Free Step by Step Love: The Complete Collection by Emma Fox Page B

since they think you're a horrible employee.”
    Veronica scowled.
    “I'm not a horrible employee!”
    “Well you aren't now ,” he hissed, “but as far as they're concerned, you still suck. Wouldn't you rather they're poking fun of you for that than sleeping with your stepbrother?”
    She rolled her eyes.
    “I guess,” she muttered.
    “Exactly,” he said, clutching her shoulders. “So anyway, I'm going to send you on a fifteen minute break and you're going to go meet her. I'm going to come out of my office about twenty-five minutes later and act like I'm looking for you. Again, they'll buy into the whole terrible employee thing. Then we'll figure this whole thing out, okay?”
    Veronica took a deep breath and nodded, chewing on her lip.
    “I'm nervous,” she confessed.
    Empathy was etched into Ryan's expression as he nodded.
    “Me too, love.”
    ***
     
     

A spreadsheet was open on Veronica's computer screen, as per usual. She slowly entered data, but noticed that she was making far too many typos. Frowning, she deleted the spreadsheet and started a new one. She had just begun doing well in the workplace and she was already beginning to mess up again. With a sigh, she looked up and saw Marge and Carla sipping out of their coffee mugs, sniggering at her expense. It should have been the least of her worries, but it only made her situation much more difficult. She had not thought that her day could get much worse, but they were quickly beginning to challenge her assumptions.
    She took a sip of coffee and rubbed her temples, clicking cells in the spreadsheet and staring at them as though they would fill themselves with information. After several minutes, she used all of her remaining energy to enter one number into a single cell. Her eyes darted back to the number in the manila folder on the desk beside her and she frowned. She had typed it in incorrectly again. Scowling, she fixed the error and looked at the clock in the corner of the desktop. Nervousness had overwhelmed her and it would not be long before she would have to have one of the most awkward confrontations of her entire life.
    Suddenly, Ryan's office door swung open and he eyed her.
    “Veronica,” he boomed in an attempt to sound professional with her, “take fifteen. The spreadsheets that you just sent to me were wrong again .”
    Veronica blushed. She was embarrassed that she was not doing her job properly, but then she remembered that he was only implementing part of his plan and he was unaware of her slacking. She cleared her throat and nodded, exiting out of the program.
    “I-I'm sorry, sir,” she stammered, getting up from her desk and trying to appear flustered.
    She looked at her coworkers from the corner of her eye and saw that they were all laughing at her once more. As much as it annoyed her, she knew that it was only part of the plan.
    “You should be!” he acted. “I could have lost forty-thousand dollars if I hadn't caught your mistakes! Go get some fresh air and get back to work. I can't have you doing this again or else you're going to get canned!”
    Veronica winced and glared at him. His dark eyes were apologizing, but he continued acting and pointed towards the exit. She pretended to be upset and stormed out of the office. Her coworkers burst into laughter as she departed. Although she heard them, she knew that she could not concern herself with such things.
    As soon as she exited the large office, she walked past the restrooms and towards the elevator. She pressed the downward-facing arrow and tapped her foot, waiting for it to stop. Despite being nervous about meeting Claudette, she wanted to get the meeting over with so she could move on and try to have a better day.
    The elevator stopped and dinged. A middle-aged man with a bad comb-over and a tweed suit stepped off and brushed past her. She stepped onto the elevator and gulped as she pressed the button for the ground floor.
    The short ride seemed to take forever. Veronica