Page 14 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

“That leaves you in charge.” She giggled again. “And I had such plans for us.”

I barely heard what she was saying. Instead, my mind was already racing through what I was going to have to do for the retreat.

Almost everything that had to be put together beforehand was taken care of. The biggest issues would be at the retreat, where things would inevitably go wrong.

Marissa let go of my arm and looked as if she was about to point at me, but she got distracted by her own hand. Then she jumped when she saw me standing there.

“Marissa?” I attempted to hold her gaze.

She shook her head, then her face fell into a serious expression. “You’re going to need help.” Her brow furrowed; she bit her lip and narrowed her eyes as if she’d lost track of her train of thought. Then she snapped her fingers. “With the retreat!”

I stared at her.

She yanked my arm down, forcing me closer to her. “You’re going to need help,” she said again.

“Jessica will be there,” I said before I could stop myself.

Marisa made a face. “She’s not management.”

“Does that matter?”

“Of course. You need someone of your same stature and caliber to stand up with.”

“Jessica can do it,” I replied with confidence. I knew she could manage it; the question was, could I handle working that closely with her?

Marissa tried to lean toward me, and her whispering voice was more like a toddler’s squeal. “I guess she won’t be a distraction, if you know what I mean.” Marissa wiggled her eyebrows.

Jessica’s number one attribute was distracting me, even if she didn’t know it.

“You don’t like curvy girls.” Marissa pantomimed an exaggerated hourglass outline to her body with her free hand.

What was she talking about?

“You never have.”

I didn’t like curvy girls? That might have been true once, more than fifteen years ago, when I was a self-righteous teenager who had lost his mom and was worried that any sort of health issue would cause immediate death. I used to tell myself that if I had the time to keep myself in top shape that the girls I’d date would too.

That had been before I’d found both my adult brain and flower arranging. Since then, I’d learned to see beauty in all sortsof things. One of those being all the sizes and shapes women came in.

Marissa had been curvy back in middle school. She’d looked good but wasn’t satisfied with her appearance. Since then, she’d been obsessed with staying slender to the point of looking unhealthy.

Marissa continued. “You won’t be tempted to fall for her and mess everything up.”

I stopped breathing.

Did Marissa know I had a crush on Jessica?

And what did she mean by I’d mess everything up?

Marissa patted my hand. “I guess Jessica will be okay.”

The doctor eyed me.

I put all of the drug-induced things Marissa had just said to the side and focused on the doctor. “When will you know about surgery?”

“Tomorrow or the next day.”

“Her parents will likely be the contacts going forward.”

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