Page 14 of My Ruthless Neighbor

“All right. Go ahead.”

Summer can’t keep the surprise from showing on her face. She assumed I would quake in my boots at the mention of myboss.

“You don’t believe me?”

“He is a very busy man, Ms. Donovan. He might be yourclosefriendbut for him, work always comes first. So no, I don’t believe your claim about him showing up on youronephone call.”

She jerks her attention to Janet. “You seem to be the smarter one. You need to understand. Archer… has a temper. When it comes to me, he is veryprotective.” She lowers her lids and shakes her head before sighing. “I didn’t want to disclose this… but Mr. Kim has left me no choice.”

Janet sneaks a glance at me. “Uh…”

“Archer and I were childhood sweethearts.”

“What?” Janet chokes out.

“Yeah. We broke up before he left for college. And when we reunited couple days ago, he insisted I come for this interview. He didn’t want to spend a single minute apart from me. So he came up with this idea. If I got this job, I would be with him all the time.”

She smiles at Janet and then glares at me. “You are making things difficult for yourself, Mr. Kim.”

“Am I?”

She nods. “By not appointing me, you are kind of keeping the two destined lovers apart. You might lose your job and on top of that, your cruel actions would bring seven years of bad luck upon you.”

Janet is covering her face with her palm. As if she is having second-hand embarrassment.

“I’ll take my chances.” I motion toward the phone in her hand. “Call him.”

Disregarding my command, she throws Janet a worried look. “We shouldn’t get him involved. Trust me.”

“Is that worry I hear in your voice, Ms. Donovan?” I tilt my head. “Are you worried for us?”

“Y-yes.”

“I’d be touched if I believed your charade.”

She jumps to her feet. “This is the second time you called me a liar.”

I stand too. I am done with her bullshit. “Come on, call Archer.”

“As you wish.” She squints and her slender fingers fly on the phone screen.

For one full minute, I stand with my arms crossed watching her panic.

“Don’t have his number?” I mock softly.

She scoffs. “Found it.”

She hits call and holds her phone to her ear. Walking a few feet away, trying to escape my scrutiny.

“He’s not answering.” She lifts a shoulder.

I stride toward her with purposeful steps. Snatching the phone from her fingers, I peer at it. “Are you hungry, little liar?”

She gulps, backing away. I don’t allow space between us. I step closer. “I thought you were calling Archer Kim.”

Summer takes another retreating step and her back hits the wall. “I was. I may have accidentally clicked on Papa John's Pizza’s contact.”

“Stop lying, would you?”

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