There was still not a scenario on earth where I was letting him get Alba in a room alone. “You’re not the one asking for him to get Mona. I am.” She rolled her eyes at that like I was the stupidest dimwit on earth. Which was ironic, because she was the one who had made me more mindful of stuff like this when she worked for me.

“Alba, you’re the person who made me include a policy in our office asking staff what settings they were okay with as part of their onboarding. And now you’re telling me to ignore the fact that this guy makes you visibly uncomfortable? I can’t believe you didn’t ream him out for even suggesting it.”

She grimaced then took another swig of that enormous coffee mug.

“This is different,” she finally said.

“How?” I was legitimately confused.

“Because I can’t mess this up.” The frustration practically spilled out of her. “I can’t afford to be contrary on day one.” Her voice dripped with frustration. Like I was dense as fuck for not understanding that Chase getting to treat her however he wanted was just the way things were. “I’m not saying doing the show isn’t important for you.” She straightened the collar of her blouse. Smoothed a hand over the front, as if she was gathering herself. “But for me, this is life changing. If I have to put up with one more man ego-tripping at my expense to use this opportunity for all it’s worth, I will do that.” Her voice shook just a little when she said at my expense and I felt sick from the need to go out and put the fear of God into Chase. She narrowed her eyes at whatever face I was making and waved a finger. “No, Theo. You cannot be glowering and getting in his face, because of me. That is not your job and that is not your place.”

In theory she was right. But I could not let this go. It was the way she looked right now. So alone, like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“What if this was someone else? What if this was Natasha or Zoe and I could make sure nothing weird happened while they were working, would you tell me to back off?” She looked almost resentful that I’d managed to come up with that.

“It’s not them though, it’s me. And I am asking you to butt out.” Again, the simple solution would be to back off and let her handle her business, but every cell in my body was spurring me on.

“I’m not going to let that weasel get you alone. I’ll stand here and argue with you all morning, Alba.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead like I was giving her a migraine, but I was not budging on this.