Page 44 of The Billionaire Boss and the Barista

He straightened the pens on his blotter, not meeting Fletcher’s eyes. “She works forDe Olla.”

“Which means she works for you because you accepted a seat on their board!”

“It’s an advisory position,” he stressed. “It’s not as if I’m her actual supervisor.”

Fletcher’s sarcastic laugh had never grated on his nerves more. “No. You’re just her boss’ boss.”

“Only on paper. In practice, I’m a world away from being her employer.”

“We’re not talking about hypotheticals here,” his partner scoffed. “On paper is all we care about. Unless you plan on talking her into quitting.”

Fletcher drummed his fingers on his knee. “Yeah, that’s a much better plan. Get one of your buddies to give her a job at one oftheirbusinesses. Doesn’t matter if it’s on the other side of the country. In fact, that’s preferable.”

The idea made his body alternate hot and cold. “You want me to send Emma away? Are you serious?”

Fletcher passed a hand over his face. “I cannot stress this enough.Yes. I am dead serious.”

Hell, he isn’t going to let this go.

Garrett shook his head. “I don’t get why you have such a problem with me helping Emma out,” he said, taken aback by his partner’s vehemence. “This is someone we went to school with. She hasbrain damagefor fuck’s sake.”

His argument momentarily derailed Fletcher who lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

“You used to eat lunch with her sometimes, don’t you remember?” Garrett reminded him.

Fletcher scowled, a line forming between his brows. “No. I don’t think I ever did. At least not on purpose.”

Really? Because Garrett could have sworn he’d seen them eating at the same table several times.

Maybe he doesn’t remember because, unlike you, he wasn’t hyperfocused on Emma Mendez’s every move back then.

“God, you made her sound like she was a pariah,” he muttered. “She wasn’t.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Fletcher closed his eyes, abject frustration on his face. “Emma was nice enough. But her rivalry with you didn’t win her any popularity contests. Don’t forget, you were the big man on campus. People followed where you led.”

He stopped, scratching his chin. “I’m not sayingIdid that. I didn’t have the same issues with her that you did, but I also can’t say I really knew her. And despite how often you two bickered, neither did you. She didn’t move in our circles.”

“What a nice way of saying she was poor,” he said, displeased with that cold summation of their high school life.

“Hey, I was poor too!” Fletcher snapped.

“Compared to your family, everyone was,” he added more gently. “But her lack of money had nothing to do with it. She may have been in our classes, and we may have sat together a few times. But that doesn’t mean much for a school that size. We didn’t engage. Which isn’t surprising given she was years younger and kind of immature.”

Immature was the last word he would have used to describe Emma, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on here. If people thought Emma was immature, it was because she had always been arguing and sniping with him, for fuck’s sake.

He’d sniped right back, their back and forth integral to his existence back then.

He would have said as much but Garrett didn’t need to get into that argument with Fletcher right now. Not that his partner needed help. He was just getting warmed up.

“I’m not saying don’t help her at all. But you need to do it from a distance. Every moment you interact with her is exposing you and this entire company to an incredibly destructive lawsuit.”

“She’s not going to sue. Shewouldn’t do that.”

Fletcher went beet red. “For fuck’s sake, Garrett! You don’t know her anymore.She doesn’t know herself.”

Damn. That one almost got him. Thankfully, Garrett was a fucking stubborn bastard.

Fletcher wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t right. Not morally. There were things he didn’t know, things Garrett couldn’t tell him…

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