Page 91 of Loathing My Boss
Kyran’s brows crinkle. “When do we ever fight?”
“I…don’t know?” Since I started seriously contemplating becoming your sister, probably.
Unconcerned, Kyran rubs an eye. “We don’t fight. Viktor simply wants to have aloving, brotherly discussionabout how I put you two in the same bedroom.”
Oh, okay. Wait. “Why would you have booked ourtickets? Viktor might be closer to seven hundred than he is to twenty, but he still knows how to use a computer for some things, right?”
Kyran stares at me. Looks at his brother. Blinks, languidly. “You didn’t tell her?Still?”
“I planned the retreat,” Viktor mutters. “Or, rather, I asked Kyran and Zakery to help me plan a retreat, so I could have some time with you in less of a business setting where I could figure out why you hated me and if I could fix it.”
“Let the records show, my vote was that he just talk to you about his feelings.” Kyran sighs, glancing sidelong at the snack table. “He’s lucky I love building websites, organizing events, and running ads… So many numbers. So much data. Big fun.”
Baffled, I face Viktor, who does not seem ready to put me down in this decade.
He huffs. “Crisis, how well would a conversation have gone if I’d declared love for you out of nowhere?”
“I’d have bailed. Pronto. Anything less than the shock of kissing me out of nowhere, and I wouldn’t have come back.”
Viktor smirks, pinning it on Kyran. “Ha.”
“Oh wow. You know your personal assistant, whom you’re in love with, better than I know her? Shocking.” Kyran’s eyes roll. “Real mature, you two. For the sake of my sanity, I hope you both learn how to have a conversation.” Dropping the subject, he points at the buffet. “Can I get a cookie before you lecture me all the way home about boundaries and broken trust?”
“Do youdeservea cookie?”
Kyran swings toward the cookies. “I deserve five cookies.”
Reluctantly, Viktor lowers my feet to the ground,immediately clasping my free hand once I’ve felt every ab on my way down. “Before he puts himself in a sugar coma, we should get our things to the car.”
The carbeing the ice blue sports coupe shining in the lot. There is definitely something to be said about Kyran’s dedication to his FrostPlays branding.
Leading, Viktor guides me toward the barn where we’ve already packed up our things in ouronly one room. Behind him, tripping to keep up with his step as I finish my cookie, I say, “So you planned this entire thing as a tactic to woo me?”
“Yup.”
“But Kyran was the one who forced the only-one-bed, last-room-at-the-inn tropes on us?”
Lower, he grumbles, “Yup.”
That absolves me fully of bearing guilt over what befell his back when I convinced him to sleep on the floor that first night. Love that for me.
I smile. “Do you want to help me teach Ender to leave dead mice on his pillow?”
Chuckling Viktor casts a look back at me. “Maybe. Imagine the betrayal of us turning his own cat against him.”
“I have imagined it. At length. With pictures. In a Canva Whiteboard.”
When Viktor smiles, peace overwhelms me at the idea that someone so wonderful could love me enough to join me in my stupidest schemes. It still feels too good to be true. I’m still waiting for the moment to crack and the punchline to find me.
“Viktor?” I say.
He stops with his hand on the door knob to our room, then he faces me and releases the metal in favor of pushing my hair over my ear. “Yes, sweet pea?”
“Are my choices for redemption really only love you orlove myself?”
Solemn, he nods. “I’m afraid so.”
My nose scrunches.
