Page 8 of The Boss Problem

Skittish.

An image of a beautiful, curly-haired blonde in a wedding dress came to my mind. She’d trusted me. She wasn’t skittish. She didn’t apologize when she spilled that coffee on me and didn’t cower in fear, like Jeremy from accounting had when he spilled his latte over me. Very few people messed up and then calmly looked at me like she did. Forget calm. She’d been happy. Laughing, until that bastard of a fiancé had given up on her.

I walked out of the door and shut it behind me. I took a deep breath and walked to the elevator. I needed to stop thinking about that blonde woman every day. Had she gotten over the breakup? How was she doing now? Was she able to laugh again? Jesus. What was with my brain and these questions?

I’d never see her again, and thank goodness for that. A woman who kept popping into my mind when we hadn’t even exchanged names wasn’t a good woman to have in my vicinity.

I spotted Amelia’s empty desk just as the elevator doors closed and heaved a sigh. I’d see about this new executive assistant—the one who still insisted on hanging around even though her CEO had been given the boot. I wasn’t going to let Amelia go, skittish or not. She was loyal, even if she was a little too dramatic for me, and I always favored loyalty. Helen had cheated on me within two years of our marriage, whereas Amelia had been my assistant for five years now.

Loyalty was a quality that was missing in people today. I’d realized that years ago, after Helen’s vindictive attempt. And asevidenced by Gary Chalk’s executive assistant, it seemed, if he or she hadn’t followed their CEO out.

I got out of the elevator on the first floor and walked to the Orion conference hall. Amelia had composed herself and was waiting outside the conference hall for me. Her hand was on her belly, and I could see that she was tired. She had another three months to go before the baby got here, and she didn’t need more stress.

“What’s the name of the other assistant?” I asked, stopping in front of her before walking through the door, where I could hear the voices falling silent.

“Chloe Nichols,” Amelia said in a muted voice. “She’s the one by the window.”

I didn’t turn to look at the woman by the window. I looked at Amelia’s nervous eyes before I said, “Tell Edith from HR that we can let Chloe go. Make sure the compensation isn’t too bad.”

Amelia nodded, looking relieved. “I will. Thank you.”

“Have her out of here by the next hour,” I muttered as she stepped into the conference room while I made a quick detour to the restroom, completely forgetting to look at the woman by the window.

3

CHLOE

It was almost ten in the morning, and despite the two cups of coffee I’d downed so far, I still didn’t feel the jolt of energy that everyone around me seemed to reflect.

I stared at the cardboard box at my feet. It was a box of things from my desk at the old office. I’d lugged it from my old workplace to the Tassater building, in the desperate hope that this would be my new workplace.

For the past two days, ever since the takeover of Mindwell Inc. had been finalized, I’d been a nervous ball of fear. Gary Chalk, the now-ex-CEO of Mindwell, had met the board of Tassater Inc. many times. As Gary’s assistant, I’d facilitated that. Now, with Gary gone and no further instructions to me, I was waiting to find out what the fate of my administrative assistant job was going to be. I didn’t miss Gary. I was relieved to not be working for him anymore. If only not working for Gary meant that I was working for someone better.

“I heard he’s, like, a god of good looks. Like a Greek god.” A raven-haired woman next to me giggled.

“You mean our new CEO?” the woman next to her whispered back.

“Yes. I heard he owns properties in Lake Como in Italy and Monaco and a superyacht that can hold fifty people. He’s the richest man on this side of town, but he never dates. The paparazzi has never caught him with a woman, and they’ve tried their darned best.”

Ah, Sean Tassater, the new CEO of Mindwell.

I hadn’t met the man, and it looked like I’d missed out. Howdidhe look?

The whispers continued to my right.

“Are you saying he’s one of those guys who is perennially single?”

“Ever since his divorce, yes. Sigh. He is droolworthy.”

The only man whose good looks had left a lasting impression on me was my coffeehouse savior. I remembered him all right. I had no trouble thinking of him as I went to bed at night, imagining him holding me like he’d done back then. In fact, I needed to stop thinking about the tall man who had been capable of making me feel butterflies in my stomach on my wedding day. Because this was all I’d permit myself to do when it came to men henceforth—daydream.

I knew Sean was just a man who had helped me get a cab. Not someone who could understand a woman’s inability to process the barrage of emotions that hit her when she was dumped on her wedding day. That man didn’t exist.

Bruce had broken up with me in a brusque, emotionless manner that was not unlike the way my dad had left me and Henry back when I was eighteen. I had sobbed my heart out for nights back then, and I’d cried my eyes out every night last month before I decided I was done dating. Just like I had stopped believing in fairy tales back when I was eighteen.

This much was obvious to me now—I couldn’t be a responsible carer for my siblingandhave love.

I checked my watch and realized it was about the time when Henry, my twenty-three-year-old brother, should be taking his medicine. I needed to give him a call to remind him, but I didn’t want to risk missing the beginning of today’s meeting.

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