Page 96 of Insufferable Boss

"I didn't know you could be so humble?"

"Respectful," I corrected her. "Plus, I also have a brain, just like what's happening now. Being constantly hard is not the answer to anything. You need to know when to show your strength and when to lay it down, when to advance and retreat."

As I said the words, I watched her eyes lower and then slightly widen.

"Oh my God," she said, and I understood exactly why. "My dad used to say that."

"Yeah," I replied. "He did."

Her smile widened, then I watched it fade as well.

"Sometimes I forget that you worked so closely with him. I really wish I had as well."

I didn't know what to say to this, so I made my move on the chessboard, and unfortunately, this claimed her bishop, getting her attention.

"Hey!" she complained, and I was relieved that I had gotten her attention again and pulled her away from the sour memories.

I was incredibly happy, though, that I could speak to her this way. More than anything, it felt as though I was speaking to a family member and given that she was also my lover and perhaps girlfriend, it was truly the cherry on top of the cake. I continued playing with her, my heart filling and swelling as this impromptu vacation was turning out to be an incredible decision.

44

Lena

Turkey was one of my favorite places to vacation. Back when I was in college, just before our finals, I and my group of friends at the time had taken an impromptu trip, and it was so far one of the most memorable vacations of my life. We had all chosen the cheapest hotels and accepted anything free that we could find, but the ambiance and experiences had cost little to nothing. It was a distraught time for me internally, I can remember, because back then, I was fighting the battle of what I wanted to do. My interest was in scents and starting my own business, but my father thought it was all nonsense and pointless. After all, if this was my interest, then why didn't I come to work for him?

"Our stories are quite similar," I said as I got into the gorgeous suite room overlooking the Bosphorus Strait.

"What do you mean?" Kane asked as he tipped the porter and shut the door behind him.

"Remember when I came here with my friends and made the decision that I was going to start my own business myself? Actually, I was going to get a job eventually, but I started anyway before my final year because I was scared that I wouldn't make it, and my dad would be right."

He laughed softly.

"You're right, we are indeed similar."

"I recall speaking to him from the beach over there," I said. "We had a campfire, or rather we joined a campfire, so I had to walk away to respond to him.”

"That was such a mentally tumultuous time," I said. "I felt his presence behind me and ached to lean on his strength. However, although there was nothing that technically needed to stop me, I was still reluctant because it was so easy to depend on him, to want him, almost need him even."

"If you'd joined the company then we would have met much earlier," he said, and I almost gave in then.

I was amused as I wondered about it, and then his arms came around me.

"Yeah," I said. "Do you think we would have..."

I stopped myself because truly I didn't know how to phrase this question.

However, he understood exactly what I was trying to say, and in a way that made my chest hurt so much that it felt like it was going to burst.

"We definitely would," he said. "It might have taken some time, though, seeing that we would have been much, much younger. Our pride would have most definitely held us back from each other."

I turned around to face him.

"So you're saying that the glue that's holding us together right now is the fact that we don't have much pride?"

He was beaming with amusement as I turned around to stare at him.

"Am I wrong?" he asked.