Page 11 of My Hot Boss

Derrick asked me with the cutest look on his face. He was trying to “save” me, but I didn’t want to be saved. I definitely didn’t want to be saved by him. It was embarrassing every way I looked at it.

“I am engaged.”

“Yeah, but like you said, it’s just some sort of arrangement. It doesn’t have to happen. It’s not like you love the guy or anything like that.”

I shook my head sadly because he really had no idea what it was about. “It’s about marriage and family. I know that it’s different how you were raised, but arranged marriages are still common. This is normal and though I may have wanted to see where things could have gone between us, the fact is that I have committed myself.”

“You don’t want to marry him,” Derrick said in protest. I had said too much. I wish that I had kept some of it to myself. I shouldn’t have said a lot of it. I wished that I hadn’t.

“It’s not about dating, Derrick. It’s about something else altogether. I need to get married, start a family. That is what an arranged marriage is for, not for love.”

Derrick didn’t answer or say anything for several minutes. When he did finally speak, I didn’t know what to say. I must have heard him wrong because the alternative made no sense.

“What?”

“I said, why don’t we get married then?”

I just shook my head and laughed. I thought I’d heard him say that, but I couldn’t be sure. He was joking, he had to be. What else could it be?

“You can’t be serious,” I stated. He was just joking, but he shouldn’t joke about stuff like that. I didn’t like that my heart started racing, hope started surging.

Derrick said that he wasn’t. “Marry me, Augustine.”

I had to sit down on the edge of the bed, not because I wanted to get closer to him, but because my head was muddled, and I was afraid that I was going to have to sit before I fell. I actually felt a little dizzy. Marry him? Was he serious?

12

Derrick

The words just slipped from between my lips, and I couldn’t have stopped them if I wanted to. I didn’t know if I did. It was how I felt about her. I had thought about her a lot and ever since I saw that ring on her finger, I hadn’t been able to think about anything else but her. She’d been on my mind nonstop and while I’d never even thought to myself that I would marry, it might be the only chance I would have with the woman I desperately wanted to get to know better. We worked together most days, so I felt like I knew her pretty damn well.

Augustine’s face screwed up and I could tell that she was upset because of the question that I was asking. I was not sure why she was mad at me, maybe because I’d taken too long?

“Marry you? What are you talking about, Derrick? You don’t need an assistant that bad. I am sure you can find someone else.”

I told her that she was right. I could find someone else. I didn’t want nothing or anyone else though. I wanted Augustine. I didn’t know a lot about what I really wanted, save for the fact that I wanted Augustine to be a part of it. I knew that part for sure.

“Look, I know that came out of the blue, but that doesn’t mean that I am just saying it. I mean it, Augustine. I would marry you in a heartbeat and it has nothing to do with you being my assistant. It has to do with me not wanting to let you go. I don’t think that I can. We have some good times together, so why wouldn’t you want to?”

She wasn’t any happier, and she just shook her head at me like I was an idiot. Maybe I was. It didn’t change anything though. Augustine said that she had to be married in a couple of weeks when she turned twenty-five, so marriage seemed to be the only way that I could keep her. Once she got over the shock of it all, I was hoping that she would figure out that this was a good thing, not anything bad. I liked her so much that I would marry her, so that we could be with each other and date.

“You’re a jerk, Derrick.”

I was not expecting that as an answer, and I honestly didn’t know what to say about it. I had been told on occasion that I was grumpy, but a jerk felt harsh. Was I really that bad? I was bristly, I knew, but I was with everyone. I was actually far nicer to Augustine than I was to about anyone else. She had to see that, didn’t she? Maybe it still wasn’t enough.

“I might be a little short on occasion.”

Augustine scoffed. “That is an understatement.”

I pulled my hands away from hers. I felt like an idiot and a jerk. I thought that this was going to go so differently. I didn’t want to imagine the look of utter astonishment that I hadn’t gotten the answer I expected. She was supposed to be down with this.

“Sorry, Derrick, that came out wrong.”

“No, it came out how you wanted it to. I just didn’t know that you thought of me that way. I know that I have a reputation of being hard, but it helps when making deals. People come at me differently because of it. I have nurtured the rumors, but we work close together. You know me well.”

Augustine agreed that she did know me well, but she didn’t mention how what she said was wrong or how the stories and rumors were. She was around me and thought I was a jerk. I think that was just a nicer version of something else entirely. I had to take that as a sign that she really did think I was a jerk. It was too late now; she was going to be married in a couple of weeks.

“I can change.” I heard the words come out of my mouth and hated them as soon as they hit the air. Really hated them. I wasn’t going to change. I was who I was, for better or worse. I pulled her to me and planted my lips on hers. I was insistent, making sure that she opened her mouth and let me in. I didn’t stop until I heard a whimper in the back of her throat that signaled to me how good it felt. That was what I needed, her words be damned.

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