Page 42 of Romance with Mr. Bossy Pants

Jeez. She can be vicious when she wants to be.

And she’s totally nuts.

She’s equally driving me crazy.

And she’s unbelievably hot when she’s mad.

Chloe reaches the door but pauses when her hand touches the knob. “If you don’t understand what it is you’re feeling, I’ll spell it out for you. G-U-I-L-T.” But before I can say anything else, Chloe flips her hair and walks out of my office.

I watch her hips sway from side to side.

Ugh. Where’s that old therapist’s number?

13

Chloe

“I’m toast.”

“Yup.”

“Do you think he’ll sue me or something?”

“No, that’s too easy for a bully like him. He’ll probably haunt your dreams. You’ll see his face everywhere you turn and hear his voice echoing in the walls. It’ll be like living in a nightmare you can’t escape.”

I shudder at the very graphic mental image of Amber’s words forming in my head and take a swig of my drink. “Can’t we just, I dunno…call the Men in Black and sneak over to his place to wipe his memory clean with a zapper thingy…or something…anything?”

“I wish, girl. But it’s not that simple. There's no escaping his hook once Daniel sinks his claws into you.”

I swallow hard. “I should have left while I still had the chance. I should have listened to you...What am I saying? I can still quit!”

“It was nice knowing you, Chloe. I’ll miss you so much.”

Amber reaches out to pull me into an embrace when someone laughs behind us. We turn at the same time to see Alex, who I invited to spend Saturday with us.

“Finally! Alex, Amber. Amber, Alex.”

The two know of each other because I talk about them all the time, but they haven’t met in person.

“Nice to meet you, Amber,” Alex says, leaning in for a hug.

She giggles. “I know, right. I feel like I’ve known you forever already.”

“You two are being so dramatic, by the way,” he shakes his head, taking a seat. “It’s probably not as serious as you’re making it out to be.”

“You don’t understand. I talked back at him. I raised my voice. I poked his chest and flipped my hair!”

Amber nods, “She’s right. It’s pretty serious.”

“Alright, that’s it,” Alex calls, taking our drinks from us. “You’ve both had enough to drink.”

He beckons to the bartender and closes our tabs before leading us away from the bar. “We should do something, hang out.”

“Uhh. It’s 5:30 P.M.” Amber drawls. “We are doing something. We’re drinking at a bar. What else did you have in mind?”

“I dunno, bowling, a pool hall, TopGolf?”

“Later. Right now, I need to drown out my fears,” I jump in.

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