Page 14 of Faking It With My New Boss

“Where are you going?” I asked.

She didn't hesitate even for a second. She walked around the side of the desk and brushed past me on the way to the door. This woman was seriously not even going to give me the time of day. I was stunned. And pissed off at myself for just how intrigued I felt. That shouldn't be the way I was reacting to this. I should be infuriated by her. I should be enraged and offended, and not want a single second more to do with her.

After all, that would have been the way I would have reacted if it had been anyone else who tried to pull a stunt like that with me. There wasn't a single person on the planet I could think of who I would let get away with talking to me like that and still want to interact with them.

Even my grandfather was a pain in the ass but managed to maintain at least some sense of decorum most of the time and didn't lash out at me like that. And I still didn't want anything to do with him. I was forced into his presence and could only indulge in a few of the responses I wanted to make toward him. Most of the time I had to bite my tongue so I didn't end up tossed out in the cold without the cushy income and perks of my family.

No one, particularly no one in a subservient position to me, had ever even close to attempted something like that. I could only imagine if they ever had, I would have cut them off at the knees without a single second of hesitation.

And yet, that wasn't happening with Courtney. Not only had I not ripped into her because of the way she had spoken to me, but I'm trying to get her to speak to me more. She wasn't backing down and hadn't come crawling back to try to excuse her behavior. In fact, it seemed she was on her way out. And all I wanted to do was follow after her.

Something about her had me fascinated and I ended up chasing behind her as she left her office and headed downstairs. She didn't even bother to look back over her shoulder as I followed her across the lobby.

“Courtney,” I shouted after her. “Courtney, stop. Courtney. Courtney, I need to speak to you.”

I spoke as loudly as I could, purposely causing a bit of a scene. I figured she would only tolerate that but for so long. And I was right. She was only about halfway across the lobby when she stopped and whipped around to face me.

“Could you lower your voice?” she asked in a harsh whisper. “There are other people around here.”

“I'm aware,” I said. “I wouldn't have had to lower my voice if you weren't being so stubborn and stomping away from me like a child.”

“If all you want to do is call me names, then I'm leaving,” she said.

“Stop,” I said before she could make it more than a couple of steps away. She turned back to me but didn't say anything. I stepped up closer to her. “No one has ever spoken to me before the way you did upstairs in my office.”

She was unfazed by my lowered voice and even the intense way I purposely met her eyes.

“Maybe they should,” she said defiantly.

I nodded. “Yeah. Maybe they should.”

My response surprised both of us. Her expression loosened and her eyes opened a little wider. We looked at each other in silence as if neither one of us knew where to go from there. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone approaching. I thought for a second it might be security, but then realized it was a young woman. She walked up to Courtney's side and glanced at me before leaning a little closer.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, a confused expression on her face.

Courtney nodded. “Yeah, everything's fine. Could you wait for me over in the sitting area for just a minute?”

“Sure,” the other woman said. “I'll be just over there.”

She looked at me suspiciously before walking away.

“Come back upstairs,” I said, speaking with more sincerity. “Don't leave like this.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because you have a job to do,” I said.

“According to the reaction you just had to the work I already did, anyone with half a brain and the ability to make phone calls for local vendors could do what you want me to do. I can't imagine it would be too challenging for you to find somebody to do it for you.”

“Perhaps my reaction to the ideas you came up with was premature,” I said. “I'd like to go over them further.”

I wasn't going to go so far as apologizing. But if I had to give a little bit in order to convince Courtney to come back, it was what I had to do. Eventually, she relented.

“Fine,” she said. “I'll come back.”

“I want you to understand I'm not going to tolerate you acting like this. This is your one pass,” I said.

Courtney looked directly into my eyes. “I'm going to lunch. We'll talk when I'm back.”

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