Page 574 of Manhattan Bossholes

“I hate him, I hate Unhinged Heart, but I’d rather direct my energy to something positive, you know? Like my new job.” The corner of her mouth turned up at the mention of it. “The more time I spend thinking about him, the more he wins. I don’t want to give him any more real estate in my brain. I mean…I do kind of like the thought of the irony—half of the book is about how all of the problems he faced were always my fault, because he loves blaming things on me, so it would be pretty cool if I actually did have the power to rain on his parade a little…but then would that mean he was right about me?” She shrugged. “I think the best way forward is to never, ever speak of him again.”

So, Felicity Rhodes wanted to take the high road. Yet another surprise from the person who kept me in a constant state of puzzlement.

“If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do,” I reassured her. “Strike Steven Brudny from the records!”

I juggled the grocery bag so I could hold the door open for her and saw who was waiting for us in the lobby.

“Uh, Felicity?” I said quickly. “You better brace for impact.”

8

FELICITY

Iswiveled my head to try to figure out what Cameron meant and saw a giant black blob sprinting across the lobby toward us.

“Oh my god, are we getting attacked by a dog?” I asked in a panic.

“Sort of, but in a good way,” Cameron laughed.

He placed my grocery bag on the ground and crouched down to absorb the hit from the oversized dog. What I thought was going to be a scary takedown turned into a goofy hello from a dog who looked like he didn’t understand how to move his body. It was a blur of paws, tail, and slobbery snout as Cameron tried to pet the pup.

“This monster is mine,” he laughed. “Meet Boris.”

In an instant, the dog discovered there was another human to greet, so he dashed to me and started the same playful spinning and jumping.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on mister,” I said, trying to set my grocery bags down so I could pet him.

“Sorry guys,” a voice echoed down to us.

Boris turned, then dashed toward the man running across the lobby but changed his mind at the last minute and juked right to go say hello to Carl the doorman.

“Looks like somebody needs a dog trainer,” Carl smiled as he petted Boris.

The other guy finally collected the leash and walked over to us with Boris finally under control.

“Well, that was my workout for the day. Remind me to keep a tighter grip on the leash,” he said with a sigh when he reached us. “He was literally running circles around the lobby. He’s fast!”

“And strong,” Cameron agreed, leaning down to give his dog a kiss on the head. He straightened and glanced between us. “Felicity Rhodes, meet my old friend Tyler Boyd.”

“Hey, I’m not that old,” Tyler laughed.

I squinted at the handsome, dark-haired guy. “Why is your name so familiar?”

He smiled awkwardly for a minute and shuffled his feet. “Uh, not sure.”

I stared at him. “We’ve met, I’m sure of it.”

“Oh, trust me, if our paths had crossed before, I’d never let you forget it.” He winked at me playfully.

“Oh, come on, you’re relentless, Tyler,” Cameron groused.

“Now I remember!” The flirty vibe brought it all into focus. “I saw your band at The Sty. With my friend Nina, we were in the front for a while. You were amazing!”

“Oh, wow, okay,” he bobbed his head. “Thank you, I appreciate that. I wouldn’t say those guys are my band, though. We just sort of jam together.”

“Tyler’s more of a solo artist, if you ask me,” Cameron added. “He’s at his best when he’s up there on his own.” Nina had said he’d had some big hits back in the day, right? I’d meant to find the videos on YouTube, but that was the night I got stuck in the elevator with Cameron, and after that, every thought of Tyler had totally slipped my mind.

Tyler punched his arm. “My biggest fan. You guys going up?”