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I roll my eyes but can't help a small smile. "You know what I mean."
She takes a sip of her coffee before leaning forward. "I know my dad can be... intense. But he's not a bad guy, Maya. He just doesn't know how to let go of the reins. Besides..." she adds, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You're probably good for him."
I throw my hands up in mock surrender. "Good for him? Good for him...?" I trail off, shaking my head in disbelief. "Yeah, Good for his ego. He orders me around like a little puppet."
"I'll talk to him. Don't worry," Kaitlyn says, patting my hand reassuringly. "I'll get him off of your case. He's testing you, to see how well you can handle pressure. He respects people who can stand up for themselves."
"All right, all right. I'll stick with it. But if I end up as lion food, I'm blaming you."
I don’t know how much longer I can keep up with Hunter’s demands if he keeps treating me this way. But maybe Kaitlyn is right. Maybe I need to prove that I can handle his pressure. I take a sip of my cappuccino.
“So, how did your date go the other night? You look like you're still alive." Kaitlyn smirks.
I flashback to my date the other night with a guy named Brian I met on one of the dating apps.
Most of the night, he spent scrolling on his phone, the rest of the time he droned on and on, barely asking me anything about myself. He wouldn't shut up about his job in finance. And I had no other option but to zone out, imagining myself anywhere but there to get me through. At one point, I even found myself wishing I was back at work dealing with Hunter's impossible demands.
Every time I tried to steer the conversation toward something other than him, he quickly spun it back to himself.
The date finally ended with him walking me to a cab, still talking about his gym routine. I gave him a fake smile, promised to text him (which I had no intention of doing), and got into the cab, thanking God for giving me my freedom back.
I roll my eyes. "It was OK. Nothing special. I would have rather stayed in.”
“Oh, come on,” she says, her grin widening. “You know you need to get yourself out there... loosen up a little... and have some fun. Tell me about it! How was he?"
"It was awful. He talked about himself the entire time and I couldn't wait to get out of there."
Kaitlyn's eyes go wide. "That bad, huh?"
"This is why I don't date." I shrug innocently.
"Did he text you again?"
"Yeah. He said he had an amazing time and couldn't wait to see me again." I pause. "Of course he did. He loved to hear himself talk... I told him I'm not interested."
"You're a heartbreaker!"
"I prefer to think of myself as confident."
"We'll see if you can keep that attitude with my dad around."
I roll my eyes, but I know she's right. Hunter has the power to make or break me in this job, and I have to make sure he sees me as the confident, capable woman I am. With a deep breath, I smile at Kaitlyn.
"I can handle him."
Kaitlyn grins back at me. "That's my girl!" She raises her cup to mine, clinking them together.
* * *
The next dayat work starts off surprisingly normal. Hunter is gruff as usual, but there's a bit of softness in his tone when he speaks to me.
"Well, we'd better start on this paperwork then." Hunter runs his hand through his hair as he glances at the mounting pile on the desk. I watch him, noticing the greys starting to pop through his dark hair. He's a handsome man for his 40's. He picks up the first document on the stack, eyes skimming the contents.
I mirror him, picking up my own stack and looking at the first page. "So, what's the first project we're working on?"
He looks up from his papers, meeting my eyes. "We're working on a new restaurant proposal for the Adams account. They're a big player in the city, so we need to make sure we're ahead of the game."
"Sounds exciting." I scan the document. "What's the timeline for this?"
