Page 101 of One Bad Idea

I looked away and muttered, "You know what? Forget it. I'm going home."

"Good," he said. "I'll walk you to your car."

"Good?" I said. "No, it'snotgood. You totally ruined my night."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. It is." I meant it too, but not in the way it sounded. In reality, the night had started to go downhill the moment Jaden had walked into the office with Victoria. But thatwasn'twhat we were talking about now, and I had no intention of bringing it up.

For what felt like the millionth time, I reminded myself that he was only my boss. Nothing more. And besides, we weren't talking about Victoria. We were talking about the guy named Derek.

I sighed. "Look, I don't even know what he said, but I can tell you this, I can handle myself just fine. So, even if hedidsay something crude, it's not like you had to run over here and be such an ass about it."

"Don't you mean asshole?"

"What?"

"You said 'ass', but you forgot the 'hole.'"

I gave him a thin smile. "Oh, trust me. I didn't forget."

Asshole.

And with that, I turned and began striding toward the exit. And what did he do? He started walking with me. I turned to glare at him yet again. "What are you doing?"

"Walking you to the car, like I said."

"I didn't drive a car. I drove a truck, asyouof all people should know." Yes, I realized that it didn't really matter, but I wanted to prove him wrong about something,anything.He was too damned sure of himself, and I'd had just about enough.

He gave a loose shrug. "Alright, then I'll walk you to your truck."

"Hah! It's not my truck. It'syourtruck."

Take that, Mister Know-it-all.

To my infinite annoyance, he responded with yet another shrug. "Alright."

Alright?As a response, it was oddly unsatisfying. "Forget it," I told him. "I don'tneedyou to walk me out."

His jaw tightened. "That's whatyouthink."

"No. It's what I know." I was glowering again. "And besides, I think you've done more than enough already."

"Yeah? And you wanna know whatIthink?"

"Not particularly."

"I think you need to be more careful."

"Well, guess what?" I said. "I don't carewhatyou think. I’m not at work, which means Idon'thave to listen to you."

"Yeah, but you should."

"Oh really?" I snapped. "Why's that?"

"Because this place isfullof assholes."

I met his gaze straight-on. "Yeah. Tell me about it."