Page 14 of Boss Me

“She is joining you?”

“Not this time.” She couldn’t see me like this. Wallowing. Drunk.

“What about the rest of your family? Are you going to see Isobel?”

“Fuck, no.” My tía abuela was worse than Mamá. She’d cook for me and chatter and drag the whole sordid story out of me. And the last thing I wanted was to rehash how I’d gone Mick Fallon on my best friend, to remember his wide, frightened eyes, and Ben’s shocked expression.

I never wanted to think about that again.

“You need someone,” he said. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

“Shouldn’t I?” For some reason, Ben’s face swam into my vision. I blinked my eyes hard. No. When I couldn’t trust myself, alone seemed best. Maybe I could rent a cabin on the mountain and become a hermit.

What I needed was another drink.

Thankfully, I had a full liquor cabinet in my bungalow, and as soon as Ramón dropped me off, I poured myself another whiskey.

If I drank enough, I could forget what I’d done. What I’d lost.

5

BEN

The next morning, just as I was about to ping Cooper’s phone again, Julie parked herself in front of my desk. I blanked my phone’s screen and flashed her a smile. “What can I do for you, Julie?”

“Mr. Weston says Mr. Fallon is taking some time off. Does that mean he won’t be calling into the media conference about the research partnership?”

Fuck, that was today. Synergy had assigned a small team to customize our software for a climate-change research organization, like they’d done last year for a genetic research group. The hope was that Synergy’s analytics engine could streamline and accelerate the research for faster results. Cooper had fought hard for the donation, and he should’ve been the one to talk about it.

“No, sorry.”

“I’ll let Mr. Weston know.”

I released my breath. “Thanks, Julie.”

“Have him email an update, will you? Mr. Weston is looking for the latest numbers for his big project. Also, he wants Cooper’s network password.”

“His password?”

“Since Cooper won’t be back for a while, Mr. Weston wants to be sure he can get into his files. He needs his password.”

“I—I can’t give him that.” In my new-employee training, I’d signed a paper that I’d never, ever share my password with anyone else, not even my sister. That had to apply to Cooper’s password, too.

Julie frowned. “Of course you can. It doesn’t belong to Cooper. It belongs to Synergy. And Mr. Weston is the CEO.”

Numbly, my lips formed the word, “Okay.”

After she walked away, I dropped my head into my hands.

I should’ve taken the damn spa day.

Weston knew about Cooper’s time away. I supposed it made sense for Cooper to have told his boss. Couldn’t he have taken the time to tell his assistant? Fucking note. Fucking gift certificate. My belly burned.

But I was a professional, even if Cooper had decided to stop acting like one. I’d email him—

Email! Why hadn’t I thought of that? If Cooper was sending email, maybe I could figure out where he’d gone.

I flipped from the calendar app to the email app and logged in to view Cooper’s. The unreads were staggering; I’d have to triage them later. I checked the Sent box.

---