A Boss That Makes J.R. Ewing Look Good

Mindy Cooper had worked at Kutrate Kemicals for almost a month. During that time, she’d reached a few conclusions. The first one was that being the administrative assistant for the Big Boss really sucked. The second one was that Bernard Morton, AKA the Big Boss, made J.R. Ewing look like Mother Theresa.

Never had Mindy met such an egomaniacal, manipulative creep. Her first impression of Bernard—that he was shy and self-effacing—had been replaced by a more lasting impression, one that seemed to be a lot more realistic. Bernard Morton was handsome but had a heart made out of stone. All he seemed to care about was money and the bottom line. Safety, the welfare of his employees, the environment—none of those things seemed to matter to her new boss. If she wasn’t on the verge of breaking a huge story, Mindy knew that she’d have to quit working for Bernard and Kutrate Kemicals. Life was way too short to spend it chained to a desk in a dusty little office working for a lunatic.

“Mindy!” Bernard’s voice barked at her from his office. “Get in here!”

“Yes, sir,” Mindy muttered. Heaving herself to her feet, Mindy remembered how the woman in Human Resources had asked her if she could handle working with difficult personalities. Little had Mindy known just how difficult a personality Bernard Morton was going to turn out to be. “What do you need?” she asked when she got into Bernard’s office.

Bernard studied her through narrowed eyes. “What time did you leave for lunch yesterday?”

“I don’t know—around noon I think.”

“You put 11:45 down on your time sheet.”

“Then that’s when I left.”

“What time did you get back?”

“12:15.”

Bernard shook his head. “I don’t think so. I happened to be looking out the window and I saw you pull into the parking lot at 12:23. Ergo you couldn’t have gotten back to your desk by 12:15. It takes at least four minutes to walk from the parking lot up to our offices.”

Mindy stared at him. “What’s your point?”

“My point, Mindy, is that you owe me 12 minutes on your time sheet. I’ll expect you to stay late today or arrive early tomorrow. I’ll leave the choice up to you.”

Mindy had never truly despised anyone until she’d met this man. She couldn’t believe he was picking at her over a few minutes when there were so many bigger and far more threatening problems going on at his company. “Is that all?”

“No. I’ll take a cup of fresh coffee with two creams and three sugars.”

Leaving Bernard’s office, Mindy stomped over to the coffee pot. She never thought she’d say it, but she could hardly wait to get back to the newspaper. Sure, the pay was crappy and the hours were impossibly long but it was still a better job than working for Bernard Morton. Mindy had to figure out a way to get her scoop so she could get out of working for Kutrate Kemicals. But how?

The office door swung open. “May I help you?” Mindy said automatically. Her mouth dropped open when she saw who was standing there. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.