Grumpy Boss Enemy

GRUMPY BOSS ENEMY SOPHIA BENT Copyright © 2023 by Sophia Bent All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, businesses, events, and places are used in a fictitious manner or product of imagination. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. https://www.sophiabent.com CONTENTS 1. Alexis2. Cohen3. Alexis4. Cohen5. Alexis6. Cohen7. Alexis8. Cohen9. Alexis10. Cohen11. Alexis12. Cohen13. Alexis14. Cohen15. Alexis16. Cohen17. Alexis18. Cohen19. Alexis20. Cohen21. Alexis22. Cohen23. Alexis24. CohenEpilogueWhat to Read Next?Join My VIP Mailing List ONEALEXIS Manny was slick when I climaxed. It took a couple of tries before my trembling fingers found the off button. On my laptop, a girl arched her back, screaming her lungs out as a dark-skinned muscular man pounded her from behind. I slammed the screen to shut off the sounds and swept my long wavy red hair up into a messy bun. Something thumped hard on the wall behind my hotel room headboard, accompanied by a tinkling voice moaning, “Yeah baby…” That was followed by another voice grunting, “You like that? Tell me you like that.” The thumps heightened in crescendo, vibrating the walls and my bed. I would have screamed into my pillow, but that required the delicate art of pressing my face into the dubious brown pillowcase, and my war with acne could not be resumed. It was the sixth night in a row. I’d had to listen to a new couple each time. Manny was tired of the abuse, as was I. In the past, I had only ever touched it when my ex-fiancé had been out of town or we had just been too busy for a romp in the sack. He had mentioned that my libido was much more than he could handle. The woman screamed, “Felix, stop! I can’t bend that way…holy shit, you’re gonna break my back, asshole!” Hysterical laughter bubbled out of me. Unsolicited tears streamed down my cheeks as the man in the other room begged her to bend that way or he couldn’t come. Did she not want to go home? My eyes lit on the line of boxes beside the rickety wardrobe. Right beside those boxes were several balled up, discarded papers. Letters from restaurants, hotels, bars, and even strip clubs. All of them featured a prominent sentence, Dear Alexis, we regret to inform you… There were hundreds more on the laptop that was now blinking red, because the charger had blown, and I couldn’t replace it. I wanted to ask the businesses how to convert kind regards and best wishes to a couple grand. That was not a bad idea. Tomorrow, I would send an email to ten of those companies about it. The last application had informed the company that I was a famous cook on a spaceship for a secret government organization. I’d also attached pictures of green, big-headed aliens to back up my claim. Their rejection letter was a little more interesting at least. I wondered how the HR drafted the response. At the bottom, she’d very politely suggested that I see a therapist, or in fact just check into an asylum. It was the extent of my frustration with all the losses. It got the better part of my senses, unfortunately. The laugh I had gotten out of it brightened the horrid, flowered wall of my motel room. The woman next door said, “Fine, I’ll raise my leg that high, but it’ll cost you extra.” I won a bet against myself that it was a hooker. The last two couples had been married men with their mistresses. Those were boring. They kept begging the women not to scream their names, which only made them scream it louder. Okay, not that boring. This Felix sounded like a teenager getting his first shot of vanilla ice cream but with a hooker on top. Felix gave a whoop of celebration as my phone rang. I wasn’t surprised to see Allison’s name, which I’d saved with skull and bones emojis, flash on the screen. The woman was after my life. She made sure to call at least ten times a day to ensure I’d not downed bleach or something. And no matter how many times I assured her that I was too much of a wuss to try that, she still badgered my phone. The last time I ignored her, she had marched down to the motel in all her haughty glory. Ironically, it would be her pestering that could give me that final push. I was yet to admit it to my cousin, but without her constant care and attention, I would have lost my mind in the motel. Still, no matter how much she cared for me, that intense sense of utter failure clung to me, and it was harder to pick her calls every day, especially with a false cheer in my voice that I did not feel. “What are you doing?” Allison barked the second I clicked answer. I made my voice quivery, “Having fun with Manny.” There was absolute quiet on the other end of the line, then, “A guy? Who’s Manny?” I groaned, which came at the unfortunate time when Felix shouted his release, “He’s so hot.” “You’re talking about your vibrator, aren’t you? That’s not funny.” “I don’t know,” I laughed. “I thought it was a hoot and a half.” I was pretty sure that if she had been with me, she’d have knocked me upside the head. “A hoot and a half? How old are you again? Who talks like that?” In a solemn voice, I replied, “I am a jobless, moneyless, husbandless, and all the other ‘lesses’ twenty-eight-year-old woman.” “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry.” My jokes never got the appropriate response they deserved, which was