Page 5 of The Bossy One

“Wait, how many times have you been fired?” It couldn’t have been more than three, right? No one could possibly get fired that many times without learning their lesson.

Olivia crossed her arms, mutinous. “None of your business.”

Fuck. It was more than three. If she wasn’t so annoying, it would have been almost impressive. The eighth wonder of the professional world—the un-hirable woman.

“At this point, I’d be looking for the common denominator, sweetheart,” I said.

“How dare you,” she said.

I hit the call button to summon the flight attendant and reached for my wallet.

“Yes?” the flight attendant asked when she reached me.

I handed her a €100 bill. “Please get this woman her damn white wine.” If she’d been up all night, then I was pretty sure that one drink would be enough to make her fall asleep. Maybe then I’d finally have some silence. Already this flight felt longer than the one from Dublin to New York.

The stewardess took the bill discreetly, then returned with a plastic cup full to the brim of white wine. After some hesitation, Olivia accepted it. Hopefully, that would steady her nerves and, as a bonus, earn me a few minutes of silence.

“I still think you’re a condescending ass,” she told me. “I’m just drinking it because it would be a waste not to.”

“Oh my God. Drink the wine, don’t drink the wine… I couldn’t care any less. I get it, you don’t like flying, you’re having a rough day, and you clearly need to vent. It’s just…” I raked a hand over my face. “I really don’t need to hear every bloody thought that runs through your head. Believe it or not, I have a lot on my plate right now, and you’re making it impossible to think straight.”

Olivia gaped at me, stunned.

For a moment I wondered if I’d gone too far.

Then she faced forward, studiously ignoring me and blessedly,silentlydrank her wine.

Sometimes going too far is the only thing that gets the job done.

After about twenty minutes, I glanced over and realized Olivia had fallen asleep. I rescued the half-empty cup from her hands since it was tipping in the general direction of my lap. Next to me, Olivia released a delicate little snore.

Christ, she can’t even sleep quietly, I thought.

I nudged her shoulder gently, hoping to jostle her into a position that would result in less snoring.

It worked. She frowned in her sleep, readjusting her position. I felt a surge of victory, until she shifted and dropped her head down to my shoulder.

I froze. Her wild, curly hair felt soft against my jaw. I ran through various options for getting her off me, but discarded them all since they came with the risk she’d wake up and start talking again.

She sighed in her sleep and nestled closer to me.

Something in my gut liked that. Not that I’d ever admit it.

I didn’t move for the remainder of the flight. When we landed a half hour later, I rolled my shoulder.

“Wake up,a chara,” I said gruffly. The term meant friend, unless you were annoyed, in which case…well, it still meant friend, but with a more sarcastic edge. “We’ve landed.”

Olivia jolted upright. She blinked, taking in the people around us unbuckling and queuing to get off the plane. Her hair was mussed on one side from where she’d fallen asleep on me, and I could see faint lines on her cheek from the texture of my sweater.

She looked soft like that. Sure, she was chaos incarnate and annoyingly talkative. But there was a sweetness to her when she let her guard down. Someone should protect that.

Not me, obviously. But someone.

“Oh my God,” Olivia said. “I’m so sorry I fell asleep on you.”

“It’s fine,” I said, handing her back her half-drunk plastic cup of wine.

“I mean, you don’t evenlikeme,” she said. “Either that or you just hate people. And then I went ahead and…” She gestured helplessly to my shoulder, indicating where she’d fallen asleep. Unfortunately, she was holding the wine with the hand she was empathetically gesturing with.

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