Page 3 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“Sorry, disagree.” Oliver shook his head. “She looked crushed. She’s probably crying her heart out as we speak. If you ask me, she’s never coming back.”

“She has to,” Damon said, undeterred. “She needs to get these shot glasses.”

Miles looked up and scanned the room. “Wait, hold on, Damon’s right. She’s coming.”

We stared as the blonde ponytail girl returned to our table. For a moment, she seemed to wonder why we were staring at her. “Just back to collect the shot glasses, guys,” she said. I gave her extra points for returning instead of sending another one of her green-shirt-wearing colleagues.

She turned to Oliver. “And sorry, I’ve got a question, but what’s Manapan? None of the girls knew.” She lifted her chin, directing our attention to Gracie and the other girls by the bar. Her blue eyes darted between Oliver, Miles, Damon, and me as she seemed to try to gauge our reactions. She was a daredevil in her own right. I appreciated a bold woman.

“Manalapan,” Damon corrected her. “In Florida.”

“Oh.” She gulped, giving Damon a scrutinizing look and frowned. “Isn’t he way too young to live in Florida? I thought only old people lived there.”

“He has an ancient soul,” I interjected and was rewarded with a grimace from Damon.

“Anyway, as he said,” Oliver pointed to Damon, “he’s not on the market.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “None of us are.”

“Actually.” Miles arched an eyebrow at me. “Isn’t Ace single right now?”

The blonde girl looked at me with a curious expression as she chewed on her gum.

I shook my head. “Sorry, I’m not looking for anything serious.” I shifted my gaze to Miles and gave him a “What the fuck?” expression. He clearly knew I wasn’t—

“I’m not looking for anything serious either,” the girl chirped, interrupting my thoughts.

I let out an impatient sigh and faced her. “Yeah, no, sorry.”

“You deaf? You heard the lady, man,” Miles hissed at me. “She’s not looking for anything serious either.”

What the fuck? “Stay out of it,” I said to him. Why was he being so pushy?

“You sure? No girlfriend? No relationship?” She leaned into me further, brushing my arm with her tits. “Absolutely no…fun?”

“No.” I set my empty shot glass on her tray with a coldclink, possibly a bit too forcefully. It was a knee-jerk reaction, and not one I’d given any thought to, but it caused the girl to take a step back.

“That’s okay,” she squeaked. “I’ll be over there if you need me.” She gathered up the other three empty shot glasses, hastily set them onto her tray and hurried away.

“Dude, what the fuck wasthat?” Miles asked me. “That was the worst fucking rejection ever. Even more brutal than Damon’s.”

“Shut. Up. You’re the one who got me into it.”

“So?” he asked.

“So, I was just being honest.”

“That’s worse than being direct. It’s pedantic. Dude. At least package it up differently if you can’t help it. There’s a difference between beingnicelyhonest and beingfuckinghonest.”

I didn’t answer. Since when was honesty a bad thing? As she sauntered in the direction of the bar, I allowed my eyes to linger on her. I should have felt something. Sure, she had gorgeous tits, thick hips, and legs, but I couldn’t exactly admit any sparks were there. The old me wouldn’t have minded a flirt or a hookup, even though she clearly didn’t seem to be very picky when it came to the men she chose to spend time with.

“Back to business,” Damon said, as we noticed Gracie hurriedly shuffling toward us with four more draft glasses full of—I could already tell—lukewarm beer.

Damon plucked a glass from Gracie’s arms and placed it in front of him, then turned back to me. “Cards on the table. Are you still interested in the acquisition? Or have you changed your mind?”

“No,” I answered curtly. “Why should I?” I’d let no wild horses stop Humphries Properties from acquiring Windsor Architects. “Just because the server broke, files got lost, a few boxes got shipped to who knows where, and my former assistant shredded what she thought were ‘duplicate papers’ from the boxes thatdidarrive?” I tried to sound confident. Frankly, it was a huge mess, but nothing I couldn’t handle—I just needed more time.

“Was that before or after she fucked that delivery guy on your desk?”

I gave him a hard stare.

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