Page 801 of Not Over You

He nods. “Well, they’ve called an emergency board meeting to vote.”

“When?”

“First thing in the morning.”

“They don’t want to hear me out?”

“No. They’re not happy about the cuts you’re proposing. I’ve stalled them for as long as I can. Please tell me you’ve found a compromise.”

“No. I haven’t.”

“Kai!”

“What do you want me to do, Paul? They want to cut funding everywhere except for their salaries and bonuses. Marketing needs more funding, our tech department needs more funding, and we still haven’t replaced Tami while she’s on maternity leave, so we have no corporate attorney right now.”

“I know. But they have the final decision.”

“They should approve my budget. Numbers don’t lie.”

He leans back in his chair and twirls the blue ink pen in his hand. “But they can be manipulated.”

“I’m not doing that.”

He takes a deep breath. “You may not have a choice.”

“Paul. I’m not going to finagle the budget.”

“I don’t want to, either. But there’s really no way around it.”

“They’re asking me to do something unethical and illegal. I can go to human resources about this.”

He cocks his head to the side. “You know full well how that’ll turn out. Half of human resources is related to them.”

I deflate with disappointment. “I won’t do it. They can fire me if they have to.”

He leans back in his chair. “You know I won’t let that happen.”

“You might not have a choice.”

He clicks out of the Excel spreadsheet and stands. “Let me see what I can do.”

I rise from my chair. “Thank you.”

I leave his office and close the door softly behind me. I hurry to my office, eager to get back to work, when my assistant, Maya, waves her hand to stop me. She’s on the phone but manages to write something down on a sticky note. I grab the note and read it.

You have a delivery. It’s in your office.

I crumble the note in my hand and walk briskly to my office, wondering what awaits. When I open my door, I freeze. My entire office is filled with pink and red roses. My desk. My tables. The chairs. The floors. I rush to the vase on my desk and grab the card. When I open it, my mouth parts open with surprise.

I hope you agree to dinner.

Jaxon

His phone number is listed at the bottom of the message. I re-read the card a few times before tossing it on my desk. I plop down in my chair and rub my temples, trying to alleviate my building headache, when McKenzie bursts into my office. She takes a seat on the edge of my desk. Kenzie and I were college roommates. We both majored in accounting and obtained our CPAs right after college. When I got offered a job here, I passed her resume to my manager, and she was hired about six months after I was. “Damn, girl, you must have had some good sex last night.”

“Nope.”

“Then who the hell sent you all these flowers?”

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