Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 21057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Mr. King generously paid everyone’s way so they could come to the Christmas party. Martha in accounting got a plane ticket since she lives in Austin and everyone else got limousines.
Andrea, the office bitch, booked me a seat on a discount bus. She wouldn’t even let me get a hotel, since I only lived two hours away, which was close enough in her opinion to travel back and forth in one night.
It doesn’t matter. Shake it off. This night is going to be amazing and I’ll use the two hours to come up with all kinds of clever and witty things to say to make Mr. King fall in love with me. Positive vibes only.
I need them.
Two long hours later, I arrive at the bus station and I haven’t come up with anything clever to say. I’m also more nervous than ever. My stomach is in knots and I have a bad feeling about everything—the extravagant dress, my hair, my shoes that Brianna also lent me. I’m not used to high heels and these things are crazy high. I felt like I was walking on stilts around my apartment.
Maybe I’ll just keep these winter boots on and say that I left my shoes on the bus… That could work…
Stop. Be bold. Be the woman you want to be. Be the type of woman who would seduce a man like Marshall and make him drop to his knees.
I suck in a chilly breath, gather the bottom of my dress, and shuffle through the snow toward the hall, determined to try.
Christmas is the time to try new things after all. It’s also the time for miracles.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and get one.
And if this doesn’t work, I can hide back in my little apartment, painting tree ornaments and nursing my bruised ego while I try to get over my secret crush. But at least, I’ll have known that I tried.
It’s all I can do.
I’m really nervous by the time I get to the hall, but I push it all down and act confident as I sneak into the ladies’ room in the lobby. I put the shoes on, fix up my hair, spruce up my dress, touch up my makeup, and take one final look. Geez, was there really this much cleavage back at my apartment? Good god!
There’s no backing out now. It’s going to take more than a winter jacket to seduce my crush. I’m going.
I take a deep breath and strut out, hoping this isn’t going to end in disaster.
CHAPTER THREE
Marshall
* * *
“Are there going to be any hot girls there tonight?” Shawn asks as he sits on my desk and picks up my glass trophy. “What the fuck is this? A glass sword?”
“It’s an award,” I say as I change my shirt. I want to look good tonight. I’m wearing my nicest suit—black, hand-tailored by the best tailor in the state. It cost a fucking fortune, but hopefully, it will be worth it.
Shawn laughs as he reads it. “Best Entrepreneur of 2022. Who did you have to blow to get this fucking thing?”
I shake my head and chuckle as I do my buttons. “Keep me out of your fantasies you sick fuck.”
All of the productivity and business books (and I’ve read them all) say to ditch the old friends who don’t share your commitment or goals. They say they’ll be a weight dragging you down while you’re trying to ascend to your highest self.
Shawn is one weight who refuses to shake off from around my neck. That’s okay. I don’t know what I’d do without him. Sure he always distracts me, but when you’re laser-focused like I am, a little distraction is not always a bad thing.
We’ve been best friends since grade three when he walked up to me and asked if I wanted to light some firecrackers in the forest. After he came back to my place and tasted my mother’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, it was over. He decided he was in my life for good.
“So,” he says as he hops off the desk and wanders over to the huge windows overlooking Chicago. The view from my office is sick. I love watching the boats on the Chicago River. “Girl situation. Give me the low down.”
“The low down is,” I say as I slide in my cufflinks, “all of the women there are either going to be my employees or the wives and girlfriends of my employees.”
“So?” Shawn says with a huff. “Pussy is pussy. It doesn’t matter who it’s attached to.”
“It’s shocking that you’re still single.”
“I know, right?” He looks himself up and down from his rundown scuffed-up shoes, baggy jeans, and oversized hoodie. “I’m having a rough year when it comes to the ladies.”
“You mean a rough decade?”
“Yeah,” he says with a laugh. “What’s shocking is that you’re still single. If I looked like you and had your money, I’d be swimming in pussy.”