Page 33 of Boss Abroad
I’m alone in my office, but I still turn my back to the door and face the wall, hiding in shame while whispering to Preston my confession. “Okay, hear me out. Not my fault, but something bad happened.”
“April, what are you talking about? Are you okay? What happened?”
Uh, bad choice of words. I can hear the despair spiking with each word out of his mouth.
“I’m fine. Just grand. It’s not like that.”
“What is then? Is Max okay? Is it his knee?”
Talk about catastrophization. Now I’m just going to sound silly. “What? Yes. Max is fine. Knee is great.”
I hear him huff from the other side of the line, growing impatient. I really need to work on my openings, don’t I?
“Then what? What the hell happened?” He’s borderline shouting now.
I pause, inhale, exhale, then spit it all out, talking way, way too fast. “Here goes nothing. I slept with the club’s owner last night. By accident. Well, he didn’t accidentally slip his…” I stop before I embarrass myself or scar Pres for life. “What I mean is, I slept with him without knowing he was the owner, of course. Of course I didn’t know. We didn’t discuss work. He didn’t know who I was, either. God, that really makes me sound like a hooker, doesn’t it?” I make the split decision not to tell Pres that Liam thought I was a prostitute. Damn it, this conversation needed a script. I’m way too nervous to be objective.
“I blame it on tequila. And Callie. Well, Callie didn’t know who he was either. To be fair, she picked a different Liam. I’m getting off course. We just found out who each other was today, at the stadium, when he was a total dick. Did I tell you he was a dick? Such a dick!”
“And why do I need to know this?” I can sense his discomfort from across the Atlantic.
“Preston, did I break any non fraternization rules? Did I sleep with my boss? Will they cancel my contract? Am I going to be fired?”
“Hey, stop. Stop. So what, you slept with Liam Gunn?” He sounds pretty unimpressed and I feel a bit offended that he’s not approaching this matter with the gravity it deserves.
“Because he's the club owner. Hence, my boss.” I try to sound as nonchalant as he does. I don’t think I pull it off, though.
“I’m your boss.”
“While I’m here?” That gives him pause.
“Goddammit, April. Where’s your contract?” Yes! Finally, he’s worried too.
“I don’t know. It all happened so fast. I don’t think I have a digital copy of it.”
“I’ll get one for you.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m guessing regardless of who he is, this was a one-time thing?”
Ha. My fame precedes me. “Absolutely. Did you hear me saying he was a dick today? I’m not touching his dick again.”
Pres fakes a barf, making me laugh and decompress some more. “A, please. Don’t say things like that. If this was just another one-night stand…”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, so if neither of you have a problem working together, and you won’t work that close, anyway, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
“I hope so.” I lie, not so sure we won’t have a problem working together. But that’s because he’s a dick, not because of what I’ve done with his dick.
“Okay, now if you’re done scaring the shit out of me, send me a report of today’s meeting.”
I love how we can switch from personal to professional without a glitch. “Will do.”
“In the meantime, I’ll send you the list of Chelsea’s board of directors, managers, etc., so you don’t sleep with any of them by accident.” He cracks up laughing, and I can’t suppress the smile that breaks free. Preston’s jokes are so bad, I pity-laugh at them.
“Shut up, stupid.”