You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 224

If it weren’t for that annoying guy camped out at her door every morning, Aurora would never have dragged herself to work a whole hour and a half early. What a joke.

She hung up, rolling her eyes. “I’ll just pretend I never got your call. As long as I’m here before nine, it counts,” she muttered, mimicking her boss’s tone in her head.

If you show up before eight fifty-nine, you’re basically rolling out the red carpet for Emerson.

Out on the porch, Oliver finished his run. Patricia took the towel from Johns and handed it over. Oliver wiped his sweat, then looked at her.

“Who’s calling this early?”

“Aurora,” Patricia said. “The Miller family just dropped their smart home deal with the Martins. Emerson stormed into the office first thing to yell at everyone.”

Mr. Padilla glanced over. “Need a hand?”

“Not right now. But I do need Sara. When’s she back?”

“This afternoon.”

“Was that already planned?”

Oliver gently steered her inside. “No, she’s coming because you need her.”

Patricia remembered something Sara once told her. Oliver never wanted to bring them along, but he had no choice. Now that he was married, he wanted them gone even more.

“So you really sent them away?” she asked.

Oliver didn’t bother denying it. He just made a noise, like it wasn’t important.

“You don’t like them?”

He headed into the bedroom. Patricia grabbed the robe she’d set out and handed it to him. Oliver slipped it on and finally replied. “They’re loud, they’re complicated, and they’re a headache.”

Patricia didn’t even blink. She smiled. “Mr. Lawrence, what time does work actually start here?”

“Nine,” he snapped. “Don’t tell me you forgot, Mr. Martin.”

Kent was Emerson’s right-hand man from the beginning. Emerson had replaced finance and sales as soon as he got there. Patricia always knew which team Kent was on.

She pulled out her phone, opened the clock-in app, and held it up. “Want to check if I was late, Mr. Lawrence?”

Kent glanced at the screen, then shut up.

Patricia locked her phone and shrugged. “No need to take your bad mood out on me just because you got yelled at.”

“If I remember right, planning’s finished their part. Now it’s up to installation, development, and sales to handle the rest.”

“So tell me, Mr. Lawrence—how come everything ran smoothly when I was in charge, but it all falls apart the second it’s up to you?”