Page 26 of My Grumpy Billionaire Soccer Star

“Here, Vaughn.”

Shifting my eyes from her, I threw a hand in the air, breaking the trajectory of the flying bottle, and begin chugging down its contents.

And that’s when I see it.

Sheesh. She is gesticulating in a manner that seems all too familiar because that’s exactly how I move my hands!

Wait—or am I being delusional?

No, it can’t be. She’s even doing the “corkscrewing” motion I do, especially when being interviewed. How on earth could she not notice these things? Or does she? And she’s just doing it to mess with me?

“Once I get his schedule modified, I will communicate with you—”

She just did it again!

Our eyes met again, and I caught something in her eyes that made me realize she wasn’t messing with me at all. Our encounter is as fresh in her mind as it is in mine, and I know I was in for a tough one. It’s one of those things that are so subtle yet so easy to notice if they are about you.

And I hated it.

Chapter eleven

Chapter Eleven

Rachel

It felt like my eardrums were being pierced by sharp needles when my phone shrilled on the bedside table.

I curse softly under my breath, opening my eyes slowly, expecting to be greeted by the sun’s blinding rays seeping through my curtain blinds. I raise my eyebrows in surprise when I see that the sun is just coming up—I can’t even feel its warmth yet.

Who the hell is waking me up at this time? The sun itself hasn’t fully woken up yet!

Before I can notice, Archie jolts awake beside me. He dashes toward my phone, but not even the fast reaction time of a cat could beat my close distance to the bedside table. I pick up my phone just in time before Archie can do any damage.I am sorry,feline friend, for waking you up, but I am not about to let you damage my cell phone.

My heart leaps into my mouth when I see the caller. It’s Vaughn!

“H-hello?”

Aside from the fact that I have a sore throat, and my voice already sounds as if a series of heavy-duty chains are being pulled against a rail track from sleep, the nervousness that envelopes me makes it worse—at least to me.

“Wait, are you just waking up?” he says in disbelief.

I clutch at my blanket even tighter. From his tone, I already knew what was coming next, though I wasn’t even expecting him to call me in the first place because of you-know-what.

He goes on a tirade about how he pays me a good amount of money to show up at work when I’m supposed to and tells me to “haul my ass over here” right now. Just like that, the automatic panic response one acquires after almost two years of working with Vaughn triggers within me, and I am on my feet within seconds.

Archie, who still seems annoyed, looks at me with a puzzled expression. It’s the same look she gives me every time I get ready for work, and it seems to always ask, “Aren’t you tired of your shitty job yet?”

Well, my shitty job makes sure you have enough milk in your bowl and enough cat food to last you a decade!I yell in my head before storming off to the bathroom—the first step in readying myself for a showdown with Vaughn.

***

Okay, Ray, you can do this. You are going to maintain a professional tone when speaking to him and a professionalposture when you see him because that’s what you are—a professional.

Shit.

This exercise seems stranger than I thought, but at this point, I could give my next month’s paycheck not to give Vaughn even the slightest hint of how I feel about our sexual encounter in his study. I don’t want anything to interfere with our work relationship, even though we’ve practically avoided each other for the past two days.

I look into my eyes through the rearview mirror, trying to make them appear as determined as possible.

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