Page 49 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

“Maybe I should quit.”

Collin’s head snapped up. “Really? You got a better offer somewhere?”

“No. But I can try.”

He smiled, giving his head a shake. “You might not believe this, but I can guarantee more than 50% of workers hate their boss. You might end up with a shitty person.”

“And a shittier pay,” I grumbled, shoving pasta into my mouth.

“Atta girl.”

“He’s still an asshole.”

His brow quirked as he dusted off the rest of his meal. “You know you’re yet to tell me exactly what he did.”

I gave him a blank stare. “He embarrassed me in a board meeting, remember?”

“In his defense, you were over half an hour late.”

“So that makes it right?” The question sounded as stupid as Collin made it out to be, but it wasn’t like I could tell him the exact reason I was late.

What would I say? That I spent the night with him and he left me in the bed the next morning only to make a fool of me for coming late?

I’d sound like a butt-hurt ex who was mad for being dumped.

Collin was cool and he has been really nice and helpful to me, but I wasn’t going to make the mistake of trusting him with a secret this heavy.

“How about I take you to this really cool place to get your mind off things for a bit?”

I glanced at my phone. We had about fifteen minutes till lunch was over.

“I’d love that, Collin, but we only have fifteen minutes left and, after last time, I cannot afford to be late to another meeting.”

“I wasn’t talking about now,” he replied. “We can do after work or tomorrow. It’s Friday anyways.”

“Oh… would Caroline and Rose be there?”

I probably sounded like an idiot, but I did meet him through the duo and the only reason we were having lunch alone was because Rose had an emergency and Caroline had to prep for the meeting.

And if he was asking what I was thinking, I needed to be sure about it.

“No Caroline or Rose. Just the two of us. We could get to know each other better without the noise.”

The noise.

“So it’s a date?”

His lips curved. “If I must spell it out to you, then yes, it is a date.”

“What about the no-fraternization rule?”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.”

Something about the response left a thread of unease in my gut.

And even if I didn’t give a fuck about the rules, I was already in a funny situation with one person and not ready to convert the situation to a growing list.

But he had such hope in his eyes and he spent his entire lunch listening to me whine about my life. I didn’t know how to reject him outright.