“Right, yeah.” Paisley scratched the back of her neck. “About that just then…”
“No.” Georgina held up her hand. “I’m not going to reprimand you, Paisley.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Well, I don’t want my personal life aired around the conference room.” Georgina gave her a knowing look. “I know you hate me—that’s understandable—but if we could keep it out of the office, I would really appreciate it.”
“So, you really are back?”
Georgina wasn’t sure if it was hurt or disappointment in Paisley’s deep, brown eyes, but it broke her heart nonetheless. She didn’t want it to be like this, with Paisley forever hating her, but Georgina had made her decision long ago. One that she would forever regret—yet had to live with daily.
“I’m back, yes.”
“Why?” Paisley asked, leaning against the closed office door. “Is everything okay?”
Georgina nodded, dropping her purse onto her desk. “Everything is fine. It was just time, I suppose.”
“Oh.”
“How have you been?” Georgina leaned against her desk, taking in Paisley’s entire appearance. Something about Paisley and her curvaceous figure had always been alluring to Georgina. Three years away only reminded her of that. “Good?”
“Guess so,” Paisley replied. “Look, I need to go home now. Will should be calling a cab.”
“Let me get you one.”
“No, thank you.” Paisley held up her hand. “You’re my boss. I’m your employee. Can we keep it like that please?”
“Of course.” Georgina frowned before lowering her eyes. She knew Paisley was nothing more than her employee. It had taken her a long time to realise it, but life was moving forward now. As much as she wanted to walk back into Paisley’s life, she couldn’t.
“I need some time to even understand that you’re back, Gee.” Paisley’s mouth clamped shut as Georgina’s head snapped up. “Sorry. I really have to go.”
Without another word, Paisley rushed from Georgina’s office, leaving the older woman alone. God, I’ve missed her.
Georgina sighed, pushing off the edge of her desk and taking a seat. Her hand instantly found the drawer to her left. When she opened it, her breath caught. Sitting on top of the random mess was the photograph she used to keep on her desk. How she wished she could go back to that day, Paisley smiling and in her arms. Just the two of them…nothing and nobody in their way.
Georgina closed her eyes, a single tear falling down her cheek. She lost Paisley Healy the day she left here…her reasons for leaving complicated. Paisley didn’t know why—at least that’s what Georgina assumed—but it no longer mattered. Too much time had passed. Lives had been lived separately, but Georgina had a valid reason for leaving—a reason that still remained. This is going to be so much harder than I thought it would be.
2
Paisley dropped down onto the couch in her apartment, her mind swimming with questions. Will had come back with her under the pretence that he needed to be sure she was okay, but Paisley didn’t want to get into this.
Georgina Weaver was back. She was in Liverpool, had been standing in the office, stunning but dull green eyes staring back at her. Eyes Paisley had once dreamed about, begging for one last opportunity to see them. Paisley had spent three years praying she would one day forget about the woman who broke her heart.
Now she was back to square one.
“Here.” Will suddenly appeared at her side, a large glass of white wine in his hand. “We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“I was standing next to you when you said what you did to Miss Weaver.”
“I…It’s Mrs,” Paisley said. “She got married about eighteen months ago.” Paisley’s voice wavered. She never should have checked Georgina out on social media. It only left her bitterly disappointed and feeling like one hell of a failure in her love life.
Will shrugged. “Okay, well, whatever.”
Paisley looked up at him, her forehead creased. “No! It’s not whatever.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“It doesn’t matter what happened.” Paisley took a long sip of her wine. “She’s back and I don’t know if I can work with her.”
“What?” Will dropped down on the couch beside Paisley. “You can’t leave. Pais, you have to think about this. You love your job.”
“I will think about it, but there’s a strong possibility that I won’t return after Christmas.”
Will placed his hand on top of Paisley’s. “You two were together, weren’t you?”
“Congratulations, Sherlock.”
“Hey, don’t take this out on me.” He looked pointedly at Paisley, then softened. “You look like you’re really hurting. I want to be there for you.”
“Georgina Weaver only leaves people hurting.”
“Come on. Walk me through it.”
Paisley’s stomach lurched, the idea of reliving that day too much to comprehend. The problem was, she would now have to relive her past with Georgina on a daily basis. Every morning when she walked into Weaver & Associates. Like some recurring nightmare in a world parallel to this one.
Paisley steeled herself, blowing out a deep breath as she got comfortable. Will would be there for her—he was quickly becoming the first person she turned to in life—but this was still going to be painful.
“I started working at the company when I was twenty-five,” Paisley said. “Law was what interested me, but I don’t believe I could have made it as a lawyer. I’m not that academically gifted. That didn’t bother me, though. It still doesn’t. I just wanted to be in that environment, you know…behind the scenes.”
Will nodded. “Kinda like me.”
“Yeah. I became Georgina’s assistant on the second day.” Paisley’s lips curled upward at the memory. “God, I was so in awe of her. She’s the best around. Knowing that she wanted me in her office…I couldn’t believe it.”
