Page 37 of Faking It With My New Boss

“What?” I said, shocked. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously, go. Now.”

She was furious, her bottom lip trembling and tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

Frustrated, angry and coming down from the high adrenaline rush of smashing that bastard in the jaw, I turned to her before leaving.

“I’m sure he will forgive you if you put out,” I said, then turned, slammed the door behind me and headed to my car.

I didn’t even process driving back to the hotel. I knew I did it because I suddenly woke up from the drive in my parking space, my knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. I took a deep breath and decided that I just wanted to head in, go find an empty room and sit there for awhile. Let the adrenaline run out of me. Then I’d get a cup of coffee and get back to work.

I headed inside, made my way to one of the rooms and shut the door, locking it. The master key I had let me in anywhere, and the smaller rooms were all ready to go, unlike a handful of the Presidential suites. I crashed into the bed and dozed for a good bit before finally coming to. I had turned off my phone and it was by absolute luck that I woke up in time for work.

Grabbing my phone and sticking it in my pocket without turning it on, I headed down to my office on the bottom floor. I hadn’t bothered to do much with that office yet, which is one of the reasons I didn’t head straight there in the first place. The other being I didn’t want anyone knowing I was there, and therefore wouldn’t be bothered.

Leaving a note for the staff to go fix the room I had been in, I left the front desk, went into my office and headed to the bathroom to change. I was mostly ready when I heard someone shouting outside the office door and then the door swung open. The offices were a short hallway of rooms with a waiting area outside. It was primarily for the hotel manager, myself and the head of housekeeping to have a place to organize and work without interruption. Unfortunately, the small nature of the offices meant I didn’t have anyone to stop Courtney from storming in other than a very beleaguered and stressed-out event planner, who trailed her.

I held up my hand as they looked around the small waiting area and turned my attention to Courtney. She didn’t bother shutting the door behind her as she crossed over to me, one finger waggling as she yelled.

“Do you have any idea what you have done?” she said.

“I-,” I began.

“You got me kicked out, you idiot!” she yelled. I tried to recall the last time someone called me an idiot and I couldn’t. For some reason, it didn’t make me angry, but made me feel small. Hurt, even.

“What?” I asked.

“They kicked me out because of what you did,” she said, her teeth gritted. Her makeup was smeared from tears that had clearly been flowing.

“Why would they do that?” I asked.

“Because I was involved, don’t you see?” she demanded. “They have a zero-tolerance policy about violence or participating in violence. He called security when you were leaving, and that meant a report got made. He said he won’t press charges, but who gives a shit now? Now that I am kicked out!”

“That professor deserved to get hit,” I said. “He’s a leering, manipulative abuser and he was taking advantage of you. I was just protecting you.”

“I don’t need you protecting me,” she yelled, enunciating every syllable. “I don’t need you caping up and coming to my rescue like I’m some damsel in distress. I can take care of myself just fine and it isn’t your place to protect me. We aren’t engaged. It’s fake. You need to remember that. I wish I had never agreed to say we were.”

Without giving me a chance to respond she stomped out. I walked to the doorway of my office to watch her as she slammed the door behind her. I was devastated, angry and confused.

But it got worse.

One of the doors opened, the one for the office of the hotel manager, and not only was he there, but so was my grandfather. He looked at me sternly and I immediately knew he had heard every word. He left before I could even think of something to say and I turned, kicking a chair all the way against a wall.

My protectiveness for Courtney was so powerful, so pure, it could only mean one thing. I knew that. But I had never felt that before, not for anyone. The complex slate of emotions all battling for my attention made me want to bellow with rage, and I swept everything off my desk and onto the floor in anger.

I needed to figure out what was going to happen next. And I needed to do it in a damn hurry. The gala was a couple of nights away, and everything had gone wrong.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Courtney

I thought having a night away from Bryan and getting some sleep would help me to calm down. Maybe it would take the edge off the situation and I would be able to handle it with a touch more grace. Not that it would change anything. I was still going to quit. There was no way I was going to continue working for that man. Not when he pulled the shit he did at the school.

But maybe I'd be able to get through disentangling myself from Bryan Callahan without completely erupting again.

When I couldn't make myself settle down enough to sleep, I devoted my energy to drafting my resignation letter. The first several drafts were a bit more laden with profanity than seemed appropriate considering this was, at its core, still a professional position and anything that ended up on Bryan's desk might show up in front of future employers. After a few attempts I was able to pare the letter down to just the basics, all editorialization removed, and printed it out, signing it with a hint of flourish before I could change my mind and start sprinkling in the choice vocabulary again.

That was one obstacle down, but I still had to actually get the letter to Bryan and tell him I no longer worked for him. I was coaching myself not to show my emotion or give him the satisfaction of working me up as I walked toward his office the next morning. I was going to handle this with calm, maturity, and control, then move on with my life.

---