“No, I just think it’s cute the way you part your teeth down the middle.”
I cover my mouth as horror and amusement tug me in different directions.
Emmett pulls out his phone and starts texting.
Rick takes a step toward Emmett. I grab my hideous ex-boyfriend by the arm and pull.
“Come on,” I say through clenched teeth. “Stop embarrassing yourself.”
He snatches his arm out of my grip. “What have I got to be embarrassed about? I’m not the one in the wrong here!”
“Asking me to choose between you and my job was absolutely wrong. You knew I’d never choose you.”
He looks like someone smacked him in the face with a rolled newspaper. “Never—? Of course you’d choose me! It’s not like you have a bunch of other options. Nobody wants a woman who works all the time and only thinks about herself and what she wants. I was trying to mold you—”
“Into what? A Stepford wife?”
“No! Into a better, caring human being worthy of living on this precious planet.”
Wow. Talk about telling me how he really feels. “Oh, okay. So I’m not worthy of living on the planet the way I am now.”
He tilts his chin up. “Amy, you’ve got enormous potential. Just a little guidance and work and you’ll be fine.”
“I am so glad I dumped you. You’re a piece of work, Rick.”
“You made me—”
“No. I didn’t make you do anything. You’re just a pig, and I didn’t see that until now.”
Uniformed security guards appear from the building and hurry over, looking at Emmett questioningly. He points at me.
“Is everything okay, miss?” one of them says.
“No,” I say, stunned that they’re actually working on a weekend and annoyed that they didn’t do something about Rick sooner. “This man is harassing me.”
The security guards close in around a screaming Rick, who threatens them with the dire consequence of having the entire encounter posted on social media.
Emmett gestures at Valerie. Under normal circumstances, I’d assume the boss was trying to get a subordinate to shut her mouth about what happened. But with Emmett, it’s hard to tell what he’ll do next to amuse himself.
I start walking toward my car. I’ve had my daily limit of shitshow.
“Amy, wait,” Emmett calls from behind me.
I can’t hear you! I keep on walking, doing my best to pretend that the confrontation with Rick didn’t happen. What the world really needs is an earbud device that mutes bosses during personal time.
“I got the video.”
That makes me stop and turn around so fast I actually wobble a bit. “What video?”
He waves his phone. “Valerie filmed the whole thing.”
Oh no. “Did she upload it anywhere?”
“No. I stopped her before she could.”
A good deed deserves recognition. “Thank you,” I say. For this act of kindness, I suppose I can stop calling him bosshole or the boss from hell.
“And I told security to deal with your ex-boyfriend if he shows up again,” Emmett says.