Page 23 of Saved By the Boss

He snorts, more to humor me than in any real amusement. The silence between us shifts, deepens, and his voice drops. “You know I care about you, man.”

I close my eyes. “Don’t.”

“I have to,” he says, and his eyes are on mine. “Is everything all right? Truly?”

It’s the first time he’s outright asked. Not just commented on my singleness, or my lack of social life, or my temper. But actually asked me for a response.

The truth rises further up my throat than I’d anticipated. Further than it ever has with my family.

But the thought of what comes after stops me. The questions. The well-meaning advice. The suggestions for a second opinion, for technology, for fucking Braille and guide dogs andhow are you feeling’s?The altered behavior. How I’d turn from a friend and business partner to someone you pity.

He’d inevitably ask the question that burned like acid in my stomach whenever I thought about the future. How long do you have left until you can’t work anymore? Until my time as an equal partner at Acture Capital is over, until I become a burden, obsolete to everyone I know.

“I’m great,” I say.

My answer might be dishonest, but the silence between us isn’t. Tristan hears the lie and I know he does.

But he just nods. “All right.”

My nerves are so frazzled that I curse out loud when my phone rings twenty minutes later. The cleaning lady before me in the hotel corridor jumps and I mutter a muffled “sorry” as I pass by. Pick up my phone to turn it off.

And see the name on the screen.

“Yes?”

“Oh, hi? Mr. Winter? I hope I’m not calling at a bad time,” Summer says.

I force myself to take the edge off my voice. It’s not her fault that I’m about to put myself through a charity event in a ballroom filled with strangers.

Despite what I’d said to Victor, it’s not impossible that one of my family members will be here. Isaac Winter is the king of schmoozing when he thinks it will benefit my family’s hotel empire.

“It’s not a bad time. Do you have a date set up for me tonight?” I hope she doesn’t. My energy feels strained enough as it is.

“Unfortunately, I don’t. I’m so sorry, but I haven’t been able to find someone I believe would be a good match. I know I waited too long to let you know, but I had hopes for one last client… but no. I apologize, Mr. Winter.”

“Well, stop,” I say. It comes out rougher than I’d meant it. “It’s all right.”

She breathes a sigh of relief and I feel like an asshole. An asshole for going through this charade when she won’t win the bet.

But then her voice slips into a teasing note, soft through the phone. “Trying to strike the right balance between serious and silly with you is difficult.”

“I imagine I’m not the easiest client you’ve ever had.”

Summer laughs on the other line. “No, I can’t say you are. But you’re not the most difficult either.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Well,” she admits, “you’re among them, but not the worst, no.”

“Yet.”

“Yet,” she agrees. “Are you really sure you’ll be all right without a date to your event tonight?”

A wicked idea takes form. One I shouldn’t speak out loud. But the interaction with Tristan has put me on edge, on a day where I’m already dancing with my demons. Why not add one more? “I’m not sure, Miss Davis. You did promise me a date, and so I haven’t set up one on my own. But there is a way you could make it up to me.”

“Oh?”

“You could take her place tonight.”

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