Chapter 1

Alex Grant was the type of boss who could run a boardroom with a single grunt.

If he liked an idea, he'd give a clipped, "Mm."

If he was losing his temper, it was a sharp, "Mm?"

I was his Executive Assistant, the one who had to translate his caveman noises into actual directives for the rest of the team.

Halfway through the meeting, Alex glared at the department head who was still rambling through his slides.

This man was clearly testing the limits of Alex's patience.

I was ready to signal for a wrap-up when a frantic wall of text started scrolling across my vision like a Twitch stream on overdrive.

Comment: [Even though the hero is acting like a prick to the sidekick now, he's going to be obsessed with the main girl once the plot kicks in.]

Comment: [The professional assistant might be a rockstar, but she doesn't stand a chance against one look from the real love interest.]

Comment: [Later on, he actually promotes her to a regional manager position just to get her out of the way and keep his hands clean.]

My brain snagged on the phrase "regional manager."

Wait—regional manager? I'd have my own team? No more spending every waking hour trying to decode his moods?

A massive, uncontrollable grin spread across my face, but before I could savor the fantasy, I felt a familiar, heavy heat prickling my skin.

I turned to find Alex glaring at me, looking absolutely livid.

*****

I was lost in a fantasy about being the branch lead, calling the shots and having an entire floor of people jumping at my command.

Laurel Harper was crushing her presentation, her face glowing with a high-stakes adrenaline that made her look magnetic.

Laurel declared, her voice steady and commanding, "This quarter, we hit our targets... and saw a massive surge in..."

Alex sat there with a heavy brow, offering nothing but a few noncommittal grunts.

I watched her from my seat, genuinely floored by her performance.

Laurel was a total powerhouse, having mastered the quarterly data and distilled it into a flawless pitch despite being the new hire on the team.

It seemed obvious that Alex had to be thrilled to have a ringer like her on the payroll.

He gave a few sharp nods, his grunts sounding almost like actual approval for once.

Then Alex cleared his throat, the sound hacking through the silence twice.

I was too busy admiring Laurel's poise to give his coughing a second thought.

He probably just needed a lozenge or a trip to the water cooler to clear his pipes.

Laurel was a total bombshell—she didn't even have to try to light up the entire conference room.

When I didn't offer the expected backup, Alex cut his eyes toward me, desperate to grab my attention.

I finally registered his silent signal and prepared to jump in and smooth things over for him, feeling a bit out of the loop.

Suddenly, a stream of digital text started scrolling across my vision.

Comment: [Right now the hero is acting like he hates her report, but just wait—he's going to be obsessed and clingy within five chapters.]

Comment: [The assistant is still hovering like she actually matters. She's a total NPC, not even in the same zip code as the lead girl.]

Comment: [One wrong look from the heroine and this side character is getting shipped off to run some satellite office in the middle of nowhere.]

I froze.

What?

Did I just get a cheat code?

The world was literally feeding me a real-time commentary track on my own life?

Thousands of hours spent devouring trashy paperbacks and Reddit threads had finally paid off.

So, I was a character in a book.

But a damn side character?

I was a mere extra who had somehow tripped off the sidelines and into the lethal crosshairs of the main story?

The comments were even more ridiculous, acting like I was delusional enough to actually catch feelings for a guy like Alex.

Falling for the boss would be a total sucker's game, a one-way ticket to a mid-life crisis.

But then the reality of my "ending" sank in: being exiled to manage a branch office.

A surge of secret adrenaline hit me. That meant finally escaping Alex's constant nitpicking.

I'd be running my own show, calling the shots with nobody looking over my shoulder—I'd be the boss of my own little empire.

It beat the hell out of my current life, where I played the part of the powerful right-hand man but was really just a glorified errand runner in an expensive suit.