Page 91 of The Boss

“H… hey!” Julianna comes after me. That’s what I get for taking one second to look over my shoulder instead of booking it like I wanted. “Lessa!”

Run… run… I’ll keep running until I finally put this woman behind me and never think about her again. Guess that means I’m running forever.

Nope. I make it to a park a whole two minutes away before my winded ass needs to plop down a bench and hope someone doesn’t accost me for money. Luckily, on a day like today, most of the park is occupied by dog walkers and kids. And JuliannaMarcon, who caught up to me in about ten seconds. Damn her. She’s not even out of breath.

“Lessa,” she barks. “I swear to God, you try me.”

I flash her the most heated look I can muster when I already feel like a winded sack of sorry shit. It’s a good thing, too. It sort of puffs me up to brave the woman I thought I loved. The fetching, sharp, sometimes ironically funny woman who had convinced me that we may have had a chance. For a while, anyway. “Not as much as you try me.”

“Would you let me explain myself for two seconds? This whole mess could have been avoided had you ever listened to me.”

“Let me guess,” I say with a sniff, “if we were still together, you’d give me a good spanking for my current insubordination. Right, madam?” I make sure to spit her favorite word.

“Alessa Penrose,” she snaps back at me. “You are one of the most incorrigible women I have ever…”

I don’t let her finish. “I know. You thought I’d be some docile target, yes? Oh, wait. Sorry. You didn’t even choose me. According to Cher, it was Presley who chose me for you.”

“Why in the world are you listening to her? She’s a liar! A scheming, money-hungry…”

Deep down, I know it’s the truth. I know that Cher’s endgame, as soon as she saw the opportunity, was to milk these women for as much as she could get. What better way to do that than to win a nice lawsuit? Once she realized she could bring me down with her, that only solidified her case.

I know this. But what am I going to do? Walk away? Go back to Julianna, so she can continue to string me along and humiliate me? I don’t think so. I’d rather keep some shred of dignity and get what I can out of this.

Then again, just because I hate what she’s done, doesn’t mean I want her business to be ruined. “What does it matter?” I finally ask. “I’m humiliated.”

She slowly sits down on the other end of the bench, her arm slinking along the back as if we’re real lovers enjoying a nice day at the park. I bristle. What I would give for it to be true. “For what’s it worth, I do genuinely like you, Lessa.”

I almost believe her. In fact, I do believe her. All those weeks together, letting me see some of the most intimate sides of her… for fuck’s sake, this woman once walked in on me using the damn bathroom and politely pretended to not have seen a thing while she grabbed a towel and her toothbrush before bed. We were about to reach that part of our relationship where the good kinds of familiarity settle in. Knowing we can count on each other, what we like and dislike, seeing the perfect present and awaiting the smile on her face… we were almost there.

Then it was ruined.

“Tell me the truth, Julianna,” I say, still unable to bring myself to look at her. “Was what Cher said about that night true? Was I a bet you had with your business partner?”

Her silence is telling enough at first. At least enough for me to get up and walk out of her life forever. No, I don’t need her to verbally confirm. I know.

She at least has the decency to do it anyway.

“I was staying in the office late on a Friday night. You know how Presley is. Always concerned that I’m not having enough fun in my life. I don’t know how the conversation turned to it, but she bet me that I couldn’t ‘seduce’ an intern. Because I have such an awful personality, apparently.” She stops for a moment. Then, “So, I took her up on that bet. To top it off, I had sex with the woman she picked. Why not? I know I can seduce anyone I want, let alone make themtoleratemy company. I believed it, too. Hell, I still do. It’s not something I’m ashamed of.”

I scoff, my whole body turned away from her. A golden retriever runs by with a Frisbee in its mouth. A young boy chases after it with shrieks of laughter.

This is supposed to be a happy park for families and lovers enjoying the sunshine. Here we are, polluting it with our drama.

“But yes. Presley ‘chose’ you at random. Yet when you entered my office, I felt… well, I knew it was an opportunity. One I would not let pass me by.”

My body is so tense that I need a Thai massage to ever feel normal again. “I bet she chose me because I was the ugliest of all the interns.”

“No. She chose you because she thought you were the one to drivemecrazy first. It was no secret that you had been falling behind in performance around the office.”

“So, you ordered me up with a false story and then proceeded to lie about always being attracted to me. God! I knew it was bullshit, Jules. All that stuff you told me didn’t make sense, but how could I resist you? You’re right! You can seduce anyone you want!”

“I now highly doubt that.”

“What makes you say that?”

She looks away. “I doubt I could seduce you right now with you feeling like this.”

She’s right. As much as I wish we could go back to her penthouse and roll around in her California King Bed, it wouldn’t be right. I would be full of these bitter feelings, and she would be making a huge legal mistake.

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