by Zante, Lily
Maybe Maggie was right. He might not have been a great boyfriend.
“She said it wasn’t too difficult for her to fall out of love with you and fall in love with Travis.”
“He can have her,” he said, roughly. “I’ve moved on.”
“I know,” Amanda cried, happily. “I hope you don’t mess things up with Kay, Luke. She cares about you. She really does.”
“Yeah, well.” Maybe it was too late for that.
He hung up, after what ended up being mostly a one way conversation.
But at least he had managed to postpone Amanda’s next visit.
Chapter 40
“Geoffrey’s taking over the Pembroke account.”
“What?” She was sure she hadn’t heard right.
“The Pembroke account will be looked after by Geoffrey from now on,” Remington stated.
A ball of anger exploded inside her. “But why? That’s my account.”
“It was your account.”
“I was taking care of it, Theodore,” she said, her stomach sinking lower, and blood-red rage coursing through her veins.
“Were you, Kay? Were you really?” Remington asked as he stared up at her, his coupled hands resting over his desk.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she shot back, a bitter taste in her mouth suddenly making her feel nauseous. “You know I was.”
“You were, Kay,” he replied. He was infuriatingly calm, and she much preferred him when he lost his shit, because he somehow seemed more human then. “But given the circumstances, we need full concentration and focus. Do not forget that we are talking about a big client and a huge deal is huge.”
“What?” she shook her head. “What do you mean by that? I have given it my full and undivided concentration and focus from the moment you gave me the account. What’s going on?” she asked. Because clearly something was. Something had been decided while she had been away. This news had ripped a hole through her chest.
“I beg to differ.”
Excuse me? What was he talking about? Her eyes widened in shock, and she tried to think fast, tried to make sense of what he was saying. She already knew that there would be no convincing him to change his mind; the man was like a pit bull once he determined a course of action, but she deserved an honest, no-bullshit answer. “I haven’t taken any time off. I’ve handed everything to the client on time—”
“The report he received a few days ago contained errors.”
Her face crumpled in disbelief. She had fixed the errors at Luke’s place, and had emailed it to Geoffrey to hand in. He must have sent the wrong document back. She looked out of Remington’s glass window, at the open plan office. Where was that back-stabbing shitbag? “I fixed the errors,” she said, turning to face her boss again. “I double checked everything, and I emailed it to Geoffrey to scan in and send it on. He must have sent them the wrong report.”
“I also recall you went home early that day.”
She frowned. She’d gone to Luke’s place and made the changes there.
“I understand the stress you’ve been under,” he continued. “You should have told me.”
She looked at him in surprise. “What stress?” She never let her stress show at work. Just like one of the guys, she could, and did, soldier through it.
Remington exhaled slowly, as if he was trying not to raise his voice. “Your boyfriend is seriously ill, I hear. It’s only natural that your mind has been elsewhere.”
She crossed her arms, fighting back the urge to punch something. His face, even. Unbelievable. After everything she had done, not forgetting the hours she had put in during her time here, giving the bank her life and soul, they were taking away her biggest client. She shook her head in disbelief. “I’ve been up to date with everything. I haven’t fallen behind on anything. It wasn’t Geoffrey’s business to mention anything about my personal life.”
“But your boyfriend does have cancer, am I right, or not?”
Boyfriend was obviously not the right word, but she had to play along. She almost choked at the idea of explaining the details of their hookup to Remington. “We’re dealing with it.”
“Look, Kay. Don’t fight me on this. Geoffrey’s dealing with this client now, and everything goes through him. That’s my decision, and it’s final.”
Geoffrey had stabbed her in the back, and now she’d lost her account. Her chance to shine. Worse, Remington saw her as a liability. Heat surged through her body, and the blood in her veins turned to magma. Anytime now she was going to erupt. “This isn’t fair,” she ground out slowly. “I haven’t taken any time off. I’ve forwarded Geoffrey the correct report. If the client received the wrong one, it’s Geoffrey’s fault, not mine—”
Remington scratched the side of his face with his index finger, and his shiny white platinum cufflinks shone as the rays of sunshine hit it. “The decision is final, Kay. Cut out the hysterics and get on with business as fucking usual. We’re in the banking business, for fucks sake.” The good old Remington was back, curses and all.
And just like that, the Pembroke account was taken away, and with it, her chances of promotion.
She had given this company her blood—almost. Her blood, sweat and tears. She had worked around the clock, staying until way past normal hours, and taking work home. She had cajoled, and worked, and negotiated, and drank, and joked with the best of them, but in the end, it had taken a pathetic little whiny-voiced man, a man who hadn’t been able to handle her rejection, to stab her in the back while she had been at her weakest. In a moment of vulnerability, she had let down her guard, and mistaken Geoffrey for a friend.
