Page 17 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

Wait. No. None of this made sense.

A group of women in their early twenties walked by, giggling.

“Here’s the thing, Peter doesn’t think he needs me, but he does.” Marissa let out a grunt and whispered to someone on the other end of the line before coming back to me. “So you’re going to get him to agree to let me attend virtually.”

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“Uh…” I had nothing at this point.

“Good. Now that that’s settled, get it done and call me by end of day tomorrow.”

This whole conversation had felt like whiplash, and I was still trying to wrap my head around it.

A voice sounded from Marissa’s end of the phone, and she hissed something back at them.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“The hospital.”

Brooke snorted and whispered, “She’s totally high.”

“I have to go,” Marissa said. “Call me tomorrow.” With that, she hung up.

Brooke and I stared at each other as I stopped the recording and put my phone back in my pocket.

“She’s real nice.” Brooke’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

“She’s crazy,” I muttered.

“Who is she?”

I took a moment to explain as we walked into the small boutique that Victoria always recommended for our friends’ wedding dresses.

“Wow,” Brooke drew the word out.

“Yeah, she’s a piece of work, but that was worse than normal.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Brooke asked.

“Nothing right now.” I smiled. “You have dresses to try on.”

Brooke shrunk away. “I know we need to do the big wedding thing for his family, and mine, but it would be so much easier if we could just elope.”

“Being the fiancé of a billionaire is hard,” I lamented with a heavy sigh.

“So true.”

We looked at each other, then laughed.

The boutique owner, Penny, emerged from the back of the store. The space wasn’t tiny, but it wasn’t big. Dresses, most of them white or ivory, filled racks and clothed mannequins. One corner housed three mirrors hinged together and a platform where you could stand to see yourself. A light scent that I couldn’t identify, but liked, floated through the air, along with easy listening music. Everything here was for curvy girls, and so far, Penny was two for two on wedding dresses for my friends.

“Hi.” Penny smiled. She wore a pair of blue slacks with a cream blouse and had her blond hair down in big curls. “Youmust be Brooke.”

Brooke nodded sullenly. “That’s me.”

Penny looked at me. “Is this the level of excitement I should expect?”

---