The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss (Curvy Girl Crew #7)

Chapter 8

-Peter-

Having a business lunch, in the office, with my assistant, shouldn’t have provoked a fight-or-flight response, but I was ready to bolt.

Unfortunately, the hour between noon and one was the only time we both had free.

Although I probably should have asked to find out if she had plans.

Why couldn’t I think anything all the way through today?

Maybe I needed to go to the flower shop for a few hours after work. If I couldn’t clear my mind, I wouldn’t survive the week. I made a mental note to call Mrs. Santos when I had a moment.

But, before that, I needed to speak with our CEO, Amelia. I contacted her personal assistant, who said he would have her call me back within the hour.

My desk phone barely got the first ring out before I picked it up.

“This is Peter.”

“Peter. This is Amelia.” Unlike so many CEOs in the city, who were serious and ruthless, Amelia loved to laugh and have fun. She could also be cutthroat—as demonstrated by her crippling, then acquiring two other investment companies over the past two years—but whenever she could avoid being serious, she did.

“You’ve heard about the retreat?” I asked.

“Tyrell brought me up to speed about an hour ago. He said you would have some ideas for me by the end of the day.”

“Correct, but I’d like to ask you if you have any expectations for our activities?”

“Something fun,” she said.

I needed more, so I mentally flipped through the list of questions I’d compiled for this conversation. “Is there anything you’d rather not do?”

“Nothing stupid.”

That didn’t help. “What about cooperation? Is that an aspect that you’d like to have us include?”

“Of course.”

She didn’t offer more, so I asked, “Escape rooms?”

“Too small, and one or two people end up doing all the work.” She sounded like she wanted to elaborate, so I waited. “People often react better to activities like this when they feel like it’s helping someone else. So maybe a service component?”

I could work with that. “Anything else?”

“Make sure it’s fun.”

A voice that I couldn’t understand sounded from her end of the line, and she said, “I have to go. Get me your ideas by the end of the day.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I hung up and rubbed my brow where I could feel the tension building into a headache.

I needed to relax, and since there were no flowers to arrange, I did the next best thing, I brought up the Curvy Girl Crew’s YouTube channel and watched them open a storage unit in Boston. There were six other women, but the only one I had eyes for was Jessica.

She smiled and laughed and acted like a freer version of herself than she did here in the office.

Could I have that in my life? The ability to feel free?

When the video ended, I closed my eyes and prepared myself for my next meeting.

Before I opened the note app on my laptop to start listing questions, my cell phone buzzed. I almost let out a groan when I saw it was Marissa.

According to her parents, who had flown in late the night before, Marissa was still on extremely potent pain killers and had been in and out of sleep since they’d arrived.

Apparently, she’d woken up.

What could she want? My mind reached out like a search engine, trying to figure out what we would talk about so I could prepare.

I felt as if I was working with slow speed internet, because my thoughts wouldn’t connect properly.

The phone kept buzzing.

I almost let it go to voice mail, but what if she had information about the retreat that I needed? I should probably take the call.

Before I changed my mind, I hit the answer button. “Peter here.”

“Peter!” Marissa sounded giddy. “Why did you cancel the retreat committee meeting this morning?”

Who had called her? I gritted my teeth. “I had something come up. We’re rescheduled for tomorrow.”

“That’s too late,” Marissa said.

I hated lying, even if I was just hiding the truth from her, but if I told Marissa what was going on, she would contact someone about it. I could tell her it was literally life and death, but she still wouldn’t be able to keep a secret. The fact that she was basically high meant what little self-control she had in these matters would be absent.

“Marissa.” I used my calm voice. “You made sure everything was ready to go last week. This is simply follow-up. It can wait a day.”

“What if there’s a problem?” she asked.

“There will inevitably be issues,” I acknowledged. “I’m prepared.”

Silence hung in the air for a few heartbeats before Marissa said, “I’m so sorry I’m not going to be there for you.”

“Jessica has agreed to assist me.”

“With what?” I didn’t miss the angry edge in Marissa’s voice.

“Managing the retreat.”

“She’s not qualified for that,” Marissa said quickly. “You need me there.”

Hadn’t we talked about this? “You can’t be there.”

“Of course I can.”

Did her parents know she was on the phone? Would Marissa even remember this conversation later? “You’re in the hospital.”

Marissa sounded irritated. “We have video chat and Wi-Fi. If someone has a phone, I can be there.” She went on before I could reply. “Jessica can do it. She can carry me around.”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about, Marissa?”

She giggled. “Maybe we’ll have her put the phone in front of her face and walk around so people see me instead. But Jessica is a big girl, and I’m not, so maybe that won’t work.”

The only explanation for this call was that Marissa was truly drugged, and she was rambling. “I think you should get some rest.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

“It’s nice to hear you care about me.”

