Chapter 1: My Boss Was My Online Boyfriend

I was dating my boss online.

Meeting him in person? That was never going to happen.

The funny part was that he had absolutely no idea his online girlfriend worked for him every single day.

Lately, everyone in the company had been walking on eggshells. The atmosphere was so tense that even the office coffee machine seemed afraid to make noise.

Our boss had become impossible to deal with.

Meetings lasted longer. Emails became colder. Tiny mistakes that he would normally ignore suddenly turned into twenty-minute lectures. Worst of all, nobody dared leave before he did.

That meant we were all stuck in the office until eleven at night. Sometimes midnight.

After two straight weeks of overtime, I looked like a sleep-deprived raccoon. My dark circles had become permanent residents under my eyes, and my skin had officially declared bankruptcy.

Everyone kept wondering what had happened to our normally calm and collected CEO.

Unfortunately...

I knew exactly what had happened.

Because I was the reason.

I had broken his heart.

Of course, he didn't know that.

Everything started nearly two years earlier.

One lazy Saturday afternoon, I was scrolling through social media while eating instant noodles when I came across a ridiculous post.

"Why can't I find a girlfriend?"

Curiosity won.

The anonymous poster introduced himself with a confidence that bordered on comedy.

"Male. Twenty-five. Six foot two. Master's degree in Management and Engineering. Vice President of a listed company. Annual income starting from half a million dollars. Own house. Own car. Average looks. Never had a girlfriend. What's wrong with me?"

The comments were absolutely brutal.

"Sure, and I'm the Queen of England."

"Someone desperately wants attention."

"Try writing fiction instead."

I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my phone.

Feeling mischievous, I typed a reply.

"Maybe it's your appearance. Post a photo and we'll judge."

Then I completely forgot about it.

Ten minutes later, my phone buzzed.

A private message.

"Hi. Can I send the photo to you instead?"

Now I was curious.

"Sure."

Seconds later, a picture appeared.

I stared at it for a full minute before bursting into laughter.

Whoever had taken that selfie deserved jail time.

The angle made his head look enormous while the rest of his body disappeared somewhere in another dimension. His hair looked like it had lost a fight with electricity. Thick black glasses covered half his face.

He somehow looked both handsome and hopeless at exactly the same time.

I zoomed in.

Actually...

His features were incredibly attractive.

Sharp jaw.

Straight nose.

Nice lips.

Pretty eyes.

This man wasn't ugly.

He simply had no idea how cameras worked.

"Congratulations," I muttered. "You've successfully sabotaged your own genetics."

Without thinking too much, I gave him advice.

"Lose the glasses or wear contacts. Buy better clothes. Stop taking photos from below your chin. Tilt the phone slightly downward. Smile a little. And maybe don't dress like an exhausted accountant."

His reply came almost instantly.

"Thank you. I'll try."

I assumed that was the end of it.

It wasn't.

The next day he sent another picture.

"Is this better?"

It was.

The day after that...

Another one.

"How about this shirt?"

Then another.

"Different hairstyle today."

Eventually, helping this random stranger became part of my daily routine.

I didn't even realize how naturally we had started talking.

One evening he suddenly asked,

"Can I add you on Facebook? I'd like to send you a thank-you gift."

Now, refusing free money would have been financially irresponsible.

So I shared my profile.

A friend request appeared almost immediately.

The profile picture loaded.

I froze.

My blood pressure skyrocketed.

It was my boss.

The CEO of the company where I had worked for almost a year.

I nearly accepted the request before realizing what I was doing.

"No. No. No. Absolutely not."

I quickly locked every public photo on my Facebook profile and prayed that nothing revealed where I worked.

Several agonizing seconds passed.

Then a message arrived.

"Thank you for helping me these past few weeks. This is just a small gift."

A notification popped up.

"You received $7,000 via Meta Pay."

I blinked.

Then blinked again.

"Small?"

What kind of billionaire considered seven thousand dollars a small thank-you?

I compared his profile picture with the awkward selfie he'd originally sent.

Same person.

Same terrible photography skills.

Same hopeless confidence.

My mysterious online acquaintance was actually Adrian Carter—the youngest CEO our company had ever hired.

I sat in complete silence for almost five minutes.

Then...

I accepted the money.

He didn't know who I was.

And I desperately intended to keep it that way.

Over the following months, we talked almost every day.

He wasn't anything like the cold CEO everyone feared.

Online, he was surprisingly polite.

A little awkward.

Painfully sincere.

He remembered tiny details about my day.

He asked if I'd eaten.

He reminded me to sleep earlier.

He even sent me weather updates whenever it looked like it might rain.

It was unbelievably sweet.

Then one evening, everything changed.

After sending me an unusually long message, he finally wrote,

"There's something I've wanted to tell you for a while."

"I like you."

I stared at my phone.

"Um... thanks?"

"I'm serious."

"I seriously appreciate it."

"No. I mean I want to date you."

I rubbed my forehead.

"This poor man," I whispered.

He refused to give up.

"Can you at least let me pursue you?"

I didn't answer.

But somehow...

The next morning, I woke up to a message.

"Good morning."

Then another.

"Just arrived at work."

"Lunch time."

"Heading into a meeting."

"Drive home safely today."

Every single day.

Without fail.

His consistency slowly wore down my defenses.

Eventually, our conversations became longer.

Then phone calls.

Then late-night conversations that lasted for hours.

Before I realized it...

I had fallen for him too.

The only problem?

He still had absolutely no idea that every morning I greeted him with, "Good morning, Mr. Carter," inside the office...

And every night I texted him,

"Good night ❤️"