Dirty Boss: A Second Chance Romance by Alex Riley

April, 2016
    Emily Wilson read the mail in her inbox over and over again. Her business really was going to take her to Athens, Georgia, she thought with a whimsical smile. More than that, it was going to be taking her on a roller coaster ride down memory lane. Not that she had ever forgotten; not for a single day. The International Fashion Show was always the most anticipated event of the year for the fashion industry and this year’s event was taking her to Athens to represent her fashion line, ‘Head Turners’.
    “Why Georgia of all places? Why not Egypt, Switzerland or Haiti? Why Athens?” she muttered out loud even though she was the only one in her room.
    Fate really had a way of going about its business, Emily thought with an unbelievable shake of her head. For Emily, it had all started in Athens, Northeast Georgia. The name she had made for herself and the fame she had gathered was birthed in Athens on that one night with him four years ago.
    She hadn’t been back since she had graduated. Atlanta, where she lived now, was only an hour drive away but Emily avoided going back because it brought back powerful memories that were simultaneously amazing and filled with longing.
    She shouldn’t have bothered. Now, she was going there despite everything she had done to avoid it.
    “It is too fucking soon to go back!” she screamed at the laptop, running her hands through her spiky, short blonde hair in frustration.
    There was however, no respite from the feeling of nostalgia she felt as soon as she saw the inbox notification for the Show. Nor would the venue change; no matter how much she wanted to avoid it, it was still going to be Athens.
    “Gran, why is it so hard to forget some people? Why is it so hard to let go?”
    The feeling of nostalgia that arose from knowing she would go back to Athens, brought to mind another life-changing moment with her grandmother from ten years ago. Thinking back on that conversation and the impact it had on her life, Emily let out a long sigh. Tonight was a night of reflection, she thought in resignation. It was one of those rare moments when Emily allowed herself to think. She detested thinking. It wasn’t her thing; she preferred to act and then maybe think later, if at all. She grabbed her wine and let her mind wander ...
    When Emily was just sixteen she began drinking to cope with the guilt of her parent’s death. She had been smuggling drinks into the house each night after the accident and one night her grandmother caught her. Instead of scolding her sixteen-year-old granddaughter for drinking, Lara had grabbed a glass and sat on the floor of Emily’s room with her. “Lord knows we both need this,” she said.
    They drank and talked long into the night. About love, life, her parents and amidst blurs, hiccups, tears and burps, her grandmother said something that had stayed with her every since.
    “You see, my darling, you don’t forget some people because they have had a huge impact on your life. Some people make you laugh, others make you cry, some do both and it is those people that have an impact so great that you do not know where you end and they begin and when we lose them, we lose part of ourselves. Remember your parents but know that you must live your life in honor of their memory.”
    Though the words had been said over a few drinks, they would change her life forever and it was these words she reflected on as she remember that night with him four years ago. In one night, he had shown her all those things and more and taken her to places she had never thought possible.
    That night with her grandmother ushered in a new dawn for a more responsible, cautious and wiser teenager. But the night with him, saw the birth for a more spontaneous and determined adult. Those experiences from her past combined to form the perfect blend of groundedness and daring that allowed her to forge a path for herself in the fashion industry. She was a person of her own, a recognized