Lockdown with My Billionaire Boss : Second Chance Office Romance

by Sloane Peterson

  “Good to see you!”

  “Welcome back!”

  I didn’t manage to say anything, but simply gaped wide-eyed at the screen, suddenly wishing I’d put a little bit more effort into my appearance than I had.

  Mostly to avoid standing out too much from the rest of the group, I finally forced a too-cheerful grin and gave a tinkling wave of my fingers as my co-workers all continued fawning over our boss’s return. Our screens were all arrayed in such a way that it was impossible to tell where anyone was looking at any given moment, but I swear that when I did that I caught Malcolm’s eyes shifting to gaze directly at me, his eyes glinting in a way that seemed to communicate far more to me than could have been remotely possible.

  I felt my face getting hot, and I cast my eyes down to my keyboard, reflexively tucking my hair back behind my ears as casually as I could.

  Again, I felt sure I was going overboard, but this seemed akin to having Malcolm in my home all of the sudden, and the pressure to perform well in this meeting suddenly felt through the roof.

  After what felt like several minutes, all the welcoming back and ass-kissing subsided, Malcolm finally went on. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to be as hands-on as I usually am during these meetings. I’ve been very preoccupied through all of this, unfortunately. There’s some behind-the-scenes stuff happening financially I’ve had to sort out, as well as some potential opportunities for expanding the company I’ve been looking very closely at.

  “Between all that and dealing with a few personal matters, I’ve been entrusting Liz here to take charge of these little meetings, and rest assured she’s been keeping me abreast of all that’s been happening in my absence. I’m extremely grateful for all the hard work you’ve been putting in, and I definitely want to discuss with you all how best to compensate you for your efforts. Right now though, I would love to hear from you all about the projects you’re making.”

  And so the meeting got underway, with Malcolm beaming like a proud father as everyone went around and discussed the specifics of whatever project they currently had underway. I just kept on gaping at my ruggedly refined boss, then trying not to look at him, then wondering if he was looking at me looking at him, or whether it was all just in my head…

  “Annalise? Annalise? Miss Rhoades?”

  I snapped suddenly to attention at the sound of my name on his tongue, as though I was being awoken from one of the many lurid dreams I’d been having about him. The meeting had been going on for a good forty-five minutes at this point, and I could hardly even decide just how much of it I’d tuned out.

  “Oh, sorry, I was… Thinking,” I said stupidly, and he grinned.

  “That’s a good habit to get into,” he said pleasantly, and the group chuckled. I let out a short breath, and straightened myself up, smiling.

  “Right. So, as you probably know we’ve been pulling our hair out trying to deal with fake news and all the crap information have been sharing about the pandemic. Up to this point we’ve sort of just been handling it all as it comes on a case by case basis, which as you can imagine has been… Well…”

  “Less than ideal?” he asked with a smile.

  “Completely unsustainable,” I admitted, then laughed. “So, instead we’re trying to work on improving our algorithms to sort some of this stuff automatically. We also need to tighten up our criteria for what we should be looking for, which lines we should cross and how far is too far before people start complaining about censorship.”

  “I’d much rather have a few wingnuts pissed off at us than have our users end up dead from injecting fish tank cleaner into their veins,” Malcolm offered, suddenly more serious. “Some of the stuff that’s going around out there is absolutely off the walls. Spreading that kind of dangerous bs isn’t what Goldfinch was ever about.”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” I said, “and believe me, I’ve seen some of the crazier stuff that’s being shared. It’s not easy to get a handle on some of it, but I think we’re at least making decent progress.”

  Malcolm smiled again, and nodded. “Well, if anyone can take on an issue like this, I’m confident you’re the right person for the job. Everything Liz has shown me from you and your team has just been spectacular, and I applaud you for your commitment to getting the job done right.”

  I admit I might have swooned a little bit at this, and beamed back at my boss as my heart swelled to the size of a balloon in my chest.

  _____

  The meeting went on for about another hour and a half or so. I was relieved when I got the chance to finish speaking, but kept nervously watching Malcolm in the corner of the screen, searching for signs that may or may not have been there on his face.

  “Alright everyone,” he finally said with that usual lovely grin on his face. “It’s been great seeing you all, and I appreciate you catching me up on things. I won’t take up any more of your precious time. Keep up the excellent work! I can safely say I’m more proud than I’ve ever been to be working with so many talented and dedicated individuals.”

  Everyone said their goodbyes, and a cascade of waving hands went by on the monitor, as one by one the screens all flashed to black.

  I’m not sure what came over me all of the sudden, but instead of closing out my window like everyone else, I just sort of sat there, watching it happen. Then, all at once, it was just Malcolm and I. This time, there was absolutely no doubting it when our eyes met. A sweltering heat rose up inside me, despite my feeling frozen from my head down to my toes.

  It might have only been a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity passing, with me gawking like a deer in headlights. Malcolm opened his mouth, and looked like he was about to say something.

  Finally the switch activated in my brain. I hurriedly clicked out of the chat window, and pivoted around in my seat.

  “Jesus, why did I do that?!” I immediately scolded myself. All this time I’d been waiting to connect with him, and the moment I was in a chat room alone with him, I’d gone and had a panic attack.

