She ate lunch at her desk and continued to whittle down the backlog of Mr. Phillips’s work. By 5:00 p.m., she estimated she would be caught up by midday on Wednesday. Of course, new batches of dictation continued to be channeled by the senior partner into her queue. Immediately after she logged off her computer to go home, Mr. Phillips buzzed her phone and asked her to come into the office. “Amy,” he said without looking up from some papers he was examining on his desk, “I have a meeting this evening with the board of directors for Plaxo Industries. I need you to come and take notes.” Amy swallowed. “Jeff is working out of town, and I have to pick up Megan from dance class and Ian from his after-school program.” Mr. Phillips looked up. “Can someone else do it? There’s a chance this meeting will get contentious, and I want an accurate record of what’s said and who says it. I can’t referee and write at the same time.” In the past, Amy had almost never turned Mr. Phillips down when he asked her to perform extra duties, and she hated to refuse so soon after coming back to work.