“I do have a soft spot for the woman and I only met her for the first time tonight.”
Paisley understood. Georgina may have been the epitome of hurt to her, but Will didn’t know Georgina. “Don’t hate her because of me.”
Will offered a hand in support, one that Paisley accepted.
“The first few weeks went by perfectly fine,” Paisley explained. “She was always there, offering support if I was confused about anything. Everyone around the office hated her, but I couldn’t understand why.”
“They hated her?”
“I think it’s the whole ‘office bitch’ thing that everyone believes. I thought it myself at first, but once we got to know each other…she was nothing like I thought she would be. She was sweet, kind. She would stop what she was doing and take me out to lunch. We just got on really well.”
“Sounds perfect,” Will said.
“It was.” Paisley sunk back into the couch, her eyes closing. “One thing just led to another. I didn’t expect it to, I don’t believe Georgina did either, but six weeks into me working in her office, we started dating.”
“What was it like?” Will asked. Paisley noted the smirk he was sporting; it mirrored her own once upon a time. “She has to have a beautiful home. She’s classy.”
“Her home was gorgeous,” Paisley agreed. “I spent most of my time there. It was hard to be open around the office. Not only because it could be seen as unprofessional, but because I wasn’t out at the time.”
Will offered a sad smile. “Family?”
“My dad. He wasn’t a great man. We had our differences…mainly his views on same-sex couples and religion, but he was still my dad.”
Paisley knew Will understood. Nothing about him was heterosexual, but to her knowledge he also hadn’t come out yet. They’d frequented gay bars together, binge-watched all kinds of crap on TV with one another, but she was waiting for him to open up about his sexuality. Paisley fully understood how hard it was to be who you wanted to be, but it was no longer a wo
rry for her.
Her father passed away over a year ago—found dead in Northern Ireland with shotgun wounds to his kneecaps. It hadn’t been those wounds which killed him. No, it was the bullet to the back of the head that did it.
She knew all about her dad’s past and the fact that he had once been a member of some notorious groups. Nothing about those people was positive or supportive of the gay community many years ago, and to some extent, today; Paisley hated growing up with the knowledge that she was into women when her dad had the beliefs he did. She was lucky enough not to have been raised in Ireland, her father meeting her mother in Liverpool in the early-seventies, but she knew of the tensions. She had to listen to her dad ruin dinner most nights with a comment about something or someone—usually extremely offensive. It was cowardly, but it made sense to hide her sexuality.
Now, she was living her life for herself. Pauline, her mum, claimed to already know her daughter was a lesbian when the time came to tell her, but she’d been supportive nonetheless. Paisley explained her reasons for waiting until she was almost twenty-seven, but Pauline fully understood. It hadn’t been a bed of roses being married to Patrick Healy, but he gave her two beautiful children—Paisley the youngest.
“So…”
“Huh?” Paisley frowned.
“What happened?” Will pressed. “Why are you two no longer together?”
“Honestly?” Paisley willed her emotions to fade. The harder she thought about Georgina, the more it would hurt. To this day, she had no answers. That was more painful than anything else. She couldn’t explain something to Will that she didn’t understand herself. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
Paisley cleared her throat. “We’d been together six months. I was prepared, so ready to tell Georgina I was in love with her. I didn’t care that she was twelve years older than me. I didn’t care that we had completely opposite lives. That woman made me feel so incredibly loved that I was prepared to tell her exactly how I felt.”
“And did you?”
“Of course, I did.” Paisley wrung her hands together. “I told her when we were in bed together. We both cried, had the most incredible evening together, and then she dropped me off at home. I was still living with my parents at the time.”
As she relayed her past back to Will, it made even less sense than it did three years ago. For Georgina to virtually disappear off the face of the earth, something didn’t feel right. Paisley had tried to reach out, her efforts coming to nothing.
“The next morning, I couldn’t wait to get into the office. It felt as though everything had changed for us, you know? Telling one another how we felt had changed our relationship. Georgina told me that if it wasn’t for the issue of me being in the closet, she would have asked me to move in with her that night.”
“Wow. Sounds like she really loved you.”
Paisley chose to overlook Will’s comment. Georgina couldn’t have possibly loved her. If she did, she wouldn’t have stomped all over Paisley’s heart. She frowned, sitting forward and focusing on the coffee table. “I got to work that morning…and Georgina’s office was empty. The lights off. None of her possessions were there, the picture of us she kept on the desk was face-down.”
“Oh…oh.”
“I panicked. I didn’t know what to do so I went looking for her.”
“Did you find her?”
“She was in Brian’s office,” Paisley said. “She was coming out as I was going in. I was frantic…Georgina had clearly been crying.”
Paisley paused momentarily. She needed a second to calm her emotions. None of this was good for her mental health. She could remember all the times that heartbreak led her to contemplate the point of being on this planet, of being alive. The memory of that heartbreak was still vivid…
Paisley rushed from Georgina’s office, her heart slamming harder with every step she took. Had Georgina gone somewhere? Surely she would have told Paisley if she was leaving for a business meeting. She usually did.
