Page 27 of Sassy Love
Her eyes are almost pleading.
She would have to be the most empathetic boss, leader, I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
She makes Carlson look truly hell-sent.
“We get along fine. I know she blames me for losing her career at Carlson’s. But I think this is a change we will thrive with.”
The second the words leave my mouth, I remember that one of us isn’t going to be staying.
Fuck.
“Please know, we would keep you both if we had the means to.”
“I’m sure you would. And this isn’t about either myself or Lamont—Carlie.” Her first name on my tongue feels strange. Too much. Too... familiar. “It’s about the women and girls you help every day.”
She gives me a scrunched-up smile and pats my hand as she rises. “Good to know. I’ll let you return to your day.”
“Thank you.”
She rounds the desk and sits behind it as she looks up. “You’re most welcome.”
If there was a person to win salt of the earth, best human on earth, it would be Serelle.
And damn if I don’t want to make sure I’m still working here, for her, at the end of the next three months. I wander back to the office to find Nadia waiting outside my door. Satan eyeballs her from behind her wonky glass desk, flipping a gold pen through her fingers.
I decide to put Nadia out of her misery. “Morning Nadia, what can I do for you?”
She chuckles and sweeps a stray curl of hair behind her ear and pushes her glasses up her nose. They’re new.
“You get glasses? Or am I the one who’s blind?”
Her body sways as she huffs a small sound and tugs her bottom lip through her teeth. “My contacts fell down a subway grate.”
“What? What happened?”
She waves a hand. “Oh no, nothing like that, I was trying to pull my purse out to pay for a hotdog and they flew out, case and all, and bounced over the metal and out of sight. It’s my fault really, I should be more organized. That bag of mine is so?—”
The glass door opens, protesting with a whine from being hauled open too quickly. “If you are bored, Nadine, I can’t find a job for you. Rawlins, I need you in here.”
Nadia’s eyes widen as she turns, her movements stiff and mechanical. “Sorry, I just nee?—”
Lamont raises an elegant eyebrow and tilts her head, as if sizing up her damn prey.
Nadia glances to me before lowering her eyes as she softly says, “The copier is jammed again. Could you help me, Lawson?”
Lamont folds her arms, her face settling to a stonelike facade.
“Sure, come on.” I take Nadia’s elbow, hoping to save her from whatever is about to spray from Satan’s Mistress’s pouty lips.
We reach the supply and copy room, and Nadia waves at the machine. “I don’t know why it hates me.”
I slide my hand under the lid and catch the lever, hauling the top up as she dives in, clawing the paper from the intake. Her heels screw into the carpet, making a groaning noise, her knee-length skirt slipping up as she leans in further.
She looks set to topple if she reaches much more.
I bend over the machine, trying to help her tug the wad of paper free. She glances at me, cheeks flushing as my hand bumps into the side of hers.
“Oh.” She jerks upward.
