Page 40 of Faking It With My New Boss

If there was one. Which I was convinced there would be, as soon as she saw what I wanted to show her. I was excited, and sure above all else, that it would fix everything. We would go right back to where we were, or even better, to where we pretended to be. I just had to get her alone and take her there.

Finally, the guests had all filtered in and the music began. It was the appropriate time to slip away since everyone else was preoccupied with one thing or another. I made my way across the room to where Courtney was standing by the platter of finger food set out. As I approached, she saw me and jumped a little, a crumb of a cracker falling off her lip. It was cute and I smiled, but she didn’t return the expression.

“Hey, could I talk to you now?” I asked.

“I guess,” she said. “Where do you want to go? The offices?”

“No, I have something I want to show you,” I said, holding out my hand. Reluctantly, she took it and I guided her out of the door to the giant courtyard outside.

“We need to be outside?” she asked.

“No, it’s just easier and quicker to get there by going out and cutting across the courtyard. Come on,” I said.

“I am wearing heels, Bryan,” she said.

“Then we stay on the paved areas,” I said.

“They are cobblestone, Bryan,” she said, exasperated. She sighed heavily again and reached down, unhooking her clasp on her heels and taking them off, holding them in front of her. “This had better be good,” she said.

“It is,” I said. “I promise.”

She followed me across the courtyard and into the back door on the other wing of the building, near the front desk. I was so excited I thought I was going to burst, and when I opened the door, I held it so she could walk through ahead of me.

Dead in front of the doors was the entrance to the bakery. It was angled so that the entrance to it could be seen from both the front and back doors of the hotel, and it took up much of what had been the restaurant in that space. Instead, I had converted that into a small quick-service area with sandwiches and coffee, making the bakery something magnificent.

It was still under construction, and there were tarps all along the inside, blocking off walls and areas where they were still working. Brown paper covered the large windows and the main door, but I ran over to open it anyway. I reached inside and flicked on the lights so it bounced off the pink and white checkerboard tile floors.

I was grinning from ear to ear when I turned to look at her, expecting to see her smile as well as she walked inside. Instead, she stood several feet away, an unimpressed expression on her face as she looked up at the sign above the door and then around at all the papered windows.

“This is it?” she asked. “This is what you wanted to talk to me about?”

I looked back at the bakery, sure that I was missing something, then back at her. My smile faltered and my arms, which had been holding the door and then crossed at my chest as I bowed a little to let her in, went limp.

“What do you mean, is this it? Of course, it is,” I said.

“Well, it’s nice,” she said, and I perked up a little. Nice wasn’t glowing, but maybe she had a bunch of ideas on how it should look. “It’s nice that one of us will get their dream.”

The words hit me like a lead hammer to my heart. My hands dropped to my sides and the door slowly closed. I expected anger to bubble up in my chest, but it didn’t. Only massive, heartbreaking disappointment.

“I thought,” I started, but she shook her head and I stopped.

“I have a lot left to do at the event,” she said. “I know my way, thank you.”

With that, she turned and went back out of the door we came in, heading across the courtyard barefoot. I stood there stunned. I really thought she would be happy and understand what this meant. But she didn’t.

That meant there had to be something more I needed to do. Locking the bakery shut, I stood for a moment in the darkness and then followed after her. I had to think of something, and I had to do it quick.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Courtney

My heart was broken. There was no other way to describe what I was feeling in those moments as I struggled to not show the pain on my face as I returned to the gala. My chest ached and the backs of my eyes stung with tears. It was a crushing feeling, a deeper hurt than I could have imagined.

I wished I could just leave. I didn't want to be there anymore. I didn't want to be around these people and I definitely didn't want to be around Bryan anymore. I didn't even want to see him.

In all honesty, I wished I had never seen him to begin with. If I could just change a decision, a single moment, anything that would stop me from being here, I would do it. If I hadn't gone to the coffee shop that morning, I wouldn't have encountered him for the first time.

And if that hadn't happened, I would have gotten to the office building earlier, which would have meant I wouldn't have ended up closing the doors in his face. I would have gotten upstairs earlier and I would have been brought in for my interview rather than being mistaken for the woman who actually got the job. Or maybe it could have gone the other way.

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