Page 36 of Grumpy Boss's Secret

I didn’t. I walked up to the house. It was a beautiful red brick townhouse with white shutters, a fragrant front garden, and beautiful pieces of stained glass hanging in the large windows. The lights were on inside. The interior of the house seemed to glow with a golden light.

I could see Ian standing in what looked like the house's living room, talking to someone I still couldn't see. Was it his house? Did he have a roommate? Surely not. I kept looking, unable to tear myself away. I had an uncomfortable sense of foreboding.

The other person walked into the room. A woman. The most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life, built like a supermodel with long, blond hair and red lips that were laughing gaily, exposing clean white teeth. She was holding something at her fingertips. She stepped right up to Ian and held her fingers to his mouth, feeding him what was in her hand.

My heart gave a jolt.

“What?” I whispered.

He chewed it, nodding and grinning while saying something I couldn't hear. Then he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, rocking her back and forth a little. That was all I needed to see. I turned away, almost running down the sidewalk, tears filling my eyes and blurring my vision. Okay, so I was wrong about one thing for sure. He didn't love me.

I got back to my apartment, feeling numb. And tired. And stiff. And hungry again. I locked my door, hung up my purse, and wandered into my kitchen. I opened my refrigerator. I didn't feel like cooking, but my stomach snarled at me. Grilled cheese. I could manage that. I pulled a can of seltzer from the fridge and cracked it open. I downed a sip as if downing a liquor shot to numb my pain.

Pain? Yes, pain. I did have the right to feel pain. What the heck was that book about if he didn’t love me? I leaned against my counter, staring numbly at my sink. Below me, Potato meowed and rubbed a hesitant head against my leg. “Thanks, baby,” I said, my voice catching. “I’ll be okay.”

Of course, I would. I hadn't even known Ian that long. I'd lived most of my life without him; I could certainly readjust to his loss soon enough. But now I'd lost Kirk too. Tears filled my eyes again.

"Come on, Jozi," I said, sipping my seltzer water. "You'll be fine."

I guessed he was just an author. Maybe he admired me, attracted to me – but it was just a book. A story he was writing. Or perhaps he wasn't attracted to me, and Stacey was just an embellishment of me. Maybe I had sparked the idea of her, but he was writing about an imaginary person. Maybe he didn't really see me that way at all.

“Whatever,” I said, wiping away tears from under my eyes.

At least I'd been able to believe it for a little while.

Chapter Fifteen

I didn’t want to go to work the next day. I considered calling in sick to the extent that I lay in bed, holding my phone with my thumb hovering over the dial pad.

"Oh, my lord, we have a staff meeting today," I groaned. I dropped my phone and covered my face with a pillow. Ian would be there. And I needed to be there, too; I needed to discuss things with the team.

“Why do I have to be so good at my job?” I grumbled.

I held still for a few moments, bracing myself. Then I tore the covers off and slid out of bed. I marched into the kitchen, made breakfast, ate it, and dressed. When tugging my arms into the sleeves of a blouse, I didn't feel hurt anymore. I felt mad. Or, I was trying to cover up all the hurt feelings with mad feelings.

“Who does he think he is?” I muttered as I walked down the stairs of my apartment building. I didn’t want to take the elevator. I wanted to move fast. “He shouldn’t…we shouldn’t…”

I stopped walking for a moment. I wondered if Ian had been in a relationship with this other woman when we’d hooked up.

"He probably was," I thought, feeling my stomach churning with unpleasant feelings. "They were hugging like people who have known each other for a long time, not people who are just starting a relationship."

No wonder he felt like he used me. Now purely indignant, I strode out of my apartment and went to the office. I attacked my workload with a vengeance. By lunchtime, my tender-hearted crush on Ian had evaporated. I felt numb, jaded, and irritable. But at least I was over him. Nagging at the back of my mind was the realization that I'd also lost Kirk. I couldn't face that. I didn't think about it. I just focused on being mad at Ian.

At the staff meeting, I looked at Ian with a blank expression and steely eyes. He noticed my stare, and once he stumbled over his words mid-sentence as if my face was a roadblock on his pathway of thought. When the meeting ended, I spoke amiably with Larry and Katie, ignoring Ian completely when he tried to catch my eye. I strode back to my office and shut the door.

As I was sitting down behind my desk, I heard a knock on my door. “Come in,” I said suspiciously, looking around my desk for something I could throw if it was Ian.

The door opened. Ian. My eyes landed on my sticky notepad. That probably wouldn't kill him.

"Jozi, are you okay?" I looked up at him. He looked worried. Tender. Like I had a fever, he asked if I wanted chicken soup.

“I’m sorry?” I said, my eyebrows raised disdainfully.

Ian sucked on his teeth, responding to my acidic tone. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I don't know what you’re talking about,” I said serenely, straightening my pens in their pencil case. He shut the door behind him and walked into the room.

"I've never seen you look the way you looked in that meeting today," he said. "I thought something was up. I thought maybe someone had died or something. But then, when you talked to Katie and Larry, you seemed fine."

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