“That’s it?”
“Well, what else am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know, can’t she be arrested?”
“No, not really,” Melina spoke up. “I mean, not for what she was trying to do to Dean, and unless the other men do something … I’m not even sure if that would help,” she admitted. “What matters is that we get her name out there to people, so they know what she is.”
I sighed. It wasn’t good enough. I wanted more; I wanted her to pay for what she was doing, but that didn’t seem like it was going to happen. “Alright, fine.” I bit my lip. It just sucked that all we could do was tell her to leave. But at least, Dean knows what she is.
That was what mattered. That I didn’t lose him to someone like her, and that I kept him safe from someone like her. I glanced at the clock. If he was going to talk to her at 8:00, why were we here so early?
“Melina, do you think you could grab us all a coffee? Oh, and Becca likes hot chocolate.”
Melina nodded. “Alrighty, I’ll get the drinks, just don’t start telling her off until I’m here to listen.”
He didn’t say anything until Melina was gone, and then Dean turned his attention to me but still refused to meet my gaze.
“I um, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” He paused. “I should have believed you and should have at least given you a chance; I should have looked into her but didn’t … and then I took it out on you because you and Melina knew there was something wrong.”
“You should have listened to us.” I crossed my arms over my chest. He was right. If he had listened to us and run his own background check, none of this would have happened. She wouldn’t have tried to sleep with him; he would have realized that she was just trying to get his money, but most of all, nothing would have changed between Dean and I. “You know, I tried really hard. I did. And you just sat there and acted like I was some crazy jealous girlfriend who was being paranoid about some girl trying to make a move on her boyfriend.” He should have known that I wasn’t that girl.
“I know, and I’m sorry. I just … I liked the idea of having someone who wanted to stay late and work with me—”
“I always offer to stay late!” I protested.
“I know … but you …” He let out a deep breath. “I just liked the idea, alright?” No, it wasn’t, but I didn’t say it because I was trying to be nice. I didn’t want to break up with him over this, and didn’t want him to think that’s what I was getting at. “I love you, Becca, I really do. I just fucked up, and I can’t ask you to stay with me; I can’t expect you to either. But I can ask. So please, will you give me another chance? Will you let me prove to you that I will never let this happen again, that I’ll never make you feel like I’m picking someone over you ever again?”
I swallowed dryly, biting my lip and stepped towards him. “I love you too, Dean,” I said, reaching out and touching his arm. “I do, but I’m really hurt. You picked her over me, even if you didn’t have sex with her.” Which I still wasn’t sure about. “You picked her over me. You defended her and acted like I was crazy, and you put spending time with her above spending time with me, even if it was because she liked to work with you. That hurts.” I stepped closer to him. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to give you another chance,” I admitted.
Our eyes locked, and he stared at me; for a second, I thought he was going to cry. My hand traced over the muscles in his arms.
“So … you’ll give me another shot?”
Of course, I was going to give him another shot. I didn’t give up that easily. I stepped closer.
“Of course.”
He reached out; his fingers brushed my cheek as he closed any distance there was between us. His lips moved towards mine, and then he froze. His eyes locked on mine as if he was trying to figure out if he was allowed to kiss me or not, and I swallowed dryly, waiting to see if he would. I wouldn’t turn him away if he did.
“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “After I was such an ass?”
“I’m not saying I’m going to forget about everything, but yea really. I’ll book a therapy appointment for us for tomorrow if she can fit us in. Er—” I hadn’t really been thinking about what I was saying there. “I mean, you said you wanted to come with me, right? That didn’t come out right.” I blew out a deep breath.
Way to make it more tense, I thought.
“No. I get what you mean, and maybe it will be a good idea for us to go after everything that happened. I can’t pressure you into going and then say it’s a bad idea for us to.” His eyes sparkled, never leaving mine as he reached out and brushed hair out of my face.
His lips lowered themselves to mine.
The kiss was soft and more gentle than I ever would have thought. I barely felt it, honestly and inhaled deeply as he pulled away from me. I didn’t want him to but knew the kiss would have to end, eventually. He cleared his throat, looking over my shoulder.
Hint taken. Melina was back.
“You don’t have to hide!” he called, a smile touching his lips.
“Shit,” she muttered loud enough that we heard her. “If you two need me to be gone for a little longer…”
“Don’t worry about it.” I cleared my throat. How long had she been there? She came into the room carrying a tray of hot mugs. “We’re getting along; we can sort the rest out later.” It was meant to lighten the mood, and thankfully it got a smile from both of them. Melina handed me one of the mugs and then took one for herself.
“So, she should be here soon.”
“Good.”
“You still don’t want us around?” I asked.
“No, I’m interested in seeing how she reacts if it’s just the two of us.”
62. Chapter Three
She arrived just before 8:00, which I knew she would.
“Hey!” She smiled widely as she made her way into my office. “Is everything okay? How did things go with your girlfriend?”
“Uh, they didn’t go that great actually … I learnt some stuff.”
