33
Tess
Irushed out of Beck’s office, grabbed Maeve, and hauled her to the bathroom.
The Quantum Cyber bathrooms were luxurious. It was one of the main reasons I had taken the assistantship job in the first place. Well, that and the fact that I had no other prospects, rent was due, and I couldn’t even turn on my phone without it blowing up with text messages and voicemails from creditors saying I was behind on my roulette wheel of debt payments.
I slumped against the wall of the bathroom.
“Did you get fired?” Maeve asked, eyes wide. “AmIgetting fired? Oh god, I knew I should have found another job! I swear this is the wake-up call that I need. I’m making changes in my life.”
“No one is getting fired,” I said, then lowered my voice. “Beck tried to kiss me.”
“Oh my god!” Maeve squealed. “It’s likeThe Sound of Musicwhere the grumpy rich boss falls in love with the nanny.”
“Shh! I’m not the nanny; I’m the assistant. And that means I could get fired.”
“Beck is not going to fire you if he wants to sleep with you,” Maeve countered.
“No, but Owen could, or his brother Walker could.”
“Maybe he was just stressed,” Maeve said. “Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe he’s sex starved, and he needs an outlet, and your vagina just wandered by, but really, he could go for any vagina.”
“I don’t want him to go for any vagina!” I wailed.
“I thought you hated him.”
“I do, but he’s also not that bad.”
Maeve raised an eyebrow.
“To be fair, he is mercurial and snarly, but he also cares about his sisters.” I sighed. “He’s amazing.”
Maeve clicked her tongue. “See, this is why you need to date more.”
“No, this is exactly why I shouldn’t date.”
“You need to date so that you desensitize yourself to men and their sob stories,” Maeve said, wagging her finger.
“It’s not a sob story; he legitimately does have sisters he has to take care of and a legitimately tragic backstory,” I argued.
“All men have a tragic backstory!” Maeve railed. “At least any of the ones that are interesting. Sure, if you want Maury from accounting who wears his khakis up to his armpits and is slightly balding even though he’s only twenty-seven and all you guys are going to do is watch Netflix in the evening and then spend five minutes doing terrible missionary sex, then I mean, sure, he’s not going to have a tragic backstory. But those hot guys, the ones with the soulful eyes and the stubborn jaw and the rakish mouth? They all have a tragic backstory, each one more catnippy than the last.”
Maeve grabbed me by the shoulders. “But you have to learn to look past that and see whether or not there is a heart of gold under that pile of shit or just more shit. And you haven’t had practice.”
“Beck has a heart of gold,” I said, thinking about him with his sisters.
“Does he?” Maeve pursed her mouth. “He’s trigger-happy to fire people, and he’s a billionaire who didn’t inherit that money but rather made it by being ruthless.”
“Ugh.”
“Now don’t get me wrong,” Maeve assured me, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t sleep with him. I’m just saying don’t fall in love with him because he’s probably going to break your heart.”
“No, of course not,” I said, pacing around the tile floor of the bathroom. “Absolutely no love. I’m not falling in love. Shoot, I’m not even proposing we date.”
“You’re just going to hook up with him and bounce.”
“Yes,” I said, picking at my nails. “Except…”
