Alexys inhaled a deep breath. She couldn’t afford to lose her temper, that’d only fuel the fire—she needed to rein it in.