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Chapter 1

Britt Collier was perilously close to losing her shit She was the only accountant on the payroll currently, and while she didn’trelevant questions, she didn’t need her s his neck to get a vien her blouse Fah and a tank top on beneath it so even in the case of souarded fro eyes If the small company had an HR department, she’d file a coer was also the COO’s assistant so it wouldn’t exactly be news The COO, also called the chief operations officer, director of operations, is a position that was one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization Maybe soirl can always reach for the sky, right? In fact, Britt was pretty sure the assistant got her cushy dual-title job by doing so with Mr Freeman himself

Britt would’ve liked to iine herself as a no-nonsense woman, a feminist who took no prisoners However, she slu as Freeman reached across her to point at herat her chest She slid back from the desk in her wheeled office chair and stood

“That’s about enough,” she said

“Pardon ly

“I explained all of this in my email So if you don’t mind, I have expense accounts to update”

“Sure I kno busy you are”

“If you’ll excuse me”

He smiled

She breezed out of her own cubicle and went to the ladies room just to be away fro and clever, soainst her breasts humiliated her To make herself feel better, she checked the date on her phone Six et through the last hour of work, briskly double-checking spreadsheets and crossing items off her to-do list She finished up a healthy ten h to tidy her desk and make her list for tomorroorkday As soon as the minute hand hit the twelve, she was on her feet, purse in hand

Down the elevator fro occupied, she reached the lobby just as Marjorie, her best friend, e for a half marathon and maintained that elevators would weaken her They headed by mutual consent to Joe’s Java, the coffee shop around the corner fro Thursday after-work coffee date

Settling into a booth by the , Britt sipped her carahed with relief It was quiet there, but not the kind of quiet that she got at the office, with its annoying buzz of fluorescent lights overhead and the expectant shark-in-the-water silence as she strained to hear if Freeman approached He wasn’t really a shark, she reasoned, ot herself soreenish cast to it

“That looks like paint Ugly paint Like doctor’s waiting room paint”

“Thanks It’s good though Coconut water and kale and protein powder—”

“Sounds like paradise,” Britt groaned

“No, paradise would be three weeks in Bali with Ryan Gosling”

“Still Ryan Gosling? Can we please move on from the Notebook?”

“Never I’ if not loyal”

“How uys have you dated this month exactly, Miss loyalty?” Britt said playfully

“That’s dating Me and Ryan Gosling, that’s true love”