Page 49 of The Grump I Loathe
“He can just be a little…intimidating and overly serious,” she said. “At least until you get to know him. Ali was the one who made friends with everyone right away. But Connor’s just not like that.”
“If you were friends with Ali, why didyoustay?” I asked.
Leigh sighed. “Ali is an amazing designer, and she’s a lot of fun off the job, too, but honestly, she was a crap boss. She just has nomanagerial skills at all. She’s bad at delegating, bad at figuring out reasonable workloads, bad at keeping people on track, and downright horrible at training or mentoring because she’d get caught up in her head and forget to explain anything she was doing.”
She waved her hand as if to tell me it wasn’t all bad. “I love her. Honestly. But as a boss, her tendency was to ask way too much of people and forget to give them any of the support they needed. None of it was malicious—but that didn’t stop it from being a huge problem. Connor may not have her creativity or her charisma, but he’s agreatboss.” Well, that was good to hear and, from what little I’d experienced, kind of true.
“Don’t get me wrong, the divorce sucked. And having to choose between them sucked. But when it came down to it, the choice wasn’t difficult. Connor was the one—isthe one—who looks after us. He’s why we have the most competitive benefits package in the industry, because he cares about us as people and not just employees—even if he’s not always the best at showing it.”
Warmth seeped through me again, different from the heat of desire, and a soft smile tugged at my lips. I’d wanted to believe there was more to him than a brooding grump locked away in his tower lording over everyone, but part of me had worried that was wishful thinking—that I wanted to believe he was better than he really was just because I was so attracted to him. But this…this was confirmation. I hadn’t been wrong about him. He reallywasa good man, underneath the grump.
“So when he wants people to stay in their own lanes, it’s not about him being a control freak?” I asked, just to confirm.
“I mean, maybe a little?” Leigh admitted. “But I think it’s mostly that he doesn’t want people to take on too much and burn themselves out. It’s been an issue before.”
I nodded my understanding. By and large, the people who worked in video gameslovedvideo games, and that meant they weren’t the best at remembering to pace themselves or take breaks. There were managers to keep an eye on our workloads, but that wouldn’t put much of a check on someone who chose to take on extra tasks they weren’t assigned. But right then, Leigh was dodging my eye contact suspiciously.
“You’renot working yourself too hard, are you?” I asked.
Leigh flushed. “I’m trying not to. It’s just…I go home, and it’s really quiet, you know? So logging in and putting in a few more hours doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. But don’t worry, Connor’s already talked to me about how important it is to unplug.”
“So what do you do for fun?” I asked.
“Does repotting my plants count? Because that’s what I did this weekend. Well, Tristan’s plants.” She shook her head. “I don’t even like plants.”
“Did you get custody of them in the breakup?”
She snorted. “I thought he’d come back for them, but it’s been months now, so I guess.”
“You need to find yourself a new plant daddy,” I said.
She threw her head back and laughed. “I’ll get right on putting that on my dating profile.”
“I’m serious. It’s been a few months since your breakup, right? You need to get back out there.”
Leigh sighed heavily. “Honestly, there’s a part of me that isn’t interested yet. The thought of dating just feels…exhausting. But it dawned on me this week that I’ve got Ali’s wedding at the end of September, and if Tristan shows up, I can’t be without a plus-one. It’ll be mortifying.”
“Okay, so what’s that, like two and half months? That’s plenty of time to secure a hot plant dad. And if not, you’ve always got me as a plus-one backup,” I joked. I’d heard around the office that Ali was getting married soon, but I hadn’t realized it wasthatsoon.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“But seriously, Leigh. You have to take the plunge. The first date is always the hardest.”
She grunted.
I gasped as a brilliant idea occurred to me. “What if I set you up?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely yes!” I said, picking up my phone to text Aidan.
Leigh walked away, I followed. “One of my friends is single, and he’s awesome. He’s a woodworker, so you know he’s good with his hands. Gorgeous, too. And a total sweetheart—like if a golden retriever got a human body with great biceps and shoulders for days.”
We paused in the lounge where Mr. Cheesers squeaked for attention.
“See, even the rat thinks it’s a good idea.” I opened the cage and held my hand out for Mr. Cheesers to climb up my arm. Knowing absolutely nothing about rats, I was continually impressed at the little guy’s smarts. He settled on my shoulder, and I’m sure we made an interesting sight as we both stared at Leigh.
When she still looked uncertain, I made the choice for her, pulling up a reservations app.
