Page 50 of Manhattan Bossholes

“Are you firing me or something?” she squinted at me. “This is weird.”

“No, it’s brilliant. Now give me one of your cameras.” I held out my hand.

“Excuse me?” Piper took an exaggerated step away and hugged the camera hanging on her chest.

“Trust me,” I sighed. “I promise not to break it. Just show me how to work it. I’m not a total novice, I took a photography class in college, I just want to do it right.”

“But this camera is special,” she said. “It was my first. It’s like an extension of my hand. I’ve been using it since I started, back in high school.”

“Then I promise to be extra gentle,” I said.

“What are you shooting?” she asked, still skeptical.

“Our social media stuff, now give it.”

She was acting like I’d asked her to hand over her firstborn child, but she finally selected one of the three cameras hanging from her strap, unfastened it, then handed it to me. She walked me through the basics, dubious the entire time.

“Okay, now take your strap off,” I ordered. I was excited to get started.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to photograph you, obviously.”

“Vincent, no!” Piper looked positively horrified. “I look like garbage! What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that we’ve done a great job showing how amazing our glowtion looks in the bottle, but not on skin. So, I’m nominating you to do it.”

“Absolutely not! We have a team that needs to approve concepts, and we haven’t discussed this. We agreed to some shots showing the setup, and us working on the shoot, but just hands and backs, no faces.”

“You don’t need team approval when you’ve got the CEO right here. I have final say,” I replied smugly. “And I want to see that lotion shimmering on your shoulders and arms. You even wore the perfect top for it.”

Piper looked down at her arms like it was the first time she was seeing them. “But…me?”

“You. That’s a direct order from your boss.”

She opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it. She unbuckled her straps and stared at me.

“I don’t like this one bit.”

Her glum expression made me laugh out loud. God, she was cute when she got defensive. “Piper, come on, have some fun!”

“This isn’t fun for me,” she insisted. “I’m a behind-the-lens kind of person.”

How could she not understand that she was just as stunning as the models in our campaign? Piper was humble to a fault, but I was set on the idea of making her see what the rest of the world already knew.

“And as of today, that’s changing.” I placed her camera on the table and turned to the bottles. “Now, which one works best with your skin tone? Come here, please.”

She joined me next to the display of six bottles. “I think passionfruit, but they’re all amazing.”

“Okay, we’ll do passionfruit on one arm, and opal on the other,” I said as I picked up the bottle of pale sparkly white lotion and flipped open the lid. “Skin, please.”

“Hold on, you’re going to get it on my camera!”

“Piper,” I sighed. “Did you not read the marketing copy? Glowtion is transfer-proof. Once it dries, it doesn’t budge. Strip club patrons are going to be very happy. Arm,” I said in a stronger voice.

She frowned at me and thrust out her left arm.

I squeezed the bottle and let the shimmer trail down from her shoulder. The visual was stunning, but it was the anticipation of her soft skin beneath my hands that really got to me.