Page 68 of Grumpy Boss of the Year

"No, I absolutely wouldn't care."

"You wouldn't care?"

"I wouldn't care whatsoever. You could go on any trip you wanted anywhere in the world with anyone you wanted, and I couldn't give a flying fuck."

"Whoa," he said. "What's up with your language?"

"Sorry, it just came out. I didn't mean that. I meant that…" I let out a sigh. "Sorry, it's just been a long week."

"Why is that?" he asks, his eyes narrowing. "Is everything okay? Did you hear from your dad?"

"No, haven't heard anything from my dad, but I did speak to my brother, and he's a little worried about what's going on."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, my dad cut off my stepmom's credit card, and when I tried to make a purchase at Cartier yesterday, and it didn't go through." I frown.

"Okay, and what does that mean?"

"I mean, a $10,000 purchase didn't go through. That's nothing. So, my dad really is having financial difficulties, and I'm nervous because he didn't even alert me to the fact that my card wouldn't work. And what's gonna happen to me? Am I gonna be in the street? It's not like you're paying me that much. I doubt you're paying me enough to even cover my bills."

"Is that your way of saying that you want a raise?"

"That's my way of saying that I'm screwed."

"So you think you're gonna marry someone, then?

"I don't know," I say, shaking my head. "I mean, I just don't know."

"That is something you'd be okay with, marrying a stranger?"

"I don't wanna talk about it, to be honest. You know what I mean? Like, it is what it is. Right now, I'm just focused on the task at hand and the job that I'm doing for you."

"Would you feel bad kissing me and touching me knowing that you were going to become engaged to someone else soon?" he asks me.

And I frown. "Why would I feel bad about that? It's not like…" I pause.

"It's not like what?" he asks.

"It's not like you would care, right?"

He stares at me for a couple of seconds. "I mean, I think we both know the answer to that."

He looks at his watch. "Okay, shall we go and get something to eat or drink?"

"Sure, whatever you wanna do."

We walk towards a bar and sit before he hands me a menu and leans back in his chair.

"So, do you look more like your mom or your dad?"

"Um, I guess my dad. I mean, I can't even really tell you what my mom looks like." I bite down on my lip and look to the side. "It's one of the things that I've always hated about growing up. When my mother died, my father told me he was so upset that he got rid of every picture because he couldn't stand to look at her, so I never really knew what she looked like, and it killed me. It absolutely killed me.

"I don't really wanna talk about my mom, to be honest," I say. "It was really hard growing up without a mom, and it's one of mybiggest regrets in life. Like, I wish that I could've saved her, you know? I wish that I could be granted a wish from a genie because that would be my one wish, just to have kept her alive so she could've been in my life and could've…"

I pause. "Sorry, I'm not trying to bring the mood down. Shall we talk about something else?"

"You're not bringing the mood down," he says. "Sometimes life is complicated and hard, and it's okay to acknowledge things that have hurt us."

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