Page 10 of The Cocky Neighbor

ERIC

I spent the majority of the next few days going between irritation and attraction toward my new boss, and I hated every single second of it.

Finding him feeding Star the other day showed me the glimpse of kindness the man possessed that I hadn't thought was possible. I wished I'd never witnessed that singular moment because now I knew the man wasn't the jerk that I'd pictured him to be.

He had compassion for strays, when even my coworkers didn't really bother with them. It wasn't that my coworkers were heartless people, because they weren't, but I guessed they had enough on their plate to keep them from worrying about something that didn't directly affect them.

And now that I'd seen this side of him, it was hard to go back to hating the man. He could be kind when he wanted to be, but apparently I had the keen ability to bring out the worst in him.

The biting words he threw at me before he left had hurt. I'd thought we were getting to know each other better, that we were finally coming to an understanding. But then he went around and did a complete one-eighty, leaving me confused as fuck.

Why did the man have to be so devastatingly handsome when he was a huge pain in my ass? He was a tyrant disguised as a prince, and I knew I wasn't the only one taking notice.

I'd heard chatter from a few of my coworkers complaining about the new changes that were happening at the hotel. I had to admit that some of his ideas were smart business choices, like implementing a reward system for our frequent guests as another part of our client retention routes, but other ideas were absolutely crazy.

We can't have our phones on our persons? What was this? The nineties? Who didn't have their phones on them twenty-four seven these days? It was crazy to think the hotel staff would be okay with this, and I was right when the complaints had started coming in. Tome, of course, because little Mr. High Horse didn't need to bother with the happiness of the employees. As the general manager, I was the lucky fella who got stuck with the complaints and tried to please both sides. Lucky me.

"How's it going, my dear hubby?" Alfred walked into my office, handing me a cup. I took a sip and groaned at the heavenly taste of black coffee. The day had been gruesome with running around taking care of guest requests and trying to make sure all the items on Liam's list were implemented by this weekend.

It didn't help that it seemed like every time I tried to find the man, he magically disappeared. I'd hear that he was at the front desk, but he'd be gone by the time I got there. Or if I requested a meeting with him, he would insist email communication was sufficient, or I could have Alfred relay the message.

If I didn't know better, I'd think he was avoiding me…and that hurt more than it should, especially when he seemed fine with meeting with Alfred and not me. I thought I'd seen a hint of interest when we had our meeting in my office the other day, but I must have imagined it, considering he wasn't even willing to see me now.

I shook those thoughts off since I had a billion other things on my plate that I should be focusing on instead. I took another sip of the bitter coffee to clear my mind and turned to Alfred. "Thanks, babe. Have I told you how much I love you?"

He laughed and took a gulp of his own drink of salted caramel latte with two extra pumps of caramel. I never understood how he could drink straight up sugar, but Alfred seemed to live off of it.

"I know, I'm the best thing to have ever happened to you. Love you too, sugarplum." I grunted in agreement. I couldn't argue with that.

We sat in silence, stealing a few minutes to enjoy our drinks before we had to rejoin the chaos that was sure to be waiting for us outside my office. There was never a boring day at the hotel.

"So I talked to Liam today about the new linen company we're switching to—"

"Wait, you talked to Liam today? When? Where?" I cut Alfred off before he could finish his thought. I'd been trying to track him down all day to discuss the royalty program he'd suggested. The fucker told me he wouldn't be at the hotel today and to have me email him the details. It wasn't anything urgent that I couldn't send through email, but it would have been nice to see him again.

I shut that thought off as soon as it appeared in my mind. It didn't matter how much my eyes liked looking at the handsome man with theabsurd fashion sense. He was aWrightand my boss, so nothing could ever happen between us. We lived in two different worlds.

"Like thirty minutes ago? He stopped by my office to touch base," Alfred said with a trace of worry in his voice. "Why? Is everything okay?"

"Just peachy," I grumbled. It wasn't Alfred's fault that the man had something against me and was avoiding me. I could get my work done just fine without ever having to see him.

Alfred watched me, as if he didn't quite believe my words, which wasn't hard for him considering I made no effort to try and hide my emotions from him. I waited for him to say something, anything to change the topic, but he just continued to stare me down and into my soul until I spilled all my secrets.

I wasn't good at keeping secrets from my friends, especially when they were giving me the eyes that seemed to already know everything.

"Ugh, fine," I said, throwing my hands in the air. "Everything is not fine. Liam's stupid rules are just so…stupid, and for whatever reason he's avoiding me so I can't even petition him to change them. It's all just so…so…"

"Stupid?" he offered with a snicker, which earned a glare from me. I might not have been the most eloquent person when I was worked up, but he didn't have to poke fun at it.

"Yes, stupid. It's all very stupid since it shouldn't be bothering me that much, but for whatever reason, it is. He told me he wouldn't be coming to the hotel today, yet here you're telling me that he came to see you in your office? What the hell, man?"

"Hey, don't take it out on me. I didn't ask to see him," Alfred said with his hands up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice. You know how I get sometimes," I said with a sigh. I ran a hand through my already disheveled hair and slumped back into my chair.

"It's just been a long day, and I still have a million complaints I have to go through," I said, gesturing to all the slips of paper. When I first became manager of the hotel, I set up an anonymous suggestion box so that everyone could give me their honest thoughts without feeling like they would be punished if they said something that management didn't like. Looking at the completely filled box now, I was starting to regret that decision.

"Damn, that's a lot," Alfred said. He shuffled through the box and picked a couple to read. "I see our new boss is receivinga lotof love. Listen to this one 'The new hottie can fuck himself with these new changes. I'm so more than happy to fuck him if he needs help getting that stick out of his ass'. How tasteful." Alfred wrinkled his nose and placed the slip of paper back into the box.

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