Page 38 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

She’d also called me boss, which she’d only done once before.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

“Sorry.” Jessica stepped back and held her hand up as if I had a weapon pointed at her.

I let my natural scowl take over, hoping that she hadn’t seen whatever look had been on my face the moment before, and said, “You’re welcome, Jessica.”

Another blush rose on her fair skin, and I knew right then that even if I lost the game, I would have won the night.

“You’d better go tap that in.” Jessica indicated to my ball.

I started to walk toward the cup, but my body didn’t want to cooperate. If I completed this hole, then we’d be finished for the evening, and I didn’t want that. When I arrived at my destination, I stopped and looked up at Jessica, who was still above.

She was watching me with a small smile on her face.

I wasn’t a grinning kind of a guy, so instead of acknowledging her expression, I turned and tapped my ball in. Then I reached down and retrieved both of the balls.

Jessica started walking toward me, and I went to meet her halfway.

She held out her hand for her ball. “I guess we’re finished.”

I extended my hand, but didn’t relinquish my prize. “I think we need to talk about the activity.”

“Okay.” She didn’t lower her arm.

I stayed where I was. “I’d like to do so as we finish this course.”

Jessica’s eyes went wide, and she blinked. “You want to keep playing?”

“I do.” I slowly lowered my fingers until they brushed her palm, just as she’d done to me earlier. “I think I need to get back the hole-in-one that you stole from me.”

“Stole?” Jessica narrowed her eyes.

My fingers were on her skin, and I slowly dropped her ball into her hand. “Stole.”

Jessica took her ball. “Fine, then I guess I’m first on the next one.”

With that, she walked away, and I followed.

***

Two hours later, we parted ways at the subway station. I made sure she got on her train, then headed in the direction of my place.

We’d talked about the activity, making a list of supplies for ramps, the cups, and even flags. On the last three holes of the course, we’d envisioned what we could do with boxes and cans of non-perishable food.

There were more possibilities than I had first thought, and I was glad we’d picked this for our activity.

Jessica had found a hotel with a large ballroom that was available the following Monday, and I told her to book it for us.

During our snack break, in which I’d learned that Jessica loved baked pretzels with nacho cheese, we’d drafted the announcement email about the retreat and sent it to Amelia, who had approved it moments later.

I would send it out in the morning. Both Jessica and I were as ready as we could be for the inevitable repercussions.

All in all, it had been a productive evening.

I’d learned to miniature golf; I’d learned what the appropriate actions and reactions were; I’d observed more than a dozen people on the course and was confident I could navigate our company retreat without any issues in regards to the actual golfing and maybe even setting up.

But the most important thing I had learned had to be that Jessica was even more interesting outside of work and different even than when she was with her friends.

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