Page 87 of Beauty and the Boss Man

Chapter Thirty-eight

Romy

“Romeo, stop that,” I command as he tries to eat his little hairbrush I’m attempting to use on him.

Instead, he runs around my bed in fast circles like a tiny torpedo. “What are you doing?” I laugh as he eventually slows down and lays right next to me with his belly up in the air.

I never thought I’d be a good dog mom, but here we are. Little Romeo has stolen my heart. And although he hasn’t done much to make me stop missing Aiden, he at least makes my free time a little more enjoyable.

Plus, it’s sort of nice having someone around to talk to who doesn’t ever talk back. He’s like a little therapist without all of the advice that we know I’m not going to take.

He even lets me snuggle him at night. Maybe I’ll just keep the dog and forget about ever finding a man.

I’ve been actively looking for a job and am waiting for some prospects to call me back. So, Romeo and I have spent our days playing, taking walks, and watching TV.

There’s a knock on my door, and Romeo flips back over to look at me like, “What do we do?”

I know it’s not Veronica because she’s out of town. I figure it might be my super or something, so I stick Romeo in his crate for the time being—since I haven’t exactly told my super that I have a dog.

“Okay, you have to be quiet, boy,” I say, tossing a blanket over his crate.

Walking to the front door, I adjust my glasses, pushing them back up my nose. When I reach the door and swing it open, I think I just might faint.

Aiden Montgomery is standing in my doorway. He looks delicious in his dark jeans and black t-shirt, and holy hell, he’s wearing the hat I got him!

I try to play it cool and not show any emotion, but I can’t help but smile back when he smiles at me.

Damn it, Romy!

“Can we talk?” He asks.

I turn around to walk back into my living room, leaving the door open for him to follow me. It doesn’t take him long.

I sit on the couch, but instead of taking a seat, he leans up against the wall opposite me. He just looks at me for a moment without saying a word, and I feel almost on display. I don’t like it.

“Aiden, why are you here?” I ask.

I look away from his intense stare, but his next words bring my gaze right back to his.

“I’m in love with you, Romy. I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time, and I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it. I’m sorry it took us going away for a week for me to open my stupid eyes. And I’m sorry that when we came back, I didn’t fight like hell to keep you.”

Deep down, I know that no matter how hard he would have fought, I would have protested—because I’m an idiot.

“Aiden,” I begin. “You weren’t the one who walked away. You wanted this, and I left. And then at work, everything just felt messed up.” I feel tears starting to prick my eyes as I realize I’m not making a ton of sense.

Walking over to me, he kneels in front of me, taking my hands in his. “Romy, there is no excuse for how I treated you that first day. I was just having a shitty day, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have done it, and I’m sorry.”

“Aiden, what are you saying?” I ask, my brain now in a full-on fog.

“I’m saying that I want to be with you. I want to wake up with you next to me every morning, and I want to go off to work with you. I want you in every aspect of my life. I’m saying I want you to be mine.”

His words make me want to throw down every wall that I have and say screw everything else, but I know it’s not that simple.

“Aiden, I don’t know if we can just go back to how things were in Key West—I don’t know if we can go back to the whole boss and assistant thing like they were before we left.”

He shakes his head at me. “Romy, I’m not asking you to be my assistant. I’m asking you to be a partner in this business with me. I want to give you some equity because you’ve helped me grow it so much. You haven’t been just my assistant for quite a while, and I think it’s about time that I start showing that. And I need you to know that this offer to come back to work is not contingent on us being together. The job, the equity, all of it is yours if you come back to work—regardless of our relationship status. I just think it’d be nice to head off to work with you every day.”

Now, I’m full-on crying. Thankfully, it’s just quiet tears rather than the uncontrolled sobs I’ve been doing the past few days.

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