Page 1 of Faking It With My New Boss

Chapter One

Courtney

“You’re here!”

I could hear my best friend squealing with delight at my arrival over the sound of the moving truck engine. It cut through the silence of the early morning hour and made several birds fly out of a tree right in front of me.

I bet my new neighbors were just loving this.

Parking the truck in front of the little house, I turned off the engine and took a deep breath. Vanessa was already running down from the small front porch in all her denim overalls glory, her ponytail bouncing behind her.

This was actually real. I was really doing this. After months of talk and bravado, I had actually taken the leap. Rather than just continuing on with the career I thought I wanted and thinking my dreams were out of my reach, I packed up and went for it. For the first time, I’d actually taken control of my life.

And I was right on the brink of hyperventilating.

This whole thing was just a lot. I didn’t want to show how overwhelmed I already felt. After all, I was a grown woman. A grown woman who had already been through finding a career, getting a divorce, and rebuilding her life. Relocating a few hours away to go back to school shouldn’t have been that daunting.

And yet, here I was. Hands clenched around the steering wheel. All my possessions piled up behind me. Both a rock and a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. And my best friend trying to pry the locked door open.

Looking out at Vanessa lessened my nervousness a little bit. It made me smile to see how excited she was to have me there. She was already dressed and ready for the challenge of moving me into my new place. I hadn't even seen the inside of the little house yet. When I made the decision to move here, I searched online for something that would suit my needs and also my now fairly limited budget. It was up to Vanessa to do the actual tour inside.

I knew she wouldn't agree to something that I would end up hating, but there was still a lingering worry about putting down a security deposit and two months’ rent before getting a glimpse inside. It was like the biggest, most expensive blind bag collectible in existence.

“Courtney?” Vanessa called through the door. “What are you doing?”

She shouted like I was still all the way across the yard. The combination of the quizzical look on her face, the open front door of the little house, and the man in a blue fuzzy bathrobe and quite possibly nothing else glaring out of his own little house down the block snapped me out of my meandering thoughts. I was spiraling, giving myself excuses to stay stagnant again, just like I had for so long.

I couldn’t let myself do that. It might have seemed like a compulsive decision to empty my old apartment, toss interior designing behind me, and enroll in law school, but it actually wasn’t. This dream had been inside me a long time and I’d just let myself avoid going after it so I didn’t have to worry about failing. If I just kept it as a dream, then I could long for it. I could think about it and how wonderful it would be to have, and never risk the possibility it wouldn’t happen.

That wasn’t good enough anymore. Watching the transformation my ex-husband Robert went through falling in hapless, unexpected love with his wife Tina was enough to shake me out of that funk. There was life out there. More than what I had and everything I could go after.

I deserved to at least try.

Somehow that pep talk pushed me over the edge and had me reserving a moving van and searching for houses in close proximity to the school I hoped to attend. My application for school and the house were in and several boxes were packed and labeled before it all sank in. But it was too late to turn back, too late to reconsider.

I was here now. It was time to find out what life had waiting for me.

One more deep breath and I opened the door, sliding from the black leather seat and onto the edge of the street in front of Vanessa. She immediately let out another squeal and I was pretty sure it was the first sound several of my neighbors heard that morning, and threw her arms around me.

I hugged her back tightly. She was a lot, but she was my oldest and best friend. I’d missed her like crazy when she came here to embark on her own legal career and it was good to be near her again.

“It’s been way too long,” I said, still hugging her.

“Well, I’m the one who’s been telling you for years to come out here,” Vanessa said. “I’ve had to brave the wilds by myself.”

I laughed and looked around the sleepy neighborhood. “These wilds?”

“These aren’t the wilds. Wait until I get you out on the town tonight,” she said.

“There’s a whole lot of moving ahead of us,” I pointed out, stepping back from the hug and wrapping my arm around her waist to guide her to the back of the truck. “Maybe after that we’ll talk about going out.”

“How much could you have possibly brought with you?” she asked.

I opened the back of the truck to reveal the boxes and furniture stuffed inside.

“About that much,” I said.

Vanessa’s mouth fell open. “How did that fit in your apartment?”

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