AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Regardless, we fought and I made the conscious decision to call us off before we could get any deeper emotionally because the physical was out. Even though we’d only scratched the surface, there was no point in continuing. I’m not going to make a good stepdad. I can barely be a good boyfriend because Liv and I didn’t even talk about it.
We fought about it and neither one of us apologized days afterward.
Where Liv is prideful, I’m stubborn, and it’s a communication issue that’s going to outlast the test of our relationship.
It already did.
And that’s why you don’t fuck your employees.
Ever.
I’m a clear example of emotionally unavailable and that’s not something I want to put on a little girl who only wants love and Barbie dolls.
It’s too much pressure.
And Liv is better off without me anyway.
By lunch, I order food and have it delivered to the shop. Winslow brings it to me this time and he slams my office door behind him like he’s got something important to say.
“Boss man,” he greets, dropping my paper bag on the desk in front of me. “What the hell happened between you and the blonde?”
I pry my eyes off my computer screen and hold a calm expression. “Which one?”
“The only one that’s currently out front.”
His eyes narrow a bit as if this is going to be a personal problem, but I don’t see how it would be. Liv has nothing to do with him and everything to do with me. However, if he wasn’t married with eighty kids, I may reevaluate his statement.
“Is she PMS’ing again?” I ask, holding his frown because nothing’s changed. He doesn’t get inside my head and offer suggestions.
“No, but she looks like she wants to cry every two seconds.”
Fuck.
That immediately makes me uncomfortable and guilty for the shit I’ve done and said. How I feel as though I’m the one who should’ve stopped all this when she’s the one who had the power over me all along.
“I’m not sure what you want me to do about that,” I drive from my throat, reaching for my lunch to give me something to do other than stare into Winslow’s fucking eyes.
“Give her the day off.”
I lift my shoulders. “Go ahead.”
“I’m not the boss.”
“Then you can give the boss’s order.”
“Hudson…” When he doesn’t continue, a defeated sigh leaves my chest and I peer up at him once more. “I’m not about to get into your personal shit, man, but something happened. And she doesn’t strike me as someone who’s used to someone like you.”
I pin him with a glower. “What the fuck does that mean?”
He perks a brow. “You know damn well what the fuck that means. There’s nothing about you that’s easy, dude.”
“And you can go fuck yourself,” I deadpan, tearing into the brown paper bag so that I can grab my burger and choke on the damn thing.
At least then I won’t have to deal with this and can focus on something else.
“How many days?”
Geezus fucking Christ…this motherfucker.
