Falling For My Boss

Chapter 12

~~~Y/N’s POV~~~
It’s been a couple days, and Flo heads home tonight. Thus far, I have avoided talking about the photo she saw. I don't even know how I would explain it. I've been staring at it, trying to figure out some way to make sense of the look on my face, and I can't. That is the face of someone who is head over heels in love. I stuff my phone in my pocket and head inside, today with tea and a coffee, hoping I don't have to talk to Flo alone. Unfortunately, as soon as I get into the kitchen, I see that Flo is the only one awake, and internally, I begin panicking.
"Okay, before she wakes up. Tell me that picture is exactly what it looks like," she whispers to me as I hand her her tea. My mouth drops open.
"What?"
"Please tell me you feel the way it looks like you do about Hailee."
"Uh, um, I- I don't know." I can't help but feel relieved at saying it out loud. "I mean, I didn't realize it was that deep until I saw that picture. I'm still wrapping my head around it." Flo visibly relaxes. "I also didn't know she isn't straight, so that was the worst moment for me to see that picture."
"Well, it really was the best timing if you ask me." She sips her tea.
"How? Flo, she's my boss!"
"And? She's clearly into you."
"Bullshit. She's like a thousand times out of my league."
"One, not true. Two, it's pretty obvious." At that moment, Hailee enters the kitchen.
"What's obvious?"
"That y/n's crush likes her." She doesn’t miss a beat. Smooth, Florence, damn!
"Oh?" Hailee doesn't meet either of our gazes as she grabs her coffee from the counter, and I shoot daggers at Flo.
"She calls her hot, she stalks her instagram, and she always wants to extend their time together." Flo ticks off her points on her fingers.
"Sounds pretty obvious to me." Hailee shrugs, still not looking at me. I'm kind of glad though, because I'm sure my face is fire engine red. Flo raises her eyebrows at me meaningfully.
"See?" Suddenly, Hailee exits the room, and I go to follow her.
"Hailee? You okay?"
"You have a crush?"
"Uh-"
"You have a crush and you told Flo before you told me?"
"Oh, I didn't-"
"Whatever, It's fine. I'm your boss, so. I get it. I'm just a little emotional today I guess."
"Hailee, I didn't tell her I have a crush. She just-"
"Oh. Inserting herself in your love life, is she?" Hailee smiles a little bit.
"Yeah." I grin at her.
"What are we gonna do without her?" Hailee shakes her head.
"She'll be back soon enough," I shrug.
"I think she was on to something though."
"About?" I quirk an eyebrow.
"Whoever she was talking about definitely likes you." She sounds like she is holding something back, like she might know exactly who Flo was talking about, and I feel a shiver run up my spine.
"Oh, uh, that would definitely be, um, surprising," I stumble out. She takes a step closer to me and there's a palpable tension. At least I feel it, and I hope she feels it, but who knows? Maybe I'm crazy.
"Not to me," she says, quietly, and walks back toward the kitchen. I stay where I am and take a few deep breaths before rejoining them. By the time Flo has to leave for the airport, I've had a pretty productive day, and I offer to drive her. She throws her luggage in my trunk and bounces her way over to my passenger side.
"Next time I’m in LA, we'll be filming!"
"Oh wow, that's crazy. I can't really believe it yet." When we are a few minutes into the drive she gives me a look.
"Y/n. You know I'm right about Hailee, right?"
"No, I don't know that," I say, rolling my eyes.
"I am. And it would do you both some good to be honest about your feelings. If only so you can both stop hiding it from each other."
"Flo, I don't even know what my feelings are, just that I have them. What's the point in telling her and jeopardizing my job?"
"The point is that she feels the same way and you could both be missing out on something wonderful."
"What if you're wrong and I get fired?"
"She wouldn't fire you for having feelings."
"I wouldn't trust someone who's heart I've broken to keep my secrets. Why would she?"
"Take a risk, y/n."
