Page 27 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

Jessica set the bag down on a chair and started pulling things from it. She worked quickly and didn’t waste time or effort. I suddenly wondered if she liked to host parties. I watched in silence, unable to think of anything to say.

“Did you talk to Amelia?” Jessica asked as she finally sat.

“I did.” Instead of looking at her, I began dishing food onto a plate.

“And?” Jessica prodded.

“She had a few stipulations. Something fun, nothing stupid, involve helping others.”

“That’s it?”

Now I looked up and found Jessica biting her lip and swiping her tablet. “Yes.”

Jessica plucked the remote for the wall screen off the corner of my desk and turned the power on. As soon as it came to life, she threw whatever had been on her tablet up onto the wall.

Screenshots of internet searches scrolled past as she looked for something specific. “In regards to fun, there are a lot of options.”

I kept my gaze on the screen as she spoke. “I know a lot of people don’t love touching, and there are some employees that struggle with anxiety, so these four wouldn’t be great for them, but they are fun activities.”

She went on to describe something called the human knot, team puzzles where two people were tied together, a trust fall that was slightly less offensive than the one Marissa had suggested, and “minefield,” where one person was blindfolded while the rest of their team tried to get them through an obstacle course.

My mind got stuck on holding hands for the human knot for two reasons. First, I didn’t hold hands as a general rule. Second, what if I ended up holding Jessica’s hand?

I outright rejected the trust fall.

Something inside my chest tightened uneasily at the thought of allowing a stranger to lead me through an obstacle course.

“You’ve always got get-to-know-you bingo and group art projects that force people to talk to each other.” Jessica made a face. “But I’m not sure that’s the direction we should go.”

I knew I should ask her to leave the information with me so I could go over it myself, but she hadn’t even started eating. “What else do you have?”

How Jessica had come up with twenty-five options in just a few hours boggled my mind. I ate as she described more and more activities, and by the time she’d gotten to fifteen, my brain buzzed inside my skull.

Each one provoked a physical and emotional reaction in me, which I tried to keep in check, but it was getting more and more difficult. That same strangling feeling that Marissa had elicited started to snake around me. Then lists of pros and cons began to unfurl in my mind. The cons were far outweighing the pros, and my jaw muscles started to ache as I clenched my teeth together.

It was becoming a jumble in my mind, and I couldn’t getahead of it. I closed my eyes and said, “Enough.”

Jessica stopped mid-sentence. The angry glint in her eye at my rudeness wasn’t unwarranted.

The cons that had piled up in my head began tumbling out through my lips. “Most of these are unacceptable. No trust falls. No human knots. It needs to be friendly to all body types as well as people with anxiety struggles, and we need something that includes service.” I found myself breathing hard after I’d spoken.

Jessica stiffened, and her tone grew angry. “I was getting to those.”

“Why didn’t you start with them?” I asked before I could stop myself. Jessica didn’t usually waste my time.

“You told Marissa that we shouldn’t do things, or not do them, just becauseyoudidn’t like them.” Jessica’s voice was like a whip.

It felt like an electrical storm had descended in my office, fueling my sense of being overwhelmed.

I’d hoped this wouldn’t happen with Jessica. She’d done a good job researching, but it was too much. I spoke my next words through gritted teeth. “Will you leave me the information so I can go through it?”

“I’m more than halfway finished.”

“Leave it,” I growled.

Jessica’s jaw slid forward, and I thought she might refuse. After another stormy moment between us, she swiped her tablet a couple of times, and my computer chimed with an incoming email.

My eyes tried to drift to my laptop, but I forced them to remain on Jessica.

---