“Oh, no,” she pouted. “Don’t tell me she broke up with you, did she?” Her eyes widened. “She’s not cheating on you, is she?”
I laughed softly, for some reason it was funny that she would jump to that, like now that I knew what her deal was, I realized she was trying to start drama between us. I looked past her shoulder and saw Melina and Becca standing in the doorway. Becca had her phone out and was pointing it at us.
“No, it actually had nothing to do with her.” I turned and grabbed the folder off the desk. “It had to do with you.”
Nichole’s eyes widened. “Um, what?”
“Well, see I thought it might be a good idea to hire someone to look into you—you know, since you were going to be involved in my company and all … I had Becca meet with him to get everything he found out.” So that was a lie, but I wasn’t going to totally throw Becca and Melina under the bus. “I was meeting up with her to get the file.” Opening it, I flipped through the pages, waiting to see if she would say anything. She didn’t.
She just stared at me with wide eyes, so I said something.
“It’s filled with some pretty interesting stuff. Have you been in contact with Harry Blanze recently?” I looked up to see the color drain from her face.
“H-Harry what?” She cleared her throat? “What about Harry? We were friends before, so?”
“Well, it just seems like you stopped talking to Harry right before he lost all his money. Same with John Parker, Adam Stills, and Josh Patt.” I closed the folder and tilted my head as I looked at her. “Did I forget one on there? I think I did, didn’t I?” She didn’t say anything. “But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I was going to be next, wasn’t I?”
“I …” She trailed off without really saying anything. It might have been mean of me, but I kind of wanted to laugh. I dropped the file on the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes?”
“Okay, fine.” She let out a huff of
frustration. “You caught me; I like to make money off lame men who are more than eager to give it away.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you can do anything about it. It’s not illegal for men to give me some stuff.”
“You’re right.”
“So what’s the harm?” She shook her head, and for a split second, I realized why Becca had never liked her. “You want in on it?” She raised an eyebrow. “I mean, come on, that little girlfriend of yours has nothing on me. She’s broke; I can pay for anything either of us wants. You want to make more than you ever will with this crap job? Play along, let me take you for everything you have and then file for bankruptcy and then we’ll split everything. We’ll go away together, somewhere no one knows about us. It’s the perfect life. You should try it, with me. We should do it together; we’d make a damn good team.” She paused, letting it sink in. “So, what do you say? Partners?”
A woman cleared her throat behind Nichole.
Nichole spun to face Melina, who did not look pleased. She stalked over here with a look that told me it was about to get bloody.
“While I’m sure he appreciates your deadbeat lie of an offer, he already has a partner. Melina pointed to herself. “It’s me, honey. And if you think for a second you are half as good as me, or Becca for that matter, you are sooo wrong.” Melina paused to see Nichole take a step away from her.
I watched Melina’s fingers curl into a fist. I swallowed dryly.
Becca stepped forward. She was no longer holding the camera.
*
“What I don’t get,” I stepped towards her, my eyes locking on hers. “Why were you seen with Keith?” I crossed my arms over my chest but had to step in before Melina knocked her out, that much I knew, and I needed an answer to one very important question.
Nichole turned to face me, and a frown crossed her face. “Who?”
“You know, the one who held a gun to my head.”
“Ohhh, him.” She laughed softly. “Just a little extra drama.” She shrugged. “Everyone is so much easier to control after going through something.” She studied me carefully. “Although I wasn’t expecting you to actually stick around. It would have been so much easier if he actually shot you.” My jaw dropped as I stared at the woman in front of me.
“Don’t,” I heard Dean say behind me and turned to see him holding onto Melina. “I think it’s time you leave.” Dean stared at Nichole.
She laughed loudly. “What, you’re scared I’m going to hurt your partner.”
“No, I don’t want to give you a reason to file a police report.” Dean turned on his heel; dragging Melina with him, he grabbed a paper from the desk. “Here is your notice of contract termination.” He pulled Melina back over to where Nichole and I stood and handed it to her.
I wanted nothing more than to knock the bitch out, but after what Dean just said, I knew I couldn’t. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. One. Two. Three. My eyes opened just in time to see the look of defeat on her face, and oh, my God, it made me feel so good. I smiled widely.
“What’s wrong?” I gave her a fake pout. “You didn’t actually think I was going to let you take advantage of my boyfriend, did you?” I laughed. “Are you that fucking stupid?”
She stared at me with wide eyes, and for a second, I thought she was going to cry. She spun on her heel and, without another word, she stormed out of the casino.
It honestly felt amazing. I stared after her as she hustled from the casino in a huff and felt amazing. Like there was a weight off my shoulders. I grinned widely.
“Do you think we’ll see her again?” Melina asked.
“Honestly? Yes, I do think we will,” Dean said. “As much as I would like to say, otherwise, I’m sure we will be seeing her again. She’ll try to find a way to make money out of this. Did you get that video?”
“Yup.” I slipped my hand into my pocket where I kept my phone and handed it to him.
He shook his head. “It’s fine, as long as we have it, I don’t care. We might need her confession at some point.” He gave me a smile before glancing at the clock. “Well, I’d better go get some work done; it’s almost opening time, and we just lost our marketing manager.”
