Page 20 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

“So are you totally against the idea of having a, um, reunion to celebrate your reunion?”

“Are you serious? No way. No freaking way. I slipped up once and fell for his routine. Not going to happen again. Especially not with him being my boss.”

Katie glanced away and seemed to give the matter some thought. “I don’t know—don’t knock the ‘workplace romance’ thing until you’ve tried it. Last spring this guy named Marcel from France worked at my place—big bouffant, dreamy eyes, sexy smile—total French hottie. Anyway, he only lasted for a couple of weeks but, man, what a couple of weeks. If the health department got wind of what we’d been doing in the storeroom, they’d order that place to be burned down and the ground salted.”

I laughed, but deep down a tinge of jealousy ran through me. I kind of wanted what Katie had—an easy, fun way with men and dating. Nothing serious, all hot hookups and funny stories.

“How do you do it?’ I asked.

“Do what?”

“You know, have fun with guys like that. Not that I date much, but it seems like every one I go out with is the same boring finance guy. Meanwhile, you’re going out with the most interesting the city has to offer. Makes me wonder if I’m just boring. You know, like attracts like?”

She waved her hand through the air and gave a “Psshaw.” “Come on, you know you’re not boring. I meet these guys because these are the kinds of guys who go to bars, you know? At least my bar.” She appeared thoughtful for a moment. “And hey, maybe it’s a grass-is-greener kind of thing? Maybe I’m secretly hoping for some dashing Wall Street guy to sweep me off my feet. You know, the kind who actually has his life together and doesn’t live on his friend’s couch in Green Point?”

“I seriously doubt that. And trust me, those kinds of guys only look like they have their lives together.”

She smiled. “But seriously, don’t worry about it. Put yourself out there—that’s all you need to do. Don’t lose yourself in work and hope that someone magically finds you.”

“Losing myself in work feels like the only thing I know how to do sometimes. And now I can’t even do that with Josh working there.”

“Who knows—maybe things will work out between the two of you.”

“’Work out?’ You’re making it sound like there’s something there to work out to begin with. We had a stupid, ill-advised one-night stand, and now I’m realizing that it was nice little reminder of why those kinds of things are a bad idea to begin with.”

“You can’t tell me it wasn’t at least a little worth it. I mean I knew him from school and he was always hot, but I remember seeing him in the tabloids back when he started with his dad’s company— he’s tall, handsome as hell—shit, you kind of hit the jackpot with him.”

“Yeah, tabloids where he’s going through girls like he’s getting paid to do it. And I don’t consider being one of them ‘hitting the jackpot.’”

“Maybe it was more than that—you never know. Have you considered, you know, talking to him about it?”

“No way. It’s over and done, and the best thing to do is forget about it. Hopefully, with Christmas break, that’ll be enough time to put it all behind us and it not be weird when I get back.”

“Unless you see him again back home.”

“Not a chance, unless he drags me out of the house.”

She took another sip, and I took another one too. The booze still wasn’t sitting well.

“Anyway, you should be thinking about the break. A little time home will do us both some good. You excited?”

“As much as I love the city, yeah—getting out sounds about right.”

“Perfect.” She raised her glass. “How about a new toast—to the most boring, uneventful, and relaxing Christmas ever.”

I smiled. “I’ll happily drink to that.”

Chapter 9

JOSH

I hated hospitals. Sure, I doubted many people actually liked them, but I had a special loathing for the places. The antiseptic smell, the harsh lighting, the grim feeling in the air—it always brought me back to those awful months in my early twenties when Mom passed.

And there I was, back for another parent. Tension formed a tight knot in my gut as I leaned against the wall, my arms folded across my chest. Sam was next to me doing the same thing, every now and then checking his phone as if he were getting live text updates on Dad’s condition.

It’d happened—the old man had finally had a heart attack. Luckily, the onsite medical unit was able to get to him within minutes, and a little after that he was at Mount Sinai under the care of the best doctors in the city.

“This is bad,” said Sam, finally speaking.

“No kidding.”

“Not only with Dad—you have any idea what the effects of this are going to be on the company? People are going to be very wary about dealing with a company whose founder is in the hospital.”

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