  I sighed, especially disliking myself at that moment. All I really wanted was to crawl back into my pajamas and slip into bed.

  I slipped out of my dress and tossed it across the room, and stood wearing nothing but my bra and panties.

  Suddenly my phone buzzed on my computer desk. The timing seemed odd, and I stared at it a moment before picking it up.

  It was a message from Malcolm.

  My throat tightened. What on earth was this? Why was he texting me just moments after we’d gotten out of a meeting together?

  I opened up the text, not entirely sure what I was hoping for, though whatever that might have been, it certainly wasn’t what I found when I opened up his message.

  “Hey, not to be awkward or anything, but your webcam is still on”

  I froze, wide-eyed. I glanced up at my computer, and sure enough the little red webcam light was still glowing in the center of the screen. I looked down from it to my scantily clad body, then scrambled, irrationally, to first grab my dress up from off the floor, and then, finally, to close out of the webcam tab as quickly as I could.

  My heart was racing at about a million miles a minute, and for a while I just sat there, struck with horror, not sure how on earth I was going to bounce back from this.

  Could I just not acknowledge his text? Pretend that he hadn’t just seen me prancing around my apartment in my underwear? But what if, God help me, he’d liked what he’d seen?...

  Sweat stood out on the back of my neck as I began to type back to him, my hands trembling, my face surely a deeper shade of crimson than it had ever been.

  “OMG, Mr. Finch, I’m so embarrassed! I’m so so sorry about that, I thought I’d closed out the window!!!”

  Yes, crawling under my covers and never emerging again felt like just the thing for me at that moment…

  I paced back and forth through my apartment for several minutes, waiting for a response. Finally he answered, and I let out a deep breath at his
graciousness.

  “I’m the one who should be sorry. Didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything. I closed out as quickly as I could once I saw what you were doing, but Liz had the meeting set up to be recorded for future reference. I didn’t want it to keep on filming you without your knowledge, which I feel like it probably would have as long as your chat window was still open.”

  “God, thanks for telling me,” I wrote back, grateful that at least some shred of my dignity to be preserved. “I still feel super ridiculous right now though…”

  “Please don’t be,” Malcolm wrote, adding a smile emoji next to his message. “I’ve been hearing about these things happening a lot. People are used to being comfortable in their own homes, so these video meetings kind of throw them for a loop.”

  “I guess that’s true,” I responded. “I’ve read a few crazy articles about that. I saw one about a guy who thought he’d multitask by taking a shower during a work meeting, and he thought he had his camera off. And, well… He didn’t.”

  Malcolm texted back a laughter emoji.

  “Exactly. Besides, at least you waited until after the meeting to undress. Hand to God, I’m pretty sure Doug Vandemeer went through that entire meeting without any pants on…”

  All at once the tension seemed to dissolve. I burst out laughing, and actually put a hand to my face as I began to involuntarily snort like a pig.

  “WTH??? Are you serious???” I asked, followed by about a dozen laughter emojis.

  “IKR? But I swear, that’s what it looked like to me!”

  “GODDDDDDDD,” I texted back, laughing so hard at that point that I had tears in my eyes. “I’m glad I apparently missed that… Thanks for bringing it to my attention :P”

  “Haha no problem!” he texted, again with a laughing emoji, then followed up with, “I guess he just takes Casual Friday to the extreme…”

  “Lolololol I guess so!” I wrote back, and it felt stupidly excessive even as I sent it. I supposed that it must have indeed been so, as after waiting several minutes I didn’t receive a response to this.

  “You’re so dumb,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head. At least I’d averted catastrophe, though, and with that I sighed, certain I wasn’t going to hear any more from him that day, and went back to my bedroom to change into my loungewear, AKA the baggiest, skankiest, and most comfortable pair of pajamas I owned. A few minutes later I returned to the computer, ready to get started on my actual work for the day. Not really expecting much, I reached over and checked my phone again before getting started. And there, lo and behold, was another message from my boss.

  “So how have you been holding up through all of this? Things going okay with you?” he asked. A pang of excitement shot through my body, and I quickly had to check myself.

  “Come on, don’t get excited Annalise,” I muttered. “He’s probably checking in with everyone like this. It’s completely professional. Don’t start confusing an innocent conversation for something it isn’t.”

  “I’m doing OK all things considered,” I wrote back. “I mean it sucks obviously, and I’m going a little bit crazy here alone in my apartment. But it is what it is, there are plenty of people who have it a lot harder out there.”

  I sent my reply, then pretended to do a little bit of work until his next message came.

  “I hear you. I mean I’m in no position to complain, but I think most people are having a tough time with all this. Do you ever go outside? Like just go on walks or whatever? I started doing that, and it’s been helping me clear my head. The fresh air feels incredible.”

  I smiled at this. “I used to go on walks all the time,” I wrote back. “I don’t know why I quit. I guess I just got busy with life, work, all that fun stuff. That’s a really good idea though. I might do that later.”

  “Always good to stop and enjoy the simple things :)” he replied. “Plus they say getting fresh air is actually pretty good for you right now. A lot safer than being in enclosed spaces or whatever.”

