Page 42 of Falling For Her Boss

CHAPTER 23

Logan

It’s the end of the longest, most excruciating weekend of my life. Monday has officially arrived, and I have to face what happened one way or another. If Isabella doesn’t show up, then I might never get a chance to speak to her about what happened. If she does show up, there are a million things that could go wrong. She might tell everyone in the office what I did and sabotage me. She might tell me that she wants to quit. But the worst-case scenario I can think of is if she just pretends nothing happened. If she cares so little about it that she can pretend that she’s not as hurt by this as I am, then I think it might kill me.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. I sit in my office, waiting impatiently. I barely slept a wink last night. I stayed up all night, thinking of how to get Isabella back and waiting for morning to come. I thought over my actions a million times, wishing I could turn back the clock. But every second of worrying has led to right now. Because when I hear the delicate knock on my office door, I know she has come to see me.

I feel sick as I get up to open the door. I don’t want to just call her inside. It feels wrong now. She’s so much more to me than my assistant, so I’ll no longer treat her as one. When I open the door, there she stands, missing that trademark smile that I love so much and completely solemn. She sighs at the sight of me and averts her eyes.

“Can I come in?”

“Of course you can,” I tell her gently, stepping aside to let her in. She barrels past me, more confident in her actions than I have ever seen her. It just goes to show how pissed off she is with me. I close the door behind me and lean against it, watching her dump her work bag and swivel around to face me.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’m not sure I can help it,” she says, quivering in front of me. “I just think what you did…I’ve never been so angry at a person. I don’t know if I have a right to feel that way after such a short time, but I’m just trying to be honest. And I wish you could have done the same for me.”

I sigh, closing my eyes. “It really wasn’t what it looked like. You need to listen to me.”

“I don’t need to do anything you ask of me anymore,” she snaps. “I’m here to hand in my resignation. I’m not here to make amends, or to listen to pathetic excuses. I’m tired of being taken for a fool, so don’t mock me any further. Just let me go.”

I take a tentative step toward her. “What you saw…if you had heard the conversation, you would see that nothing was as it seemed. The woman you saw was Maeve…she was my assistant before you.”

Isabella’s eyes flash with anger. “Oh, so I’m just one in a line of many? You mess us around emotionally and then you just let us go? Is that how it is?”

“No,” I say firmly. “Listen to me, or we’re just going to keep going around in circles. When my parents died…Maeve was there for me. I wasn’t thinking straight and I allowed things to…progress. But we were never in a relationship. It was never a relationship. Just sex.”

“And you thought you’d give me a pop as well, did you?” Isabella says. She wraps her arms around herself protectively. “Well, I’m not that type of girl.”

“I know. I’m trying to tell you that this is different. I really care about you, Isabella. More than anyone else in my life.”

“Your words mean nothing to me. You lied that morning.”

I throw my hands up in frustration. None of this is Isabella’s fault, but it’s hard to talk to her when she’s not open to listening. I don’t know how to make her see my side of the story more clearly. I didn’t expect our conversation to go well, but I thought she might be open to hearing what I have to say.

“Isabella…if you don’t want to listen, then I completely understand. What you saw…if I saw it from your position, I’d be beyond hurt. I would walk away and never come back. But I think if you were to give me a chance to explain, you might not want to leave.”

Isabella shifts uncomfortably. After her outburst, I guess she feels as though she really should leave. But I don’t want her to do that. I want her to know that there’s still a chance. I think she wants to believe it too because she doesn’t try and storm out. She’s still in a defensive stance, but she finally looks me in the eye.

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