Page 30 of My Forbidden Boss

The woman’s smile faded a smidge. I didn’t notice.

“Oh. Tisha? Um, why do you want to see her? She’s new, you know. She probably doesn’t… Is there something that I can do for you?”

I was already walking away, continuing my search on my own. “Uh, no, no. I just need to know where she is if she hasn’t gone home yet. I have to… uh… plane tickets… business trip.”

I held out the wadded up piece of paper as evidence but kept creeping from office to office.

The woman trailing behind me perked up. “Oh! Work stuff, of course. That’s… Um, if she’s here, her office is around that corner, there. Yeah, it should be the second one on the left, I think. Here, I can…”

I broke in and took off where she had indicated. “No, no… that’s okay. Thanks. Bye.”

I glanced past each little room, then froze in place, launching myself backward like a spring.

I took a quick breath, then knocked and slowly opened the door. I poked my head in cautiously, scared to meet Tisha’s eyes.

I was right to feel that way. As I glanced up and grinned foolishly, I felt like a pedestrian who had walked out into traffic and was making eye contact with the driver who had just screeched to a halt in front of me.

“Uh…”

There weren’t any words, phrases, or sentences waiting. I hadn’t thought of any.

“I, uh… Is this an okay time?”

Tisha’s look of disbelief, distaste, and growing concern for my mental stability seemed to unfold before my eyes. I babbled ridiculously, then brandished the creased-up paper through the doorway.

“I just wanted to give you your trip info. You know… the Wyoming thing?”

She crossed her arms and leaned back, curling her eyebrows. “Yes, Hollis, I remember. We talked about it… oh, way back… four-score and… seven minutes ago, I think?”

I grinned and eased through the door. I reached back to shut it behind me, but, thinking better of it, I left it cracked instead. I slowly stepped forward toward her desk, and continued mumbling. I took the paper with both hands and only just then realized how crumpled I had managed to make it in so short a time.

I glanced down at her, feeling myself falling into one of those dreams where you start going to the bathroom in some kind of public place, only to wake up and wonder why you didn’t think it was weird that there was a toilet attached to the kitchen island.

Tisha looked at me strangely, then held out her hand.

I retracted my arms, then had a brilliant moment of recovery. “Oh, uh, I forgot. This isn’t… It’s on my phone. I’ll, uh, I’ll just send it to you really quick.”

She squinted. “You could have done that from your office, yeah?”

I nodded, flustered but already flowing downriver, regardless of what kind of waterfalls lay ahead. Suddenly aware of how close I was to totally capsizing any sense of self-respect I hoped to retain, I did my best to tread water and wait for a safe opening to emerge.

“Uh… yes. Yes, I could have. But I wanted to… uh… apologize. Yeah. Um… for… not, uh… Well, I just didn’t mean to… um… I just meant lunch, that’s all. I wasn’t trying to presume or…”

She cleared her throat and looked away, then gracefully put me out of my misery.

“No, it’s me who should apologize. You’re right. All you did was ask me to lunch.”

She paused and held her tongue. I felt my own defeat already appearing before my eyes, so I finished her thought for her.

“Twice. Yeah, I shouldn’t have… Well… It won’t happen… No, I shouldn’t say…”

Tisha couldn’t take it anymore and laughed. It was so bright, so clear, even though it was at my expense, I felt in awe at the sound.

Unfortunately for me, I probably only looked even more like a buffoon because of it.

Finally, I felt my face flushing, and I just knew that I had to recover whatever shred of dignity that I could. “Look. Miss Crawford. I just think that you and I might like to get to know one another. That’s why I brought up lunch. Uh… I understand and respect the boundaries that you’ve… uh… made very clear. So, enjoy your trip. Once again, thank you for that. And… I hope that you won’t be opposed to the two of us… getting to know each other… here, you know, if and when we end up working together on something.”

She said nothing but just kept staring across at me. I couldn’t read her expression, as much as I wanted to, and felt that I surely should’ve been able to.

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