Page 244 of Manhattan Bossholes

“Have you met Natasha yet?” Dee asked. “Our new designer?”

“Only in passing,” Sheila admitted. “She came by the marketing floor, but I was on a call. Think I gave you a wave.” She reached her hand out. “Good to meet you officially.”

“You too,” Natasha said, smiling.

“She’s Trent’s girlfriend,” Dee added.

I almost spit my water out. I’d been prepared to fake it for Dee, but it hadn’t occurred to me that she might introduce Natasha as my girlfriend to other people, spreading the lie. Natasha glared at me, clearly annoyed I was letting this happen. I glared right back. What, did she think I was thrilled by this?

Sheila smiled at me before shaking her head. “He’s a lucky man,” she said. “We’ll have to make her feel extra special.”

“Oh, no, that’s really not necessary—” Natasha started to say as Dee nodded along.

“In fact…” Sheila paused, drumming her fingers against her lips. “This is quite an interesting setup.”

Why was this interesting? No, don’t ask, I told myself, gritting my teeth. I didn’t want to know what horrible idea had sparked to life in Sheila’s mind.

But Dee asked for me. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, historically,” Sheila said, “the company’s never been stronger than when we’ve had a committed couple at the helm, running things together.”

That was absolutely true of my grandparents when they founded the company and ran it together. And I guess it was true of my parents for a while…until their relationship fell apart. But I was the one in charge now—and was Sheila really saying what I thought she was?

Natasha shot me a hard look, her cheeks flaming, and I didn’t need to wonder what she was thinking.

Fuck.

“So,” my buddy Vincent said as I finished tying my shoelaces. I stood, twisting my squash racket in my hands before shrugging my shoulders, making sure I was loose. “I talked to Nana Dee today.”

“Oh, yeah? She actually swung by the office for lunch,” I said. “Total surprise. But it was good to see her out again.”

Vincent did a couple lunges, warming up as we waited for Aiden and Dominic to join us. Every other week, I met the guys at the rec center in the Glenhaven Club for a game of squash. It was a tradition we’d started up recently since Aiden needed to give Cora dedicated time to film the Masked Mixer mixology videos that had made her such a social media sensation. Vincent, meanwhile, needed an occasional break from new parenthood—something he and Piper had agreed was important for their relationship and their personal sanity. And the rest of us just needed a break from work every now and then—not that we were always free to take it. There was usually at least one person who couldn’t make it. Tonight, Paul was a no-show, but that still left us enough to play two-on-two.

“She called me after your lunch visit,” Vincent said. Aiden and Dominic walked onto the court.

“What are we talking about?” Aiden asked.

“Just that Dee had plenty of things to say about someone’s new girlfriend,” Vincent teased as he and Aiden partnered up.

“Natasha is not my girlfriend,” I grumbled. “Just serve the damn ball.”

“Natasha!” Vincent and Aiden chorused together. “Oooooo!”

Vincent lobbed the ball. I returned it as hard as I could. “Both of you shut up,” I snarled.

Aiden snickered as he chased the ball.

“Okay, but actually,” Dominic said. “Who’s Natasha?”

“No one.” I dove for the ball. “I hired her to build Dee a couple of custom furniture pieces. There was a little mix-up when she came by Dee’s house, and Dee thought I’d brought a girl home. Now we’re pretending to date to make Dee happy. That’s all it is.”

Dominic snorted. “Sure that’s all it is. You sound just like Aiden when he kept telling us nothing was going on with Cora. Remember?”

“But they had history,” I reminded him as Vincent returned the ball so hard it flew past us, earning them a point.

“Natasha distracting you?” Aiden taunted. “This is gonna be an easy game.”

I huffed, rolling my eyes.