Page 48 of The Wrong Boss

The travel itinerary for my next trip out west was enclosed in her email, along with a short, professional note to let her know if I needed anything amended. She’d copied Kaia in.

She was working late.

An image popped into my head: Carrie, ensconced in fluffy blankets, with her work laptop resting on her thighs. I had no idea what her bed looked like, but I imagined it was large, with cozy, comfortable bedding and a few too many pillows. She was the kind of woman who liked small indulgences. The light of the laptop screen would be illuminating her face in an unearthly blue glow.

My finger hovered over the “Reply All” button, then slid over to “Reply.” A blank email addressed to only Carrie sprang up.

This was work related. I wasn’t betraying anyone by thanking my employee for a job well done. And that’s all I did. I sent one word back: “Thanks,” and stared at my screen, feeling pathetic for wanting an answer I knew wouldn’t come.

But it did come, just as I was sliding my phone back into my pocket. One word, and an innocent little smiley face: “Anytime :)”

Very deliberately, I put my phone to sleep and slid it into my pocket. Then I got up and got ready for bed.

When I woke up in the morning, Alba wasn’t beside me. Evidently, she’d stayed at her mother’s. I stared at the pristine pillow on her side of the bed, the sheets still tucked in across from me, and let out a long sigh. Then I rose from the bed and got ready for work.

SEVENTEEN

CARRIE

What I should’ve been doing immediatelyafter my meeting with Carla was tapping my network to see if I could get another job lined up. I should’ve gone to Mr. Wentworth in person to see if he was willing to take me back, even though I was pretty sure he’d already have replaced me by now. The man could not check his own messages to save his life; hiring someone to do it for him would have been a priority.

I should’ve been preparing for a tough conversation with Cole, maybe even practicing in front of a mirror or writing down a speech.

Hi, Mr. Boss Man. There’s something I haven’t been completely honest about…

Yeah. That would go over well. Every time I started thinking about my eventual meeting with Cole, I recoiled.

Ididwant to wait until after the spelling bee, because Evie was throwing herself into her preparation with a kind of dedicationthat I’d rarely seen from her. I didn’t want to take that away from her. At least that’s what I told myself.

Really, I was just a scaredy-cat coward afraid of giving up a single minute of time with my daughter. And as the days dragged on, the spelling bee reasoning began to feel a little thin. The truth was that I was afraid of what would come next. Would Cole reject her? Would he try to take her away? Either option was terrifying, and I was frozen.

So I worked hard during the day, then quizzed Evie on words of ever-increasing difficulty, and then I did the thousand and one tasks required to care for myself and my daughter, then collapsed in bed, exhausted.

From a distance, I watched Cole and was unsurprised to find him to be extremely intelligent and exacting. He was a good boss, even though he demanded a lot. People moved out of his way when he walked down a crowded hallway. They stood up straighter when he entered a room. They glowed when he said their names and crumpled when he delivered criticism.

His presence was a typhoon that ripped through the rest of us like we were flotsam on a violent sea.

I was unbearably, pathetically attracted to him. I hated how much I was drawn to him. I despised how I could sense his entry into any room like my body was attuned to him on an energetic level. I resented the fact that I was just another minion caught in the storm of his presence.

I wasn’t special. Seven years ago, I hadn’t been special either. It was a sobering reminder, but it didn’t stop me from watching the way he prowled through the building, or the shapeof his knuckles when he gripped a door handle, or the dark spark in his eyes when our gazes happened to meet.

Three weeks went by, and I was able to bury my attraction to him as deep as it would go. I was able to work in his presence without thinking about his hands on my body—mostly. Working helped. Thinking about the fact that I needed to tell him about Evie didn’t.

I knew that as soon as my secret came out, it was likely I would be jobless once more. At best, all I could hope for was a decent reference if someone asked why I’d only worked at Hearst, Inc. for a short amount of time.

The hell of it was, Ilovedworking here. The assistant pool consisted of six highly qualified EAs. There was Kaia, who ruled us with an indomitable will. She was tough, but I quickly learned that she held herself to the same standards she expected from the rest of us. Her mind was a steel trap. Every SOP, every detail, and every preference held by all the executives, board members, and key clients were filed away in her brilliant mind. Not only that, but she had a deep understanding of the company’s products and processes, down to impressively technical details.

Within two days, I’d been in awe and more than happy to work under her. In two weeks, I’d wanted to be her best friend—and take a look at her planner so I could see how the hell she managed to keep so many tasks, meetings, and schedules organized. Every time she showed me one of the processes she’d perfected in the company’s manuals, I felt myself become better at my job.

Then there was Rachael, a woman in her mid-fifties who’dbeen the former director’s personal assistant for decades. She didn’t work as quickly as Kaia, but her knowledge of the company’s history was invaluable. By the end of my first week, I’d come to see her as the glue that held both the assistants—and by extension, the executives and most of the top managers—together.

On the Monday of my fourth week with the company, I found myself in the kitchen with the older woman. We hadn’t interacted much beyond professional courtesy so far. She shifted to the side so I could access the coffee machine, then threw me a sideways smile.

“I hear you impressed the big bad boss on your very first day. That takes some doing.”

I shrugged. “I might have used some connections from my old job to do it.”

Her smile was genuine—and a little wicked. “Hey, we have to do what we have to do to make this place run, right?”

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