The Mix-Up (Southern Hearts Club #3) - Melanie Munton Page 0,4

my life outside of this office. I need the boundaries we’ve drawn at work to stay in place all the time and everywhere.

I’m staring at my computer screen, but I might as well be looking at the Matrix for how little I’m comprehending what I’m seeing. “It is. He’s getting more charters than he can handle. He’s had to hire an assistant to help him with the scheduling and payments.”

Ryder makes a noise of approval. “Glad to hear it. And Harper’s cosmetics business?”

I can’t stop myself from smiling.

I’m so stinking proud of that girl, it’s dumb. After years of hiding away her talents and being too timid to take charge of her life and pursue her dreams, Harper finally quit the job she hated, threw her demented mother out of her life, and started her own company for real. The blond-haired, green-eyed, Barbie-lookalike is a chemistry nerd, and utilizes those skills to make her own beauty products from scratch.

“Doing better than she ever expected,” I reluctantly answer him. “She’s got a strong social media following already, and is looking into opening up a retail space.” She’s got so much inventory at this point, a third of it is currently stashed in my spare bedroom.

Tonight, we’re all celebrating the success of their young companies, Charleston Charters and Harper West Products.

“So, you’ll be there tonight, then?” Ryder asks, a curious lilt in his voice.

I warily raise my gaze to meet his, not liking the sound of that at all. “Yeah… Will you be?”

Bemusement creeps over his features. “I said West invited me.”

Shit balls.

I never thought about West inviting him. It makes sense, of course, since Ryder’s investment helped get Charleston Charters off the ground. Literally.

I’m completely at a loss for words. The only other time this has happened was the moment I walked into his office and realized that I’ve had my boss’s dick inside me.

Thank sweet baby J, my desk phone starts ringing.

Ryder’s eyes flick sharply to it, looking briefly annoyed. Then his expression transforms, reflecting his trademark arrogance. “Get those quotes to me by the end of the day, and I’ll let you buy me a drink tonight.”

My jaw hits the floor as he struts off to his office, all nonchalant.

We have never spent any time together outside of this office. Except for the sex he doesn’t remember having, which I don’t count. We’ve never blurred the lines between professional and personal, aside from the extremely unprofessional way we speak to each other during work hours.

Point is, we’ve never lifted the curtain of boss and employee.

Once I realized who he was that first day, I insisted on dropping that veil between us and never peeking under it again. If we interact at Harper and West’s party tonight, that veil could very well be pulled back. Some of those lines might smear. And since I can vividly recall the unicorn sex with Ryder—the type of fantastical sex you think is just a myth, the kind you think you’ll never see in person—I don’t need him around me while I’m around tequila.

The Countess can’t be trusted with a buzz.

She gets a little too flighty for her own slutty good.

By four o’clock that afternoon, I have the quotes ready, my inbox cleaned out for the weekend, and a strategy for the evening. The name of the game with Ryder tonight at the party will be avoidance, plain and simple. Just because he’s my boss doesn’t mean I’m required to acknowledge his existence outside of these walls.

Yeah, that’ll work.

I knock on Ryder’s office door with the same manila folder from earlier clutched in my hands, though it’s much thicker and heavier now.

“Come in,” he calls out from the other side.

I push open the door and stride toward his desk, keeping my attention focused on the documents in the folder as I quickly review them. “I’ve got all the information you didn’t ask for. I only included two rounds of focus groups in the quote. We can obviously schedule more if their timeline for the research phase is flexible.”

This is actually a big potential client. If we can land this account, TCG could see a crazy amount of growth in the next twelve months.

I glance up to find Ryder’s contemplative gaze locked on me, his finger tapping against the surface of his desk. “I’ll review everything and pass it along to them if I like what I see.”

I just manage to resist rolling my eyes, so familiar am I with his routine of busting my