My Billionaire Boss Dared Me to Say No, So I Locked the Door novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Auntie

"Good evening, Mr. Wrobel," Hedvig Ekeberg said again, since Bartek had not answered the first time.

"Ma'am," Bartek said.

His mouth was dry, and his thighs ached in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Do get in. I will drop you at the train."

"I'll walk."

"It is eleven degrees." She smiled, soft and pleasant, with her gloved hands folded on her purse. "My brother bought that house in the nineties. He used to say a man who owns a street should never have to ring his own bell."

Bartek said nothing.

"You look tired," she said. "My nephew works his people very hard."

"He's fair."

"Is he?" She tilted her head. "I'm glad to hear it. Thirty thousand dollars is a great deal to place on trust, and I should hate to learn I had chosen badly."

The window slid up, and the silver car pulled away from the curb without a sound.

Bartek stood on the pavement and watched it go.

He walked to the train with his hands jammed in his pockets and his mouth tasting of Ingmar's.

For the whole forty minutes home he thought about nothing except how much he wanted to go back up those stairs.

On Tuesday, Hedvig came to the forty-first floor.

She came at two in the afternoon, in a cream coat.

A young man in a gray suit carried her briefcase, and the whole floor stood up.

Bartek saw her through the glass wall and put down his tablet.

"Mr. Wrobel!" she said, delighted, and held out both hands. "I was hoping you'd be here. I brought you something."

It was a paper bag from a bakery on Division Street.

Inside was a poppyseed roll, still warm.

"That's kind," Bartek said.

"My nephew never feeds anyone. I thought, that boy is skin and bone." She patted his hand. "Is he in?"

"He's expecting you, ma'am."

"He's expecting me to leave. Which I won't."

Ingmar did not stand when she walked into his office.

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