"Why don't you tell her to take the risk if you're so convinced?"
"Maybe I will." I get Flo to the airport without further incident and have a more emotional goodbye than I'm expecting. When I head back toward Hailee's, I get a call.
"Hey, Hailee, what's up?"
"Will you stay here tonight?" she blurts out.
"I- uh, yeah, whatever you need, boss."I shake my head, surprised.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'll see you soon?" She sounds a little sad.
"Uh yeah, need anything while I'm out?"
"No, uh, just. I'm just afraid I'm gonna get lonely without Flo here."
"Oh, well, uh I'll be here whenever you need me."
"Thank you, y/n."
"Of course." When I get back, Hailee is on the couch and she waves me over.
"No more work tonight."
"I just need to send a couple of emails," I say, setting my bag down.
"Nope. Send them in the morning."
"Hailee. I am known for being a timely responder, and I will not be sullying my reputation." I grab my computer and sit on the couch next to her. She looks at me and grins."What?"
"You really love this job."
"Yes, yes I do."
"I'm glad," she grabs a blanket and shifts down to lay on the couch with her head propped against my thigh. I try not to show how fast my heart just started beating. "What're you emailing about?"
"Various interview requests, endorsement requests, that sort of thing."
"Oh?"
"Your agent sends me the ones that you approve and I iron out the details with scheduling."
"Really?"
"Yeah. That's kind of what you hired me to do."
"I just, I don't know, sometimes I forget that you do so much other stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"Just that you do so much for me throughout the day, I forget about the stuff that I don't see you doing. Like, you make me breakfast and give me support in the studio or on a shoot, and get me coffee, and all of that, and you still have time to arrange my schedule and order my groceries?"
"That's my job, Boss."
"It's incredible."
"It's nothing, really," I brush off the compliment and continue typing for a moment. When I finish my last email, I set my computer on the coffee table and look at her. She's so beautiful, and I feel myself wanting to say something. Flo might be right, maybe it would end up well, but I just can't risk it.
"Would it be too much if I asked you to brush my hair?" She looks at me with hopeful eyes. I’m wrapped around her finger.
"Um, honestly, yes. But I'll do it anyway." I chuckle at her.
"You're the best person I have ever met."
"I don't know about all that," I say as I stand up to go get her brush. When I get back, she sits on the floor in front of the couch, snuggling Martini and Brando, and I climb onto the couch behind her to brush her hair. I brush for a while, enjoying the feeling of her silky hair between my fingers. I resist the urge to bury my face in her hair and continue brushing until she tilts her head back to look at me. I freeze, one of my hands holding her hairbrush, the other still in her hair. She doesn't say anything, just looks at me, and I feel myself leaning closer to her before I realize I'm doing it. Her eyes soften and something tightens in my chest, but then my phone rings, and I jolt away from her. What the hell was I just thinking? I look down at my phone and see that it's Taylor calling and send him to voicemail. I shoot him a quick text as Hailee grabs her hairbrush and stands up.
"Thank you, y/n," she says softly and goes down the hall toward her room. Fuck fuck fuck. Did I just almost kiss my boss? Shit. "Y/N?" I hear her call for me from the other end of the house.
"Yeah, Boss?" I head toward her voice. She's standing by the front door, going through the mail I haven't gotten to from this afternoon.
"What is this?" She hands me a manila envelope addressed to me from someone at vogue. It's the same assistant who sent me the email with the picture of me.
"I don't know." I open it and leaf through some printouts of the Vogue photos along with another copy of the dreaded photo. There's a note, so I pull that out.
Y/N,
I'm sorry if my email was off-putting. You really do look great in the picture, and I thought your boss might like some prints of the shoot. Again, I apologize if it sounded like I was accusing you of anything, as that wasn't my intention. I just thought it was a great candid.
Okay. So they aren't trying to blackmail me, that's at least good.
"Y/N?" Hailee breaks my train of thought.
"Yeah?"
