Page 45 of The Boss Situation

I roll my head on my neck and dial Hannah’s extension. She answers on the first ring. “Please cancel and reschedule my meetings today. Any other time this week is fine.”

“Yes, Ms. Calloway,” she says, and I end the call.

“You know who’s not intimidated by you?” she asks, sitting in front of me.

I meet her eyes, and she glances behind me.

“Yeah, I know. He’s so fearless.So scary.I’m fucking sick and tired of everyone telling me that. This is our industry, not his.Ours. We do it because we love it. Josh does it for the money and power. Even if we were broke as fuck, we’d still design. We’d still make clothes.”

“You’re right. I just don’t want the bad guy to win,” she says.

“Josh won’t. Not this time,” I tell her, growing more determined with every passing second.

“Why did you cancel your meetings?” Harper asks.

“I’m taking a mental health day. I had the urge to drink mimosas and get a deep tissue massage. Maybe a manicure.” I look at my nails, which are cut short. It’s usually a sign that I’m stressed. “Coffin-shaped ones so I can gouge Banks’s eyes out the next time I see him.”

Those honey-brown eyes …

She glares at me. “I can’t with you. It’s the wrong time to be making jokes. This is very serious.”

“Oh, I’m not joking. I want to gouge his eyes out,” I say with a sigh. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes, of course. And I know you have the best intentions and wouldn’t do anything to ruin us. I also know Asher’s taken down larger and more established companies than ours. We’re at a major disadvantage, and we’re barely making a profit. Our empire is on the brink of collapse.”

“Then we prepare for war. Ruining them together would bring me so much satisfaction,” I admit.

“War?” She lifts her brows.

“Our goal is to survive,” I say, looking back at Banks’s office.

He’s standing, tossing a ball upward, laughing about something as he chats with his half-brother Nick.

“What have you heard from your stepbrother?” I ask Harper.

After her dad married Nick’s mother they became better friends. However, Nick has known Harper for a long time since he was besties with her older brother Zane. The two of them were never strangers.

“He said good luck.”

I groan. “Did you know Banks is staying at his townhouse in Midtown? I know he held a party there, but I didn’t realize he’d returned.”

“He moved back there last summer. I thought you knew.”

“I didn’t. I must have done something awful in my past life to deserve this.”

“Me too,” Harper says and bursts into laughter. “I wouldn’t want to bankrupt a company with anyone else.”

“Me neither,” I admit with a smile. “Anyway, I’ll let you know what my brothers say.”

She exhales. “Okay. Are you stopping by this weekend? Weston is having a get-together on Saturday.”

“Really? I wasn’t invited.”

“He told me this morning in the lobby of Park Towers. Maybe he hasn’t gotten around to it yet,” she says.

Harper lives there, along with Easton and Lexi, and Weston and Carlee. I have a place there, but I prefer my Midtown penthouse loft. It feels more like home, and I’m surrounded by celebrities and musicians instead of the wealthy elite I like to avoid. I grew up around them and know they’re not my crowd.

“We can’t allow our family to rescue us financially, Billie. That was our agreement when we started Bellamore,” she reminds me.

---