4. Byron Graham
4
BYRON GRAHAM
Oh God, let me die.
My body ached, and my mouth tasted like envelope paste. My head hurt, but not as bad as I was expecting, which meant I could feel my stomach attempting to eat itself.
Why in all that was holy had I drunk so much on an empty stomach?
You would think that after dealing with an alcoholic mother, I wouldn’t want to touch a drop of alcohol, but I’d reached the end of my rope. I’d needed something to get through the next second, and concentrating on work hadn’t been enough. There had been only three options I could think of: drugs, sex, and alcohol.
Drugs were never a choice.
I wasn’t the one-night-stand type.
So, that left me with booze, and Sebastian had far too much of it at my fingertips in his office. I’d had only two glasses to calm my nerves and soothe the whirlpool in my head. I was just like my damn mother.
Fuck . I must have left an enormous mess in his office.
But…how…did…I…get…home?
My eyes popped open and even in the dim light sneaking in around the curtains, I could see that I was not in my apartment. This room looked as if it were double the size of my shoebox studio apartment.
With a strangled cry, I shoved into a sitting position, threw off the covers, and turned on the bedside lamp. Soft light caressed buttery warm walls, elegant pale-wood furniture, and dark, heavy curtains that were pulled across at least three windows to block out the light. This room was completely foreign to me. It was almost like a hotel room, but this was all too nice to be a hotel. I was in someone’s house.
My fingers twisted in my hair, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I wracked my brain for what had happened last night. How had I gotten here? I refused to believe that I’d stumbled out of the office and down the street to some nightclub or bar, where my super-rich hookup had brought me home and taken care of me. It wasn’t like Cincinnati was dripping with ultra-rich guardian angels searching for idiots to save from themselves.
The only rich person I knew even a little was Se?—
Oh, fuck…
The fog covering my memories parted enough to spit out a hazy memory of Sebastian standing over me in his office, smiling. There was another of me plastered to the side of him while we were in the elevators. And then… kissing him.
“No!” I gasped, slapping my hand to my mouth as my stomach twisted. That had to be a dream. I couldn’t have really kissed him. It was bad enough that I’d been discovered drunk on his alcohol in his office, but to have kissed him ?
I was dead. Just stick a fork in me and sprinkle me with garnish, because I was fucking done. There was no coming back from this. I would need to move far away, change my name. Maybe even get a facelift so no one could ever recognize me.
But first, I had to get out of here before anyone noticed. My gaze dropped to my chest to find that I was wearing strange pajamas. They were pale blue with a darker blue piping. Certainly the softest things I’d ever worn in my life. But why the hell was I in someone else’s pajamas? Where were my clothes? And my phone? There was no clean escape without my phone to call for a ride.
A soft knock on the door tore me from my current panic attack to send me on a different spiraling panic attack.
“Yes?” I squeaked.
The door opened and a man in a dapper gray suit with salt-and-pepper hair entered, carrying a tray. I recognized the man in an instant. It was Wilkins, Sebastian’s butler. He’d pop into the office to deliver things like suits and other items to Sebastian when he had to go from the office to some party or event.
I was definitely in Sebastian’s house.
“Good morning, Mr. Graham. I hope you had a pleasant rest,” he said as he entered the room. God love the man, he’d managed to say all that without letting even a hint of judginess enter his tone.
I swallowed hard twice to get my throat to let a few words out. “Yes. Thank you.”
“I’ve brought you some breakfast. Nothing too heavy, sir. Master Sebastian warned me you might still be feeling under the weather.”
My growing horror warred with two little warm spots forming in my chest. One was for Sebastian’s thoughtfulness, and the other was for how Wilkins called his boss “Master Sebastian.” He’d mentioned once that Wilkins had first come to work for Sebastian’s parents, but he’d followed Sebastian when he’d set up his own house after college because he was concerned with Sebastian’s ability to care for himself properly.
“Is Mr. Courtland awake?” I asked, still clinging to the hope that I’d be able to sneak out of the house before I had to face him.
“Awake and ready to start the day,” Sebastian announced as he walked through the door.
Fuck. My. Life.
Wilkins finished setting up my breakfast tray on the small table with two chairs and darted to open the curtains to the windows, revealing a stunning view of a glittering lake surrounded by trees. It was like a fairy tale.
Without another word, Wilkins offered me and Sebastian a tiny bow of his head and left the room, closing the door behind him. I was alone with Sebastian in what was likely a guest bedroom, wearing strange pajamas, after getting drunk in his office. There was no way to salvage this.
“S-sir…” I stammered.
