Page 17 of Forty, Flirty & Fired

"You know about the gap." I keep my voice neutral, even as my fingers itch to open my laptop and start drafting my exposé.

"Of course I know." He runs a hand through his hair, messing up the perfect styling. "I've been trying to fix it for months."

"Trying?" I can't keep the skepticism out of my voice. "You're the CEO. Just... fix it."

"If only it were that simple." He stands, pacing. "The board?—"

"Oh, don't give me the board excuse." I push back from mydesk. "You're Alexander Drake. Your name is literally on the building."

"And that building has shareholders. Stakeholders. Twenty years of established salary structures that can't be dismantled overnight without?—"

"Without what?" I stand too, anger making me bold. "Without the old guard getting upset? Without having to admit there's a problem?"

"Without causing a mass exodus of our highest-performing employees when they realize their colleagues were getting raises and they weren’t.” He stops pacing, facing me. "You think I like this? You think I enjoy knowing that brilliant women like you?—"

"Like me?" I step closer. "You mean the woman you fired?"

"The woman I hired back."

"After I threw champagne on you."

"Because you were right." The intensity in his voice stops me. "About the retention issues. About the culture problems. About all of it."

We're standing too close now. Close enough that I can see the faint stubble on his jaw, smell the lingering traces of his cologne. Close enough to be dangerous.

"If I'm right about that," I say softly, "what else might I be right about?"

His eyes drop to my lips for a fraction of a second. "Ms. Gallo?—"

"MAC!" A voice from the hallway breaks the moment. "You will not believe what I just found in the developer Slack channels!"

My sister Lucia bursts in, waving her phone. As my new “personal assistant”—a perk I’ve exploited with my padded consultant salary (even if her real job is helping me gather intel), she also has access to all the company communication channels.

Access she's apparently been using well past business hours.

She freezes when she sees Alex. "Oh. Mr. Drake. I didn't... um..."

"Ms. Gallo." He steps back, professional mask sliding back into place. "Your sister's dedication to her new role is... impressive."

"We Gallos take our work seriously." I move behind my desk, putting much-needed distance between us. "Was there something else you needed?"

He studies me for a long moment. "Just... be careful with those numbers, Ms. Gallo. Sometimes the story they tell isn't the whole truth."

He leaves, and I wait until his footsteps fade before turning to Lucia. “Alright, give me the breakdown.”

“Breakdown? No, forget the Slack drama," she hisses, closing my office door. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That!" She gestures wildly. "The tension! The meaningful gazes! The way he looked at you like you're the last panna cotta at Christmas!"

"He did not?—"

"Oh, he absolutely did." She drops into the chair he'd vacated. "Does this mean we're calling off the exposé?"

"No." I open my laptop, pulling up my blog draft. "If anything, this makes it more important. He admitted knowing about the pay gap, Luce. He's choosing not to fix it."

"He said he's trying?—"

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