After the weekend she’d had, with Luke, and his sister and Maggie, and the shock of all she had discovered, this announcement from Remington just about broke her. It was everything she had worked for, everything she had put her heart, blood and guts into. He couldn’t just take it away from her like that. It wasn’t fair. She went for one last attempt. “Look, Theodore. It doesn’t make sense to take me off this now when we’re so close to making the deal. You just can’t—”
Remington looked up at her, his eyes widening as he raised one eyebrow. “I can’t what?” he said, quietly. “Can’t what?” he cupped his hand to his ear, in what she saw as a final humiliation. She thanked her lucky stars that there was nobody around to witness this.
What did he expect her to do now?
As if reading her thoughts, he said, “Engelmann needs assistance with the client deal he’s running. I’ve told him he can expect you to help out.”
Engelmann? The guy who had only joined less than a year ago? She was supposed to help him out? And she’d been here three years. Talk about a slap in the face, a way to make her feel she wasn’t worth jack.
“As you wish.” She spun around on her heels, and left Remington’s office.
Back at her desk, she forced herself to put on a coat of armor, to remain stoic and strong, and to not fall to pieces, especially because she knew everybody was watching her.
They had known before she’d set foot in the office, what was going down today. She willed Geoffrey to come to her and say something, anything. She eyed the pair of scissors in her desk tidy and considered, fleetingly, the possibility of sticking it in his back.
Erin often asked her if she wanted to go to lunch and she almost always turned her down, but today she needed to get out of the office. An hour later, she and Erin were sitting outside one of the sandwich shops, only her mind was elsewhere. She was trying to come to terms with the way both her personal and working lives had been turned upside down.
“How is he now?” Erin asked, having expressed shock and disappointment that Kay hadn’t said a word to her about Luke’s illness before.
“He’s recovering.”
“I can’t believe it, Kay,” her friend said in a whiny voice. “You meet a guy this hot, and fall in love—”
“Who said anything about falling in love?”
Erin looked surprised, the
half-eaten bagel still in her hand. She looked at Kay as if she’d asked her an idiot question. “But you’ve been looking after him, and you lost the account over him. If that’s not love I don’t know what it.”
“I didn’t intend to lose my client deal,” she said, looking away. “Geoffrey used it to his advantage. Slimy little snake that he is.” She couldn’t help but wonder how easy it was for Remington. He didn’t need to give her client to Geoffrey. He knew how hard she’d worked. Maybe that one time she slipped up was one time too much.
It still hurt hard, and she wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to do next. Working alongside Engelmann wasn’t appealing, and to her ambitious mind, she saw it as a demotion.
“It was a shitty thing to do,” Erin agreed. “He’s met your boyfriend, hasn’t he?”
She flinched at the label. Luke would vomit if he heard anyone use that term to refer to him. Besides, that hadn’t been the way she’d seen him, not before, not now and not ever. “Why? What’s that got to do with it?”
“You would have thought he’d understand.”
“Geoffrey?” Understand?
“He might have had the hots for you before, but that was a few months ago. He’s seeing someone from the fifth floor now.”
Kay looked at her in disbelief. “Lucky girl,” she said sarcastically.
“You should be happy!” Erin countered. “At least he’s over you.”
“Good for him.” She didn’t care about Geoffrey, or his love life.
~ ~
“You did what?” Marie asked, her voice shrill, the anger burning in her eyes.
“I told her I didn’t need her anymore.”
Marie set down her briefcase and fixed him with a look of complete disdain. “She’s not your nurse, she’s your girlfriend.”
“That’s right. And I told her I didn’t need her anymore.”
Marie tut-tutted loudly and threw him a pissed off look. “You messed up again, didn’t you? I swear to god, Luke. You have an in-built self-destruct button.”
“She was feeling sorry for me.”
“She cared about you.”
“She was in the way.”
Marie choked at that. “She took time out of her working life to be here for you,” she cried, angrily.
“I don’t need her. I don’t need anyone.”
She looked away, shaking her head in disbelief. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”
Her words winded him. Marie had never spoken to him like that–as if she was talking to her teenage boy. “I’m fine now. I don’t need you or her to check in on me. I’m returning to work next week.”
She looked at him, then gave him the once-over. “You don’t know a good thing when you see it. I don’t know what happened to make you like this, but whatever it is, you’re ruining the best chance you ever had.”
He didn’t want to hear it. “You never met the sports masseuse,” he replied, hoping to annoy her further.
“Thank goodness for that.”
Chapter 41
She didn’t want to go to Savannah’s baby shower, but there was no way she could avoid it. She had to turn up, and she had to look happy. She already looked bad enough as it was, because she hadn’t organized any of it. Briony had taken care of it all.
It had been weeks since she and Luke had spoken. He’d tried to get in touch many times, but she had ignored all of his calls and messages. She didn’t want to risk feeling sorry for him, for his recovery.
She didn’t want to risk making another mistake.
So far, she had managed to keep it together. Even last week, when she had gone over to see Tobias and Savannah, to congratulate them in person about the twins, she had put on a brave face.
Luckily, neither Tobias, nor Savannah had suspected what a wreck she was.
But she had been desperate to talk to Savannah, to offload, and confess, and have a close friend who would show her the error of her ways, and who would also tell her what to do to move on. Only, this time, she would take her advice.