“Are you feeling better? Do you need anything for your head or your stomach?”
I shook my head. All the earlier aches and pains had vaporized the moment I’d realized the true state of things. Now, all I could feel was cold, clammy dread that left me clinging to the warm blankets still draped over my lap.
Fuck . I was talking to my boss while I was in bed.
I jumped to my feet and shoved my fingers through my hair, trying to tame what I knew to be the world’s worst bedhead. “Sir, about yesterday. I know there’s no way you can forgive my deplorable behavior. I?—”
“Are you hungry?” Sebastian interrupted. He motioned to the table and the spread of food. The plate was even under a clichéd silver dome cover to keep the heat from escaping. “Carol makes the best breakfast. Her eggs are the fluffiest. She’s the reason I never eat breakfast outside of the house.”
My traitorous stomach growled even as it roiled with nausea and panic, and Sebastian’s smile widened in triumph. But there was no way I could sit and eat after last night.
“I can’t, sir. Please, allow me to apologize for getting drunk in your office. That behavior is so unacceptable. I?—”
“It didn’t look like you drank that much. Did you eat at all yesterday? I know you didn’t have your usual bagel before our meeting. You were too busy gathering up what we needed and coordinating with the other departments.”
No. I hadn’t. I’d skipped breakfast, and then the thing with Mom had happened, keeping me busy through the afternoon and into the early evening. Then after the call with my brother’s doctor, my stomach had soured on the idea of food. I’d only wanted something to forget about my life.
“That’s what I thought.” Sebastian read my expression like the genius he was, and his expression grew grim for the first time since stepping into the bedroom. “You can’t go on like that. I’m not letting you do another thing until I see you eat something.”
“But, sir!” I pressed harder, trying desperately to get my apology and resignation out past the tightness in my throat. Why did he have to make this so hard by being so nice?
Sebastian ambled across the room and put his hand on my tense shoulder. “Byron, stop. I’m not letting you apologize, and if you’ve got it in your head to quit, you give that notion up too. Yesterday, you had a terrible day and because of that, you tried to numb some of the pain you were in. The only thing I want you to do is reassure me you won’t hurt your body like that again. You need to take better care of yourself.”
My mouth uselessly flopped open and closed for several seconds as my brain tried to catch up with what was happening. How could he just shrug this off? He’d caught me drunk in his office . I’d hung all over him, babbling like a fucking idiot. That had happened, hadn’t it?
“But didn’t I…” I swallowed hard and dropped my voice to a whisper. “Didn’t I kiss you?”
Sebastian’s handsome face morphed from one of worry to a devilish expression of pure glee. “So, you remember that?”
“Oh gawd,” I groaned, covering my face with my hands. It really had happened. “Sir, I need to leave. Where are my clothes?” My words were muffled as I continued to hide behind my hands. Getting out of here was the only thing that was going to save me from dying on the spot from embarrassment.
“Um…your clothes. I had to send your suit out for dry cleaning.”
I lowered my hands and narrowed my gaze at him. “Because I spilled alcohol on my clothes?”
Sebastian remained silent as he winced. Horror slammed down on my head.
“I got sick?” Sebastian’s expression didn’t change. “Did I get sick on you?” Sebastian’s wince grew, and his head ducked to his shoulders.
A loud, gut-twisting moan left me. My knees gave out, and I sank to the floor and curled up into a ball like a tiny gray pill bug. Not only had I gotten drunk in my boss’s office and kissed him, but to top it all off, I’d puked on him as well.
“Byron,” Sebastian said, and I swore I could hear laughter in his voice.
“Just leave me here to die,” I groaned into the thick, cream-colored carpet. “One bad day, and I’ve committed career suicide.”
“Byron.” Now he was definitely laughing. “It didn’t happen in the office, if that helps. I think the car ride upset your stomach. Most of it hit the lawn, and a little got on my shoes.”
“Don’t laugh at me. Just let me die here. You can toss my corpse out with the trash. Go eat my eggs, so your chef’s cooking doesn’t go to waste.”
Sebastian was still chuckling as he grabbed my biceps and helped me to my feet. “You’re not allowed to die. You had a very bad day, but you’re not allowed to die. I need you far too much to allow that to happen.”
“How are you not firing me?” I cried even as he ushered me to the table.
“I have a lot of reasons for not firing you, but the only one that matters right now is that we’ve all had fucked-up days. Do you think I’ve never had a bad day and done stupid things? I’d be a real asshole for not letting you have one.” He gave me a last nudge, and I sat in the cushy swivel seat in front of the delicious meal that had been prepared for me. To my left, I could stare out the window at the sparkling lake and the bright-blue sky decorated with thin wisps of clouds. My choices were to stare at the view or at my food, because I couldn’t yet meet Sebastian’s gaze as he sat across from me.