  “Yeah I’ve heard that too :)” I wrote, then felt like I should say something else, though I was unsure of just what. “What about you?” I finally typed. “You sound like you’ve had a lot going on through this whole thing.”

  I remembered him saying something about personal issues during the meeting. I didn’t want to expressly pry into this, but I did desperately want to find out what he meant by this.

  “If that isn’t the truth,” he wrote, then added, “For the most part I’ve gotten things sorted out, though. And again I’m really grateful to you all for keeping the ship afloat while I’ve been busy. Like I said, overall I don’t have much room to complain about anything. I realize how fortunate I am.”

  I laughed to myself, and wrote back with a grin, “I don’t care how rich you are, it ALWAYS feels good to complain.”

  He texted back a trio of laugh emojis, and I smiled with satisfaction, imagining that I’d actually made him laugh in real life as well.

  “Very true,” he said. Mostly it’s just been the same stuff you describe. Being cooped up in place on my own. No matter where you are, that level of solitude wears you down after a while.”

  Immediately that pinged on my radar. I actually gasped at the realization.

  “You aren’t living with Alyssa Muenzel???” I started typing, but then stopped myself. I realized just how thirsty, desperate, and rude that would sound, and quickly deleted what I’d written. Instead I sent, “Oh I didn’t know you were living on your own. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

  I read it to myself several times before sending out the message. I thought it struck just the right tone, just casual and detached enough not to give away my secret longing for him, but also not too casually indifferent for me to be able to mine for more information.

  “Eh, yes and no,” he wrote back. “It depends on what you’re comparing it to.”

  I had to think about this for a second, but thankfully he elucidated the issue for me.

  “My before situation was actually more stressful than the after,” he added.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I wrote.

  I was not at all sorry to hear that. Instead my heart was beating fast again, and once more I allowed my fantasies to run dangerously wild.

  Mrs. Annalise Finch… That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

  Feminist that I am, I probably would have insisted on keeping my own name had I wound up getting married to Dennis (a shudder ran through me at the thought.) This man, though? I would gladly take his name any old day of the week…

  “I don’t want to trivialize this whole situation or anything, but in my case it might have almost turned out to be a blessing. Before I kept myself so busy at the office, wrapped up with work. Then all of the sudden I found myself stuck at home 24/7, under the same roof with my fiancée… It kind of opened my eyes to just how toxic and unsalvageable our relationship had become.”

  “Ouch,” I wrote, though guiltily overjoyed at this once again. “That sounds rough.”

  “Eh, like you said, it is what it is. Was what it was. However you want to put it. I needed to wake up to it sooner or later. The two of us were just constantly at each other’s throats during quarantine. And of course both of us have our own points of view about what went wrong, and I won’t get into that part of it. All the same, it was beyond clear that something had gone seriously wrong with us. Alyssa wasn’t happy about it, but I decided it was time to stop pretending.”

  “And was it the right decision?” I asked, still struggling not to let my excitement show through.

  “I think so,” he wrote back. “In any case, I feel a lot happier than I had for a very long time. So I figure that must be a good sign, right?”

  “I think so :)” I parroted back to him.

  “Like you said, the solitude has its ups and downs. But all in all I think it was the right decision.”

  “I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better about the situation :)” I wrote, actually smiling as I sent th
e message.

  “Thank you :)” he wrote. “I guess there are times when change is for the best. Anyway, it’s been nice catching up with you, Annalise. It’s been a while since we’ve spoken. I’ll let you get back to your day now. Take care!”

  “You too!” I wrote, and the butterflies in my belly didn’t settle for some time after I switched off my phone.

  Only time would tell, I thought, whether this was a one-off thing, or whether there was actually any significance to it. All I really knew just then, as I logged into my workspace, and started absently clicking through notes my team had sent me, was that I was suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic than I’d been since this whole terrible mess had begun.

  3-

  Social Distancing (With Benefits)

  Whatever doubts I might have had about hearing from Malcolm again were very quickly assuaged. I woke up the next day (before noon this time!) and immediately found a text from the man himself waiting for me on my phone.

  “Hey, just saw some of the progress you and your team made on the Goldfinch app last night. Very impressive! I have a few suggestions that I think might really push things to the next level. I’d love to go over them with you if you have the time. I know it’s Saturday, but I’d love to get the ball rolling on this update asap if you aren’t too busy :)”

  I was, of course, not busy at all these days, and certainly not too busy for him. I immediately texted him back and set up an appointment to video call him in an hour or so. Then I hurried to get dressed (intending to remain that way throughout the entire call this time,) and obsessed over my hair and makeup, wanting to look good for him, but not wanting to appear as though I’d put anywhere near this amount of effort into doing so.

  God, it’s tough being a lady…

  Was I fully aware that I was making far too big a deal out of all this? Absolutely.

  And yet I have to confess, in my weaker moments, I still found my ex’s words spinning around in my head. And whatever did or didn’t happen between Malcolm and I (and surely, it would be nothing at all,) I’d be damned if I let him see me as the sort of woman that someone has to “settle” for.