She had focused for too long on the wrong things, and in the end, none of it had been for her own good. Not the hours she gave every day to her former investment bank, nor the time and energy she had willfully given caring for Luke.
Savannah, the person she should have been there for, the one who could have helped her, had been the one she had neglected. And even today, with the baby shower taking place, she was still running late.
“Sorry,” she said, breathless, as she arrived at Max and Briony’s apartment, feeling as if she’d messed up again. “I tried to get here as fast as I could.”
“Don’t worry,” Briony replied, hugging her as she walked in. “It’s only the four of us. Izzy couldn’t come.”
“Oh?” Kay asked, setting down her huge bag of baby gifts. She slipped off her jacket.
“Apparently, she’s got exams. That’s what Savannah said.”
“That’s a shame.” She had been keen to meet Izzy and to find out what she was up to.
“I did leave you a couple of messages,” Briony remarked, “asking if there was anyone else Savannah might want to ask along today.”
Kay blushed a guilty shade of pink. “Sorry. I’ve been …” She threw her hands up, indicating overwhelm. She had done nothing for Savannah. How selfish of her, therefore, to think she could go to her cousin and offload all her problems. “What about the school moms?”
“They’re doing their own thing for her, thank god,” said Briony, rolling her eyes. “I couldn’t handle hours of listening to women talking about babies and children.”
“Me neither.” And, with it just being a small group of friends, she already felt at ease. The idea of walking into a room full of women she didn’t know, didn’t appeal.
“No baby talk, okay?” Briony reminded her, wagging her finger.
“So we’re not talking about the twins? How can we not talk about them?” she asked lowering her voice as she followed Briony into a room. Max got up and rushed towards her as soon as she entered. “Glad you could make it,” she said, giving her a hug. “Briony says you’ve been impossible to get a hold of.”
“I know, I know. I’m sorr—” She stopped, speechless when she saw Savannah sitting on a couch. She looked enormous. “Freaking hell, Sav,” she cried in undisguised shock. “You’re huge, and I only saw you last week!”
“Thanks,” Savannah replied, looking slightly flustered. “I love you, too.”
Kay rushed over, grinning. “You’re supposed to be big. I think it’s the way you’re sitting,” she said.
“That’s a relief to know,” Savannah replied as she bent down to give her a hug, being extra cautious not to press against her stomach, which was hard, given that it was almost a bump the size of a toddler, it seemed like. They pulled apart and Savannah’s hands went to her stomach. “I feel like a pregnant blue whale,” she whined.
“It must be getting uncomfortable, with two Stones in there,” Kay commented.
“It’s starting to.” Savannah smoothed her hand over her bump. “I get breathless quickly, and I can feel the strain on my back, but this is still easier than when they’ll be out, I suppose.”
They all laughed.
“You’re going to have your hands full,” Kay replied.
“You two carry on,” said Briony. “Max and I are fixing things in the kitchen…and we have a surprise.”
Kay looked over her shoulder as Briony and Max disappeared out of sight. “A surprise?” She looked at Savannah. “What surprise?”
“I think I have an idea. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Briony doesn’t want me to talk about babies too much,” Kay told her.
“The less said about that the better.”
“But we’re at your baby shower, and you’re obviously pregnant. What are we supposed to talk about?”
“They’re still locking heads over adoption,” Savannah whispered, looking in the direction of the door. “It’s a delicate subject.”
“Noted,” said Kay. “How are you feeling?”
“Slow, and heavy. They’re going to induce me a few weeks early. I cannot wait. Anyway, tell me what you’ve been up to,” said Savannah. “We couldn’t talk much when you came over.”
It was true. Tobias had been lurking around Savannah like an overprotective bodyguard and their apartment had been full of boxes, because they were getting ready to move to their sprawling new mansion.
“I’m sorry I’ve been off the radar lately. I’ve been hard at work,” she explained, not completely lying, but not telling the truth either. She could feel heat slowly crawling up her cheeks. “You know how crazy things get for me sometimes.” She decided against telling her cousin about her recent decision to change jobs. She was going to be extra diligent about where she was going to work next, and was taking her time to find a company that would suit her better.
She had tried to prove herself to Remington, and she thought he’d taken note, but if it had only taken Geoffrey’s pathetic and vindictive actions for him to give someone else the client account she had so badly wanted, it wasn’t worth staying here and killing herself doing crazy hours. She wasn’t valued enough, and she wasn’t putting up with it anymore.
“It’s always been that way for you,” Savannah replied. “I don’t know how you do it.” She paused, then, “Is everything else okay?”
“Everything’s good,” Kay replied, laughing nervously. Even if she started to tell Savannah everything, where would she start? Not that this was the right time or the place for it, and hell would freeze over before she ever told Savannah about her and Luke. Still, there it was, on the tip of her tongue, the whole sorry mess, waiting to be unloaded, and cleared off her chest.
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t tell Savannah that she had lied, that she hadn’t even taken heed of her advice from the start, that her need to be with someone had started back at the island. Her cousin didn’t need to hear all about her romantic woes all over again. Especially when Kay had been lying to her about her so-called man free diet.