That same strangled feeling I’d gotten in the hospital hit me, and suddenly I needed Marissa as far away from me as possible. “I have to go. Listen to the doctors.” Before Marissa could reply, I hung up.

As I set my phone down, I noticed my hands were shaking.

***

At exactly noon, Jessica entered my office, bags of food in tow, along with plates and silverware from the company break room. She’d talked to the delivery guy for a few seconds, getting a laugh out of him, which she returned. I wondered what joke they’d shared and longed to have something to share with Jessica as well.

Stop.

I couldn’t allow my feelings to get out of control. This was business. This was for work. I would keep it professional.

Marissa had thrown me off my groove, and with back-to-back meetings until a moment ago, I still hadn’t recovered. I should take this hour to get my feet under me, but Jessica and I needed to get going on the retreat.

Jessica set the bag down on a chair and started pulling things from it. She worked quickly and didn’t waste time or effort. I suddenly wondered if she liked to host parties. I watched in silence, unable to think of anything to say.

“Did you talk to Amelia?” Jessica asked as she finally sat.

“I did.” Instead of looking at her, I began dishing food onto a plate.

“And?” Jessica prodded.

“She had a few stipulations. Something fun, nothing stupid, involve helping others.”

“That’s it?”

Now I looked up and found Jessica biting her lip and swiping her tablet. “Yes.”

Jessica plucked the remote for the wall screen off the corner of my desk and turned the power on. As soon as it came to life, she threw whatever had been on her tablet up onto the wall.

Screenshots of internet searches scrolled past as she looked for something specific. “In regards to fun, there are a lot of options.”

I kept my gaze on the screen as she spoke. “I know a lot of people don’t love touching, and there are some employees that struggle with anxiety, so these four wouldn’t be great for them, but they are fun activities.”

She went on to describe something called the human knot, team puzzles where two people were tied together, a trust fall that was slightly less offensive than the one Marissa had suggested, and “minefield,” where one person was blindfolded while the rest of their team tried to get them through an obstacle course.

My mind got stuck on holding hands for the human knot for two reasons. First, I didn’t hold hands as a general rule. Second, what if I ended up holding Jessica’s hand?

I outright rejected the trust fall.

Something inside my chest tightened uneasily at the thought of allowing a stranger to lead me through an obstacle course.

“You’ve always got get-to-know-you bingo and group art projects that force people to talk to each other.” Jessica made a face. “But I’m not sure that’s the direction we should go.”

I knew I should ask her to leave the information with me so I could go over it myself, but she hadn’t even started eating. “What else do you have?”

How Jessica had come up with twenty-five options in just a few hours boggled my mind. I ate as she described more and more activities, and by the time she’d gotten to fifteen, my brain buzzed inside my skull.

Each one provoked a physical and emotional reaction in me, which I tried to keep in check, but it was getting more and more difficult. That same strangling feeling that Marissa had elicited started to snake around me. Then lists of pros and cons began to unfurl in my mind. The cons were far outweighing the pros, and my jaw muscles started to ache as I clenched my teeth together.

It was becoming a jumble in my mind, and I couldn’t get ahead of it. I closed my eyes and said, “Enough.”

Jessica stopped mid-sentence. The angry glint in her eye at my rudeness wasn’t unwarranted.

The cons that had piled up in my head began tumbling out through my lips. “Most of these are unacceptable. No trust falls. No human knots. It needs to be friendly to all body types as well as people with anxiety struggles, and we need something that includes service.” I found myself breathing hard after I’d spoken.

Jessica stiffened, and her tone grew angry. “I was getting to those.”

“Why didn’t you start with them?” I asked before I could stop myself. Jessica didn’t usually waste my time.

“You told Marissa that we shouldn’t do things, or not do them, just because you didn’t like them.” Jessica’s voice was like a whip.

It felt like an electrical storm had descended in my office, fueling my sense of being overwhelmed.

I’d hoped this wouldn’t happen with Jessica. She’d done a good job researching, but it was too much. I spoke my next words through gritted teeth. “Will you leave me the information so I can go through it?”

“I’m more than halfway finished.”

“Leave it,” I growled.

Jessica’s jaw slid forward, and I thought she might refuse. After another stormy moment between us, she swiped her tablet a couple of times, and my computer chimed with an incoming email.

My eyes tried to drift to my laptop, but I forced them to remain on Jessica.

She stood. “You should specifically look at numbers twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-five. They should be okay for everyone. Even me.” Jessica snatched her untouched food off my desk and walked out my office door.

Unfortunately, she didn’t slam it behind her.

It would have made us both feel better.

And this way, I couldn’t bury my face in my hands and ask myself how I’d let a professional interaction go so far awry.