Page 39 of Insufferable Boss

"You should respect the lawyer he's working with, though."

"And who's that?"

"Emerson."

I looked up.

"David Emerson?"

"Yeah."

I shook my head then and went back to work.

"Still, get me the associate, and if you run into Emerson, send him my condolences on behalf of his wasted time."

"No, I'm the one who should be consoled because, of course, I'm going to have to direct the bloody rookie."

"Well, you will be involved?” I asked.

“I have to protect the interest of the company as a whole. Not directly though so I'll be acting as a consultant.”

“Thank you,” I said. “And as a token of my appreciation the yacht is yours to use for the entire weekend. Take anyone you want. Full catering-"

"That's bribery."

"So, sue me," I groaned, and he gave me a look. Then he shook his head and opened the door.

"Two weekends," he told me, and I smiled in amusement.

17

Lena

One of the perks of living in a hotel was that I didn't have any cleaning whatsoever to do, so I could wake up on a Sunday after the most stressful of weeks and have nothing but the day ahead of me. I was beginning to truly embrace the idea of truly living in New York. It was a much different place than LA, and I didn't exactly have any friends as close as Diana was to me, but it was a new start, and it was what I had been craving for so long, so I was open to it.

The first thing I did was go for a run in Central Park, and after that, I heard of a farmers’ market close by that I could check out if I wasn't too sweaty. I didn't expect to be anyway since I hadn't worked out for so long, so I was sure to be famished in no time. I started early, around 7 am, hoping there wouldn't be too many people and I wouldn't get lost.

I put in my AirPods, turned on some motivational track from YouTube to get me through it.

When I was much younger and just leaving college, I had considered moving here to start my career, but then I listened to some video about taking risks and doing what I wanted instead, and I chose to remain in LA. Plus, my relationship with my father then had been extremely rocky, so I was certain that moving to New York would ensure that we clashed more times than was needed.

I thought about him this morning, or rather, I allowed myself to think about him, and it was painful. It didn't take long for me to become upset, so I paused whatever had been playing on my phone and slowed down because my heart was about to jump out of my chest. However, when I spotted a bench and realized that I would think even more if I stopped, I kept running.

I went a bit further, but then I couldn't take another step forward, so I walked to the nearest bench with a deep frown on my face and sat down. I took a deep breath and tried to collect myself, then I shut my eyes. I’m fine now. I could think about him more often now, unlike the earlier months, but it still hurt like hell. Diana had told me to replace the hurt whenever I thought about it with a happy memory, something... anything that would bring a smile to my face, but it never worked. Because even though we were similar, because even though there had been good times, and despite all our differences, I still believed he loved me. However, these good memories were few and far between. They were difficult to conjure up or even recall, and so by the time I could put this in effect, my eyes were burning. I shut them and buried my head between my knees, but then I heard my name.

At first, I ignored it, but then it became peculiar to me that someone here was calling my name. So, I lifted my head and tried to see who it was. At first, my vision was blurry, so it wasn't until he was almost in front of me that I realized who it was. He was shirtless, all slabs of his muscles dripping with sweat, and strands of his hair sticking to his forehead. As my gaze moved up from his torso to his face, all I could feel was attacked.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Kane. Kane motherfucking Lazarus.

"How are you here?" I asked, and he took a brief look around.

"It's a public park," he replied.

I was in no mood for his antics, so I quickly stood up and started to walk away, but I couldn't get rid of him. He ended up by my side, strolling leisurely, even though I was walking as fast as I possibly could.

"Could you stop following me?" I asked and turned to see him drinking from his bottle of water.

He licked his lips, and my attention began to shift.

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