Page 41 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

More emojis followed.

Peter:No.

Although the force that kept attempting to tug the ends of my lips upward might disagree with that last message.

Chapter 13

-Jessica-

Entering the Danger Zone on a Tuesday morning required piping hot coffee with one creamer and a pinch of cinnamon.

Not this lukewarm cup of disaster I held in my hand.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go back to my favorite coffee shop to rectify the matter, because Danger Zone had sent the information about the retreat to everyone in the company—which we’d typed up the night before during our snack break—and my inbox was already filled with panicked emails.

Maybe Brandi at the coffee shop would hook me up with a new cup. I was about to text her but hadn’t even reached the elevator before I was accosted.

“Jessica!” a woman named Gina said as she ran to catch me in the lobby.

Gina worked in another department, but we both loved the same coffee joint and had bonded over action movies. I should tell her about The Catastrophe Course.

I joined the small mob waiting for the next elevator and smiled when Gina caught up. She wore her light blue pant suit like a supermodel, complete with a perfect smoky eyeshadow and killer lipstick. Unlike Marissa, she didn’t flaunt her beauty but, instead, owned it without being a jerk.

“Is your coffee cold too?” she asked.

“Lukewarm,” I affirmed. “I’ll take care of us.”

Jessica:Help. Coffee is cold. I didn’t take the test sip.

I added a sad gif.

Brandi:Crap. Stupid machine. I’ll send more over for you. Gina?

Jessica:And Gina. Thanks. How was camping?

I usually spent a few minutes chatting with Brandi, but she’d been in the back when I’d arrived.

Brandi:Good! I’ll send pics later.

More work emails had arrived, but I decided to ignore them until I got to my desk. Danger Zone had informed me that he was ready for the questions and had a system we were going to use to answer them.

Another elevator came, and we shuffled forward like obedient zombies.

Then Gina gasped and turned to me. “The retreat has been canceled?”

Several other people from our office jumped into the fray.

“I just saw that.”

“What happened?”

All of that information was in the email Danger Zone had sent, but I knew people would want to hear it with their ears. “All I know is that the place we booked had a safety issue and is shut down for the foreseeable future, so management decided to modify the retreat. We’re all hanging out next Monday for an activity, then everyone gets to take next Friday off.”

Our discussion had drawn the attention of a few other people.

A tall woman with an impressive afro from the candle company spoke. “Weren’t you going to the same place we did?”

“Yup,” I said.

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