For a split second, I felt guilty, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I bit my lip. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“I’ll let you know if I think of something,” he promised as the door opened.
“Why does little miss snarky look like she wants to kill someone?” Natalie asked. She caught Dean staring at her, her eyes widened, and she cleared her throat. “I mean, um …”
I laughed loudly. “She just got her ass fired.”
“Really? Why?”
I glanced at Dean to let him know I wasn’t going to say anything, and he stroked his chin. “I um, didn’t feel she would be a good fit for our little casino.”
I could see the grin spread across Natalie’s face and tried not to laugh. Instead, I cleared my throat.
“Anyway, it’s almost opening time; I’m going to go get dressed and … do stuff.” I had no clue what I was going to do yet, but I was more than happy just to know I was going to have a normal day of work. One without having to worry if Dean was going to pick some other woman over me.
Natalie followed me to the change room. It wasn’t until we were behind closed doors that she spoke.
“So, he actually fired her?”
“Yup.”
“Because she wasn’t a good fit?” She raised an eyebrow. I hung my purse on a rack, laughing softly.
“In a way, yes.”
“She totally tried to sleep with him, didn’t she?”
“I think so, yea.” I wasn’t going to say yes, but I could give her an idea of what was going on. I knew Dean wouldn’t want any of it to be known to everyone, so if it was all rumor, I couldn’t be blamed for it—right?
“I have no clue how you didn’t kick her ass. I would have killed her the second I saw the way she looked at him if I were you.”
*
I took a deep breath, trying to relax as we both sat down across from my therapist. She looked us up and down, tilting her head to the left.
“I’m so glad you two were finally able to make it, but this seems a little rushed; is everything alright?”
“No,” we admitted at the same time.
Dean looked at me, bowed his head and motioned for me to take over.
I took a deep breath. “I mentioned that other woman at work.” My therapist nodded. “Well, I didn’t like her … and I didn’t trust her. A friend and I both agreed there was something up about her.” I looked away. “And we hired someone to look into her.” It felt so stupid to say, but I mean, what else were we supposed to do, right?
“Wait—” She cut me off. “You mean a professional?”
“Yup. Private investigator. The whole nine yards; well, except he didn’t wear a trench coat. Is it bad that I was kinda disappointed about that?” I paused and shook my head. “Not the point. Anyways, it turns out we—my friend and me—were right about this girl and …” I glanced at Dean. “Dean and I have had a couple issues because of her. We thought it might be best to … you know, get it all out of the way and into the past.”
“That’s a very good way of looking at it.”
For a couple of seconds no one said anything. Honestly, I was waiting to see what she was going to tell us to do because I had no fucking clue what we were supposed to do now; all I knew was that we paid her for something, right?
I knew it was a bad way to look at therapy, but the truth was, I needed help.
“So,” she finally said after a couple seconds. “It must have been hard having these issues. It must have affected you guys somehow, right?” We both nodded, and her eyes locked on Dean. “Dean, how did it affect you?”
He stared at her with wide eyes. “Um, I—uh.” He coughed and let out a low laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t think you were going to have me go first. It’s been hard. Not only because of the fact that I
hurt Becca, probably a lot more than she’s willing to admit, but also well … it’s just left me questioning everything I’ve ever done, and everything I am doing.” He paused.
I listened carefully, trying to take everything in. I wanted to understand what was going on with him.
“I just … I can’t believe I didn’t see it; like maybe if I hadn’t been so stuck on the idea that she could help, I would have seen through her. I can’t believe I didn’t and can’t help wondering how stupid I had to be not to see through it, you get what I mean?”
She nodded. “That sounds like it must add a lot of stress on you.”
“It does. I mean, it’s like constantly questioning myself the entire time because maybe I fucked up; hell, I’ve got three resumes sitting on my table, and I can’t bring myself to look at them because I can’t bring myself to have faith that I won’t fuck up again, and if I do—” He stopped, went dead silent, and his eyes locked on me.
I couldn’t take not knowing. “What? What will happen if you do?”
The way he stared at me, it felt like we were the only two in the room, like the therapist watching us didn’t matter.
“If I fuck up again, I’m going to lose you, and I don’t want to, hell … I’m not sure I can stand to lose you.”
I stared at him, totally shocked by what he said and unable to believe what I was hearing. That feeling you get when you know someone has a crush on you? When you see them for the first time and realize you have a crush on them? Yea, that one—it returned. My heart did a backflip.
“I love you too.” I knew it was lame, but it was the best I could come up with.
“It must have been hard on you too, Rebecca.”
I jumped, turning to face the therapist.
“Yea, it was,” I admitted, reaching out and taking his hand. “It was really hard to feel like he was picking someone over me, and then when I found out she had a habit for sleeping with guys like Dean … it just scared me even more. I thought for sure he was going to sleep with her or already had because …” Well, because she was way prettier than I was. “Because I was scared.” I didn’t dare admit it, even if it was in therapy.
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