Page 157 of Dear Grumpy Boss

Chapter Forty

Elise

LucaandElliotwerealready at the table when I arrived for brunch. Luca smacked a big kiss on my cheek, and Elliot hugged me tighter than usual.

I’d kept my distance from him, which hadn’t been easy. If he had seen me at my darkest, he would have lost it. Elliot didn’t care about many people, and I had always known for a fact I was his number one. He had moved heaven and earth to get me away from Patrick without asking a single question. I was afraid of what he would have done had he known all the ways Weston had rejected and hurt me, so I’d chosen to only tell him we’d broken up due to his work commitments.

When Elliot pulled away and cupped my face, there was evident strain around his searching eyes.

“How are you?” he asked.

“I’m okay.”

A stretch of the truth, but if I told him I’d never been so brokenhearted and felt like sleeping for the next decade, he would have been…angry. Not at me but at the source of my despair. The last thing I wanted was to drive an even bigger wedge between my brother and Weston.

The empty fourth chair at the table was evidence enough of how drastically things had changed.

“I ordered you a coffee,bella.” Luca nodded to the steaming cup in front of me.

“Bless you.” I picked it up in both hands, sipping the smooth but strong drink.

“I thought you were bringing your roommate,” Luca added.

I set my cup down, a small smile twitching on my lips. “She’s impossible to pin down. Today, she’s helping a friend she met in pottery class paint the walls of their new business.”

Elliot grunted. “How many friends does she have?”

I laughed. Elliot had never understood Saoirse. “Everyone she meets is a new friend. I’m her only best friend, though.”

If I had explicitly told her I wanted her to be here today, she would have ditched her new pottery friend in a heartbeat. I never doubted the meaning of my best friend title.

We ordered our food, and the topic moved on to Elliot’s most recent trip to Singapore. He’d bought me a lariat-style necklace with a golden orchid hanging from it. It was an upgrade from his usual gifts, but I supposed he’d felt sorry for me and it was his way of cheering me up. The necklace was beautiful, and I put it on right away, but it did nothing to fill the hollowness in my chest.

Luca folded his hands on the table. “Elliot and I received an email from Weston this morning.”

Elliot jerked. “We don’t have to talk about this.”

“What did it say?” I asked.

Elliot patted my arm. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does. I want to know what it said.”

Because there was an unread email from Weston in my inbox too. It had arrived last night, a few hours after I left the rooftop. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to read it.

Luca’s gaze dashed from Elliot to me. “He laid out the changes he’s making within Andes executive management. It’s pretty extensive. They’re adding a new oversight branch that will report to the COO, not Weston.”

Elliot folded his arms. “It’s about time. He’s run that company the same way since the beginning, when it was just him and Renata. He deals with the minutiae as if he’s not the CEO.”

“Why did he send that to you guys?” I glanced between them.

“He wanted our opinion on his plan,” Elliot answered.

Luca’s mouth hitched. “He asked if we thought it would be enough.”

My brows rose. “Enough?”

Luca’s half smile grew into a full-blown smirk. “To convince you it won’t be the same this time.”

---