1
Rebecca
After spillingcoffee on my brand-new discount shoes, lint-rolling my sale-rack outfit, and donning my most upscale costume jewelry, I found myself standing before a glass wall trying my best to perfect my makeup.
I’d made a sticky mess in the front lobby of my new workplace and had effectively scared everyone off the elevator with my combination of angry lint-rolling while verbally chastising myself. Oh, and I had also tripped over my own two feet while asking the receptionist for directions to my new boss’s office.
I was not starting this job off on the right foot. Today was onboarding day, and he wanted to meet with me before I began signing paperwork. At some point, I’d managed to smudge my matte red lipstick to parts where it shouldn’t be. If this was Halloween and I was going for a ‘joker/crazy lady’ look, it would have been perfect. However, this was probably theworstfirst impression I could make.
So before I destroyed my initial reputation any further, I used the glass wall to make sure I appeared presentable again and no longer a disheveled mess. Finished, I pursed my lips together before capping off my lipstick and digging around for my hand sanitizer. I squeezed some out into my palm and rubbed my hands together.
My eyes focused beyond my own reflection in the glass wall only to find the one person in the world that still scared me to my core.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
I blinked a few times as the man leaning back in his chair locked eyes with me. For as long as I lived, I’d never forget those steel gray eyes. Ice cold, without a soul to guide them. I watched his eye twitch as he leaned forward, folding his hands together before placing them on top of his desk.
And as a nauseating shock rolled throughout my body, I cleared my throat.
“Miss?” I asked.
The receptionist caught my stare in the glass wall. “Yes, ma’am?”
I drew in a shaking breath. “The man in this office. Is he…?”
She giggled. “Yep! That’s the bossman, Mr. Joseph Ryker.”
It was the man who tortured me all throughout high school for something I didn’t even do.
For a split second, I thought about running. I thought about slipping straight out of my heels, booking it for the stairs, and never looking back. But I’d spent the last dime I had on this new outfit and some fresh jewelry to look like I had my life together and my fridge wouldn’t let me go two more months without a job.
“I can’t run out,” I murmured to myself.
“Miss? You can go in whenever you’re ready,” the receptionist said.
Or maybe she was a secretary?
I whipped around in panic. “Where’s the restroom?”
She furrowed her brow. “Mr. Ryker doesn’t like it when people are late.”
I strode up to her desk. “It’s kind of a feminine emergency.”
Her lips pursed. “Around the corner, last door on the left. I’ll let Mr. Ryker know you’ll only be a few minutes.”
I put my hands together and gave her a little prayer sign while mouthing “thank you” from the bottom of my soul. Then, after taking one last peek in through the glass window, I rushed off to the bathroom. No, not rushed. I fucking sprinted. I ran as quickly as my heels would allow, feeling my purse and its contents sloshing against my side. They threatened to spill out onto the floor as I charged into the women’s bathroom, and I locked the door behind me so I could have some damn privacy.
Then, I turned and looked at myself in the mirror.
“You are so fucked,” I said breathlessly.
This can’t be real. There’s no way I didn’t know this beforehand.
Maybe my boss simply looked like him. Maybe my boss simply had JoJo’s gray eyes and his bombastic scowl and his broad shoulders and his impeccable, shining black hair. Maybe my boss had his features, but it wasn’t really him.
However, the tears that crested my eyes told me differently.
“My God, it’s actually him,” I murmured.
