How to Not Fall for My Boss ✔

12. Persuasion

"What the hell, Harry? Why did you tell Rose we talked that night?" Cobie rattles off once Harry picks up her call.

"Cobie?" Harry croaks, sounding confused. No loud R&B music or people laughing in the background. "What happened?"

"You happened! You knew you couldn't tell Rose you drunk called me that night and cornered me with your nonsense! That call shouldn't be mentioned at all! It never existed!"

"Woah. Wait, I need to wake up a bit," Harry replies, followed by a shuffling sound and his soft groaning.

Cobie bites her lower lip to refrain from spewing more words. She didn't know the boy was asleep; not that she would care. She's done loading the dishwasher and sets the program when Harry's voice vibrates through the receiver again. "What did she actually say to you?"

"She said you told her we talked last Friday, which I don't understand why you did that, and she accused me of having an affair with you. And she thinks I was the one who broke you two up."

"No way. Where did she get the idea?"

"If you weren't stupid enough to tell her, she wouldn't get any ideas."

"We were just trying to have closure, Cobie. And the drunk phone call just came up because your name was brought up and I felt bad for pissing you off," Harry explains. "We'd been friends before I met her. I never get why she had problems with us talking without her being around."

"Because it's Rose. You know why!" Cobie whisper-shouts before sticking her head into the hall to check if her voice wakes up her sleeping mother. When there is no sign of movement from upstairs, she briskly walks to the door and makes her way out to the backyard.

"Exactly. It's Rose we are talking about. She should be able to deal with this. By herself. She doesn't need her big sister to always handle her problems for her."

"I'm not always handling her problems! I'm trying to be careful because of what she went through in her childhood. You just don't get it!" She paces back and forth on the gravel path.

"Trust me, Cobie, I do! And it shouldn't be the reason for her not wanting to change. And I grew tired of that."

"It's not her fault she's being like this. She's been struggling with her self-worth since the day she was born because of our jackass father."

A faucet is turned on, followed by the sound of him chugging down the water. "And it's partly your fault if you're letting her be."

Cobie stops short, not believing what she just heard. "What did you say?"

"How long are you going to keep treating her like a five-year-old, Cobie? When will you stop choosing for her, keeping her from having her own views of life? She's twenty-two for god sake!"

"I'm not treating her like a five-year-old! But in case you forget, I'm her big sister, and it's my job to care for her!"

"That's not caring; you're corrupting her."

"Excuse me?" Cobie sees red. "Are you criticizing how I've been treating her? Look at yourself! You tossed her aside every time things got rough! You didn't care about her anxiety one bit. Once you were ready to have her back, you just flicked your fingers, and the existing issues between you and her were suddenly forgotten. You never gave a damn about her, did you?"

"I did care for her! And I still do...in a way. But enough is enough. This persuasion you keep injecting into her head is just getting old. You're forcing her to believe what you believe."

"I didn't-"

"Especially when it comes to your absurd sentiment about famous guys, as if they are some kind of disease girls need to avoid. Rose has been having this perception since the day we met. She kept having trouble trusting me because I was what...popular? Because I dated several girls before her? Because girls were still hitting on me while we were dating? And how was that my fault?!"