Page 14 of My Hot Boss

I locked the door after my aunt left and I wondered again to myself what was going to happen next. I knew that there was something coming down the pike for me, I just didn’t know what. Derrick was just joking, thinking more of it than there was. I didn’t know how to describe it, but I was really starting to think that Dalian would be the easier of the two. I would feel nothing for him, and it would all just be duty. He was handsome, but he didn’t need anything to remind him. He knew.

Derrick called and said that I had left some things in his car. I immediately started to worry. He was inside the apartment building, asking where I lived. What was he doing here?! Didn’t he know that he was going to get tongues wagging and that was the last thing that I really wanted? If he was going to show up, it would start everyone talking about it. This information would get back to Dalian andit would be a whole thing. I wanted to tell him to never mind and I would get it on Monday, but he insisted, so I met him on the ground floor.

I tried to get it from him, but he insisted on helping me bring it up. I had a feeling that he wanted to see where I lived. Either way, he followed me up, and I noted several people looking our way. I was going to have to explain Derrick later and that would be interesting.

16

Derrick

Ididn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. I was on my way up to Augustine’s apartment and several people came out of their apartment or at least opened the door to see who it was while I was walking by. It was hard to focus when I had so many eyes on me and there really wasn’t anything I could do about it. I had a few things in my hand and when I saw the number I was looking for, I did breathe a sigh of relief. I didn’t know what was going on, but all the hairs were going up on the back of my head. I really didn’t know what kind of focus I would have on me, but it was hard. I had two people watching me from down the hallway when I knocked on Augustine’s door. It was so quiet, the sound echoed off of the walls, and I was left standing there, hoping that she would just open the door already. Was one of them Dalian? Were they going to tell Dalian that she had company?

Augustine opened up and she sighed when she saw a couple people still in the hallway. They weren’t even trying to pretend like they were minding their own business. She practically pulled me in, and I had to think that it was because of the lack of privacy. I wondered how much we would have in here.

“What are you doing here, Derrick?!”

“You seem way more upset than I thought you would be.” I told her with a smile. She did not return the look, and I was worried that she wasn’t going to have any humor about it. It was funny, if she thought about it for a minute. It’s not like any of it really mattered anyway. Something mattered to Augustine though. She kept looking at the door and I wondered who she thought was going to come through the door. I should have asked, but I didn’t want her to kick me out. She didn’t want me here. But why? What was going on that she didn’t want me to see? Or them to see?

The knock on the door was loud and Augustine groaned inwardly, cursing softly to herself with her eyes closed. She knew it was going to happen and she was not happy about it. That’s all I knew.

“Are you going to answer it?” She hadn’t moved toward the door. I was closer and I asked if she wanted me to open it. She just gave me a dirty look and after another round of knocking, she started to slowly walk to the door. Whoever it was on the other side, I was anxious to see as well. Who was it?

I saw the woman that looked a lot like Augustine coming in the door and I knew before I heard her title who it was to Augustine. It was hard to deny the resemblance. Her mother was standing there. I’d been in the apartment for a few minutes by this time. I would have imagined that one of the doorways of people that I had passed had her mother in it. Augustine said that she lived near her family, and they were very overbearing, I just hadn’t realized how truthful she was being. She was downplaying it when I thought she had been overdramatizing it.

I didn’t have much time to really think about it, because I was being inspected right off the bat. The woman’s name was Evelyn and she introduced herself right away. Augustine was groaning inwardly, I could see it on her face, but her mother was very charming. She smiled at me as a woman that wanted more from me than to be my friend. For that to come from her mom was a bit disconcerting.

“What is going on here Augustine?”

She asked her daughter the question, while she was looking straight at me. She wanted to know who I was and what I was doing over there. I didn’t know what to tell her when she didn’t get her answer. Her eyes were compelling an answer from me.

“He is my boss, Mom, so please don’t embarrass me.”

“Your boss? Does he know that you aren’t going to be working there much longer?”

Augustine hissed and I told her mom that I was trying to find a way to get her to stay.

“Why do you want my daughter there with you?”

I looked at Augustine, and she was looking at me like she would give me anything if I wouldn’t say what I was about to. I could feel her sending me every kind of prayer to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t, could I?

“Well,” I told the gray-haired woman, “your daughter is invaluable to my business and to me. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

Evelyn scoffed. “How is she so invaluable? She is just an assistant.”

I told her mother how talented she was and how I was successful because of her help, and that she really was the best assistant that I’d ever had. It was all true, Augustine was amazing, but her mom seemed to think that whatever she had done with me was a waste of time. I had a feeling that anything that wasn’t being at home and making babies wasn’t going to be too honorable for her.

“I think you will find a replacement, Derrick. You just have to look around.”

I shook my head. “She is not replaceable. I’ve looked for years and she’s the one. I am also head over heels in love with your daughter, Evelyn. There is no one else for me.”

Augustine hissed in my direction, but I didn’t look up. My words were not for her. Augustine looked at me finally, like she was going to stab me where I stood. Why was it so hard for her to hear what she meant to me?

17

Augustine

My mom looked at Derrick and had a look of shock and something else on her face. She’d already embarrassed me to no end when she started to hit on Derrick. Now, there was accusation in her voice when she asked what he was talking about. She didn’t ask Derrick, thank god, she asked me. I didn’t know how to tell her, but it had to be better than some off-handed thing that Derrick was about to say. What was he thinking?

“He’s just joking, Mom.” I tried to assure her, while I sent Derrick several dirty looks that didn’t seem to bother him at all. He was enjoying himself too much and I wanted to kill him. Didn’t he know that this was serious and while it was funny for him, that was not at all what it was going to be for me? For me, I was going to have to figure out how I was going to make this all happen. Mom was now going to have to be thoroughly convinced that Derrick was just joking.

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