by Ella Miles
I jump up in disbelief at what Keri is suggesting. “You can’t be serious! You’ve hated Owen since the day I first started dating him! Of course he was cheating on me! I saw it with my own eyes! He was making out with another girl!”
Keri gets up. “I know, I know. But you didn’t hear him on the phone last night, Olive. He was…heartbroken.”
“So what? I hope he was heartbroken. How do you think I felt when I found him with his lips locked on another girl?”
Keri sighs. “I know, Olive. It must have felt horrible. But…but what if you were wrong?”
“How could I have been wrong? I saw him kissing another girl!”
She nods. “But was it a quick kiss or a full make-out session?”
“Why does it matter? He was kissing another girl!”
“What if the girl he was with was his sister?”
I laugh. “That’s sick if it was his sister. They were making out!”
She shakes her head. “Were they? You just said a second ago that you couldn’t remember if they were making out or if it was just one quick kiss.”
My head is pounding as I think about Owen as I pace around the room. “They were definitely making out.”
Keri grabs my arms, forcing me to stop pacing around the room and look at her. “I seriously doubt that. Because I know for a fact that it was his sister who was with him last night. And, since I didn’t get any weird vibes from them when they came over here together, I seriously doubt they were making out. It was more than likely just some friendly quick kiss between siblings.”
I shake my head. “I know what I saw. He was cheating on me with that bitch.”
Keri sighs. “No, he wasn’t.”
I shake her hands off me. “And how would you know?”
“Because he came over here, and I talked to him. I talked to his sister. She’s really a nice person. And, while Owen hasn’t always treated you the best, after talking to him last night, I do really think that he loves you and will try to do better in taking care of you.”
I shake my head. “That’s not possible. He doesn’t love me. He’s treated me like dirt all these months we have been together,” I say as strongly as I can, but my voice breaks.
“Olive…he was going to propose last night. That’s why his sister is in town. She brought him their grandmother’s ring. He was going to propose to you last night. And how he was going to do it was good, Olive. He went all out with fireworks, a carriage ride, the whole bit.”
“But…” I can’t speak as my legs give out beneath me.
Keri catches me, and we both slink down to the floor.
I stare at Keri as one tear escapes from my eye. “Are you sure? You’re sure he didn’t cheat on me?”
Keri nods.
“You’re sure he was going to propose?”
She nods again.
“You really think he loves me?”
She exhales. “Yes.”
“Fuck.”
Keri laughs. “Oh, honey! This is a good thing. Owen is finally stepping up and showing that he really cares about you. You could finally be getting everything you want. You’re going to get married to a man who loves you. A man who can support you and take care of you. You don’t have to be alone anymore. You don’t have to live in this shithole anymore.”
I know her words are meant to comfort me, but they are doing the exact opposite. Twenty-four hours ago, I wanted nothing more than for Owen to propose. I would have said yes. I would have done anything for him. But that was before Sean. Before I realized that I like rough, dirty sex that leaves me wanting more. I don’t like boring sex with Owen, who doesn’t even know how everything works. I want a man who knows my body just as well as he knows my soul.
“It doesn’t matter now. I slept with Sean. Owen won’t want to marry me now.”
Keri frowns. “I wouldn’t say that. He doesn’t even have to know if you don’t want him to.”
I look at Keri, feeling a little empty. “I’m not going to lie to him. But, honestly, I’m not sure that I want Owen anymore.”
Keri’s eyes widen again as she gently strokes my back. “What? Are you sure? I don’t think this Sean guy is going to be dating material. He might be hot, but I doubt he will want anything serious.”
I shake my head. “It’s not because of Sean. I’m just not afraid to be alone anymore. I don’t need a man to be happy.”
Keri doesn’t move or say anything. She just stares at me.
I start clicking my tongue as I call for my cat, “Here, Milo.” I search for my kitty under the bed where he usually likes to hang out. But I don’t find him there. “Where’s Milo?” I ask Keri.
She frowns and bites her lip.
“What happened to him?” I ask, jumping up.
“Relax. Owen took him. He said he bought the cat. That he was his, and he needed the comfort in a time like this.”
“And you just let him take him?” I scream at Keri as I run toward my door to grab my purse and some sort of jacket. I froze on the L train on the way over here, and I’m not going to do it again. I open the door just as a delivery person knocks.
“Are you Olive?” the man asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
He hands me a package, and I step back inside for a second to open it. I pull out the coat. It’s gorgeous. It’s Gucci. It’s expensive. I slip it on as a note falls to the floor. I pick it up and read it.
A coat fit for a boss. Prove to me that you are one.
—Sean
I smile at the note. He got me an expensive coat. A beautiful coat that costs three times what my rent is.
“How did you afford that coat?” Keri asks.
I frown as I look at her. “Sean.”
Keri blinks several times but doesn’t say anything.
I grab my phone and begin typing a message to Jamie. Now, more than anything, I need to know what Sean does. I have to know how I hate a man that I also kind of love. He’s taken care of me more in the last few hours, not even being near me, than Owen did the whole year we were dating.
I press Send and then walk out the door with Keri running behind me.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“To get my cat back and to make sure that Owen knows we are still broken up.”
11
Sean
Fuck, I’m hungover.
And tired.
No, exhausted.
I could sleep for another week straight and still not get enough sleep. I thought I’d feel better after spending the last forty-eight hours doing nothing but sleeping and drinking. But I was wrong. All it did was make me feel worse. I feel no more rested than I was when I left, and I haven’t gotten the images of Olive out of my head any more than I could before I left.
