Page 48 of Insufferable Boss

"I truly was wondering how and why you had been able to get her to come when she absolutely hadn't even considered it for months prior. I thought you had something on her, but now I see that wasn't the case at all. More like you had your thing inside her."

"I'm going to break your face if you don't watch your mouth," I said, and he made a face.

"Who are you mad at?” he asked. "It can't be yourself, so are you trying to tell me that you're offended on her behalf? Why?"

He stared at me, and then his eyes widened.

"Oh, are you two… are you two dating? Is this why you brought her in to side with you? You two are really romantically involved? You're not just hooking up? When the fuck did that happen?"

I almost threw a punch then, but he raised his hand and once again stopped the door from closing.

"Fine," he said. "Fine, I won't speak any more about that. But I do have to talk to you, though, about that exciting lawsuit brewing between us. So now, can I come in?"

"Say what you need to say and leave," I said. "Otherwise, this is surely going to make the lawsuit even more difficult for you."

He sighed then and lowered his head dramatically in defeat.

"You're right," he said. "It is hard for me. Immensely. And this is why I'm here. Let's agree that we both lashed out. Emotions were high, so you fired me. Things are not any better now, and we're both reasonable people, so let's get things back to where they were before. For the benefit, especially, of the company. Rumors are flying all around, employees are taking sides. It's a distraction and an unnecessary one. You were mad, I get it, but so was I, and it's been a while now, so what do you say? Water under the bridge?"

I looked at him and furrowed my brow deeply. He aggravated me, always had, especially with his propensity to take everything as a joke. But not anymore. Not this time, especially with the fact that he had seen Lena leaving my place, and so he was sure to use this as some sort of weapon against me if he even got a whiff that it was something I wanted to conceal. I knew that Lena didn't exactly want whatever was between us to be revealed, even to herself sometimes it felt like, but she especially didn't want it coming from her brother. But then again, I reminded myself that this moron before me was her brother and no one else, and so if she wanted to stop anything, they could sort it out. She was a big girl, and I was sure that she knew how to protect herself. However, I couldn't quite tell if they had actually seen each other, so I asked.

"Of course, I saw her," he said. "And I said hello. That was quite a shock for her because unlike you, she is astute enough to know that people finding out about this wouldn't bode too well for how people perceive your ability to run the company unbiasedly."

I almost let out a laugh then because truly, he had to be borderline insane.

"How do you come up with these ideas?" I asked and his face of nonchalance and willful stupidity briefly faded.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"How does whether I'm sleeping with her or not have anything to do with my ability to run the company well or not?"

He looked at me incredulously.

"She's a member of the board?"

"So? She doesn't know her own mind? She doesn't have a brain?"

"She has emotions, and she's a woman?"

I stared at him.

"Meaning?"

He didn't speak, and I folded my arms around my chest.

"Meaning?" I asked.

"You know exactly what I mean. Of course, she's going to side with the person she's sleeping with. It's already happening."

To me, talking to him truly was a waste of time, and I couldn't believe that I was somehow being dragged into this.

"I don't want to have any more conversations with you, and I do not appreciate you coming over to my home. Our business stays in the office and nowhere else. And I sure as hell don't want you alluding to my personal life in any way or making wild claims that you have no evidence of.”

“So, you aren't sleeping with her?”

"Did you catch us in any act of the sort?”

He smiled.

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