Page 65 of Grumpy Boss of the Year

"What do you mean, what am I doing this evening?"

"Do I have to repeat myself? I think the question is pretty clear."

"I am going to be…" She stumbles for a couple of minutes.

"So you're doing nothing, obviously. You're just trying to think of an excuse as to why you won't hang out with me."

"I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be hanging out all the time."

"What do you mean, hanging out all the time? We've barely hung out," I chuckle.

"I mean, if you don’t count yesterday at my place for an hour or so, we haven’t really hung out at all."

"Exactly," she says. "And seeing as I might be getting married, I just don't?—"

"I want you to come with me somewhere," I say quickly.

"What? Come with you where?"

"There's a resort on a tropical island that I'm thinking about purchasing, and I would like to know if you think it would be the best place to have the anchor resort."

"Are you making this up, just so that you can sleep with me, Liam?"

"I put my hands up in the air. No. I’m 100 percent focused on business. Anyone who knows me knows that all I care about is business, and frankly, I'm here to make money. I would like you to come with me because, as I said before, I think you have a good eye. You have good ideas and just good sense. And I need someone with good sense who will be honest and not just tell me what I wanna hear."

"I mean, I guess I can go with you."

"We'll go at the end of the week. Pack a bag for maybe five days."

"Five days? Okay."

"I mean, you're not upset about that, are you?" I run my fingers through my hair, my brain going a hundred miles a minute.

"No, I'm just taken aback is all. I haven't even worked for you one week, and we're already flying to a tropical destination for me to give you advice on whether to buy a hotel chain on some fancy island. What island are we going to, by the way?"

"You'll see." I smile at her. "Now, will you go and get me a coffee from the break room and perhaps a donut if you see some? I didn’t have breakfast and?—"

"Yes, sir." She jumps up. "Anything else?"

"That's all."

I watch as she heads to the door. "Hey, Elisabetta," I call out to her.

She stops and looks back at me. "Yes, sir?"

I want to make a teasing comment about her calling me sir, but I don’t want to overstep the mark. If she doesn’t want to be unprofessional in the office, I'm not going to make her be. "You're doing a good job. Thank you for volunteering to help me."

"I mean, I didn't want Skye to have to do anything for you, so obviously I stepped up."

"I know, because you love your friends, and that's what I’ve heard."

"You heard that I love my friends?"

"I heard that you'd do anything for Skye," I say, nodding. "And it looks like it's true."

"I guess." She shrugs.

“Um, so coffee and a donut?”

---