Romancing my Boss

Chapter 14

As the town car glided through the city lights, I gradually became aware of Max's deep, steady breathing beside me - his chest rising and falling in a comforting rhythm. I concentrated on matching my ragged inhalations to that grounding pattern.

In...and out. In...and out.

With each careful breath, the jagged edges of panic slowly unraveled into something more tepid and manageable. The hard knot of dread still weighed heavily in my gut, but it no longer felt like it was literally suffocating me.

I'm not alone.

The words Max had uttered so vehemently rang with strengthening resonance. Of course he was right - even if the unthinkable happened, I would still have people in my life. My friends, my mentors from college. I would survive this existential loss, the same way I had others.

Though in that moment, cocooned in Max's reassuring masculine strength, it was impossible to fathom surviving without that steady presence anchoring me.

The thought sparked an abrupt flare of self-consciousness. Here I was, having an absolute meltdown all over my insufferably controlled boss-from-hell. Clinging to him with unsightly desperation while my world crashed down around me.

Hardly the cringeworthy finale to our disastrous fake date that I'd anticipated back at the bistro.

I felt Max's chest expand beneath my cheek as he drew a deep breath, preparing to speak...only to hesitate. As though instinctively holding his tongue rather than shattering the fragile tranquility we'd found together.

With tremendous effort, I rallied what tattered shreds of composure remained and shifted slightly away from him. Already I mourned the loss of his solid frame's steadying presence, but pride demanded I regain some sense of boundaries.

"I'm so sorry..." The mortified apology slipped out in a hoarse murmur before I could stop it. "God, you never signed up for being a blubbering assistant's emotional support system."

Max's arm tightened fractionally around my shoulders, his thumb stroking in an unconscious pattern against my upper arm.

"Don't be ridiculous," he chided in that low, gruff tone - yet the words were stripped of any rebuke. "Where would the dashing hero of this little scenario be if he abandoned his heroine in her hour of need?"

The faint thread of humor in his voice had me unsticking my face from the stark realization that Max - my unrequitedly pined-over boss who delighted in making my life miserable - had just held me through the worst moment in my recent memory. That despite our antagonistic pas de deux around the office, he'd risen to the occasion with a simple, grounding decency that stole my breath all over again.

He really was playing the part of a modern-day white knight to the hilt tonight.

The thought should have appalled me. And yet...an ember of tenuous hope flared to life against my will. One I didn't dare let him see, lest it be immediately snuffed out.

Risking a peek upward, I found Max's intense regard already trained steadily down on me - that unflinching emerald stare softened by something very different from his usual stubborn aloofness.

It was enough to make my next inhalation stutter in my lungs. Yet before I could misread the weighted moment, the town car slowed to a stop and Max finally released me, putting a careful distance between our bodies.

"Here we are," Max murmured, clearing his throat as he reached for the door handle. My brow furrowed in confusion - clearly we were nowhere near his apartment building. Surely he wasn't just going to deposit me on a random curb?

He must have read my bewildered look, for his lips quirked faintly.

"Hospital's just ahead. I figured it best to get you there straight away."

I blinked, momentarily too stunned to form a coherent reply. This brusque, perpetually unreadable man...really had been thinking several steps ahead with only my own wellbeing prioritized.

Not just playing the part tonight, apparently.

My throat worked as unexpected gratitude swelled there in a hot lump. I finally managed a jerky nod, not trusting my voice to remain steady.

Max's keen stare remained fixed thoughtfully on me for another beat. Then, with a decisive nod of his own, he slid from the car and rounded it to open my door, extending one large hand to help me out.

With my fingers trembling faintly in his supportive grasp, I followed him toward the automatic sliding doors and the harsh fluorescent lights just beyond. But rather than dreading what other brutal realities might await me on the other side, I felt an odd sense of certainty toward whatever came next.

Because no matter how dire the circumstances, I wasn't facing them alone tonight.

Or perhaps, ever again. Though I refused to explore that tantalizing possibility any further just yet.

For now, it was enough to let Max's steady presence fortify me once more as we strode through those unforgiving hospital doors, united as twin bastions against whatever storm lay ahead.

The antiseptic corridors blurred around me in a dizzying smear. But the grounding weight of Max's hand at my back remained a point of stillness in the chaos.

A week later, I would look back on this endless night as the catalyst for so many pivotal transformations in my life - not the least of which was my relationship with Max himself.

But in that moment, there was only a harrowing vigil to endure. One I didn't realize would, in fact, lead to a very different sort of awakening...a true miracle.