“I am sorry, sir. Yesterday, I hit a personal wall of sorts and…just broke a little,” I admitted, as much as it killed me to do so. If anything, I owed him that much for my deplorable and unprofessional behavior.
“Okay. I accept, but that’s the last one. No more apologies after that,” Sebastian agreed, and it felt like some of the weight trying to crush my chest eased. “Now, do you think you could at least eat something?”
Despite having enough embarrassment to choke an elephant, I was still starving. Since sitting at the table, a steady stream of delicious scents had been assaulting my nose, teasing my stomach into singing a full, growling chorus of pleas. I grabbed the water and downed half of it to get the paste taste out of my mouth. I removed the cover to see the fluffiest scrambled eggs in existence, golden brown toast, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. There was also a small bowl of oatmeal and another bowl of fruit. A whimper escaped me.
Sebastian snagged the cover from my frozen fingers and set it next to him on the floor. “Eat. We can chat.” My shoulders slumped, and Sebastian laughed in response. “I don’t mean anything serious or heavy. Eat. Eat.”
Well, if I was going to die of embarrassment, I might as well do it with a full stomach . I picked up my fork and stabbed some of the eggs that appeared so enticing. Of course, Sebastian was right, and they were the best eggs I’d ever eaten. I worked my way around the tray, struggling to eat at a slow pace when I wanted to inhale everything in front of me.
Sebastian was kind enough to wait a couple of minutes, staring out the window, watching the birds fly across the sky and the trees sway in the breeze, prior to speaking again. “If you need time off to deal with personal or family matters, we can move things and make it happen. It’s not a problem.”
With food in my painfully empty stomach at last, I could feel common sense leaking into my brain. I shook my head and dared to lift my eyes up to Sebastian’s face. Naturally, the man looked as handsome as ever in the morning light. The only difference from our usual everyday meetings was that his collared shirt was missing a tie. The top two buttons were undone, revealing an enticing expanse of throat. Why did this man always have to be so sexy? I was just a poor, weak human who couldn’t withstand the awesome power of his beautiful smile and broad shoulders.
“No, sir. Time off is unnecessary. I settled things yesterday. There won’t be any more disruptions.”
But my words only pulled his mouth into a frown. He let out a soft sigh and pushed to his feet. “Okay. Promise me that if you have another bad day like yesterday or if you need a break, you will tell me.”
“I will, sir. I promise.” His concern made sense. If I were making myself sick with work and my crappy personal life, I couldn’t keep up with my daily tasks and he’d have to replace me. Sebastian Courtland was an incredibly busy man, and he needed someone who could keep up with him.
He still didn’t seem happy, but he nodded and walked across the room. I thought he was leaving me alone to finish my breakfast, but he moved to the far bureau and picked up what appeared to be a random knickknack from a bowl.
“Did I ever tell you that I met Declan Foster in high school?” Sebastian asked rather out of the blue.
“No, sir.”
“ Mn ,” he grunted and strolled to the table. “Yeah, he was a hard nut to crack. Very reserved. Didn’t show many emotions. Didn’t like to talk. Took me forever to get him to open up.”
His description of the company’s CFO sounded spot on for the man I knew today. Declan Foster was polite and courteous, but he always spoke in an even tone, never showing any emotion. He also never said more than absolutely necessary. Small talk was not something he ever engaged in. But if anyone could get him to open up, I believed Sebastian could do it.
“Anyway, we’ve been close for years. He chose to go to the same colleges as me because he didn’t want the trouble of needing to break in a new friend.”
My lips twitched, and I shoved a piece of sausage into my mouth to keep from smiling. I was more inclined to believe the reverse of that.
“After he joined the company and I became the CEO, he stopped treating me as his friend, even as he was sitting in my house, drinking my scotch. He kept treating me as his boss. I hated it. The whole thing put us both on edge. One night, I stood up, and I went searching around the lounge until I found this metal ruler that had been left out for some random reason or another, and I held it up to him. I said, ‘We’re friends, and you need to remember that. If you need help with that, I’m giving you this.’ I shook the ruler in his face, and announced, ‘This is our friend stick. When I’m holding this stick, you have to treat me like your friend and not like your boss.’ ”
Sebastian dropped into his abandoned chair and held up what turned out to be a shiny gray marble egg. After a lengthy pause, Sebastian continued in a softer, gentler voice. “Byron, I would like to be your friend. You’re a smart, funny, interesting guy. And if you need it, I can make this our friend egg to help you remember you can talk to me as a friend, rather than as your boss.”
