Page 19 of Stuck On Them

“Luca.” Ryker put his hand on the door so he couldn’t open it. “Sit down.”

“Move your hand before I move it for you.” Luca was pissed, which made me uneasy since it took a lot for him to get that way.

Ryker let him out and the door slammed so hard the painting on the wall shook.

I leaned forward, putting my cheek on my fist. “That was uncalled for.”

“How did she find out where we work?” He threw the paper onto the table, ignoring my statement, and started pacing. “She was supposed to be here on a business trip.”

“But you told her the same thing about yourself, so the lie doesn’t matter.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Either way, she can’t work here.”

“Well, at least we fucking agree about something.” He ran his fingers through his hair, making a mess of it. “I knew we shouldn’t have done it again, and now that we’re more well known, it’s a big risk. Case in point.” He gestured to the door. “She probably figured out who we were and got a job here on purpose.”

He was so full of shit it was almost comedic. “You like her.” I’d seen how he’d looked at her and treated her that night with my very own eyes. He had known her all of maybe thirty minutes and yet he cared.

He didn’t confirm or deny my observation, but his jaw ticked. “This is why it’s once and that’s it.”

I knew this better than they did. The last time we found someone to have some fun with, we made the mistake of making it a frequent thing with her. That turned into me taking her out on a few dates behind Ryker’s and Luca’s backs. And then I found out she just wanted to find a way to get to Luca.

We all had money, but Luca hadmoney,and everyone knew it.

The door opened and Luca came back in, his face devoid of any emotion. This was the scary Luca that made me wonder if he was hiding that he was in the mafia or some shit.

He sat down next to me, mimicking my posture. “We can’t fire her.”

“Sure we can. Out of all the jobs in the city, she ends up here? Aren’t you worried that she’s about to pull a Kristy?” Ryker reached across the table and picked up his laptop, glasses, and phone.

Luca shuddered at the name. “It was a one-off occurrence. I have a little more faith in humanity than that. You should try it sometime.”

“I’ll email HR.”

“On what grounds are you going to terminate her? She hasn’t been here more than an hour. What if she’s the best assistant in the history of assistants?” Luca scoffed.

“She called me an asshole.” Ryker might as well have stuck out his bottom lip and pouted for how uncharacteristically whiney he sounded.

Luca rolled his eyes. “That just shows us that she holds honesty in the highest regard.”

Ryker’s neck started to turn red, which meant he was about ready to throw his shit down and lunge across the table at Luca. We might have all been in our early thirties and owners of a multimillion-dollar business, but we acted like teenage brothers half the time.

Someone needed to be the adult, so I stood, getting their attention. “Let’s just wait until a replacement is found. Ethan has been working over twelve-hour days for the last week. He can’t keep doing that. Tell Sue that Paige isn’t a good fit and to find someone else.” That was entirely reasonable to me, and it would only take a week or two to find someone with the salary and benefits we offered. “The job market is tough right now. Maybe she can just move to another position we never interact with.”

Luca put his feet on the table, pulling his phone from his pocket. “She’ll probably quit with the way you treated her. She wasn’t in her office when I went to find her, so maybe she already did. I would.”

Ryker practically growled like a territorial wolf. “You went to find her?”

“I’m not a heartless bastard like you are.” Luca shrugged. “We had a good time with her. That’s that. I’m not the one who has an issue with her working here.”

“Because you’re a certified man whore.” I ruffled his hair as I walked past, and he swatted at me. “I’m leaving for the day. Text me if you need something.”

Getting away from the situation was the only way I was going to stop myself from doing something rash, like resigning. Could an owner even quit their own company?

I was tired of the pressure and the constant need to expand the company. We made good money the size we were; adding more marketing teams and offering more services wasn’t something I was keen on.

Neither of them said anything as I left the conference room. They knew I was unhappy, yet they ignored why. It was just easier that way, especially when we’d worked together for so long and loved each other like brothers. Well, most of the time.

I shut the door because they were probably going to continue bickering and no one needed to be subjected to that.

I glanced down the hall at Paige’s closed door. Luca had said she wasn’t in there, but maybe she just didn’t answer or had been elsewhere.

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