Page 52 of Insufferable Boss

"I think he should stay," she said. "After all, he's here to protect Dylan's interests, which are currently being severely threatened by you."

Of course.

Sighing, I turned to the next person, but Dylan interjected.

"I think I should stay out of this one," he said since I'm the subject of the vote. "This way there's no tie.".

I looked at him, and then I moved over to Lena.

She was sitting just off to my side, a few seats away. However, for the first few seconds, I forgot whatever the hell I had wanted to say.

I knew she was beautiful; it was an established fact in my brain already. However, there was something about the way she looked this morning that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. I had seen her when she'd come in, but I had barely given her a once-over. But now, as I stared directly at her and her steely green eyes held my gaze, my thoughts went, "Shit".

She had her hair tied behind her today and wore deep red lipstick. There was almost no makeup on her face, which made the color of her lips even more striking against her pale skin and dark hair. She wore a soft blue blouse, which, though low on her shoulders, had quite puffy sleeves. The exposed skin of her shoulders was all that was needed to toss the entire meeting out of my mind and instead take my focus back to our time in my shower stall. I hadn't been able to keep it out of my mind throughout the weekend, and every time I walked back into that stall for whatever reason, the memory hit hard like a train.

"I, um..." she began, and then she turned to look at her brother. She stared at him for a while and sighed.

I knew what she was going to say then, so I turned away and opened the folder on my desk.

"If he truly feels that the lawyer being present will benefit him, then I see no problem with it," she said. "He's bound by attorney-client privilege anyway, so I don't think we have much to worry about."

"You don't have anything to worry about," the man said from across the room. However, she ignored him and opened her file as well.

I knew it was what she was going to say, but it didn't make the fact that she did say it any less annoying. It took a little while to regain my bearings, but I didn't even have to bother about carrying on with the meeting because Kate soon addressed her.

"We haven't officially ever met, have we?" she asked, but Lena didn't respond. Not until her name was called and she was addressed properly.

"Miss Mercer?"

She lifted her gaze then.

"No, we haven't," she said. And that was it. I began with the agenda for the day.

"As you're all aware by now, Lena proposed an expansion project. The offer on the table before this was for us to buy her company in order to free her up to be able to engage in the operations of this one since she is a majority shareholder. However, she came up with what I personally think is a better idea and will be of greater benefit to Standard Rock in the long run.”

"To keep things short, I'm sure you all have read over the proposal which was sent last week. I told her to put on a brief presentation, which will enable us to better understand her plans for the project and her vision, and that way we can make a better decision."

After this, she started to rise to her feet, but Dylan interrupted rudely, as always.

"Since she has to give an entire presentation, then why not discuss the issue of my reinstatement first?"

I sighed, but before I could respond, Lena did.

"Sure, we can do that," she said and sat back down. I was about to counter this, but I knew that he would cry foul otherwise, so I gave in.

"Sure," I said. "Go ahead."

His lawyer addressed me.

'We've been trying to get you to agree to a settlement. As these are internal matters, we don't see how it can benefit either Standard Rock or you all individually if this matter proceeds the way it is going and eventually makes it to court. It will be an arduous battle and will deplete plenty of resources that can be better utilized elsewhere.'"

I stared at the stubby man.

"So, you're here to plead on his behalf?"

"I'm not pleading," Dylan said, and I gave him a look that visibly showed my annoyance. To say it was unsatisfactory was an understatement.

"Not to plead," he said and brought out a folder, which my assistant behind got up and brought over to me.

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