Chapter 13 Still Playing Her Boyfriend?
Ryan looked up from his phone.
“Everyone in that folder is a prospect your team couldn’t close, right? You want me to fail so you can get rid of me. After all that, you expect me to kiss your ass?”
Brian went red.
Of course he wanted Ryan gone. But the man wasn’t supposed to announce it in front of the other employees.
Brian took a breath.
“It’s a test. If you can do the job, you’re welcome on this team. If you want somewhere to coast until retirement, look elsewhere.”
“Do you actually believe that bullshit?”
Two nearby employees exchanged looks. Brian felt every bit of his authority slipping away.
“Close a deal and you stay. Fail and you’re out. Complain to Ms. Morgan if you like. It won’t change anything. This company doesn’t pay people to sit around.”
He walked away before Ryan could answer.
Another minute of that conversation and he would lose his temper completely.
Ryan ignored every unwritten rule of office life. Instead of accepting a veiled threat, he dragged it into the open and called it what it was. How was anyone supposed to manage him?
Brian’s authority depended on company policy—and on people needing their jobs. If Ryan didn’t care whether he kept his, there was little Brian could threaten him with.
He had to go. Otherwise, the whole team would stop taking Brian seriously.
Once his boss was safely inside the office, Ryan leafed through the folder and passed it to the young man at the next desk.
“Tyler, do me a favor. How bad is it?”
Tyler Brooks adjusted his glasses and glanced toward Brian’s door before looking through the pages.
“I haven’t been here long enough to know all of them,” he said carefully. “But I tried a few of these accounts. They’re tough. I couldn’t get anywhere.”
The sympathy in his eyes said the rest.
Exactly as Ryan had expected. Difficult accounts, possibly impossible ones. If there had been any easy commissions in that folder, no one would have handed them to the new guy.
“Thanks.” Ryan took out his cigarettes and offered him one.
Sales gave people freedom as long as they produced results. Bring in business and no one cared how you spent your day. Fail, and you were gone.
Brian had found a convenient way to use that against him.
Tyler accepted the cigarette but put it aside. He didn’t want to get too friendly with someone who had declared war on the team leader on his first day.
Ryan probably wouldn’t last the week.
A little later, Ryan’s phone rang. Chloe Bennett.
“Grandpa’s due for acupuncture tomorrow. You’re free, right?”
“You’ve already paid me. Of course I’m free.”
“Good. Come to the house tomorrow morning.”
“Sure.”
She hesitated.
“And buy yourself some decent clothes. Look presentable.”
“What do my clothes have to do with acupuncture?”
“You’re supposed to be my boyfriend! Try to look as though we belong together. Is that too much to ask?”
Ryan blinked.
“I thought the boyfriend job ended after two hours. Isn’t this just about treating your grandfather?”
She’d paid seventy-five hundred dollars for the performance, and he’d delivered. The seventy-five thousand her father had given him covered Walter’s treatment. That was a separate arrangement.
Chloe went quiet.
“You have to keep pretending while you treat him,” she said at last. “Otherwise, they’ll figure it out. I’ll pay you more. Name your price.”
Ryan considered that.
A pretend husband at home and a pretend boyfriend on his house calls. Was this his profession now?
“Forget the extra money. I’ve accepted the treatment fee. We’ll call the boyfriend act a free bonus.”
It would only be during the visits. Besides, she was beautiful, and he already felt well compensated. He didn’t need to haggle over every minute.
Chloe laughed.
“You offered. No taking it back.”
“Why would I?”
“Great. Make it convincing tomorrow. Don’t give any other men a chance.” Her voice was suddenly cheerful. “I’ll send the address. See you then.”
She hung up before he could respond.
Ryan stared at his phone.
Other men?
Why did he feel as though she’d just maneuvered him into something again?