Page 485 of Manhattan Bossholes

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s going to pick me up from class so we can sell the couple thing to MG.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Hm. How kind of him to swoop in and save you. Sounds like a dedicated ‘boss.’” She made air quotes around the word.

I ignored the implication. “That’s exactly what he is and nothing more.”

“Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to see if our guesstimate was right?”

“Huh?” I didn’t like the devilish gleam in Steph’s eyes.

She held up her hands like she was measuring something. “Eight inches?”

“Knock it off!” I shouted, and we both fell over laughing.

12

JAMES

Ibanged on Christopher’s door as best I could while clutching his present in my arms. In the past my brother’s birthday was cause for a huge celebration. His ex loved any excuse to spend his money and would throw lavish parties in his honor, even though we knew it was all for her. Now, we were lucky to get Christopher out the door for a cup of coffee.

I sighed. Someday I’d get through to him and the old Christopher would be back. I wouldn’t accept any other option.

I heard footsteps that sounded way too quick to be his since my brother was a lumberer. When the door flew open, I was greeted by the last person I expected to see.

“Natalie? What the hell are you doing here?”

She froze, then her eyes darted around like she was searching for a place to hide.

“Uhhh…hi, James.”

She gave me a quick little wave, and I tried to ignore the fact that she looked absolutely stunning in a damned hoodie, ripped jeans, and Vans.

“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why are you in my brother’s apartment? Is he okay?”

Natalie glanced over her shoulder, then came out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. “I can explain, but you need to let me get everything out before you interrupt me. And you can’t get mad at me.”

“I refuse to promise that,” I said.

“Well, then I’m leaving.”

She turned to head back into the apartment, but I reached out to grasp her arm. She glanced down at my hand wrapped around her bicep and I released her quickly, aware that I’d crossed a line.

We don’t touch, because touching was dangerous.

“For fuck’s sake, Natalie.” I sighed again. “I promise I won’t be an asshole to you. Just tell me what’s going on. This is my family we’re talking about.”

A shadow flickered over her face, then she took a steadying breath. “Okay. So, Rhea told me that Christopher still had a bunch of the archival designs on paper, and I felt like in order to do the best job possible on the Pantone project we should have access to everything, so I…” Her cheeks pinked as she paused. “I emailed your brother to ask about them.”

I opened my mouth to scream at her and remembered my promise. I crossed my arms and glared at her instead.

“He was very receptive!” she added quickly. “He invited me over, I never would’ve invited myself, I swear to you. I might make dumb choices sometimes, like calling you my boyfriend, but I’m not that stupid.” Her mind seemed to drift back to the eight inches conversation again, but she quickly refocused. “Anyway, Christopher and I had such a great time that…well, I’ve stopped by a few times since then to collaborate with him. And it’s been amazing.”

For the briefest moments I felt a flash of something sour, imagining Natalie and my brother spending time together. Sitting side by side at the table, swapping ideas. Could they be…?

But Christopher was no match for someone like Natalie, especially in his current state. Despite the woman he’d married, he was usually drawn to quiet, nurturing partners.

Nothing like Natalie the spitfire.

“So has he been…okay?” I asked tentatively. I wasn’t used to getting status updates about him from anyone but Bernie.