My Secret Lover Is Actually My Boss novel · Chapter 30 of 32
Chapter 30: The Bar
The bar at the Merchant Hotel hadn't changed since November.
Dark wood. Green glass lamps. The river outside the window, black and gold.
The bartender looked up when I came in at five to nine, and his face did something complicated.
"Della," he said. "We saw you on the internet."
"Everybody saw me on the internet."
"The card was very good."
He set down a glass of the red I always ordered without asking.
Then he set down a little dish of pickles.
Leon was in the same seat at the end of the bar.
The one he'd been sitting in on November twentieth, when I was trying to write a sympathy card and failing.
He was in a black suit.
His shirt was white.
I stopped two steps away.
"You own a white shirt."
"I bought a white shirt. This afternoon. It felt like a day for one."
I sat down on the stool next to him.
He reached into his jacket and took out his phone and laid it face up on the bar between us.
I looked at it.
"New rules," he said.
I took out my phone and laid it next to his.
"Go on."
He held out his hand to shake, like a stranger.
"Leon Winship. I'm thirty-four. I own fifty-one percent of a greeting-card company on Wacker Drive. As of Friday I've got no apartment in Denver and no job I'd describe out loud. I moved here this week."
I shook his hand.
"Della Ruddick. Twenty-nine. Creative director of the same greeting-card company, as of an illegal vote. I live in Bridgeport. My dad says you can't grill."
"Your dad says I'm improving."
"He says that about my parallel parking."
The bartender put a grilled cheese and a cup of tomato soup between us, without being asked, and walked away fast.
Leon pushed the plate toward me.
"You used to steal these," he said.
"You used to let me."
"I ordered them for you. Every Thursday. You never noticed I don't like tomato soup."
I stared at him.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of My Secret Lover Is Actually My Boss are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 29 · All chapters · Chapter 31 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend