I wasn’tsure what overcame me or what possessed me to go back into the building, but I did. After slinging my purse into my backseat, I held tightly to my keys as I made my way back up to JoJo’s top floor. I needed to talk with him. If I was going to have any peace at home going into the weekend, I needed to ask him some questions.
Even if they pissed him off in the process.
“Didn’t I just send you home?”
I slipped into his office and closed the door behind me. “Why do you keep saving me?”
He flopped into his chair. “What?”
I turned to face him. “Why do you keep coming to my aid if you hate me so much?”
He scoffed. “I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anyone who works for me.”
“Except Tommy?”
“He no longer works for me.”
I sighed. “For a little while there, you seemed like a normal guy. A man who didn’t have a vendetta out on someone that looks like me.”
He didn’t bother looking at me. “Your point?”
I sighed. “My point is, sure, you’re a bit weird behind closed doors. But, who isn’t? You have potential, JoJo. The potential to be this wonderful, caring, dominant man.”
“What makes you think I’m not any of those things already?”
I scoffed. “For starters, how about the actions that got me wounded underneath your desk?”
His eye twitched again. “If you’re trying to find some sort of decent person inside of the carcass of a living soul you see sitting in front of you, then don’t waste your time. Many women before you have tried to turn me into a decent guy after fucking their brains out, but it doesn’t work that way. People don’t change for others. What’s going on between us? It means nothing.”
I took a step toward his desk. “And yet, I don’t believe you.”
He shrugged. “Sounds like a personal problem.”
I stood by the chair in front of his desk. “Why do you keep saving me, then? If you’re not a good guy?”
And that’s when he slowly looked up at me. “Because I’m the only one who can make your life a living hell, that’s why.”
“Are you still trying to stick to this idea of ruining me when I had nothing to do with what happened to you in high school? Are we really still acting like that’s the reason behind all of this?”
His eyes slipped back to his computer. “You talk as if it’s not actually true.”
“Oh, no. I know you can make my life a living nightmare. What I’m asking is if that will bring you any peace. Because no matter how miserable you make me, it’s not like Maggie’s going to ever know. You think you have a bad relationship with my family? I’ve got a worse one. I don’t tell them anything unless I absolutely have to.”
“You took a weekend to go visit them. Must not be that bad.”
I snickered. “Better than being here, and my family still openly calls me fat.”
That got his attention. “You’re not fat.”
I pointed at him. “A bad guy wouldn’t say that.”
He groaned as he leaned back into his seat. “Becca, if you’re not going home, then go be of use somewhere else. I can’t deal with you just because you’ve got feelings because I beat some lowlife with a fucking golf club.”
I felt my stomach hit the floor. “You’re really going to dig your heels into this bad boy persona of yours?”
He rolled his eyes. “Think whatever you want. Just get the hell out of my space.”
“I didn’t even do anything to you, JoJo. And you know damn good and well that I don’t look a thing like Maggie. She and I are complete opposites in every way. So, either tell me what in the world happened all those years ago so I can hate her, too, or get over it.”
