Liked & Unloved: My Boss, His Breakup, and One Very Poorly-Timed Like
“ALERT: Boss’s Instagram just dropped! Caption: ‘Turns out love’s harder to balance than a quarterly report.’ Location: 24/7 bodega with a six-pack.’”
The office group chat explodes as Lila Carter slumps on her couch, trying to console her best friend Mia, who’s just been dumped. To lift Mia’s spirits, Lila swipes open Instagram, tapping her boss’s post: “Look at Ethan Voss—Harvard MBA, Wall Street golden boy, face that belongs on GQ covers, bank account thicker than the Fed’s reports. Even he gets his heart broken. You’re not the problem, Mia. That guy’s just blind.”
Mia’s tear-streaked face freezes. “Wait… why’d you like this?”
Lila’s phone nearly slips from her fingers.
It wasn’t schadenfreude—how was she supposed to know? Last night, at 3 a.m., she’d been editing Ethan’s merger docs when his voice note popped up: “Carter, I think I just got dumped.” As his executive assistant of three years, she’d replied with a confused “?”—only for him to delete it seconds later. This morning’s bodega post? She’d hit “like” not to mock, but to check if he was actually okay. A “professional courtesy,” she’d told herself.
But Ethan, sitting on the bodega curb in a rumpled suit, staring at his beer can, sees her name in the likes. He chuckles darkly, the streetlamp catching the shadow under his eyes. “So my EA thinks my heartbreak’s a joke, huh?”
That’s when the chaos starts.
Ethan begins “retaliating” in ways that blur the line between boss and… whatever this is: dragging Lila to a “Heartbreak Expo” as his “emotional consultant,” making her appraise his ex’s “vintage couple’s watches” (which he definitely doesn’t care about), and at the team retreat, grabbing a mic to announce, “Heard someone enjoys my misery? Let’s see how she likes this—I’m better at chasing you than closing deals.”
Lila’s finally forced to admit the truth: that “like” wasn’t just a click. It was the crack in a dam she’d built over three years—from the night she’d shielded him from a client’s whiskey-fueled rant, to the mornings he’d left her a hot coffee (black, no sugar) on her desk, to the time she’d cried over a failed project and he’d said, “I’ve got you” (quickly adding, “The team. I’ve got the team”).
Now, with Instagram likes as evidence and Ethan’s “revenge” revealing more than he intends, Lila’s about to learn: some mistakes—like a single “like” on a heartbreak post—might just lead to the best thing that’s ever happened to her.
“Carter,” Ethan says one night, leaning against her desk, “next time I’m pining, you better not like it. You’re gonna be too busy kissing me instead.”
