From a Humiliating Bet to the Boss He Can't Have novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Leave It In

I walked into Nate's office without knocking and put my phone on his desk, screen up.

"You bet five thousand dollars on me."

He looked at the phone, then at me.

"Yes."

"In a pool where forty strangers are laughing at me."

"Thirty-eight thousand strangers," he said. "It's been a busy morning."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No." He stood up. "Sit down, please. I'd like to answer the question you're about to ask."

I stayed standing, and he didn't push it.

"You can only read the chat if you put money in," he said. "I wanted to read it. I also wanted my name to be on the record as one person who said you weren't coming back."

"Why?"

"Because I had a free hour at six this morning, and every name in that column bet against you."

I looked at the screen.

He was right, and it made me angrier.

"I don't want your money, and I don't want anything you win," I said. "I'm not a stock."

"If I win, I'm not keeping it," Nate said. "It goes wherever you say. A charity. A school lunch fund. Anything."

"That's a nice speech for a man who profits if I never go back to my daughter."

I heard it as I said it.

Birdie wasn't my daughter.

Nate heard it too, and he let it pass.

"Then I'll pull the bet," he said. "I'll ask for my five thousand back, and I'll make the call right now."

I thought about Cynthia and her bright, generous smile.

I thought about the cut she must be taking from every entry.

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