Page 64 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

I searched in my mind for how I should react and what I should say, but the video call had been Marissa’s idea. I had assumed she would stick with her own plan.

Why had she changed it?

I felt my heartbeat speeding up, so I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe.

What should I do? How should I handle this?

My first coherent thought was that I should tell Jessica, but as I was typing a message to her, I stopped myself.

Marissa being here wasn’t an emergency. It was aninconvenience. Mostly for me.

Did it have to be?

I explored that question. Should I go and greet Marissa? Yes. Did I have to be the one to entertain her and take her around? No. She had other people she was close to at the office. Other people from her department. I would ask one of them to take care of her. I had an entire day of miniature golf to run, and she would be a big distraction.

Marissa knew me; she would understand.

As soon as I’d decided this, my chest loosened, and my heart slowed down. I had a solution. It would work.

All I had to do was figure out who should be on Marissa duty and the issue would be completely solved.

My phone buzzed again.

Marissa:Where are you?

I quickly scrolled through the company directory, found three people in Marissa’s department that I knew she hung out with and crafted a message to send to them.

Unfortunately, I doubted any of them would be here early, which meant I would need to entertain Marissa for at least an hour.

The tightness in my chest returned, but I stood and took a deep breath.

I could do this.

Chapter 19

-Jessica-

“Do we have any more ramps?” someone asked in a panic.

I held up a finger, checked my list for who was supposed have the cups for the holes, gave that information to one person, then turned my attention to the next problem child. “There should be two ramps per team. Make sure someone hasn’t hijacked one from a neighbor.”

The man nodded and sped away.

Tyrell, one of our vice presidents, walked up to me. He looked almost as good as Peter had in his business casual polo shirt and slacks, but not quite. “Where’s Peter?”

I just about said he was in time-out but stopped myself. “I sent him on an errand. He should be back in twenty minutes.”

Tyrell narrowed his dark eyes at me as if he knew something was going on between Peter and me.

But how could he know? No one knew. We’d been totally alone at the office. Not even the cleaning people had been there on a Sunday night.

“This looks great!” a familiar voice cried at double the volume needed.

My heart sank.

Tyrell turned his head and frowned. “I thought she was supposed to be at home. Calling in via video chat or something.”

“She was,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

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