Page 6 of The Boss (Straight Men #2)

Melissa’s absence was like a slow, creeping migraine—one I couldn’t shake no matter how much coffee I drank or how many deep breaths I took. She had been the backbone of my work life for nine years. She anticipated my needs before I even recognized them, kept my schedule airtight, filtered the constant stream of requests and demands into something manageable. Now, without her, everything felt… unbalanced. Like I was running a marathon with my shoelaces tied together.

I wasn’t a man who tolerated disorder. Yet, that’s exactly what my days had become—messy, inefficient, frustrating. Calls stacked up. Emails went unanswered. Meetings blurred into each other, and my schedule was a mess because no one was there to remind me where I was supposed to be at any given time. My mornings were consumed by admin work I had no patience for, and my evenings were spent nursing headaches from dealing with things she would’ve handled in minutes. I hated it.

Worst of all, she wasn’t coming back anytime soon. She was on maternity leave, about to give birth in a few weeks, and would be staying home for the next year to raise her child. I was happy for her—truly. After nine years of putting up with me, she deserved the time off. But without her, I felt like I was trying to steer a ship without a rudder.

I exhaled sharply, rubbing my temple. I needed someone. And that someone sure as hell wasn’t Greg.

The agency sent him as a temp, and he tried, but he wasn’t cut out for it. Keeping him any longer would’ve driven us both mad. Yet the thought of breaking in another stranger, someone who wouldn’t know how I liked my coffee, wouldn’t know which contracts to prioritize, wouldn’t know that I hated small talk first thing in the morning… it exhausted me before I even started.

Then my mind drifted, unbidden, to Chris Landry.

I hadn’t meant to make a habit of working out with him, but somehow, I had. We never planned it, never texted about it, but in the past few days, we kept running into each other at the gym. In the mornings or the afternoons.

I didn’t mind. Chris was… easy to be around. He was sharp, but not pretentious. Playful, but not obnoxious. The kind of guy who had a quiet confidence about him, someone who made you feel lighter just by being around him. Our banter was effortless, our workouts competitive but not too competitive. I liked that. More importantly—he worked hard. And I don’t mean only in the gym.

The kid had potential. I saw it in the way he pushed himself, the way he took instructions without ego, the way he absorbed information like a sponge. Maybe I could use that.

The idea struck suddenly, so suddenly that I was already out of my chair before I had time to second-guess it. I left my office and rode the elevator down to the software engineering department, a part of the building I rarely visited. It was a different world here—more casual, less polished. Open floor plan, people hunched over screens, the steady click-clack of keyboards filling the space. Rows of desks, the air buzzing with the quiet hum of concentration.

I spotted Chris at his desk, stooped over his workstation, headphones on, sleeves rolled up, the sharp angles of his forearms flexing as he typed. He was smiling at something on his screen, that easy, relaxed grin pulling at his lips.

I walked up to him and cleared my throat. “Landry.”

The reaction was immediate. The entire room stilled. Conversations halted. Keyboards stopped clacking. Like I said, I didn’t visit this floor often, and I certainly didn’t single people out when I did.

Chris blinked up at me, taking the headphones off. “Uh—yeah?”

I tilted my head, lips curling. “Come work for me.”

The room was silent. A thick, weighted kind of silence, the kind that pulled people in, made them listen closer, made their eyebrows shoot toward their hairlines.

Chris stared at me. “Excuse me?”

“Melissa’s out on maternity leave. I need a replacement. You’re the guy.”

A beat. Then, his eyes widened. “I’m… what?”

“You heard me.”

Chris looked at me, then around the room, then back at me. “Are you serious?”

I raised a brow. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“I—” He waved a hand around him. “I’m a software engineer. I don’t know the first thing about being a PA.”

“You’ll learn.” I tapped my finger against his desk. “You’ll learn more about this company working with me than you ever will staying here. You want to climb the ladder? Consider this a shortcut. That is, unless you like running bug fixes all day.”

Chris hesitated. I could see the conflict in his expression—the shock, the doubt, the glimmer of something else. Curiosity? Interest? His coworkers were staring, waiting to see what he’d do. It was an unorthodox offer, and it wasn’t lost on me how it might look to the rest of the floor. But none of that mattered. Him saying yes was the only thing that did.

I crossed my arms. “What’s it gonna be, Landry?”

He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “What if I suck at it?”

I gave a crooked grin. “Then we’ll both suffer until I find another replacement, and you’ll go back to engineering. No harm done.”

Chris considered that for a moment. Then, slowly, his lips curved into that lopsided grin of his. “All right. I’m in.”

A murmur rippled through the office.

I clapped him on the shoulder, feeling something loosen in my chest. “Good boy. Pack your things and come upstairs. I’ll inform Alicia about the transfer.”

As I strode back to the elevator, I could feel the stares, the weight of the entire floor’s curiosity pressing down on my back. The sheer audacity of what I’d just done. Let them talk. This would either be the smartest decision I’d made in months—or an absolute disaster.

* * *

Back in my office, I sank into my chair just as my phone rang. Chantelle. A small smile tugged at my lips as I picked up. “Hey, beautiful.”

“Hey yourself,” she purred. “Busy?”

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “More than I should be.”

She clicked her tongue. “Still drowning without Melissa?”

“You have no idea.”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that I finally found the perfect wedding venue.” There was a proud lilt in her voice. “Grace Church. It’s stunning, Isaac! Classic, elegant—exactly what I wanted. And they have an opening in January, so I booked it immediately.”

I smiled, leaning back in my chair. She described the place in vivid detail, her voice alight with excitement. I let her words wash over me, picturing it, seeing the way her mind had already begun shaping our future. But as she chattered, my focus drifted, my thoughts returning to the scene downstairs, to the stunned look on Chris’ face when I offered him the PA job. The light in his eyes when he accepted it. My lips stretched even wider, and I had to force my attention back to Chantelle. “That’s great, babe. Can’t wait to see it.”

“Oh, you better. I don’t want to hear any complaints when you show up on the wedding day.”

I chuckled. “No complaints. Just tell me where to be, and I’ll be there.”

She hummed in satisfaction. Then, her voice dipped into something sultry. “I’ll see you at your place tonight.”

That got my attention. I sat up straighter. “Yeah?”

“Mhm. And FYI, I’m wearing the lace garter belt and stockings.”

My mind flashed back to the last time she’d spent the night—her nails dragging down my back, her long legs wrapped around me. Her breath hot against my ear, the sound of her moaning my name in the dark. I exhaled slowly. This . This was what I needed. A reminder. Something solid. Something real. “You’re cruel, you know that?”

She laughed. “I know. But you love it.”

She wasn’t wrong.

We wrapped up the conversation, and when I hung up, I felt lighter. The restless itch in me hadn’t fully vanished, but I ignored it. For the first time in days, things were falling into place. A new PA. A wedding date set. A beautiful fiancée waiting for me at home. What more could a man ask for?