Page 79 of The CEO I Hate

She snorted, but judging by the flush in her cheeks, she was feeling the draw between us just as strongly as I was. With that delightful thought in mind, I crossed the living room, intercepting Jake and Gabrielle.

“Hey, Birthday Boy!”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I’m gonna throw this button at your head.”

Gabrielle feathered her hand through his hair. “Babe, you look cute. Why shouldn’t you wear something special? Everyone needs to know to celebrate you.”

Jake smirked and tugged her close to peck her on the cheek. “I’d like to know howyou’regonna celebrate me…” he murmured.

“Keep it clean, kids,” I said, quickly pulling an envelope from my back pocket. I handed it to him. “Happy birthday, man.”

“What’s this?” Jake asked, tearing into it. The cruise tickets fell into his lap. “Is this?—”

“A four-day cruise for you and Gabrielle,” I said. With the anniversary of his injury falling right in the middle of the time he’d be away, he’d be plenty distracted, and hopefully the day would pass unnoticed.

“And don’t worry, I’ve already thoroughly checked it out. This cruise line is known for being super accessible. You won’t have any issues getting around.”

“Aww, man,” Jake said, pleased but shocked. “That’s…that’s really great.Thank you.”

Gabrielle took the tickets from him, frowning as she scanned over the information. Finally, she looked up at me, her smile tight as she said, “Yeah, thanks, Liam. This is really nice…but with the date right around the corner, I’d have appreciated if you’d let me know earlier.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” I said with a shrug, not getting why it was a big deal. Her smile got even tighter.

“Yeah, well, my boss will berealsurprised when I ask for vacation days with next to no notice.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but she’d already turned away from me, moving Jake on to another present, dropping a package into his lap to unwrap. Everyone had converged with their gifts, and I stepped out of the crowd, deliberately putting myself beside Mia.

“Well, Gabrielle’s pissed,” I commented, mentally running through options of how I might be able to fix that. What mattered most was that Jake liked the gift, but Gabrielle was supposed to go with him, so they could work on their relationship. I needed her to be excited about the cruise.

“She has a point, you know.” Mia sipped her drink.

“What do you mean?”

“Not everyone is a CEO. Some people have hardass bosses who don’t like it when you ask for time off at the last minute.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” Gabrielle worked as a receptionist at the corporate office of an electronics firm, so it wasn’t like lives would be on the line if she wasn’t at her desk for a few days. Still, I remembered some bosses of my own—back when I was in high school and juggling three part-time jobs—who looked for any excuse to jump all over me. I didn’t want to set Gabrielle up to have to deal with trouble at work.

“I’ll call her boss, explain the situation, tell him I’ll pay for him to hire a temp while she’s gone. It’ll be fine.”

I thought this settled the matter, but instead of smiling at me, Mia frowned.

“What?” I demanded.

“Maybetalkto Gabrielle first?” she suggested. “Before calling her boss?”

That didn’t make any sense. “What for? Why not just go straight to fixing the problem?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed…” she said, soft but serious. “You sort of like to charge in and make all the decisions yourself. You assume you know what’s best for everyone.”

Of course I did. “It’s myjobto know what people want and to give it to them.” Nothing would ever get done otherwise. I’d come to the conclusion that people were naturally indecisive, and I had things to accomplish. Problems to solve.

“And it never occurs to you that you might be wrong?” she asked.

“Why would it when I know I’m right?” I replied.

She rolled her eyes at me, but I could see the smile she was trying to suppress.

“What, are you telling me I don’t know whatyou’researching for, Gretel?” I teased, stepping closer. “What you want to hear, what you want to feel…how you want to be touched?”

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