"You okay? You looked like you saw a ghost there for a second."
"Oh, yeah. One of the assistants at Vogue sent some prints from the shoot."
"That's sweet of them. Why was it addressed to you? Not that I'm mad or anything."
"I guess they thought they offended me in their email. They didn't, but there was an apology note for me." I go to close the envelope, but Hailee grabs it. I feel my heart climb into my throat as she looks through the photos.
"Oh, y/n," she whispers as she gets to the one of me. She looks up. "Have you seen this?"
"Yes," I croak out.
"You're beautiful." She puts a hand on my cheek, and looks back at the photo. "What are you looking at?" She's speaking barely above a whisper. I bite my lip nervously before I answer truthfully.
"You," I'm holding my breath.
"Me?" She meets my eyes, bewildered, and all I can do is nod. "Can I keep this?" I'm shocked. Why? What?
"Uh, yeah." I blink as she gathers the photos into a stack.
"Come on, let’s watch a movie." She grabs my hand and leads me back to the couch.

~~~~Hailee’s POV~~~~
I pull y/n to the couch and I have to force myself to let go of her hand. I’m itching to go through the pictures again, just to see the one of her. My hand is shaking a little bit when I grab the remote, and I hope she doesn’t notice. What has gotten into me tonight? Y/n has a crush. I need to stop. I’m literally employing her. Reign it in, for fuck’s sake. That’s apparently become my mantra: Reign it in.
“What movie are we watching?” Y/n asks, curling up under a blanket and patting the couch next to her as Brando jumps up. He has taken a particular liking to her. Martini has stayed my loyal girl though. As if to prove my point, she jumps up next to me.
“I’m feeling a classic. Not sure which though.” I scroll through the TCM movies on HBOMax. As I pass over Singin’ in the Rain, I hear y/n let out a tiny gasp of excitement. I scroll back to it. “You into this one?”
“It’s one of my favorite classics. I kind of had a crush on Gene Kelly as a kid,” she blushes at her admission.
“Gene Kelly? Not Debbie Reynolds?”
“I always saw her as grandma in Halloweentown! Like she was adorable and so sweet, but I thought Gene Kelly was like the perfect man. The voice, the dancing, the charm!” She’s trying not to laugh at herself.
“The perfect man? I thought you were a lesbian?” I tease her.
“I am! That’s why it's funny!” She starts chuckling. I start the movie and lean into the couch. She shares the blanket with me and Martini, and I can’t help but think how sweet this is, with both of us and the dogs all snuggled on the couch. Ugh, why didn’t I just kiss her when she leaned closer to me a minute ago? I slide down the couch and prop my head on her thigh like I did earlier, just so my head is further from hers. I end up falling asleep like that, and when I wake up, my hand is on her knee by my face, the credits rolling on the screen. My eyes are just barely open, and I snap them back shut when I feel a hand in my hair. Y/n is threading her fingers through my hair when she starts humming softly. I wait for a minute, wanting to enjoy the feeling, but then she yawns, and brushes my hair from my face. “Hey, Boss? You fell asleep.” She says it softly, gently shaking my shoulder.
“What time is it?” I ask, opening my eyes.
“Time for you to get to bed if you want to survive training in the morning.” She smiles, and god, I wanna take the risk and kiss her. “Come with me?” I blurt out. What the FUCK? REIGN IT IN!!!
“To training?” She asks, innocently, and I cannot be more grateful.
“Yes! It would be fun! I wanna see what else you’re hiding from me. Maybe you have super strength.” I joke, possibly a bit forcefully.
“Definitely not,” she laughs. “I’m not really in shape, I’d probably slow you and your dad down.”
“Alright, but you’re always welcome. And I’m pretty sure you have a habit of underestimating yourself,” I point out, and get up from the couch. I snag Martini and Brando and head down the hall. “Goodnight, Y/n!” I call over my shoulder.
“Goodnight, Hailee.”