Boss's approval

Right as Juliet had pulled into the parking lot where the office she worked at was located her phone vibrated and a generic ringtone sound signaled that she had gotten a text from a number that was not saved to her contacts.

Making sure she was parked first, she picked up the phone to see who the text was from. As soon as she saw the first part of the message, she already knew who it was. The series of texts read back 'I never gave you my cellphone number nor permission to use it.' This already puts you at negative five points with me and we aren't even working together yet. You need to learn boundaries.' Meet me at the club tonight, no later than eight. Don't make me wait like last night.' Juliet huffed after she had read them, he was certainly just as rude over text as he had been when they were talking face to face.

Putting her phone in purse, she decided that she would reply later once she had spoken to her boss. Juliet had no problem meeting with him tonight, she was just uncertain on what her boss would have to say to her and if he had other plans.

Once outside of her vehicle, she looked at the door and took in a deep breath as she braced herself before walking up to the entrance and going inside.

She really did love her job itself, there were just aspects such as her boss that took way from the enjoyment she felt. Carl Johnson was his name. A man who despite the fact that he greatly enjoyed the line of work that he was in, was by no means fun or easy to deal with especially if you happened to be female. He was older and slightly overweight. His mustache and hair both of which were of a salt and pepper color were always messy. Juliet was only one of two women who worked in the office and the only one who he had agreed to hire on only after consistent bugging from her and a little help with her looks from Maria.

In the back of her mind Juliet was fairly certain that one of the only reasons that Carl had hired he was due to her looks. Despite the fact that he was married and had three children, it never stopped him from let his eyes wander over other women, especially if they happened to be a fair amount younger than him.

"Juliet! I thought you were supposed to be coming in yesterday to give me an update?" Carl's voice boomed through the whole office causing her to flinch. She had hoped he would still be in his office when she arrived to avoid that. Thankfully, only one other colleague was in the office at the time and he was a taciturn man who stuck to himself most of the time and didn't bother with what was going on with others around him unless it directly affected him.

"Carl, it's good to see you too this week. I was supposed to come in yesterday, yes, but something else came up that I needed to take care of related to the job and thought that it would be better to report you after that." Juliet replied, offering a weak smile as she already knew he was not going to be pleased with her response.

"Girl, I hired you to do your job and listen when you're told to do something. While I appreciate your enthusiasm and eagerness to gather as much information as you can, that doesn't mean you can blow me off." Carl retorted as he fixed her with a hard look. "Also, if you had come in yesterday you would have known that the tapes arrived, but we had to wait to listen to them until you were here. Come to my office now." Under normal circumstances, she would've done as much as she could've to avoid going into his office. Once the man started talking, it usually took a while to get him to stop on stay on track so that she could leave and get to her job.

"Did we find out who sent them?" Juliet asked. She didn't have much hope for this, but sometimes people could make mistakes in these circumstances.

"Not by the package itself, we sent it off to be tested for prints or anything else that could give us an idea, but there was no sender name on the package and the return address is a false one." Carl replied, holding the office door open so that she could step in ahead of him.

"Are we going over them while I am here?" she asked, quickly taking a seat on the opposite side of the desk from where her boss sat.

"Aside from reporting back to me, that's why you're here. Since you've been around the club, you might recognize any voices." He told her as she sat down at his desk and opened the top draw. "Don't get ahold of yourself though. Remember, I only put on this job because it is easier for a woman to go undercover at a club than a man and will draw less suspicions. You're still a greenhorn and have a lot to learn so I don't want you jumping to any conclusions about anything you hear on these videos and end up ruining the investigation because you make the wrong assumption." Juliet did her best to just nod her head in response. Around the glances he kept focusing on her chest where her breasts were completely covered from sight by a shirt she purposely worse to not reveal anything around him, his habit of treating her like she less qualified due to being a woman was one of the top reasons she hated being around Carl too much.

"I understand, I will be as careful as possible. I also know that for now this is just possible proof that there is a case to look into before we get much further." She replied waiting patiently for him to hand her the envelope that had the tapes in it.

"Before that, one you're not to take these tapes out of the office until we go through them all, have copies made, and so forth. And second, I want you to report to me what you've gathered thus far so I can determine what step you should take next."

"The next step is actually what I wanted to talk with you about. I met the owner of the club yesterday through a mutual friend." Mutual friend was a huge stretch for her to call Richard such, but it would make the explanation process less complicated with her boss. "Neither of them know anything about this, but through that I was offered the opportunity to take a job that would allow me to work undercover in a part of the club that normal members can't have access to." Carl sat at his desk with his hands folders one over the other with his chin resting atop them as he listened intently to what she was saying.

"Did you accept the job?" He asked.

"Not quite yet, I am still working out the terms with the guy and understanding what I would be doing before I agree in order to make sure the risk is worth it." Juliet replied. She hoped her boss would approve of her actions.

"It might be a bit hasty and you would have to be really careful to not let anything slip while you're working. You couldn't use your real name either and couldn't use anything that could allow you to be tied back to this." Carl replied, a slight frown on his face as he considered the option. "I will give to you this once and let you accept the offer if you think it is right. But if you mess anything up or your cover gets blown, you're out the job or you're going to have to work really hard to convince me to let you stay if you botch this up." Juliet tried her best to not grimace as she saw the look that flashed through his eyes as he said the last part. She would rather lose her job than do anything unrelated to work this man just to keep her job. "I also expect you to be better about giving me regular updates and providing me with new information as soon as you get it."

"I can do all of that no problem, but can we please start going through the tapes? I won't decide anything until we have gone through them to know if we have an actual case." Juliet reiterated. She was eager to be done talking with her boss and move back on to the more interested aspects of her job.