Grump of Cole by Sabrina Stark

Author:Sabrina Stark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mellow Moon
Published: 2022-11-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Lexie

Cole's statement caught me off-guard, and I asked the obvious question. "But what would you have to confess?"

His gaze met mine. "Something I'm not proud of."

Now I was really intrigued. "Oh, yeah? What?"

"There's a reason I stopping calling."

He'd also stopped texting, but the reason wasn't a mystery. "Yeah, and I can guess why."

His eyes filled with mischief. "Can you now?"

"Sure," I said. "On our last date, I was a total crab. But I had my reasons."

"Which were…?"

I recalled that evening all too well. My feet had been freezing, and the walk to the restaurant had felt way too long in the snowy weather. Still, my mood would've been just fine if only I hadn't been stewing about my old boss.

In reply to Cole's question, I said, "I didn't appreciate you laughing – about Mister Grampkin, I mean."

When Cole's only response was a puzzled look, I said, "You remember, right? I told you how he came into the candy store looking for a job. And you laughed like it was one big joke."

"Yeah, because it was."

Great. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere, he had to go and remind me why I'd been so miffed in the first place. I was still searching for a snappy comeback when he asked, "Can I be blunt?"

I almost snorted. "I thought you just were."

"The guy's a jackass," Cole said. "And that's a nice way of putting it."

"Nice?" I sputtered. "You're kidding right?"

But Cole wasn't done. "And he's a cheap bastard."

The more he talked, the less I liked it. "Oh, come on!"

"And if he's looking for a job," Cole continued, "then he's a bigger dumb-ass than I thought."

I was glaring now. "So that's your confession?"

"No. But you brought him up."

"Yeah but for a good reason," I said. "The way you acted about him – it was the thing that set me off at dinner."

"Here's a question," Cole said. "That 'Christmas in July' thing, did you know it was canceled?"

"Of course I knew. I was there, remember?" The event had been perfectly jolly until Cole had shown up out of the blue and fired the master of ceremonies. As long as I lived, I would never forget it.

"I don't mean the day of the party," he said. "I mean the day I took control of the company. That's when I canceled."

Impossible. Cole had taken control only two weeks before the actual event. During those weeks, the planning had continued full-steam ahead. "But you couldn’t have canceled," I said. "I would've known."

"And you would've if Grampkin had done what I asked."

I still wasn't buying it. "Well maybe he couldn't cancel. The event was huge. It couldn't be stopped on that short of notice. We'd have to break contracts. And what about the vendors? They'd be out a lot of money."

Cole gave a humorless laugh. "More than you know. And you wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Because they were charging us thirty percent above the going rate."

"They were?" I had never dealt with the financials, but that number seemed pretty far-fetched.

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