Page 95 of The CEO I Hate

“Honestly,” he said. “I don’t know.”

“Well, maybe it’s time to figure that out.”

He turned his head toward me. “Maybe.”

32

LIAM

Iwasn’t in the mood for tacos or brothers or weekly meetings—but I didn’t exactly have a choice, so here I was. I stared down at the menu, unable to read more than a few lines before losing interest. It felt like most things didn’t hold my interest these days.

That was until someone threw the door to the restaurant open and stormed through the dining room.

“The hell’s his problem?” Finn muttered as I looked up to find Connor stalking toward us. “Uh-oh, what’d you do?”

“I’ll tell you what he fucking did,” Connor growled as he got right in my face, hovering over me like a raging storm. I glanced around the—thankfully empty—restaurant while I tried to figure out why Connor was steaming mad.

The last thing I needed was for us to make a scene in public. Our family name had been splashed around in enough tabloids, thanks to Finn. “Where were you last night?” he demanded.

I blinked at Connor in confusion. “Last night? I was home.”

Finn pursed his lips, clearly remembering something I hadn’t. And that was fair. Concentration wasn’t the only thing I’d been strugglingwith. It sort of felt like I’d been sleepwalking through life this past week. The only thing on my mind was the breakup and Mia.Mia, Mia, Mia.

Or more like the absence of Mia from my life.

She wasn’t gone, exactly. She was still coming to work, still in the writers’ room. But her smile, her laughter, her warmth in my bed at night, her silly little jokes over coffee in the morning, shooting me flirty glances, her rambling excitement forHeart and Hustle. It was all just…gone.

And I obviously wasn’t taking it well. It was all I could do to get myself from work to home and back again every day while combating the endlessness of my inbox and Carl’s four hundred inquiries and whatever other studio-related issues demanded my attention.

Even Ash sensed something was off. He hadn’t followed me home once this week, just stayed curled up at the lot, like he was waiting for things to go back to normal.

“And where were yousupposedto be?” Connor shouted. A mixture of frustration and annoyance flared inside me. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I was in no mood to be playing twenty questions right now.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about,” I grumbled, rubbing at my temple. “Just spit it out already!”

“You were supposed to be taking Mom out to dinner!” Connor said.

“You bailed on dinner?” Finn cut in, shaking his head. “Man, c’mon.”

I glowered between them. Yes, it had been on my calendar that Mom and I had dinner plans, but when the reminder had popped up, I just hadn’t had it in me to head up to San Francisco for a visit.

“It had been a long day, and I knew I wouldn’t be good company, so I texted Mom to reschedule, ordered an elaborate dinner, and had it sentto her place instead. What’s the big deal? I’ll see her in a couple weeks.”

“The ‘big deal,’ you piece of shit,” Connor said. For a second it looked like he wanted to clock me in the jaw. “Is that yesterday was Mom’s wedding anniversary!”

I flipped my phone out to check the date.No. No, it couldn’t be. I’d only written DINNER WITH MOM on my schedule. Nothing about it being the anniversary dinner.Shit.

I hadn’t fucked upthatbadly, had I?

“We talked about this weeks ago!” Connor continued, his tone sharp. “Literally planned out who would be with her so she wouldn’t end up alone on the anniversary. You said you had it covered!”

“I did!” At least, I’d thought I did.

“Then what the fuck happened?”

I dropped my head into my hand. He was right. I’d totally forgottenthatwas why Mom and I had dinner plans. I’d bailed on her with zero excuses.

“You screwed up,” Finn said. “Majorly.”

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