Page 110 of Dear Grumpy Boss

She gasped. “Miles! This is gorgeous. I love it so much. Thank you.”

He puffed his chest out, his face flushed. “Remember back in high school, when you had thatEnecklace? I thought you might like a grown-up one.”

She squeezed his arm. “I remember. That was incredibly thoughtful.”

“Wait a minute,” Sam chimed. “You two went to high school together?”

“We did,” Elise answered.

Sam leaned forward with interest. “Give me the history. What were you guys like? Did you ever date?”

My fingers curled, but Elise burst out laughing. “No. That’s hilarious. We very much did not date.”

Miles nodded, his head bobbing loosely on his neck. “Yeah. Ellie and I have been besties forever.” Then he frowned. “Wait. I can’t call you Ellie anymore. Sorry, Ellie.”

The hair on the back of my neck prickled. Elise had told me not to call her Ellie. I’d wondered why at the time but had dropped it. Miles knew, though. He knew something about her I didn’t.

Elise waved him off. “It’s fine.”

Sam turned to her. “Wait, what’s wrong with Ellie? It’s a cute nickname.”

Miles tried to snap his fingers, but when he couldn’t, he pointed at her. “Right? It is a cute nickname, but I had to go ruin it. I ruin everything.” His head dropped and Elise reached for him, but he flung her hand off and stumbled to his feet.

Elliot and I exchanged a glance. He lifted a shoulder. Neither of us understood what was going on, but my gut told me it wasn’t good. My gut told me to shut my brother up before he continued his path of destruction.

I got to my feet, but Miles was already ranting.

“I thought it would be funny, you know?” He shook his head. “Maybe I didn’t think that. Maybe I didn’t think at all. I saw you on the first day of school. You had a sparkly headband on, and you were laughing with friends. Friends, Lisie. You had friends, butIwas supposed to be looking out for you when I had no one.”

He was staring right at Elise, red-faced, his chest heaving. “So, I called you that. Ellie the Elephant, and they laughed. Then I had friends. People laughed with me, they wanted to be around me.”

My mouth fell open, trying to wrap my head around what my brother was saying.

Elliot’s chair scraped back. He circled the table to get to Elise, who looked like a deer caught in headlights. She was frozen, eyes wide, watching my brother.

We all were.

There was no way he was saying what it sounded like. My brother was a fuck up, but if he did this…if he was cruel to her, even once…

“I’m sorry, Lisie.” He viciously yanked at his hair. “It snowballed, and I lost control of it. I made you miserable, but I wasn’t happy either.”

“Just say it. You bullied Lise in high school,” Rebecca screeched, cutting right to the chase.

Miles turned his head, nodding.

With his confirmation, my brain switched off.

I had no idea how I got to him. One second, I was on the other side of the table. The next, I was on top of him, my fists pummeling into his face, his chest, anywhere I could hit him. He barely tried to block me, taking it because he knew he deserved it.

“You hurt her? You hurt my Elise?” All I saw was red as I screamed in his face. “I trusted you and you hurt her?”

Arms wrapped around me, pulling me off him. It wasn’t just one man. It took Simon and Sam to pry me away from Miles. As soon as my weight was lifted, he sat up and scooted backward.

“I told you to watch out for her,” I yelled. “What did you do, Miles? What did you do?”

“I messed up,” he cried. “But she forgave me. Don’t you forgive me, Lisie?”

The fact that he looked at her, addressed her in my fucking presence, was so audacious, I could have sworn I was hallucinating.

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