I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 08

I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 08

On the third day, I didn’t go to work.

I called in sick to Mr. Foster and said I wasn’t feeling well.

Mr. Foster hesitated on the phone. “What about the meeting on twenty?”

“Mr. Foster, can you find someone else? I really can’t make it today.”

“Alright. Rest up.”

I hung up and left the house.

I bought a sandwich at the breakfast shop near my neighborhood and sat on a bench, eating it slowly.

Halfway through, my phone rang.

It was my brother.

“You took the day off?”

“Yeah.”

“He asked about you.”

“Asked what?”

“If you were feeling okay.”

“What did you say?”

“I said you had a cold.”

I stared at my sandwich and didn’t say anything.

“Erin, what are you going to do?”

“I want to break up.”

A few seconds of silence on the other end.

“Have you thought it through?”

“Not really. But I feel like this isn’t right.”

“Right how?”

“Every way. If I’m with him, your position at the company gets complicated. People are gonna think you got

promoted because your sister’s dating the boss.”

My brother didn’t say anything.

“You worked three years to get that supervisor promotion. I can’t let you take that hit.”

My brother’s voice went a little hoarse. “You’d break up with him because of me?”

“Not entirely. I can’t get past it myself, either.”

“Past what?”

“I don’t know what he sees in me. A CEO with nine-figure revenue, what does he want with a college senior?

What, for my burnt eggs?”

My brother sighed over the phone.

“Come to the office this afternoon.”

“I called in sick.”

“Come anyway. Just meet me, don’t go to your desk. I’ll be at the coffee shop downstairs.”

At 2 p.m., I showed up at the coffee shop under the office building.

My brother was already there, two Americanos on the table.

I sat down and took a sip of one.

“What did you want to tell me?”

My brother wrapped his hands around his cup, staring out the window.

“There’s something I never told you.”

“What?”

“Do you remember the old lady who fell at the hotel entrance on my wedding day?”

I thought for a moment. “Yeah, I think so. In the parking lot. I helped her up.”

“Yeah. You did.”

“So?”

“That old lady was Declan’s grandmother.”

I nearly dropped my cup.

“What?”

“She wasn’t even supposed to come that day. Declan insisted on bringing her. She has bad knees and tripped

getting out of the car. There were tons of people in that parking lot, but you were the only one who ran over

to help.”

“I was at the entrance. It was no big deal. Just a reflex.”

“To you, it was no big deal. But Declan was standing right there.”

My brother turned his head and looked at me.

“He saw you help her up, brush the dirt off her pants, and ask if she needed to go to the hospital.

Remember?”

I thought back carefully.

Vaguely.

I did ask if she needed a hospital, and she said no. A young guy next to her said. “She’s fine, Grandma, thank

you so much.”

That young guy was Declan.

But back then, he was wearing casual clothes. I didn’t even register his face.

Later, when I saw him in his best man suit at the ceremony, I never connected him to the guy in the parking

lot.

“So the reason he noticed me in the first place wasn’t because I was pretty or said the right things.”

“It was because you helped his grandmother.”

I leaned back in my chair.

“He told you that?”

“He didn’t say it directly. But later, during overtime, when it was just the two of us, he suddenly asked me. ‘Is

your sister always like that?’ I said. ‘Like what?’ And he said. ‘Like, she just helps people whenever she sees

someone in trouble. I said. ‘She’s been like that her whole life, feeds stray cats she sees on the street.”

“And then?”

“He smiled and said. ‘That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“He didn’t elaborate. I didn’t ask.”

I took a big gulp of my coffee, wincing at the bitterness.

“Bro, are you telling me all this to get me to stay with him?”

“I’m not telling you to stay with him. I’m telling you he didn’t pick you at random. He has his reasons.”

“But his reasons don’t erase the gap between us.”

“What gap?”

“The money, the status, the positions.”

My brother set his cup down and looked at me.

“Erin, listen. You can disagree with me, but just hear me out.”

“Go ahead.”

“I’ve worked under him for three years. I know him better than you do. He doesn’t need money, or talent, or respect. He needs someone who doesn’t treat him like a boss.”

“But now I know he’s the boss.”

“So when you look at him now, is it the same as before?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

My brother stood up. “Think it over yourself.”

He left.

I sat alone in the coffee shop with two cold Americanos in front of me.

My phone screen lit up.

Declan had sent a message. Can you come in tomorrow? The company got a batch of new pothos plants. I have too many for my office. Can you take a few down to the twelfth floor?

I stared at this message for a long time.

A CEO in charge of over two hundred people, messaging an intern to help him move potted plants.

He was looking for an excuse to see me.

I typed two words, then deleted them.

Deleted, then typed again.

Did that four or five times.

Finally, I sent one word. OK.

He replied. K.