Page 6 of Daddy’s Favorite Girl

I simply shrugged and leaned forward, pressing my head to my desk. The pain in my stomach wasn’t new to me. It wasn’t even unbearable. This had been my norm for so long, it didn’t really register that other people didn’t feel like this. It was agony, and it was annoying, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

If I got to the point to where I couldn’t hold down food or water, then that was when it was a problem.

The surgery had worked and given me relief for about eight months, but then the Crohn’s came back, and it was stronger than ever. My doctors were concerned that it was stress that triggered the flares out of nowhere. They were probably on to something. This job, as much of a blessing as it was, caused a great deal of stress. Well, it wasn’t even really the job. It was my boss, Aniya. She treated me like shit and worked me like a damn slave.

“I don’t disagree,” I mumbled.

Paris scoffed. Her hand found my back, and she rubbed circles around it. The gesture reminded me of my mom. Whenever I wasn’t feeling well, she would rub my back too.

“You really should go home, Ya. Fuck that bitch,” Paris said.

I grinned. Paris had quickly become my best friend. I met her last year when I started working here, and we just clicked. It was a breath of fresh air because I didn’t really have any friends. My disease made me cancel plans more than I cared to admit. A lot of the women or girls I’d dealt with since I was diagnosed as a teen didn’t understand that there would be days where I couldn’t do things. Sometimes all I needed was someone to come lay with me when I didn’t feel well. Paris had entered my life at a unique time where I only had good days. I worried that as my illness came back, she might retreat, but in the last few months since my health declined, she shifted and flowed with me. She became the friend who would come lie with me and watch TV when I was too tired or in too much pain to do anything else. She drove me to doctors’ appointments, went to infusions with me, and even gave me my injections when I couldn’t bring myself to poke a needle into my own skin.

To say I was thankful to her was an understatement.

I lifted my head slightly. “I was able to reschedule my appointment to tonight, Paris. It’s all good. I just have to make it through the rest of the day. And you know this is my final infusion. After this, I’ll just have to do my injection every month. No more missing work or giving Aniya another reason to hate me.”

Paris’s nose turned up. “The bitch don’t have a reason to hate you anyway. She’s just a hatin’ ass bitch who ain’t got nothing better to do and probably ain’t got no dick in a long ass time.”

My head popped up fully at that. “Now you know that ain’t true, Paris. Why would you say that? You see who she’s married to?”

“Do I?” Paris fanned herself dramatically. My stomach tightened even more at the swift topic change as my mind drifted to Gino Grant. When I met him a year ago, I had been mesmerized, and that feeling hadn’t gone away when I found out that not only that he was married but who his wife was. Because of that, I did my best to avoid him, but it seemed like we still found pockets of time to talk . . . to get to know each other. I always kept it respectful, but something deep in my core wanted to take it there with him. Where was there? Everywhere. I wanted nothing to be off-limits when it came to him, which was why it took up a ton of energy to keep myself in check. It hadn’t been easy, especially since he was so easy to talk to. “Girl, that man is fine, but anyone with eyes can tell he don’t like her ass.”

I shook my head. Paris had been adamant for so long that there was trouble in paradise when it came to our boss’s marriage, and I had to admit that I wondered if it was true. I’d never seen them fight or anything like that, but my intuition told me that things weren’t rainbows and unicorns between them.

It’s because of how he looks at you . . .

I pushed the forbidden thoughts away and focused on Paris. “Whether or not Aniya has sex or not is none of my concern.”

“Sure, it is.”

“And why is that?” I asked as I turned toward my computer, desperately trying to focus on the workload I had. It seemed impossible with the pains in my stomach and the fact that Paris had dropped the thought of Gino into my mind. Not that it was hard to do. With or without her, he was bound to wander through my thoughts.

“Like I been told you, there’s chemistry between y’all. Again, a blind man could see that.”

“Do I pay y’all to sit around and gossip all day?” Aniya snapped as she waltzed off the elevator. I wasn’t sure if I was thankful that I didn’t have to respond to Paris or instantly irritated.

It was past noon, and Aniya was just now getting here. There was work I had to get done, but I couldn’t until I got approval and some clarification from her. Somehow, I knew the fact that it wasn’t finished yet would be my fault, though she was the one who was constantly unavailable.

Paris slid off the edge of my desk and placed a fake-ass sweet smile on her face. “I was just checking on Yara since you made her miss her infusion appointment last night. She’s not feeling well.”

Aniya flicked her wrist dismissively. “Go design a living room or something, Paris. Mind the business that pays you.”

Paris chuckled, but we both knew there was nothing funny about what Aniya just said. She was a bitch of the highest degree, and I wished someone would knock her ass down a peg or ten.

Paris stepped toward Aniya, and in a fake cheery tone, she said, “I’d be careful, Mrs. Grant. Companies get sued for negligence all the time. Yara, go home if you need to, and make sure you get a doctor’s note. It’s illegal to get written up or fired with a doctor’s note.”

She threw the last part over her shoulder at me, but I barely registered her words because Gino stepped off the elevator with a plastic bag in his hand and looking like my wet dreams. Our eyes connected, and the faintest smile graced his juicy lips before his jaw clenched in the sexiest way. My breathing labored as I stared at him. Every time my eyes landed on his fine ass, it felt like the first time. I would have thought I’d get used to this a whole year later, but nope. I was still just as lovestruck as the day I met him.

Finally, his voice broke the tension between us, and the rest of the world seemed to flood back to my senses. It was then that I registered Paris and Aniya bickering, and my brows dipped. Paris gave no fucks when it came to this job. She was confident that if she got fired, it would be over some bullshit, and she could sue Aniya. I couldn’t blame her for having such confidence. Paris was the top designer here and worked harder than anyone. In fact, she practically ran the place, so Aniya would need serious grounds to justly fire her.

“Ladies, what’s goin’ on?” Gino asked as he stepped forward and discarded the bag on my desk.

He stood close to my chair. The moment that his eyes flickered down to my hand clutching my stomach, he tensed, but he focused back on Paris, who spoke before Aniya could.

“Good morning, Mr. Grant. Your lovely wife here was just threatening to fire me.” Paris smiled sweetly up at Gino, who glared at Ainya.

“Niya?”