Grumpy Boss, Hamel, B. [free novels to read TXT] 📗

a hand on her hip, studying Rees with a little frown, then glanced about the office. “You now, for all the time we’ve known each other, I’ve never been here before,” she said, almost with disdain. “It’s rather nice.”

Rees snapped out of it first. “Lady Fluke,” he said. “What are you doing here?” He moved around the desk and shook her hand gently.

She glanced at me, frowned a bit more, then looked at Rees. “We need to talk,” she said. “Alone, if we can.” Her assistant took the hint and left right away. Jack looked like he was drowning, but sighed and followed the assistant out. I lingered near the door, but Lady Fluke spoke before I could leave. “Actually, Millie, you should stay.”

I hesitated, and Rees gave me an uncertain nod. I shut his office door as Rees took Lady Fluke to the table at the far end of his office. They sat, and I took the chair closest to Rees, feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

Something was wrong about this. I didn’t know what—but Lady Fluke didn’t just show up somewhere like this. She was the type of woman that made appointments, then stuck to them. She structured her days, every day, and didn’t do a single thing that wasn’t on her calendar. And yet she appeared out of thin air today, and seemed like something horrible just happened.

Rees held it together. He was clearly shaken as well, considering his conversation with Alvin, but he did a good job of pushing that aside and giving Lady Fluke his full attention. From what I cold tell, they’d made up, though I didn’t know if that meant their friendship would resume like it always had.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Rees asked, doing his best impression of a calm and charming man, even though I could tell he was anything but.

“I’ve come to inform you that we can no longer be friends.” Her words were clipped and accented, and she sat with her back straight, in a simple black pant suit that was both formal and conservative and absurdly expensive. Her dark eyes stared at Rees, unblinking and intense, like she wanted to rip his face open and read his brain with her fingers, like braille.

Rees grimaced, then his mouth fell open, and his shook his head, clearly at a loss. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“I spoke with Modesto,” Lady Fluke said. “He told me about your visit. I’ll admit, Modesto is a bit gaudy for my taste. I don’t plan on being friendly with that man, but his church imports a good deal of my company’s product, and so I find it necessary to deal with him from time to time.”

“What did he say?” Rees asked, seeming to gather himself. His tone took on a hint of anger.

I genuinely didn’t know what Modesto would’ve told Lady Fluke that she didn’t already know—unless he had a security camera out back, and saw me sleeping with Rees. I felt ice crawl along my spine at the thought. Maybe that was why Lady Fluke wanted me in the room—so I could witness her embarrassing Rees, and feel horrible about it in the process.

“Only that you’ve become toxic,” she said. “And if a man like Modesto thinks you’re toxic, well, I must reconsider my position.”

“Lady Fluke,” I said, before Rees could speak, surprising him. She looked at me, eyebrows arched. “You’re making a terrible mistake. I thought we cleared this up.”

She shook her head, almost regretfully. “Truth is, young lady, that you’ve become part of the problem. I warned you when we last spoke, did I not? I warned you not to get involved.”

“Lady,” Rees said, an edge in his voice now. “You have no right to talk to Millie about my relationship with her.”

“Of course not,” Lady Fluke said dismissively, as if it didn’t matter either way. “And yet I did, because I wanted to. Really, Rees, your relationship with this girl is going public anytime now. She told a reporter about what you’ve been up to.”

He flinched, glanced at me, then glared at Lady Fluke. “And so what?” he asked, shaking his head. “We’re adults. If we want to have a relationship, who’s to say we can’t?”

“Nobody,” she said, shrugging slightly. “In fact, even though I think it’s a bad idea, I do approve of this little mistake. The thing is, you’ll both end up hurt, and I don’t want to be around to witness it, and I certainly don’t want my name involved with yours when this inevitably blows up.”

I gaped at her, at a total loss. I couldn’t understand how someone could be so heartless. She was supposed to be Rees’s friend, and now suddenly she learns that he’s in a healthy relationship, and she wants to end their friendship—all because she thinks it’ll look bad for her in some potentially abstract way.

“That’s so wrong,” I said, unable to help myself. I felt a stab of anger, like Rees felt looking down at that phone. “You’re abandoning him now, when you know he’s done nothing wrong.”

Her eyes narrowed at me. “And what do you know of my responsibilities, girl? Just because you’re dating this man, doesn’t mean you know a thing about our world.”

“I know that you’re supposed to be friends,” I said, refusing to be intimidated, even if I felt like I was attacking the Queen herself. But I wasn’t of course—just some rich biscuit bitch. “I know he cares about you. I’d never turn my back on a friend just because of some whiff of scandal. That’s not how friendship works.”

“Perhaps not to you,” she said, clipped and hard. “But to me, my business is everything, my good family name is everything, and I cannot be associated with Rees any longer.”

Rees gave me a look, almost pleading, and I leaned back in my chair, crossed my arms, and shut my mouth. I wanted to berate her—how dare she pull this shit after he solved everything already? And yet here