Page 144 of Manhattan Bossholes

I bent down, gathering the papers as quickly as I could. I didn’t intend to listen in—I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on a private conversation—but I could hear their voices drift from the office as I crouched there, trying to gather everything so I could get the hell away.

“Listen, Dom,” Aiden was saying. “You need to figure out a way to put Amanda out of your mind. She’s just a shitty part of your past. Hailey is what matters now.”

“I know,” Dominic said.

“She’s your future, and you need to focus on that.”

“I’m trying.”

My breath caught in my throat. Hailey? I pressed closer to the door, trying to hear more, my mind racing. Was Hailey the woman Dominic left his wife for? She must be if Aiden was talking about her being Dominic’s future. The thought churned my stomach, bringing back sudden and painful memories of my own most recent ex, Levi. The one who left me for another woman without a second thought.

“You know I’m trying,” Dominic continued, sighing. He sounded tired, defeated. “But it’s not that simple. Nothing feels simple anymore. There’s so much history with Amanda. Leaving that all behind is complicated. Even more because of Hailey.”

“I get it,” Aiden said. “But you’ve got to let go of that history. Hailey is the one who’s here now. She’s the one you love. Forget about everything else.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My thoughts swirled between confusion and anger as I remembered how Levi’s betrayal had left me shattered. I remembered the nights I’d cried myself to sleep, wondering what I’d done wrong, why I hadn’t been enough. Disgust boiled in my gut. I really thought Dominic was a nice guy. But my perception of him shifted in an instant. He was no different than Levi. And Aiden? Giving advice like that made him just as bad.

Dominic’s next words only fueled my indignation. “You’re right. I just...need to move on, stop dwelling on the past. Amanda was a mistake. But Hailey needs to be my reason for living.”

So, Dominic thought this fling would make him feel alive again? He was content throwing away his vows for the thrill of something new? His poor wife. I shifted, crumpling the papers in my trembling hands as I stood up. I didn’t want to hear anymore.

8

CORA

“Good, you’re home!” Jennifer called as I walked through the door. I could see the back of her head over the back of the couch from where I stood in the doorway. The Sound of Your Heart, Jennifer’s favorite Korean soap opera, was playing on the TV. “Jo Seok’s trying to cook for Ae-bong to impress her, and I’m very amused.” Pots were boiling over and flames were shooting up on the TV. “I swear to God, this is what the kitchen looks like in Eastfield every time I turn my back.”

My thoughts were as stormy as the boiling pot on the TV, a horrible mix of anger and disappointment. The walk home had done little to soothe my agitation, leaving me free to replay the conversation between Dominic and Aiden over and over in my head. I toed off my shoes, dropped my bag, and headed for the couch.

It was Jennifer’s night off, and she sat there in her favorite, worn Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas, the melodramatic subtitles flashing across the TV screen, with an open box of pizza on the coffee table next to the tube of raw cookie dough from the fridge. Oh boy…These were all her guilty pleasure indulgences at once. Truthfully, she’d been indulging more and more lately. Whenever Jennifer talked about Eastfield, she was either stressed or apathetic, and I’d started to worry she’d lost her enthusiasm for cooking.

Jennifer looked up from the TV and offered me the spoonful of cookie dough that had been on the way to her mouth seconds ago. She frowned, perhaps noticing the look on my face, and immediately hit pause on the episode. “Uh oh!” She stuffed the spoon in her mouth and sat up straighter, patting the spot on the couch next to her. “What’s wrong?” she demanded, the words muffled by cookie dough. “What happened? Who do I have to hurt? Just tell me and I will make their lives a living hell.”

I sank down on the cushion next to her, laughing without any real humor. “Work was shit.”

“What? Wait. I thought you said you liked your team. And that the lab actually is incredible. And that Allie was around for chats.”

“Yes, okay, all that’s great. I guess the work itself wasn’t shit. I made good progress today sorting out the ingredients I want to play with in some of the drinks. It’s more just something I overheard at work today that sucked.”

“Sucked” was actually an understatement.

Jennifer made a noise of concern. “This doesn’t sound good.”

“It wasn’t,” I muttered. Once I started talking—well more like venting—I couldn’t stop, giving Jennifer a blow-by-blow account of the conversation I’d eavesdropped on between Aiden and Dominic. My voice trembled at one point, and I hated how much I’d let it affect me.

By the time I’d finished, Jennifer’s expression had soured, her brows pinched, her nose wrinkled. I leaned back against the couch, surprisingly exhausted as old feelings of betrayal spilled free. “I just couldn’t stop myself from connecting it all back to Levi and the way he ended things with me last year.”

Jennifer wrapped her arms around me, smelling like pepperoni and chocolate chips as she gave me a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s just remember who’s to blame in that scenario,” she said firmly. “Levi. You didn’t do anything wrong. The two of you were together for fifteen damn years. All the way back to high school.”

All the way back to after Aiden dumped me, when I’d been so hurt and confused and had needed someone to make me feel like I was desirable, lovable. Levi had been that someone…right up until he wasn’t anymore.

“Levi never gave you any hint that he wasn’t totally committed to you before he went on that work trip to LA and lost his damn mind,” Jenn reminded me.

I nodded, biting back the swell of emotion that surged up from my chest. It was fine to say that, but I still sometimes wondered if I’d missed red flags. Were there signs that I chose to ignore?

“I think we’ve learned Levi’s the kind of guy who only thinks of himself. And that doesn’t say anything about you, Cora. It says everything about him. Frankly,” Jennifer continued, “I don’t know how you put up with him for as long as you did. He was lucky to have you, and I wish him nothing but blisters and jury duty for the rest of his life.”

I choked on a laugh, blinking back the heaviness in my eyes. “I can’t believe I actually thought he was such a nice guy, like he couldn’t possibly hurt me like Aiden. Goes to show how little I know.”