Page 555 of Manhattan Bossholes

When the asshole grinned at me in triumph, his entire expression transformed. Gone was the judgey furrow, replaced by…well, by the most incredible face I’d ever seen. I was about to stagger from the shock of being caught in his high-beam smile and crinkled-up hazel eyes.

Even if it was because he was gloating.

But then, the smile faded as he slapped his chest, then his ass, searching for his wallet.

“Uh…” he said, repeating the slaps and pulling open his blazer and staring into it as if staring hard enough would suddenly make what he was looking for appear.

“What’s wrong?” I asked sweetly, smiling up at him. “Wallet missing?”

“Hold on, did you⁠—”

“Oh my god, are you accusing me of stealing your wallet?” I asked, incredulous. “Are you actually calling me a thief now?”

The asshole went silent, and I could see him retracing his steps in his head as he stared off beyond me. “Fuck. I left it behind. Okay, you win this one, Fagin. The precious cab is yours.”

I froze when the unexpected name came out of his mouth. The leader of the pickpockets in Oliver Twist? Did the man read Dickens? Because he looked like Maxim Magazine was more his speed.

“Yeah, thanks for nothing,” I said, but he’d already buried his nose in his phone as he walked away. “It was mine all along, and you know it,” I shouted after him.

He turned on his heel to face me, struggling to find the right insult to hurl back at me.

“Hey, you might want to close that pretty mouth of yours,” I smiled at him as I got into the cab, taking my time and drawing my legs in slowly, then posing like a pin-up. “Remember, flies are attracted to garbage.”

I slammed the door and leaned back in the seat, choosing to focus on this tiny victory instead of the fact that I was now running even later for my interview.

I gave the address of the Veritique headquarters to the driver, and as he pulled away from the curb, I finally felt like my luck was turning around.

2

CAMERON

Icouldn’t quite gather my thoughts after the run-in with the gorgeous taxi thief. She was obnoxious, yes, and loud, and demanding, but there was no ignoring the way she’d looked. Dark blonde hair pulled up in a messy chignon, a tight blouse and ass-hugging skirt that made her look like she was cosplaying a naughty secretary, and brown eyes so dark her pupils disappeared. The woman was hell in heels, and she kept invading my thoughts, despite how much planning and rearranging I now needed to do for the busy day ahead.

The text from my friend Tyler this morning had me worried, hence my needing an ASAP cab. My driver Jimmy was already on his way to my place to pick me up at my usual time, but he was driving in from the Bronx and wouldn’t be here for a while yet. Meanwhile, I had to get over to Tyler’s place to see him before work. I wasn’t in the mood to make the trek back up to my penthouse given our historic building’s ridiculously slow elevators, so I reached out to my house manager, Daniel, to make the necessary arrangements for a temporary driver. He texted back immediately without asking for details, but that was the beauty of our working relationship—ten years of supporting me meant Daniel could read my mind. Invaluable in business situations when every minute lost meant money down the drain.

And even more important in this scenario when Tyler’s demons might be getting the best of him.

I scrolled to my last text exchange with Tyler, the one that had spooked me into running out the door without my wallet. The latest garbled message was apologizing because he couldn’t come over to walk Boris due to “rough night” prior. Of course, Daniel could step in to find someone to walk my beloved giant schnauzer, but that wasn’t the point. I’d tasked my oldest friend in the world with dog walking because I could pay him well, and more importantly, because it made him accountable for something other than himself. It got him out of bed and into the world, where he was forced to interact with people, because Boris loved everyone and always wanted to make new friends.

Tyler and Boris had become something of a fixture around town, to the point where people knew both of their names and assumed the loveable black dog was his. Without the daily dog walks, I worried Tyler would spiral into depression over the state of his life. Sudden stardom, nonstop adulation, then an equally fast descent into obscurity when his sophomore album tanked. No matter how much he loved music, playing to groups of ten people in a dank basement bar couldn’t hold a candle to his memories of selling out stadiums.

The drugs had become part of his lifestyle during the height of his fame, and now…I didn’t know if he used them to remember the glory days or to help him forget them. Either way, he’d been leaning harder and harder on that crutch lately. Around me, he stuck to booze, but who the hell knew what he used when I wasn’t around? And even the alcohol had been getting out of hand, which was probably the explanation for said “rough night.” I could only imagine the trouble he’d gotten into.

A black Town Car slid up beside me, and the driver jumped out.

“Mr. O’Connor,” he nodded as he opened the door for me.

“Hi Robert,” I said. I hadn’t seen the gray-haired man in months, but I never forgot a face. One of the few lessons I took from my father.

I tallied up my many stressors on the drive to Tyler’s dingy apartment. My friend’s mental state. Our company’s current PR nightmare. The marketing campaign to counter it. I’d always had a lot on my plate as CEO, but lately the pressure was getting to be too much. I sighed, closed my eyes, and leaned back against the headrest.

And the first image that popped into my mind was the fucking gorgeous spitfire on the sidewalk.

Normally, I wouldn’t even have acknowledged her, but there was something about her insistence that she was right, and her fearlessness in calling me out, that intrigued me. No one stood up to me, and it was a shock to discover that I sort of liked it. Sparring with her had been…fun?

“Would you like me to wait outside Mr. Boyd’s building?” Robert asked as he parked.

I hadn’t even realized we’d arrived.