Page 145 of Dear Grumpy Boss

“You’re home early,” he muttered around a mouthful of lo mein.

“Where is she?”

He swallowed hard and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “Now you’re asking?”

My fingers flexed on the table. He knew. “Tell me where she is.”

“Have you bothered calling her? Asking her yourself?”

I swiped my phone awake and slid it across the table. He picked it up, squinting at the chain of unanswered texts, then put the phone face down and slid it back.

“She isn’t around.” He met my eyes with a hard glare. “That’s all you’re getting from me. If she wanted you to know where she was, she would have told you. I guess since you broke up with her—”

I slapped the table, black shrouding the corners of my vision. “I didn’t break up with her. Goddammit, I would never break up with her. I couldn’t—”

“You ignored her for almost two weeks, Weston. You don’t have to say the words ‘I’m dumping you’ for it to be true. You withdrew from the relationship, and since a relationship requires two people for it to exist, I’d say yours is over.”

I shot up from my chair, shoving my fingers through my hair. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. That’s not—”

“Don’t say it isn’t what you meant to do. You made a choice, and that was to give everything to your company. Own that shit, Westie. That’s who you are.”

I opened my mouth to explain what had been going on but fuck that. Miles worked there. He had to be well aware.

“I had to give everything to Andes. There was no other option.”

He shrugged. “All right. Well, as someone who’s never been in a serious relationship, I’m not going to sit here and dole out advice.”

I heaved a sardonic laugh. “Thanks for that.”

He held up his hand. “But from a layman’s perspective, you’re a complete piece of shit.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Maybe.” He balled up his napkin and tossed it on his plate. “But I do know I’ve been staying here a while, and I saw you going to bed every night alone. How many nights did you spend alone before all this went down? I’m guessing none. I’m guessing you were with Elise, then suddenly, boom, something big happens and you won’t have anything to do with her.”

“Itoldher I couldn’t have distractions—”

Miles winced. “Yeah, again, I’m no expert, but calling your girlfriend a distraction is not the vibe. And you know what? I’m glad she’s not around. If this was your plan of approach, you would have failed miserably.Iwant to dump you, and you know, I’m not your girlfriend.”

“Why are you here?” I rammed the heel of my hand into my forehead. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be? I said a week. It’s been a hell of a lot more than that.”

“I didn’t think you noticed.” He got up from the table, gathering his dishes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be gone soon. Then you can be all alone with the love of your life, Andes.”

Two weeks of frustration and all of the anger I’d been tamping down swelled until I couldn’t stop myself from exploding. One second, I was pacing behind the dining room table. The next, I had my brother shoved against the wall, my fist reared back to slam into his face.

His eyes locked with mine, and he raised his chin as if to give me a clearer target.

“Shut up,” I hissed. “Why do you always have to talk? You don’t know anything.”

“I know what I’m seeing. You’re screwing up, and for what? What, Weston?”

I leaned into him, pressing him hard into the wall. “What would you have me do? Let my company fail and end up like Dad, a lazy drunk who doesn’t care about anyone but himself? Would that be better?”

“Is that your only choice? One extreme or the other? You end up alone either way.” He pushed me off him and backed away, his hands up in defense. “For being an asshole and laying your hands on me, you can clean up the mess you made me make. I’m going to my room.”

His dishes and food were scattered all over the floor. I stared at them blankly, Miles’s parting shot rattling around my head.

You end up alone either way.

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