She rushed down the corridor to the office furthest from reception, the sound of voices coming from inside. Brian would know what was going on. After all, Georgina was his sister…and he was her business partner.
Paisley placed her hand on the door handle, stopped from entering when the door suddenly swung open. Paisley’s heart settled momentarily, Georgina now standing in front of her. Georgina was visibly distraught but stepped past Paisley and walked down the corridor with her usual determined stride.
“Gee?” Paisley followed her. “Are you leaving for business?”
“Something like that.”
Georgina didn’t turn around. She didn’t offer Paisley any respect at all. She just walked. Kept walking. But Paisley matched her every stride. It was something she’d mastered in the seven months she’d been at the firm. If Georgina was walking and talking, Paisley had to keep up.
“Gee, can you just slow down for a second? I —”
Georgina suddenly stopped, turning to face Paisley fully. “I have to leave. I have something to take care of.”
“Okay, well, let me help you pack. Do whatever it is you need.”
“No, Paisley.” Georgina pinched the bridge of her nose, lowering her voice as she stepped closer. “I’m leaving. I won’t be back. Brian will reassign you to another office in due course.”
“W-what?” Paisley stumbled back, her chest tightening as she tried to breathe through the panic of potentially never seeing Georgina again. “What do you mean you won’t be back?”
“I have to go.” Georgina turned, taking a suitcase from the reception desk and walking out of Weaver & Associates. “Goodbye, Monica,” she said to the receptionist.
“Safe journey, Miss Weaver.”
Paisley was dumbfounded. She couldn’t begin to comprehend what was going on. Just last night, she’d told Georgina she was in love with her. Just last night, Georgina had repeated those words back to her. Now…
Georgina was leaving? Forever?
Sheer panic tore through Paisley. This couldn’t be the end; it was only just starting. Georgina may not see it, or choose to not believe it, but she meant the world to Paisley. They had to figure this out because, quite frankly, Paisley wasn’t prepared to let the woman she loved go. She couldn’t. The thought of never kissing Georgina again, never touching her again, it was breaking Paisley’s heart with every second that passed.
Paisley rushed outside, gripping Georgina by the sleeve of her long, woollen winter coat. “Babe…”
“Take your hands off me, Paisley.” Georgina stood at the curb, calling a taxi from her mobile phone. “And go back inside. It’s freezing.”
Paisley didn’t care. Right now, the temperature and the fact she wasn’t wearing a coat were the least of her worries. Her girlfriend was leaving.
“Is this because of me?” Paisley spoke quietly. “Because of last night?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“W-what?” Paisley laughed, nervously. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Paisley,” Georgina started. “I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No, you won’t.” Georgina cocked her head, a car pulling up behind her. Her eyes were nothing like they had been the previous day. Something within them told Paisley she had been completely wrong about their relationship. “You stay here. Be great. It’s been incredible working with you.”
“Working with me…” Paisley nodded, repeating Georgina’s statement as her heart sunk deep into her belly. Paisley couldn’t have meant what she thought she did to Georgina. Someone who claimed to love you wouldn’t walk away so suddenly. So coldly. This had to have meant nothing to Georgina. As much as Paisley wanted to believe it wasn’t true, her gut told her she was right on the money. As her stomach churned, Paisley knew this was over. “I was just an assistant to you, wasn’t I?”
“This…it’s complicated.”<
br />
“No. You just fear someone stealing your heart.” Paisley shook her head. “Where are you going?”
“Away.” Georgina stepped forward, placed a slight kiss to Paisley’s cheek and stepped back, buttoning up her coat. “Goodbye, Paisley.”
“She kissed me on the cheek, buttoned up her coat, and left.”
“W-what?” Will shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“And to this day…neither do I.” Paisley allowed tears to fall. Tears that hadn’t fell for Georgina in a long time. They told her she still had emotion inside of her, that she wasn’t dead inside. It felt good to finally let them out again, even if it meant she had to face a life with Georgina around. Paisley had questioned whether she would become harder to crack after how Georgina treated her, but in her heart, she knew she would find love again. One bad experience couldn’t deter her forever, surely. “All I know is that she went to Scotland. I thought I was over her, so I looked her up online.”
“And she’s married?”
“I couldn’t believe it.” Paisley shook her head. “Seeing her with the supposed love of her life really threw me. I mean, what didn’t I have that she needed? I know she had to deal with me being in the closet, but Georgina told me she was okay with that. She allowed me to get close, to confess my love for her, and then she just bailed.”
“None of this makes sense,” Will said. “Surely she had a reason to leave.”
Paisley held up her hand, scoffing. “Please, don’t try to defend her. Whatever her reason for leaving, I deserved more than that. The way she treated me…I deserved so much more.”
“I’m not defending her, but I feel like something is amiss.”
“Look…” Paisley stood up, running her fingers through her dark hair. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Georgina is married. I’m in my own place. Whatever happened three years ago can stay buried for all I care.”
Forever Yours Page 2