Lottie’s Lollies (Crafty Littles #3)

Prologue

“Charlotte, have you finished the paperwork for the Busy Biscuit meeting?” Mr. Hagerty asked in his megaphone voice after he stepped into her cubicle.

Lottie Smith jumped as he began to massage her shoulders.

For a man who required his subordinates call him Mr. Hagerty, he was breaking all kinds of sexual harassment rules.

Instead of answering him, she deleted the last few letters she’d typed by mistake.

Only then did she push her chair back and stand up, forcing him to back out of her space and stop touching her.

Taking a breath, she reached into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around the crocheted dinosaur she kept there to soothe herself.

“I emailed that file to the partners two hours ago. Mr. Hempstead and Mr. McCullough both responded that they have received it.” She did not tell him that both men also asked why she’d sent it instead of him.

“I wanted to see it before it went to the partners.” Mr. Hagerty frowned at her, obviously perturbed that she would receive the kudos for a job well done and turned in ahead of time.

Especially since it was a project he’d been assigned.

“From now, I want to see all your work before it goes to upstairs. I told you that last week when you sent that other file on without my okay.”

Another file he’d been assigned, but had handed off to her.

Lottie forced herself to breathe slowly in and out before she responded. “No sir, you did not. Nor have I seen any emails from HR regarding such a change in policy.”

Having worked for the firm since graduating college at the top of her class and passing her CPA exam on the first try, as well as having a nearly photographic memory, Lottie knew the employee handbook by heart.

She had to remind herself that she would only have to deal with Hagerty for a short time longer.

Another few months and she would be taking great pleasure in telling him off as she quit and left for the last time.

She knew why her supervisor wanted to see all her work before it went up the chain.

The email from Mr. McCullough asking why she was turning in the updated files instead of Hagerty was a dead giveaway.

Hagerty spent so much time shmoozing those in the executive offices, talking on the phone with his friends, bookies, and people he owed money to that he couldn’t keep up with his own accounts.

When she bypassed him to deliver the finished work to whichever partner was in charge of the account, it made him look bad.

Most of the time the partners never asked, but for the last couple of weeks, Mr. McCullough and Mr. Hempstead had been inquiring as to why she was turning in work they’d assigned to Hagerty.

Since she hated liars and tried to be as honest as possible at all times, she’d told them. She had a feeling Mr. Hagerty would not be her supervisor for much longer, though she would never tell him that. No, she would just keep her head down and focus on the work until she didn’t have to anymore.

She could not wait for that day.

Mr. Hagerty harrumphed and turned red. “From now on, you will send all the completed files to me.”

“Yes, sir,” Lottie responded softly, hoping he would go away so she could get back to work. She had two more accounts to update before she could leave for a four-day break to go to Littlepalooza with her sisters.

She could not wait to be around Littles and their caregivers for the three-day event, even if she was only a vendor of her homemade candies and not able to participate fully as a Little.

She hoped that her presence at the event would help her business grow enough so she could leave this job and Handsy Hagerty would become just a bad memory.

Lottie’s Lollies had just about reached the tipping point of needing her attention full time.

She could not wait to spend her days making marshmallows, lollipops, and other yummy candies that contained more fruit and less sugar than most of the candy on the market.

Her dream was to make enough to support herself without having to work another job.

She didn’t care about nationwide market domination with a zillion employees, but it might be nice to have a helper or two when things got really busy.

“Oh, and I’ll need you to come in tomorrow to set up a couple of accounts that came in earlier this week,” her boss added.

“Sorry, Mr. Hagerty, I’m off until Monday. HR approved my request for time off and put it on the schedule three months ago.”

With that, Lottie sat down and returned her attention to her computer with a smirk.

She listened as he grunted and then stomped away, no doubt to find someone else to hand the work off to.

As she worked on updating the spreadsheet, she allowed her thoughts to wander to the upcoming weekend and mentally visualized not only having a sell-out weekend, but also meeting a Daddy who would help her unleash the Little side that she had to keep tightly locked down.