Page 114 of All's Well that Friends Well

Rodney ignores this. He just folds his arms and looks back at Juliet, curious now, which tugs anxiously at my insides.

“Has Mr. Slater told you why I wanted an assistant for him? Why I want him to learn how to work well with others, I mean?”

“Rod,” I say as my anxious insides squirm. If anyone is going to tell Juliet about this, it should be me.

But Juliet isn’t paying attention to me; she just shrugs. “Because he’s rude?”

Rodney’s lips press into a thin line I know to be a smile. “Well, yes. But?—”

“Rod,”I repeat, holding out an arm now.

Rod raises one bushy eyebrow at me, and although I glare at him, I also sigh.

“Just—let me, please,” I say, exasperated. “All right?”

His stooped shoulders twitch into a shrug. “Get on with it, then. I think it’s time, don’t you?”

I do think it’s time, actually. But I didn’t count on Rodney forcing the conversation.

Juliet is look back and forth at the pair of us, her brows raised, her expression confused. “What are you talkingabout?” she says, turning her attention solely on me. “What’s going on?”

“I—nothing. I just—” When I break off and glare at Rodney, he snorts. Then I sigh. “Rodney would like—he wants—” Again I stutter to a halt. I clear my throat and spit the words out. “He would like me to take over the company, theoretically. I’m on assignment here as the branch manager, but my technical position is—is the senior vice president.”

Juliet blinks at me.

“Of the company,” I mumble, and I half hope those words get lost on the way to her.

They do not.

“Senior vice president,” Juliet repeats after a second of silence. She’s staring at me, uncomprehending, her expression blank. “Of the company.”

I nod at her slowly. Then I move to the edge of my desk and lean against it, because I think we might be here a while.

“Like…senior vice president of thecompanycompany.Thiscompany.”

When I shoot Rod another glare, he’s still watching with pleasant interest—reveling in my discomfort like a psychopath.

“This company, yes,” I say with a sigh. “Explore.”

Juliet is still standing near the couch, her arms hanging limply by her side. “But…” she says as her gaze finally leaves mine. Her eyes dart back and forth unseeingly for a second until they jump back to me, and when she speaks again, her voice is faint. “But I told you to email me [email protected].”

She startles and looks over her shoulder as Rodney lets out a bark of laughter. Even my lips twitch, because I had forgotten about that until just now.

“You did do that, yes,” I say.

She whirls around to look down at Rodney, whose expression plainly shows that he’s having the time of his life.

“So you’re, like…incharge,” she says, the words still faint. “Of everything. All the things.”

He ducks his head into a surprisingly humble nod. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” he says, his voice gruff but sincere.

Juliet stares at him for a second, her jaw open, and then she turns back to me. “Areyougoing to apologize?” she says, and for one tense moment, I examine her closely—her expression, the set of her shoulders, her hands still loose by her sides.

But she doesn’t seem angry, just shocked, and tentative relief trickles through me.

“I’m very, very sorry I didn’t tell you,” I say, as serious as I can manage despite the strange laughter that’s trying to escape.

She’s cute. That’s all. And I want to hug her.

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