Page 48 of Heartless Boss
Gunner
“Can two people with fucked-up pasts have a healthy relationship?” I ask Hannah through the phone. I close out my email. I decided to catch up on work, so I’ve been in my home office for an hour or two.
This question has been rattling in my brain since I asked Gia to do this experiment with me. I’ve been in a relationship before, but it wasn’t serious. When I was a senior in high school, I dated my American History teacher, Lucy; she was twenty-eight, and I was eighteen. She popped my cherry in the back of my truck. When I got accepted to NYU, I dumped her. I fed her some bullshit lie about wanting to focus on my future, but in reality, I wanted to fuck new pussy.
I hear a baby scream in the background, and it’s the ass-crack of dawn. If I hadn’t agreed to double the price I’m paying her, she wouldn’t allow me to call her this early in the morning.
“Yeah, of course. Why do you ask?”
“I’m casually dating a girl I’ve wanted since college.” I stressed the word casually, so she knows that this relationship isn’t going anywhere.
“Oh,” she says as if it caught her off guard.
I tell her everything about Gia, and how I moved her into my condo. How she works for me as my PA. I grab my thick glass of whiskey, and I sip it. I’ve gotten so used to the taste of it that the liquid doesn’t burn my throat.
“Gunner, what is love?” Hannah asks, and I set the glass down on the metal desk as I stare at my college degree hanging on my gray walls.
“If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then you’re fired because I’m not in love with Gia.”
She must be high to even think that.
She ignores my idle threats. “That is your new assignment—find out what love is, and let me know the answer. I have to go, I’ll see you next week.”
The line goes dead, and I walk back to my bedroom, which is located down the hall from my office. The balcony’s sliding glass door is open, inviting the morning breeze. Slowly, I walk outside to find Gia leaning over the iron railing with her buds in her ears she aims her camera at the landscape of my backyard.
The sun plays peek-a-boo with the trees and the grass is freshly cut. A memorial tree wrapped in baby blue I planted in honor of my late nephew is just off to the right.
My cotton T-shirt hangs very loosely on her small frame. She crosses her foot over the other one and bobs her head as she sings off tune to a rock song. Her messy brown hair flops over her shoulders.
I like this view a lot, maybe too much. Slowly I take long strides toward her, wrapping my arms around her waist, resting my chin on top of her head. Her scent invades my nostrils. She smells of apple orchard, pure and utter euphoria. And she tastes like the wet air after it rains.
We stand like this for what seems like forever, and I close my eyes, listening to the birds chirp loudly.
I like spending my time with her.
I like her here in my space.
I like that she likes me for me even though she sucks at hiding how she truly feels.
She spins around, removing the buds from her ears, and smiles through swollen lips, especially her bottom lip. It’s red with a cut. Damn, I was too rough on her last night.
Gia is as beautiful as a nautical twilight. Where the blue sky blends with pink hues, and you can’t tell where heaven begins and where the earth ends. Her face shines brighter than a million stars.
“Hi.” I use my index finger to clean the crust from her eye.
“Morning,” she says.
I slowly lean down and examine her neck, decorated with purple and pink hickeys. “You look well fucked.”
Her cheeks are flushed, and she flashes me her pearly whites. “I’ll make sure to write a review and leave a five-star on Yelp,” she says, then stands on her tippy toes and kisses the bridge of my nose.
“Smartass.”
She giggles at my answer. I like this carefree version of her. At work, she’s wound up and at home, she’s relaxed.
I don’t want to put a damper on our morning, but seeing those scars on her stomach and back worried me. While she slept after I fucked her five times last night, I didn’t get any sleep. Instead, I stayed up, tracing my fingers on her body, studying her like a map.
I need to get to the nitty-gritty about why she has scars. Who the fuck would do that to her?
