Like a Boss - Annabelle Costa Page 0,12

to needing a nurse?

“Any other questions?” he asks me. “This is your shot to ask.”

Of course, I’ve got about a million questions, but none of them are appropriate to ask my new boss. So I shake my head no.

“So,” he says, “aren’t you going to tell me why your project is the best one? And everyone else’s is shit?”

I frown. “No. Why would I do that?”

“That’s what your buddy Nathan did.”

“He didn’t!” I gasp.

“Oh, he did.” Luke glances down at his wine glass like he wishes there were more. I don’t remember if he drank much in college. He had quite a bit of alcohol in him when he confessed his feelings for me—I always attributed it to that. “But don’t worry, he said nice things about you.”

Well, that’s a small consolation. “Oh.”

“In fact, I’d say he’s got quite the infatuation with you.”

I cringe. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, I would say he definitely does,” Luke says in that confident tone of his. “Tell me, Ellie, does he know about your fake boyfriend?”

My mouth falls open. “My…”

“Yeah.” He grins crookedly. “What did you say his name was? Matt? Mark? It doesn’t matter, does it?

I drop my eyes, looking down at my decimated salad. “Um…”

Strangely, he doesn’t seem upset. “You’re not a very good liar, Ellie.”

“Sorry,” I mumble.

“The question is,” he says, “why did you feel like you had to lie?”

I don’t have a good answer to that one. His brown eyes meet mine, and I wonder what he’s thinking. I can’t help but think that I’m glad he knows I don’t have a boyfriend.

Even though nothing could ever happen between us. I mean, he’s my boss’s boss’s boss.

Thankfully, he doesn’t push me for an answer.

Chapter 6

On the drive back to the office, Luke pushes me for more details about my project. He wants to know everything there is to know, and even though I thought I knew everything there was to know, he comes up with questions I can’t answer on the spot.

“I can get you a report tomorrow,” I say. “I can have all the details you want.” I add, “I promise, this project is feasible, and the timeline will make you happy.”

Luke cocks his head to the side. “I know.”

I frown at him. “You know?”

He lays his fist into the horn as somebody cuts him off. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Ellie.”

A secret? “What?”

“Your project is the whole reason I bought Mediapp.”

My head is spinning. Of course, I’ve been excited about our project, but it never occurred to me that it had created any sort of buzz outside the company. It makes me feel happy, but it’s a lot of pressure.

Also, did he buy the company because of the project? Or the fact that I was the one working on it?

“You’re one of the smartest people I ever met,” Luke says. “If anyone can make this happen, it’s you.”

My cheeks flush at the compliment. “Well, if I’m so smart, how come you’re the one with the billion-dollar company?”

He winks at me. “Because I’m smarter.”

I would protest, but he might be right. As irritating as he was in our expository writing class, there was a time when I came to realize he wasn’t quite the dumb legacy kid I believed him to be.

It was the day we got our grades back on our first paper. Dr. Cole handed them out in the last five minutes of class, and I was horrified to find a big red B on the top.

I was sick over it. I never got Bs in high school. Never. Maybe an A-, if I’d been battling the flu or something. But a B? How could I get a B? My paper was brilliant! I could argue any point expertly—didn’t Dr. Cole know I was captain of the debate team in high school?

As I skimmed through her comments, I felt something kick me in the ankle. Hard. I looked up and saw Luke’s brown eyes staring into mine. “Hey, Twelve Fingers,” he said. “What did you get?”

“None of your business,” I snapped at him. I eyed the paper in his hands. “What did you get?”

He turned his paper over to show me the red A at the top. Even though I tried to check my reaction, my jaw dropped. This was patently unfair. There was no way his paper was better than mine. Dr. Cole just favored him because he was rich and handsome.

“You could read it if you’d like.” He grinned as he slid