Seconds ticked by, and I couldn’t tear my eyes from that marble egg. My heart was pounding. Blood roared like a torrent past my ears. Was this real? How could Sebastian want to be my friend? This was insane. I was dreaming. No, I was dead. I’d died of alcohol poisoning, and now I’d gone to this weird heaven where things didn’t quite make sense but were better than my reality.
“Can we be friends?” Sebastian asked.
“Sir—”
Sebastian held up one finger from the egg. “My friends don’t call me sir. Sebastian, Cor, or even Courtland are pretty common. You called me Bastian last night, so that might be my new favorite.”
I dropped my fork with a noisy clatter and sat there roasting in the fire spreading from the tips of my ears to my chest.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. After sucking in a deep breath, I forcefully lowered my walls a bit and blurted out, “I’ve already made such an ass of myself. I don’t even have friends who’ve seen me that drunk. However, the boss I greatly respect and admire has not only had to suffer through me kissing him, but I also managed to puke on him. Right now, all I want to do is curl up in bed and pretend I don’t have to deal with life for a little while. Maybe pretend you don’t think I’m a complete idiot and a loser.”
“Byron, you are not an idiot or a loser. People have bad days and make bad decisions. Let yourself be human. Besides, do you think me and my friends haven’t gotten rip-roaring drunk and done stupid things?” Sebastian snorted, still grinning at me. “So much stupid, you’d think we were brain dead.”
The smile started slowly, pushing against the restraint I always locked on my mouth when I was with Sebastian. I didn’t let myself smile because I’d told myself showing too much emotion was unprofessional. He needed me reserved, competent, and efficient at all times. Smiling meant I was getting too relaxed.
But he was asking me to be his friend, so smiling would be allowed. Also, I might have liked the idea of having the freedom to be a bit more relaxed around him.
“Okay,” I agreed, shoving the word out with more force than necessary.
Sebastian’s grin spread wide across his face and glowed in his eyes. “Okay, what?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He wanted me to use his first name.
“No. I can’t do that. Not yet.” If we were going to be friends, I was going to draw some boundaries up early.
Sebastian’s smile never wavered. “Fair enough.”
“But keep the egg on the table. It’ll probably help.”
A laugh jumped from him, and the grin I had been holding back broke free. I returned my eyes to the remains of my breakfast while he lounged across from me.
“So, what do you normally do on the weekend?” Sebastian inquired as he plucked a grape from my bowl of fruit and popped it into his mouth.
“Nothing exciting. Laundry. Read books. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk or pick up a few groceries for the week.” I huffed a soft laugh. “You’re going to discover that I’m the most boring friend you have.”
“Doubtful.” Sebastian grabbed another grape and ate it. “I think Declan is still going to claim that title. He likes to organize and reorganize things. He’ll alphabetize his books on Saturday and the next Saturday, he’ll reorganize them according to genre. After that, color. And then alphabetize them again, but this time by the second letter of the author’s last name.”
He went for my last strawberry, and I batted his hand away. “Nope. Those are my favorite.”
Sebastian chuckled and snagged a piece of melon instead. “Got it.” There was something about his lingering look that made me think he’d filed that bit of information away for later. We hadn’t discussed the kiss yet, and I wasn’t brave enough to tackle that subject. However, he hadn’t acted horrified, so I figured we were brushing it under the rug.
“How about I treat you to a relaxing day?” Sebastian announced.
“A relaxing day with my bo—” I stopped myself at the last moment, but Sebastian knew what I was going to say. He lifted his brows at me and smirked. “New friend,” I corrected with a tight smile.
“Yep. I know the things we should do. Have you ever been up to Chester’s?”
My eyes widened like a kid on Christmas. I’d heard of Chester’s. It was one of the biggest bookstores in the area. Located north of downtown in West Chester, Chester’s was a two-story bookstore with exposed red brick, iron works, acres of books, and a coffee shop that had a wide selection of coffees, teas, and snacks. I’d been wanting to go for months but had never found the time or scratched together enough money to treat myself. But an afternoon wandering around a quiet bookstore sounded like heaven.
Not to mention, browsing for books meant there was no pressure to make small talk. Silence was encouraged.
“I’ve never been to Chester’s. I would love to go.”
The look of pure joy that filled Sebastian’s face threatened to stop my heart. Being friends with my boss was going to be very dangerous.