Page 90 of #Bossholes

Miss Rhodes. Talk about a punch directly to the gut. “I…I don’t know. I don’t understand.”

“This is entirely unacceptable. We’ve fired people for a hell of a lot less.” Maverick slowly stands and leans over his desk, resting his hands on the wood. He looks ready to leap over the damn thing and strangle me. “I don’t care what you’ve got going on in your personal life, but it can’t affect what we’ve got going on here. That shit gets checked at the door. Do I make myself clear, Miss Rhodes?”

My face heats as his words hit me, each one more damning than the next. He’s not wrong. I shouldn’t let what’s going on with us affect my job performance. This is a professional place of business, and mistakes like this can’t happen.

I glance at the floor, nodding. The disappointment flashing across his face is like a knife to the gut. “Yes, sir.”

He takes a deep breath and walks around his desk, laying a friendly hand on James’s shoulder. “I’m going to need you to take notes. Please make sure there are plenty of copies of our meeting agenda and that the presentation is queued up and ready to go. Wyatt, get your brother, we’ve got a meeting with the junior associates we’re already late for. Miss Rhodes, you will sit at the back of the room and be there if and when we need you.”

I nod again, forcing myself to move, pretending his displeasure and frustration doesn’t cut me to pieces.

James snaps to attention, all too eager to clean up my mess, but I don’t stay to see him gloat. I move quickly, grabbing a few things from my office—mainly my laptop and a notebook—and head straight to the conference room.

Everyone is there, including Brianna and a few of the other secretaries from the seventeenth floor. She smiles my way, but it quickly falls from her face as she takes me in.

What happened?She mouths, glancing around the room.Are you okay?

I nod because that’s all I seem to be capable of and clutch my laptop to my chest.Later.

Maverick and Wyatt are already at the head of the table, apologizing to a few of the junior lawyers for the scheduling error. I’m such an idiot. I can’t believe I messed this up. If Maverick is this mad, Brantley is going to be pissed.

He hates being late almost as much as he hates disorder.

Speak of the devil.

I don’t need to turn around to know he’s stepped into the room directly behind me. Not only can I feel his eyes burning a hole through the back of my head, but the conversation around the table dies down. You could hear a pin drop.

This day, hell this week, couldn’t get any worse.

I’m scurrying to get out of his way, to get to my new spot in the back corner of the room, when Zach, one of the lawyers I used to work for, gets up and blocks my path.

“We miss you downstairs.” He runs a hand through his hair and gives me what I’m sure is his I’m-so-charming-I-get-anything-I-want smile, but I barely notice. “Your spot is still open if you want to come back down and slum it with the rest of us.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Malone. I miss everyone downstairs.” He stares at me for a second, no doubt waiting for a better answer. Hell, I’m not positive I’ll have a job after today. But he’s not sitting down, so I guess I need to give him something so we don’t delay this meeting anymore. “That’s a really nice tie. It was so good to see you.”

Hopefully that’s enough. I slip around him and make my way to the back of the room.

“That is a really nice tie.” Brantley is staring at me as I lower myself into my seat and tugs on the silky fabric.

He legit reaches out and pulls on his freaking tie like he’s going to choke him on it.

Zach takes a step back, and we all watch in horror as Brantley pulls out a pair of scissors and cuts the man’s tie in half. Where the hell did he get scissors? And what is he thinking? The entire room just saw that, and there’s no way this doesn’t get twisted as it passes through the entire building.

If there was ever a good time to disappear into an alternate universe, it’s right now. I’d even take a coat closet.

Zach’s eyes widen, but he has enough self-perseverance to take the remainder of his tie from Brantley’s outstretched hand and keep his mouth shut. He sits down and forces a small smile which no one returns.

Everyone in here, including Maverick and Wyatt, is staring at Brantley like he just lost his damn mind. And maybe he has. Who the hell knows at this point.

But Brantley casually lays the scissors on the cabinet behind him and heads to the front of the room. “Does anyone else want to delay this meeting, or shall we get started?”

Silence.

Dead freaking silence.

Not even a throat clearing.

This is fine. Everything is fine. I just need to get through today, and then Colin and I have book club tonight. We’ll laugh, the girls will likely have questions I won’t answer, and everything will reset itself. Tomorrow, Colin and I have appointments with his surgeon and the hospital for pre-op. It’s all going to be fine.

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