Page 14 of The Boss

"Such as?"

"That he was demanding and humorless and made people cry."

"Do I seem humorless to you? Have I made anyone cry yet?"

Vivian smirks. "No. You're trying to be humorless and failing."

"Failing how?"

"Your side comments are actually pretty funny, and you look like you try very hard not to smile."

She's right. I can feel it tugging at the corner of my mouth right now. "Maybe I have reasons to smile."

"Such as?"

"Such as you finally stopped calling me Mr. Astor every other sentence."

"I'm still calling you Mr. Astor."

"Not in the last five minutes."

She opens her mouth to argue, then closes it. Her forehead furrows, and her cheeks redden. "This is exactly why I was being careful."

"Because you might accidentally treat me like a human being?"

"Because this is how we got into trouble the first time."

"Trouble?"

"You know what I mean."

I stand up and walk around to her side of the table. She doesn't back away, but her fingers tighten on the pen. "What kind of trouble?"

"The kind where I wake up in a strange hotel room with no memory of how I got there."

"You remember exactly how you got there and every minute since. You drank Shirley Temple."

"That's not the point."

"What is the point?"

She looks up at me, and for the first time in three days, there's no professional mask. Just Vivian, flustered and sharp and trying to hold her ground. "The point is that we're supposed to be working."

"We are working."

"This isn't working."

"This is the most productive conversation we've had all week."

"Productive how?"

"I'm finally getting straight answers out of you."

Vivian rolls her eyes. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, but we can start with why you ignored my texts."

"Because texting your boss about how hot he is seems like a career-limiting move. HR would have a field day."