The Boss (48 page)

Maybe that was what a relationship actually
was. Just learning to be able to stand the other person and make
them happy. What a concept.

When Gabriella answered the phone, she
sounded confused. "Sophie Scaife is calling me. At this hour. Which
seems odd, because I thought she wanted a job - "

"I don't want the job." I blurted. "Not if
you think you can tell me what I can and can't do in my personal
life. You, or Jake. It's never going to happen."

"You can't date the owner of a competing
publication if you want to work for me. That's not negotiable." She
said each word carefully, rolling them around her mouth like a fine
wine. I could perfectly visualize her facial expression, her big,
blue eyes wide in her deceptively kind face.

"I understand. Thank you for the
opportunity." I'd said "Thank you," and not "fuck you," right?

"Goodbye, Sophie."

She hung up, and I sat staring at my phone
for a long time. I felt like I hadn't really lost anything. I was
just as unemployed as I had been before the phone call. I was just
as pregnant. My boyfriend was just as hospitalized. And possibly
not my boyfriend. I had no clue where we would go from here.

I could walk away from all of it, I realized.
I could go, have the abortion, break up with Neil, tell him I'd
taken the job, and start completely over. Everything would go back
to the way it had been before Neil had walked into
Porteras
.

But I could never go back to the way things
had been the day before that flight to Tokyo had been delayed. I
could never un-know Neil, or stop feeling the way I felt about him.
I would probably never stop loving him.

I could stay with him. I could have his baby.
Or not. The clock was ticking, and I didn't know what I was going
to do.

What the hell was I going to do?

Abigail Barnette
is the alter-ego of author, blogger, and
funny person,
Jenny Trout
. Writing as Jennifer Armintrout,
she made the
USA Today
bestseller list with her debut novel,
Blood Ties Book One: The Turning
. Her novel
American
Vampire
was named one of the top ten horror novels of 2011 by
Booklist Magazine Online
. As Abigail Barnette, she writes
award winning erotic romance. When she’s not writing, she’s
sleeping or otherwise incapacitated.

She is a proud Michigander, mother of two,
and wife to the only person alive capable of spending extended
periods of time with her without wanting to murder her.