The Boss (The Boss 1)

Suddenly, I realized how men must feel when standing at a urinal in a public bathroom.

We crossed the lobby, and I noticed people stopping to stare. Not at me, but at Neil, and why shouldn’t they? The entire building was abuzz with the takeover of Porteras, and people were eager to get a glimpse of the man who’d breezed in and ousted the feared, fire-breathing Gabriella Winters.

From the hard set of his jaw, I guessed he noticed the attention, too.

A car waited at the curb, a black and gray Maybach 62, and Neil opened my door for me. I gritted my teeth. When I reached for the handle to close it myself, Neil stepped back hastily to go round the other side of the car.

A partition between the front and back seats separated the car in two. Neil got in and used the intercom system to speak with the driver about our destination. I was just grateful for the center console between the two of us. It was nice to have a physical barrier there; comforting like a podium at a public speaking gig.

As we pulled away, I took a mental inventory of the car. It definitely had a better TV than I had in my apartment, and more real wood than all of my flat-pack furniture combined. It was also an abnormally quiet ride, free from outside noise, so the awkward silence between Neil and myself had been sharpened to a fine point.

He seemed about as thrilled to be in the car with me as I was to be with him. He leaned against the door and looked out at the traffic, his mouth a grim line. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft and pained. “I do remember you, Sophie.”

The words took the breath from my lungs. My first instinct was to make some kind of quip to deflect him, but it was finally in the open between us, and there was no sense in running from it now. “You didn’t yesterday.”

“I’ve never forgotten you.” There was a bewildered quality to his words, as though he couldn’t believe I would think he’d let me pass from his memory for an instant. “I just didn’t realize it was you, until you said... For God’s sake, the Sophie I knew was going to go to Japan to teach English and find herself. I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Never thought, or hoped never to?” I tried at a smile, to pass it off as a joke, and it all sort of fell apart, so I looked away, out the window. There were millions of people in the city I would trade places with in a heartbeat to escape this moment, and yet...

I’d wanted this for six years. Even when I’d been fuming mad and trying to use his money to buy a last-minute seat on a flight to New York, I’d been more hurt and angry by the fact that I would never see him again than I had been at the way he’d left me.

“I shouldn’t have taken your ticket,” he admitted. “I did it because you were so bright and being so stupid... but it wasn’t my place to prevent you from making a mistake. I didn’t even know you.”

I sat back against the very comfy leather seat. He was apologizing. I’d always imagined him apologizing; I’d just never anticipated he would call me stupid while doing it.

“I’m glad you went to NYU.”

When I looked at him again, the weighty feeling between us was back. There was no mistaking that he felt it, too. I took a shaky breath. “So am I. It got me a good job. Am I going to keep it?”

He looked as though he would answer me, but the car stopped and the driver spoke over the intercom. “We’ve arrived, Mr. Elwood.”

Neil exited the car, and this time he let me get my own door. I had to admit, I was impressed by that, but it was difficult to maintain any level of excitement when my job had been left a cliffhanger.

The restaurant Neil had chosen for us was a small brasserie with a sidewalk cafe still serving lunch outside, despite the brisk fall weather. The hostess smiled as we approached, and Neil mentioned a reservation.

“Not under an assumed name this time?” I asked under my breath as we followed the woman through the mostly empty restaurant. No wonder he needed a reservation, this place is hopping, I thought snidely, and then I was somewhat bolstered by the fact he hadn’t taken me someplace super popular and crowded. That would have been a flashing neon sign that I was about to be fired. The hostess led us all the way to the back of the building, past the restrooms and the kitchen, to a small private dining room.