Page 2 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

Another wave of anger pulsed through me. William was awesome. Why did I hate the suggestion just because it came from him?

Knowing this was a me problem that stemmed from my own failed marriage, I forced a smile. “Maybe we’ll take you up on it.”

He nodded.

Brooke beamed.

The other four were gathered a little way down the corridor, chatting and laughing.

Husbands had their arms around wives. They casually touched. Eyes met.

For a moment, I imagined myself standing there with a man I loved.

Danger Zone.

Oh no, I couldn’t even go there. Danger Zone was my boss, and while he was hotter than Central Park in July and I might have had a tiny little crush on him for over a year, I had a strict lookie-no-touchy rule about him.

I would not enter the Danger Zone.

“Hey, Jessica!” Ashley, my old roommate, waved me over to the small crowd. “We have an idea.”

“Uh-oh,” I muttered as we all came together.

“Agreed,” Brooke said under her breath.

Ashley held up her phone so we could hear the people on the other end of the line. “Your turn.”

Shane’s voice came through from Alaska. “This is just an idea, but since we’re all over the world these days, why not have us split up into couples for opening units?”

For the third time in ten minutes, a bout of irritation hit me, and it took everything I possessed to keep the frown off my face.

Couples? Really?

Two years ago, no one here had been married—most hadn’t even been dating—and now they couldn’t do anything without their significant others?

I’d been married before. I’d lost myself to a man. Changed for him. Made myself small so he would feel big. Stunted my own emotional growth and career success so he wouldn’t feel less than me.

Even though I knew logically that all of my friends had ended up with great guys who wouldn’t be bothered if their wives outshone them, it still made me uneasy.

“Or teams,” Victoria suggested, also from Alaska. “Not everyone is part of a couple, and maybe I want to be on a team with Rachel.”

“You’re so mean,” Logan complained.

I silently thanked Victoria for the save and made a mental note to send her flowers.

Brooke put a hand on my arm and spoke to everyone. “Teams might be fun. We could make some sort of competition out of it.” She smiled at me.

I told myself that I didn’t hate the idea of teams, especially if we switched them up or had a competition. “I’ll add it to the list of ideas, and we can talk about it next week.”

“We only have seven weeks of content left,” one of the girls on the phone said.

“Six,” I corrected.

We needed to make a decision soon, but today was not that day. “Thanks, guys.” I made a show of checking the time. “I need to run back to work, so I’ll see you all later.”

Overlapping voices called out, “Love you” and “Later” and “Miss you.”

I waved as I went around the corner, then walked as quickly as I could to the door and outside into the chilly New York spring.

---