Page 7 of Falling For Her Boss

“We all have work in the morning,” Joshua reminds Logan. “You don’t need more wine. You need a cold shower. And a taxi. There’s no way you can drive home like this.”

“I don’t need your help,” Logan says, his smile dropping a little.

“Suit yourself,” Joshua says, grabbing my arm and guiding me out of the restaurant, leaving Logan slumped at the table with the bill and half a bottle of wine. I can’t help looking back at him, wondering if he’s okay. It seems like something has really bothered him tonight. He’s not the sort to let loose for no reason. I could ask Joshua what happened, but I get the feeling he wouldn’t give me a straight answer.

“Stop looking back at him,” Joshua says as we step out into the cool evening. “You’re being weird.”

“I don’t think I’m the one who’s acting strange,” I say timidly. I don’t like to cross Joshua when he’s in a mood like this, but whatever happened between them affects me too. I’m Logan’s assistant…if Joshua has pissed him off, he would be perfectly able to make my life hell.

“Just let it go,” Joshua insists. “Everything will be fine by tomorrow.”

“Things didn’t seem fine…you barely spoke at all through dinner. You invited him and then ignored him…”

“Why can’t you just mind your own business?” Joshua snaps as he unlocks his car. “I told you to drop it.”

I fall silent as I get in on the passenger side. I hate when Joshua shouts at me. He never used to be so stern. When our Dad was around he was cheeky, fun and full of life. Our Dad isn’t a good person on the whole, but he treated us well, and he loved us. He made my brother smile, at least. I miss him when I see this cold, angry version of Joshua coming out. It’s the ugliest part of Dad that he inherited, and it’s the one part of him that he can’t shake.

Joshua gets in the car with an angry sigh and we drive off. I’m starting to feel pissed off too. Joshua needs to be more open with me. I shift in my seat, straightening my back.

“I’m not going to drop this. I don’t care if the matter is personal. If this is going to affect my work, then I want to know.”

Joshua glances at me with a cruel smirk. “Since when did you grow a backbone?”

The comment stings more than it should, but I keep my chin up, waiting for him to respond. Joshua tuts and speeds up the car, gripping the steering wheel hard.

“Alright. Look, you know how protective I am of you. Your precious boss doesn’t respect you the way that I do. And I just wanted to make sure that he knows that he’s treading a very thin line. I won’t allow him to walk all over you.”

Because that’s your job, right? I think bitterly, but I would never say it out loud. I have enough sense and respect not to make this worse.

“What makes you think he’s going to walk all over me?” I pause. “Or that I would let him do that to me?”

Joshua sighs, shaking his head. “The fact that you don’t know just shows how naive you really are. Open your eyes, Isabella. You’ll soon see what he wants from you.”

We spend the rest of the journey in silence as I try and figure out what’s happening. Is Joshua seriously suggesting that Logan is pursuing me? That he wants to do to me all the things that I’ve fantasized about since I met him? That can’t be right. I’m not just his employee. I’m his best friend’s sister. There’s an unspoken taboo about exploring those avenues, right?

But this all makes sense. It makes sense about Joshua’s terrible mood and his sudden coldness toward Logan. I guess he got wasted to forget about this awful evening we have all shared together.

Joshua pulls up outside my apartment block, not saying a word. Which is fine, because I have nothing to say to him either after the way he acted. I get out without saying goodbye, striding up to the lobby door with a newfound confidence. The person I am today is constantly surprising me, and I’ve got to say that I’m liking it.

“Wait!”

I turn and see that Joshua has gotten out of his car and is running toward me. He comes to a stop in front of me, shaking his head.

“We don’t leave each other without saying goodbye,” he insists. “That’s not how we do things.”

“I may as well not say a word sometimes. You just shut me down right away,” I say, refusing to look him in the eye as I fumble for my keys in my bag.

“You can’t blame me for being protective of you.”

“You think I can’t handle myself?”

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