Page 119 of A Bossy Surprise

“What happened to all that talk about the best man winning?” Arthur asks with a smirk.

Maurice steps forward, desperation clear on his face. He lowers his voice and says, “Casper is right, if anything, I showed you that you don’t want any of these people. It was so easy for me to get them to leave you. Just let me have them. The only reason I got this job is because I promised to bring them along. If I can’t manage to do that, they’ll fire me.”

“You should’ve thought about that before you tried to ruin me,” I say.

“So, we will be waiting to hear what you decide,” Arthur says. “If you want to pay the $500,000 per year, per employee, while also paying their salaries, that’s your prerogative. Just let us know what you decide.”

He turns and walks out of the room and I follow.

We don’t stop walking until we get to the car. We climb in and then are off.

“I’ve never felt more badass than I do right now,” Arthur says.

“Me neither.”

It’s not long before we’re back at GNN.

I’ve only been in my office for five minutes when Kayla walks in.

“Is it done?” she asks.

“Yes, it is.”

“Good. How did they take the news?”

“Radcliffe took it in stride, but Maurice kind of lost it. He begged us to let our people go with him because he’ll get fired if he can’t bring them over.”

“Serves him right.”

I laugh. “That’s exactly what I told him.”

“So what are you thinking about having these people back? I’m not sure I’d be comfortable working with them knowing that they were ready to throw us to the wolves like they did.”

“I know, I’ve been thinking about it, but I haven’t decided. I could choose to punish them by having them toil at the bottom of the food chain here for the next two years. Or we can decide to let bygones be bygones, and get back to work.”

“Trust me, I would like nothing more than to punish them by making them do work that’s beneath them, but at the end of the day, what’s the point? They are going to be here and you’re going to be paying them the salary they already earned. So you might as well get the benefit of their expertise.”

“The money isn’t an issue. I will swallow the cost personally, if I need to.”

She shrugs. “Well, it’s a difficult decision to make. I would like to think that if I were in your position, I would be able to rise above all of it, but I’m not sure that I would.”

“Whatever I decide to do, I still have time to think about it.”

“Yes, you do,” she steps forward with a smile and wraps her arms around my waist. “You came out on top. So take the time to bask in that.”

“Wecame out on top. It’s not lost on me that GNN is something to fight over largely because of you.”

She starts to pull away from me but my arms go around her back, and I hold her in place. I’ve noticed she doesn’t know how to receive praise.

“Adam, let me go. I have to get back to work,” she laughs.

“Sure, but not before I say this…”

“Say what?”

“I love you, Kayla and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for not only GNN, but for us to.”

She looks into my eyes and starts to speak, but her voice catches.