Bargaining with the Boss (Honeybrook Love, Inc. 2)

"Nope. Call me later." She clicked the phone off and stuffed it back in her bag.

That call had been perfectly useless. Franco was just going to let this woman talk bad about him for no reason without any retaliation made her mad enough to spit. And yet...

Her stomach churned again, thinking of all the things Franco could have said to her, but hadn't.

At the end of the day, she knew that she was the last one to be reprimanding him about something like that.

She sighed and slung her workbag over her shoulder. Odds were that Eliza would have already jammed the copier by the time Natalie returned to the office, so she had to get a move

When Natalie trudge to her desk, fresh off her lunch break, not only was the copier jammed, but so was the printer, and, somehow, the coffee machine. The voicemail box was completely full, and the invoices for this week's shipments were in a jumble atop her desk.

"Frankly, I'm not sure how you managed to do all this in such a short span of time. I've literally never seen anything like it." She glanced from Eliza to the printer and back again, wondering how long it might take before a spark shot out of the machine.

"I have a gift?" Eliza shrugged, then handed her a note. "Oh, this came for you this morning."

Natalie took one look at the handwriting on the envelope, then ripped it in half and tossed it in the trash. On its way down, though, something floated out and Eliza bent down to pick it up.

Damn it.

She should have ripped it into four pieces. Or eight. Maybe then--

"These are tickets to The Phantom of the Opera. In New York."

"Probably." It would be like him to send her tickets. And two of them at that. Like he wanted to see her out and about with friends. The irony of it was almost too much to bear.

But if he was sending bigger gifts now, that also meant he was getting desperate.

And he knew where she was.

She shook her head, then tried to swallow fast the fist-sized knot that had formed in her throat. Turning to Eliza, she said, “So, you want to come with me and I'll show you how to--"

Eliza snatched a fragment of the ticket from the trash. "This show has been sold out for a year. They're impossible to get."

"Probably." She cleared her throat. Distraction. She had to find a distraction. "The copier is really easy to use. I'll--"

"Who are these from?" Eliza reached into the can for another piece, but Natalie snatched the paper and crumpled it before pulling it open and shredding it again.

"I can promise you, the copier is much more interesting. Now follow me." She started off without waiting for Eliza’s response. With any luck, there wouldn't be one.

She wasn't ready to talk about it or him any time soon. She needed a decade, maybe two in order to fully process everything. And the idea of people knowing...

She shook her head again. He wasn't going to invade this space. Her space. Right now, her only concern was going to be the copier.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and—

Ran straight into something big and hard and warm.

"Resorting to physical violence now, Natalie?" She would have recognized that stupid, deep, mocking voice anywhere.

"Brooks," she muttered, and then brushed off her dress. "You should have been watching where you were going."

"Yes, I should have known you'd run straight into my back. That was my fault. I apologize."

Damn him. Why did he always have to be so...Urgh.

"Just...watch it next time," she choked out.

"I'll be sure to do that." He gave her a little bow that only increased her urge to kick him in the shin and run away.