Page 91 of Dear Grumpy Boss

Concernedly,

Weston

To:[email protected]

From:[email protected]

Dear Grumpy Boss,

I probably shouldn’t tell you I laughed out loud when I first read the note. Perhaps I should be concerned aboutmyself.

I’m sorry your weekend didn’t end as well as it started. At least you’ll have the memories of the good times. I know I like to take my favorite memories to bed with me so I can think about them when I’m all alone…

Since it’s now past 5:00 pm and I’m still exhausted from how hard you worked me on our trip, I’ll be signing off for the night.

Have a lovely evening, Weston.

Warmly,

Elise

I shut down my computer and gathered my things. If I didn’t leave now, I might have been tempted to sneak up to eight and knock on Weston’s door. Since that wasn’t professional or smart, I cut my losses and rode down to the lobby instead.

My phone vibrated with a text from Saoirse asking about my dinner plans. I was replying to her as I headed outside, so I wasn’t paying as close attention to my surroundings as I should have.

I never saw him coming.

“Elise.” My name, croaked. My arm, grabbed.

Startled, I tried to pull back at the same time my head whipped up and my eyes landed on my ex-boyfriend.

Patrick’s fingers tightened on my arm, but his words were weak and pleading. “Don’t run away. I flew out here to see you.”

“I—” I was so shocked at his presence I had no clue how to respond. “What are you doing here?”

He’d gotten thinner, had let his beard grow thick. Had it been two months since I last saw him? Standing in front of me now, it could have been years with how drastically both his appearance and my feelings forhim had changed.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came to see you. I’mherefor you, Elise, so you can tell me why the hell you left me.”

We were making a scene in front of my office building. My coworkers were streaming out, peering warily at me and the loud, disheveled man. It was bad enough he was here. Adding witnesses only furthered my humiliation.

“Lower your voice, please. This is my job, Patrick.”

He threw out his free hand. “Do you know how crazy I’ve been going? Your friends and brother almost had me convinced you were never real. Can you believe that? I guess it is believable since you’re the one who removed every trace of yourself from my life. But you just said my name. You said it, so I know it was real.”

“Please, just—”

“Elise,” he cried hoarsely. He wasn’t angry. He was utterly despondent. I hated that seeing him this way affected me, but it did. “I love you, sweetheart. I need you to talk to me. Please, just fucking talk to me.”

He moved fast, yanking me into him and wrapping his arm around the back of my neck.

“Patrick, stop.”

Our eyes met. His were smudged with black underneath, but they were so familiar, it hurt to look at him this close up. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Then his mouth crashed into mine.

Chapter Twenty-two

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