Page 20 of Reborn to Love You

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t spend the night here—”

“I can—” Unfortunately, her stomach also growled at that moment, and well... “But I won’t say no if you’d like to pay for dinner?”

“I have a better idea.”

Twenty minutes later, and Payton couldn’t help feeling her boss had cast a spell on her. Their Uber Eats had arrived, they were now in the pantry, and he had somehow convinced her to pay for everything.

“This is good,” her boss commented.

Well...at least he was enjoying his ramen.

“Mostly because it’s your money that paid for this.”

Payton choked, snorted, and laughed all at the same time, which resulted in a sound that had her apologizing with a wince afterward. “I’m sorry—”

“There’s no need to apologize for being yourself.”

She looked at him suspiciously. Why did that sound like an insult masquerading as a compliment?”

“Tell me how you and your husband met.”

The question, which totally blindsided her, had Payton nearly inhaling the sprinkle of sesame seed on her salad.

“W-Where did that even come from?” she finally managed to ask.

“Humor me.”

If anyone had asked her this a few days ago, she would have answered it with joy. Even though she had already caught him cheating with another girl, she had still held on to hope that they would be able to fix things.

For Payton, it was always better to look at everything with a half-cup-full perspective. But after being murdered by her own husband the first time, and the woman he had been cheating her with the next...

“I don’t know if you remember, but I used to work for Todd & Tolstoy prior to coming here.”

“I remember.”

And for some reason, that had her fighting back another blush.

Stop it, Payton!

She was sure Niccolò wasn’t lying, but it also didn’t have to mean anything. That was just Niccolò de Vindice having a knack for remembering things.

“That’s where your husband still works, doesn’t he?”

See, Payton? You’re nothing special. He just remembers everything.

She cleared her throat. “Yes, you’re correct. We actually entered the company at the same time. I worked in Advertising while he worked in Accounting. When we married five years later, we also knew that the company...they didn’t exactly have a policy for it, but everyone knew that the management wasn’t in favor of married couples on their payroll. So we talked about it, and that’s how I ended up working here.”

“We?”

She tried to say Eric’s name but couldn’t, and so she had to force herself to say something else. “My...husband.” It made her skin crawl, but at least it didn’t make her feel nauseous.

“I see.”

She frowned. Why did those words sound like he saw something else?

“I was basically asking for your Tinder profile,” Niccolò drawled, “and you gave me your LinkedIn employment history instead.”

Payton couldn’t help it. She was making that sound again as she laughed, choked, and snorted. And when her gaze collided with his—