Page 41 of Stranded for Christmas with my Boss

I speak with a few people on their way out, my eyes straying to Alyssa as she finishes talking to Josh. When my last conversation with the head of HR ends, I turn in her direction, eager to ask her how she thinks the meeting went. I saw more liveliness out in the crowd after my speech, so I can only hope at least some people feel more motivated than before.

However, Austin steps in front of my line of sight as he approaches me, making Alyssa freeze before leaving the room. We’ve both agreed to be distant toward each other in front of Austin, even if that sucks. He’s my best friend. I should be open with him, but he can’t know that we’ve been defying him.

“Can I talk to you real quick?” Austin asks me as he steps closer to me, glancing behind him to make sure everyone has cleared out for the most part.

A sense of wariness looms over me as I detect stark seriousness in his tone, but I put on a casual grin and nod. “What’s on your mind, Austin?”

Austin rubs his stubbled jaw, hesitating for a few seconds before speaking. “You kept looking at her.”

Oh, come on.

“Who?”

Austin gives me a sharp look. “Don’t play stupid with me, Jay. Alyssa! You were eyeing her during your speech.”

“Because she was toward the front. I was eyeing everyone,” I tell him with a faint scoff, refusing to roll over and give in this time. I have to stand my ground and lie to his face, even if it makes me sick to my stomach. “It’s polite to look at people when you’re talking to them.”

Austin doesn’t look all that convinced as he sighs. “So, nothing is going on between you two anymore?”

“Come on, man. Barely anything was going on before. We just had sex once or twice,” I reply, hating the words seeping out of my mouth. It’s not just sex, but he can’t know that her hooks are buried twice as deep as that. “Can we drop this? I’m focused on the app update. Are you?”

Austin’s jaw tenses, but he nods. “Yeah, I am. Forget I brought it up.”

My eyes narrow a degree as they follow him all the way out of the room until I’m all alone. I let out a sharp exhale, tension crackling beneath my shoulders once more. I can’t deal with his overly watchful eye on top of the confusion I already feel about Alyssa.

On top of the January update.

Holy shit. How high up are all of my plates stacked at this point?

And I have to buy Christmas presents!

I pinch the bridge of my nose as a tired sigh drifts from me. I should really focus on the time-sensitive things first, but no matter how hard I try, Alyssa keeps breaking into my mind. She consumes my thoughts, her allure twining around my heart and pulling tight.

There is no escape from the magnetic pull between us unless I sever everything else between us completely. But after all we’ve been through together, can Ireallydo that?

Chapter nineteen

Alyssa

The sound of my yawn fills my entire studio, but I blink my tired eyes and keep flipping through all the file folders I brought home from the office.

The workload was piling up, so I took some files home. At first, Jensen sharply protested, encouraging me to spend time with my parents or enjoy all the holiday cheer going on throughout the city. He even hinted that I should go ice skating again.

His concern means a lot to me, but I like the work I do. I like helping my colleagues if they’re falling behind or need a break. After a bit of a rocky start, I think I’ve finally found my groove at work.

I rub my eyes, but a flicker of determination still burns within me as I sit cross-legged on my bed with documents strewn across the covers. Tonight, I just want to organize Jensen’s receipts and documents into labeled piles. There has been way too much clutter in his office between all the documents he has been reviewing and signing off on and the Christmas party invitations that have been sent to him.

I felt a little bad having to decline all of them on his behalf. Even if he’s the CEO, he should still try to find time to have fun during the holidays. They’ll be over before we know it!

“Premiere Auto…Eddie Vance…” I murmur to myself as I read over a copy of a receipt. My eyes then widen.

Why does that name sound so familiar?

I grab my phone and open up my text messages with my dad, scrolling past our conversations about the New York Rangers’ season and how he won a large Christmas ham in a local raffle. Finally, I find a picture he sent me when the car was being repaired, my fingers moving to zoom in on the letters plastered on the building above the garages.

Premiere Auto.

“He did not,” I gasp as I snatch up the receipt again to check the date.

---