Page 43 of The Boss

I didn’t bother telling her to pass along my love or tell anyone that I missed them. They all knew the truth of me, of who I was. My family all knew that it would be nothing for me to leave my place in Manhattan and go to the Bronx to see all of them. All but Joshua, of course. He was in L.A., and while I doubted he was coming home for the party, I didn’t want to risk seeing him. Better for everyone if I stayed home.

Mom and I exchanged a couple more words of small talk, and then she ended the call. I stared at the screen for a minute, waiting for her to call back, half-hoping she’d want to convince me to come to the party, tell me that it had been too long since she’d seen me.

I let myself hope those things for five minutes. No more than that. If I let myself hope longer than those five minutes, I might actually think that something might change.

I reached for my book but stopped when my phone rang again. This time, it wasn’t my mother’s number and name on the screen. It was my brother’s.

“Afternoon, David.”

“You couldn’t even bother to come up with an original excuse?”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Come on, we both know you don’t want me there today. I might as well make everyone happy and stay away.”

“Come on,” he mimicked my tone, “we both know you aren’t staying away because you want to make anyone happy. This is all about you, same as it always is.”

“You’re right,” I said, not wanting to draw this out. “It’s about me. Now that you’ve dragged out that confession, can we go back to radio silence? I’m actually busy.”

“I can’t believe you’re making our parents’ anniversary about you,” David snapped. “Or, I guess I can because you’ve always been selfish.”

“Nobody wants me there, David. Fuck off.”

I stood up as I ended the call. I couldn’t sit around here and read, holding onto a fuckingsock. I needed to blow off some steam, and there was only one place I could do that.

I was going out.

Twenty-Five

Ashlee

The weather had takena crazy turn today, the temperature dropping from dawn on until it would have been snowing had the precipitation been right. It’d still be cold in the morning, which would suck, but right now, I was enjoying being snuggled under a fluffy blanket, sipping hot cocoa and watching a movie marathon about my favorite wizarding world.

By the time the most recent movie ended, it was eleven o’clock, and I was ready for bed. Not only did I want to be up early enough for work that I could beat everybody to the office, but my Friday and Saturday nights had both been more physical than I was used to, and it wasn’t like I never exercised at all.

I winced as I stood, further proving my point. I felt like I’d done some sort of crazy exercise challenge or something. I was more grateful than ever that the new marks Nate had left on my body would be easily covered by my normal work clothes. Nothing like a turtleneck a couple days after being spotted on the boss’s arm to make people immediately think of hickeys.

It truly was sad how much the corporate world was like high school.

I was exhausted enough that I fell asleep not long after I turned out my light. A night of deep, dreamless sleep was exactly what I needed to fortify myself for tomorrow.

A thump on my door jerked me out of sleep, bleary and disoriented. My heart pounded in my chest, and I reached for my phone. Half past midnight. I’d been asleep for a little over an hour. I didn’t get out of bed, hoping that the thump had been on a neighbor’s door rather than mine. Only a few seconds passed before two faster thumps came, one after the other.

Knocks.

Someone was knocking on my door.

“Ashlee! Open!”

Fuck me. It was Nate. What the hell was he doing here? And at this hour? Was he determined to keep me from sleeping at all this weekend?

I threw off my covers, fully awake, and even more fully annoyed. He was going to have to explain to Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas why I was falling asleep at my desk.

I didn’t even consider the possibility of not opening the door. I could have made excuses later when he asked why I hadn’t come when he’d called. Plenty of people could sleep through anything. Mona had always been like that. I doubted that excuse would work though if Perry or Gary thought I was in trouble, or Mrs. Posner got annoyed, and one of them called the cops. As much as he’d reassured me that sex and work were two entirely separate things, I couldn’t help feeling like that’d be the end of my career, at least at Manhattan Records, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.

Continuing to justify my choice, I made my way to the door and opened it, glaring up at him as I grabbed his sleeve.

“Get in here before you wake up the whole damn building!” I hissed.

I closed the door behind him, preparing myself as I faced him. He wasn’t going to be happy that I’d…

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