Mr. Boss

Chapter-19😧

Taehyung's pov

My flight was booked for early on Wednesday so I'd have the afternoon to set up at the company Advanced Focus's Ilsan consumer research office for the first focus group session on Thursday morning. Jungkook had been out of the office all Tuesday afternoon, so I'd texted him that I wouldn't be able to have dinner. He had responded with one word. Fine.

Now it was nearly six-thirty Wednesday morning, and I was getting ready to head to the airport when he finally expanded on his previous text.

Jungkook: I'll take a rain check. But this time I'm collecting it.

There wasn't time to text back. So I zipped my suitcase closed, tossed my phone in my pocket, and gave Ugly Kitty a quick pet. "My mom is going to take care of you while I'm gone. Make sure she doesn't go through my shit." I stroked Tallulah's head. "You be a good little Ugly Kitty and claw my mom's ankles when she starts rummaging through my drawers. Okay?"

Even though my flight wasn't for two and a half hours, I began to stress when we hit a dead stop on our way to the Tunnel. Taking a deep breath, I began to relax when we finally made it out of city tunnel, only to panic again when the other side of the Tunnel was worse than the city. "What's going on?" I asked the driver. "This is bad even for rush hour traffic."

"Construction. Supposed to end by six each morning, but the laborers must want the overtime." He shrugged and pointed to the road ahead of us, which was a sea of brake lights as three lanes attempted to converge into one. Checking my watch, I realized there was a distinct possibility I could miss my flight if traffic didn't clear soon. On a good day, I was a nervous flyer. The added stress of possibly being late caused my heart to accelerate even more. Needing to distract myself, I took out my phone. A new text had just arrived.

Mom: You need to clean out your refrigerator more often. You have expired pickles.

Really? Was she hiding outside in an alleyway when I left?

Screwing with her would take my mind off of my upcoming flight.

Taehyung: Don't throw it out. I keep the expired stuff to feed to Tallulah.

Moving on, the next text was the one I hadn't answered yet from Jungkook —about the rain check for the dinner I'd canceled last night.

Taehyung: Won't be back until the weekend. My boss wanted to get rid of me, so he sent me to Ilsan.

After responding to a few more texts and emails, I successfully took my mind off how late I was running. I arrived at airport with thirty-five minutes before takeoff and hauled ass to a kiosk for check-in. When I spotted the length of the security line up ahead, I almost broke down and cried. Desperate, I walked over to a TSA agent. "There's no way I'm going to make my flight if I wait in this line. The Tunnel took forever to get through, and there was construction on the mane tunnel. Any chance I can cut ahead? I'm traveling for business, and I really can't miss my flight."

"Ticket." She held out a plastic-glove-covered hand and looked at me like she heard the same sob story a hundred times a day. Handing it back to me, she pointed over her shoulder. "First-class line to the left."

I let out a breath when I saw there was no line where she was sending me. "Thank you so much!"

Of course, my gate was at the other end of the terminal, but I managed to get through security and down to the boarding area just as they announced last call. Since there was a small line to board, I caught my breath and walked up to the ticket counter to see about changing the middle
seat I'd been issued when I purchased.