Page 96 of The Grumpy Billionaire

Hugo pushes right back on Wulfric’s grumbles of barely contained outrage at the data model scribblings. Hugo’s all cool, confident math talk, delivered like it’s so obvious. Which seems to annoy Wulfric further. He gets more ragey. Hugo talks more numbers, taking exactly zero shit.

They’re evenly matched in their own weird ways, and it comes to me that they could go on for hours this way, like if Mothra and Godzilla joined a math club.

Wulfric suddenly turns his scary gaze to me. “And your role is…”

I stiffen. Is Wulfric Pierce talking to me? I didn’t think he’d actually talk to me. I didn’t think he’d even see me.

Hugo fixes Wulfric with a hard, hawkish gaze. “I won’t have you questioning my people or micromanaging this operation.”

Wulfric takes a step nearer to Hugo. “Is that so?”

“You want me to deliver?” Hugo asks.

“Oh, I want you to deliver…”

“Then you won’t question my people or micromanage this operation.”

They roll on in this vein, going for another round of menace at the math club.

Lola glances over yet again, her expression deadpan. I don’t know whether she’s trying to be funny, looking at me with that blank face while the two of them are doing alpha-male-testosterone hour, but it’s completely hilarious, and this would be a terrible time to laugh.

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

But they are just so serious and alpha on each other…

I grab a pad of paper and start furiously writing nonsense, because my face is contorting with stifled laughter.

Finally Wulfric and Lola leave.

I collapse into Hugo’s buddy chair. “Oh my god.”

“Don’t worry about Wulfric. You never have to worry about him. His bark is worse than his bite—”

“Allegedly,” I say.

“You can’t believe the rumors.”

“It was more that I was scared I’d start laughing,” I say.

“What could you have possibly found funny about that?”

“Well, you guys were…a bit intense,” I say.

“And you thought that was funny?” he growls.

“Kind of.”

He plants his hands on the arms of my chair. I have this sense that I’m a little bit in trouble from him. “Do. Not. Laugh at Wulfric.”

“That’s what makes it so hard! Because I know it would be terrible to do. I can’t help it.”

“You can help it.”

“I try.”

“Try harder.”

I smile. He looks so handsome when he’s being stern.

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