Page 26 of The Workaholic Down the Hall

Noah shook his head, but I saw his mouth twitch like he was holding back a smile.

George handed over the cell phones and spun back around to chat with Nora like they were old friends. Since he was chatting about us and how likely we were to make a run for it, I chose to tune him out. Instead, I dropped my attention to my phone.

I had surprisingly few emails and voice mails, Nora really had been taking care of everything for me, so I was able to resolve every issue in the time it took to get to the doctor's office.

“Problem at your condo?” Noah asked as Nora circled the parking lot, looking for a spot close to the main doors.

“What?”

“You were talking about plumbing.”

“Oh,” I said. “No, that was about one of my rental properties. My tenants had a leak, but I work with an amazing management service that put them in touch with a plumber I trust. I was just following up.”

“You own a rental property?” he asked, disbelief clear in his tone. His disbelief annoyed me on every level.

“Three, actually. Two condos and a duplex.”

Nora parked and I got out of the car before he asked me any other questions that annoyed me, like how a girl like me had managed to get into the rental property business. I'd never known Noah to have sexist tendencies, so I took his disbelief one hundred percent personally.

He walked around the back of the car and met me so we could walk inside together. “How have you managed three properties without me knowing about it?”

I glared at him. “Seriously?”

“I'm just curious. You worked fifty hours a week for me, at least. I don't know how you found the time.” He smiled. “And before you accuse me of misogyny, I believe you more than capable of being a landlord and a damn good one.”

“Managing my rental properties is more like a hobby for me. It brings in extra cash and keeps me busy. It's fun.” I smiled sweetly at him. “And it lacks all the headaches working for you caused me.”

He walked into the building with me. “I was a hell of a lot better to work for than Alex Owings.”

I rolled my eyes, in the mood to press his buttons. “At least he didn't force me to eat lunch with him in his office causing me to smell like his tuna fish sandwiches the rest of the day.”

“That was one time.”

I ignored him and went to the window to sign in. When I turned, I saw Noah slumped in a seat in the waiting room, an annoyed glower on his face.

I sat next to him and folded my hands in my lap, cool, calm, and collected. “And Alex never forgot my birthday.” He'd never remembered it to begin with, but I was having too much fun picking on Noah to care about facts.

“I was a couple hours late wishing you happy birthday. I didn't forget.”

“You're a liar,” I said.

“And I've met rocks smarter than Alex Owings, not to mention the way he talks about women.” He sat up a bit straighter. “Did he touch you?”

His concern was adorable and I melted a bit. I gestured to my buddha belly. “I'm pretty sure this was a deterrent to his attentions, though judging by the women he brought around, his standards weren't very much higher than not dating pregnant women.”

Noah grimaced. “God, that guy is an asshole.”

“He actually wasn't so bad. He was fair and he worked harder than anyone else on staff. He wasn't the sort of CEO who golfed every other day.”

My praise of Alex Owings made Noah frown harder, but his dislike of my previous boss had nothing to do with me so he could frown all he wanted.

I relaxed in my seat a bit and grabbed a parenting magazine from a nearby table. “Wait, where's your mother?”

Noah sat up a bit straighter and looked around. He stood and stalked to the windows overlooking the parking lot. “She's gone. Think that means we're free?”

“Sure,” I said. “Call an Uber, get back to Atlanta.” I hadn't meant for my words to come out as snarky as they had.

“Aubrey, that's not—”

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