Dirty Boss: A Second Chance Romance by Alex Riley Page A

entity and not just another face in the crowd, something she never thought possible before that night.
    Emily had never forgotten that night with her grandmother despite how much she had changed. She never would. Just like she had never forgotten that night with him those years ago.
    And she knew that it was because of the impact he had made in her life. With everything she had done over the past four years, she still remembered that night. That night, she had thrown all caution to the wind and done exactly what she wanted to do. It was the beginning of true liberation for her; no one who knew her before that, would ever guess that she once lived life in an entirely different way. That night, the tables turned and so did her life much to the delight of her grandmother. Not that she had any regrets about what she did that night; far from it. Perhaps now, the only regret she had was that the night was the only one she had. Years after, all she had were bittersweet memories.
    Memories that kept her awake on cold nights wishing she had just one more night.
    The same memories saw her sometimes staring into space in broad daylight, remembering and reliving each moment in her head. She sometimes wished that she had done things differently but she also knew that she wouldn’t change the events of that night for anything.
    She didn’t know if it was by coincidence or if fate was having a good laugh at her right now. Calculating the days, Emily realized that today was exactly four years ago from that night ...

Two

 
    Four Years Ago…
    “Come on, Emily, don’t be a spoil sport. It is going to be such fun.” Shannon whined.
    Emily looked up from the novel she had in her hands and removed the glasses set precariously on the bridge of her nose. She regarded her roommate and best friend in silence for the better part of two minutes.
    She couldn’t believe how well they hit it off and how long their friendship had lasted. They were so totally different from each other that everyone who saw them together never failed to comment on their glaring differences. While Emily was blonde, thin and gawky; Shannon was a redhead, round little gypsy that turned heads when she walked. Emily wore glasses and looked geeky, with her nose constantly buried in one book or the other; Shannon, on the other hand, would not be caught dead wearing those horrible things called glasses nor would she touch any book with a ten-foot pole, God forbid, unless it was to doodle on it.
    While Emily was extremely introverted and tidy, her roommate was an extrovert and  disorganized. Emily’s tireless efforts to keep their room in some semblance of order; would quickly be blown apart as Shannon left a trail of destruction wherever she went.
    In a nutshell, she had been best of friends with Shannon McGuire for the last three years, when they were thrown together as roommates in freshman year. They had hit it off at once despite knowing right away that they were exact opposites of one another. However, Emily knew that she wouldn’t exchange Shannon for anyone else, no matter how much trouble she could be. Her little gypsy friend was loyal, understanding, faithful and the most compassionate soul on earth despite her flashy outward appearance.
    It was why Emily was listening to her right now instead of out rightly screaming at her.
    “Shannon, you know how much I hate parties and noise.” She complained to her friend.
    “Of course I know,” Shannon said with a roll of her eyes. “But I have been trying to tell you that this is not the sort of parties with blaring speakers and loud music. And, we’ll be leaving early to make it up in time for Greg’s flight early in the morning.” She added.
    Now, it was Emily’s turn to roll her eyes. She knew that Greg’s early flight to Washington tomorrow morning wasn’t the reason that Shannon would agree to leave a party early.
    Greg was Shannon’s boyfriend and he was one of this year’s graduates at the University