Page 13 of Beauty and the Boss Man

Hearing her praise me gives me a proud feeling, but I’m not quite sure why. Hell, I got asked here to give a speech about my accomplishments, and I didn’t feel as happy as I do right now listening to Romy hype me up.

We continue to talk, even long after we finish our food. We just keep ordering drinks and shootin’ the shit.

When our waitress keeps giving us dirty looks for hogging her table, I ask Romy if she wants to take a walk. She agrees, so I order us another round and pay the check, leaving a hefty tip.

Once we leave the restaurant, we walk through the resort’s lobby and out the back doors. We walk past the pool and the hot tub along a cobblestone path that leads straight to the beach.

When we reach the sand, she kicks off her shoes and bends over to pick them up. She looks a bit wobbly when she stands back up, so I put my hand on her arm to steady her.

She laughs. “Guess it’s been a while since I’ve had this much to drink.”

“That’s alright. I’ve got you,” I say, still holding onto her.

She chuckles to herself.

“Something funny?” I ask.

“Just thinking about how you’re not nearly as grumpy as you are at work.”

That gets a full-fledged belly laugh out of me. “Yeah, I know I come off as grumpy most of the time. I guess when I’m at work, I’m just so focused on it that I don’t think about much else. I know it’s something I need to work on. My sister reminds me of that constantly.”

“You have a sister?” She asks.

I nod. “A twin. Allison. She’s older than me by two minutes, and she never lets me forget it.”

“Oh, Allison is your sister,” she says the words as though a light bulb just switched on.

“Yeah…”

She smiles. “It just makes sense now as to why you ask me to send flowers to a woman named Allison every year on your birthday.”

Not only am I surprised that she remembers when my birthday is, but I’m also shocked she spent any time wondering who the flowers were for.

“Do I detect a hint of jealousy?” I tease.

Getting embarrassed, she stammers, “What? No! Maybe a little curious. I mean, who sends flowers to someone else on their own birthday. It was just odd—”

I cut her off. “Romy, I’m just giving you a hard time.”

Her cheeks turn pink in the most adorable way. “Oh, right.” she pauses a moment before asking, “So, I sent flowers to your sister, but never anyone else. Does that mean no girlfriend?”

I smile. “Nope. No girlfriend.”

“Is there something wrong with you?”

I pull my hair back to get it off my neck and secure it with the rubber band around my wrist. “Oh, where to begin? I work too much. Typically, when I get home, I’m too exhausted to want to go out and do anything. I don’t have some perfect chiseled body. And you know, I’m sort of grumpy.”

“You’re not so bad,” she says with a smile. “Besides, after some of the jerks I’ve dated, I’d think it’d be nice to have someone who is actually on the right path—someone with goals and ambition.”

I shrug. “I mean, I get it. As I said, I tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to working. The last woman I was dating seriously was Jane, and maybe I took her for granted at times. That is on me. Of course, it’s on her for cheating on me with her trainer.”

“Ouch.”

“It is what it is. After I caught her, she tried turning it back around on me, telling me she wished I would get in better shape because she wasn’t into the whole ‘dad bod’ thing—her words, not mine.”

She shakes her head. “That’s still shitty. Back in the day, I dated a couple of gym rats. Did they look good? Sure. But they cared more about spending time in the gym than with me. And if I gained even a pound, they noticed. Back then, I was quite a bit skinnier.” She looks down at herself.

“Not to sound weird, but I think you look great. I prefer a woman with curves and some meat on her. It’s more fun to have something to hold onto.”

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