Page 631 of Manhattan Bossholes

A teenager ran up to us clutching her phone, her eyes shining.

Shit. We’d been spotted.

“Ohmygosh, I love you guys so much and I’m super excited to see you together!” she said quickly, mashing her words together. “Can we take a picture? No one will believe I ran into you without proof! Are you guys back together? I really hope so!”

Cameron started to answer, but I cut him off, since the man didn’t know how to handle an unexpected social media run-in.

“Hi,” I replied in a syrupy voice. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Maddie!” Her cheeks went pink. “Oh my gosh I can’t believe you’re talking to me!”

I could feel Cameron glaring at the side of my head.

“You know what, Maddie? We’re both so happy to meet you, and we’re honored that you’ve enjoyed our story, but right now we’re talking about some work stuff that’s really important. We’re trying to stay undercover, so would it be okay if we skipped a photo?”

Her face fell.

“How about this? What’s your Snug handle? I’ll follow you back, and you can use that as proof that we met.”

“Really?” Maddie jumped up and down, and Boris joined her. “Okay, yay! I’m MaddieMagnificent on every platform.”

She glanced at Cameron, probably expecting him to make the same offer.

“Cameron doesn’t do social media,” I explained for him. “He’s boring, right?”

I laughed harder than necessary, and Maddie joined in.

“Thank you!” she said. “You two are the best, and everyone is hoping you, uh, you figure stuff out. Good luck!”

She placed her finger to her lips in a “shush” gesture, then ran off.

“Why did you give her hope that we’re reconciling?” Cameron asked in a strained voice.

“What did you expect me to do?” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth. “It’s not like Veritique has given me an action plan about how to respond to stuff like that. It’s to be expected that people are going to stay interested in CamLicity, at least for a little while longer. I didn’t confirm or deny.”

“If you’d come back to the office maybe we could hammer something out,” he responded. “And anyway, I thought you were sick. You don’t look unhealthy.”

“I was sick,” I lied, “now I’m taking vacation time.”

“For how long?”

“Don’t know. Sandrine told me it’s fine,” I added.

He grumbled something unintelligible.

It finally hit me that I didn’t have to walk with him. I didn’t owe Cameron O’Connor a thing when we were off the clock. I could take off in a different direction and enjoy the beautiful day without a frowning bosshole beside me.

“You know what? I changed my mind, I’m not going right home. I need something sweet after all this saltiness.”

He frowned at me.

“Yeah,” I said, mainly to myself. “I need some Levain cookies.” I knelt in front of Boris and kissed him on the head. “Bye, mister. You’re the best boy. Take care of yourself.”

It sounded like a final goodbye because it was. My future was starting to swim into focus, and it didn’t include Cameron, which also meant it was probably the last time I’d see Boris.

“Well…he could use a longer walk; we’ll go with you,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. He pushed his sunglasses on top of his head and stared at me.

“No, that’s not necessary,” I replied. “In fact, I don’t want you to. It turns out you were right all along, Cameron. I’m better off without you.”