So, that’s why I’m taking some drastic measures. I can’t get Olive out of my head, and I’m not sure if abandoning her in my apartment and not calling her is going to be enough to really make her hate me. I’m going to tell Olive the truth about what I do for a living. That’s the only solution I’ve come up with. If I tell her what I do for a living, then she’ll hate me. And, if she hates me, she won’t want to fuck me again. Problem solved. I might even get lucky, and she might quit.
Then, I can focus on what I really came here to do. Run a successful real estate company and to see if I still have a shot with Jamie. And, if I don’t have a chance with her, then I need to learn to get over her.
I step foot inside the office and expect it to be bustling with people, as it usually is on a weekday. I’ve learned from my week here and from speaking with Jamie on the phone that Monday through Friday are the busiest office days while the weekends are the busiest days for the realtors to be doing open houses and showing houses to clients. And my role as the boss is to get people straightened out during the week so that they can do their best at selling the most houses over the weekend.
But I don’t expect what I see when I enter the office. I was expecting the office to be a bit chaoti
c on Monday morning after a busy weekend and since I wasn’t here over the weekend to ensure that everything was running smoothly. But what I see when I walk into the office is complete chaos. People are running around everywhere with no clue as to what they’re doing. Papers are flying and strewed all over desks in complete and utter disorganization. But that’s not what worries me. Disorganization, I can easily fix. What scares me is the look on everyone’s faces as they run around the office. Something’s not right.
“What’s going on?” I ask Jennifer, one of the realtors, as she walks by.
She stops and looks up at me with fear in her eyes. “It’s Monday?” she half-asks and half-says, but I know it’s not the truth.
I sigh and continue walking to my office. I need answers, and I know the only woman who is going to give me any sort of honest answer as to what the hell is going on is Olive. And, as much as I’d rather hide in my office all day and wait to talk to her until later, it doesn’t seem that I’m going to get to wait.
I walk straight to her desk, but she’s not there. I glance at my watch. It’s a quarter till nine. Olive is always here by this time. Usually, she’s already been here at least an hour or more. I glance around the office to see if I can find her. But I don’t see her anywhere, and I don’t know where to start looking.
Floyd walks over. “Where is Olive?” he asks.
“I was wondering that myself.”
Floyd’s face turns to panic. “Shit.”
“What?” I say a little too sternly.
Floyd’s eyes dart from Olive’s desk to my eyes. “It’s just that there’s only been one other time when Olive was sick with the flu and didn’t come in to work. Happened about two years ago, and it was the worst week. Nobody sold any properties that week. It’s like she’s a good-luck charm or something. Or she put a curse on this place, and we can only sell properties as long as she is here.”
“What makes you think Olive is sick?” I ask.
“Do you see her anywhere?” Floyd says, annoyed.
He runs out to do God knows what while I stand, frozen, staring at the chaos. I’m beginning to think that the reason for the chaos might be because Olive isn’t here.
I haven’t had enough time this week to really see what Olive contributes to the team, but it seems she might contribute more than I ever gave her credit for. But whatever it is that she contributes, even if it’s as simple as just providing stability and normalcy for the rest of the employees, I’m going to figure it out.
But, in the meantime, there’s one thing I know for sure. Olive isn’t sick. She’s avoiding me. She’s too embarrassed to come into work after she let her boss bang her.
I stop the next person who walks by even though I don’t know her name. “Can you tell me Olive’s address?”
The woman shrugs. “No, but I’m sure Jamie has it somewhere.”
I pull out my phone as I walk into my office. I try Olive’s number first, but I get no answer. She is definitely avoiding me. I frown. It’s like everything I’ve taught her has already gone out the window. I’m fine with Olive quitting or thinking this isn’t the position for her. I’m not fine with her hiding. She doesn’t get to take the easy way out. I need her to fight for what she wants. So, I text Jamie and head back out to find Olive. And I hope that, in the meantime, the company doesn’t come to a crashing halt.
I pull up in front of her apartment building, but I can’t believe that this is where she lives. Jamie must have made a mistake when she sent me her address. I try calling Jamie and Olive, but neither of them answers. So, it leaves me no choice but to go inside and see for myself that this isn’t her place.
The apartment building doesn’t have a valet or parking garage that I can find, so I have to circle the box three times before I find any sort of street parking that’s close. Although, after seeing the neighborhood that she loves, I really wish I had taken a cab and left my car back in the parking garage at the office.
I jump out of my car and run inside the building, determined to make this as quick as possible so that nothing happens to my car. I head over to the elevator and see the large sign that says it is out of order.
Really? How can an elevator be out of order in an apartment building this tall?
I dash over to the stairs and run up, quickly taking them two at a time, struggling for breath. I might be in shape. I run and lift, but I’m not used to climbing stairs like this. When I finally make it to her floor, I’m sweating and out of breath. This is ridiculous. I’ve done all this, and I still don’t think she lives here.
I walk over to the door that is supposedly hers and knock, and I don’t hear any movement inside. I knock one more time before I decide to give up. But, just as I’m about to leave, the door opens, and Olive stares at me, wide-eyed, in the doorway.
“What…how…what are you doing here?” Olive asks, crossing her arms.
I grin, thankful that I finally found the right place. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“No.”
“Fine. Then, I have no choice but to believe that the reason you called in sick today is because of me. That you’re too embarrassed to see me again after we fucked.”
Olive frowns but opens the door wider, and I slip inside. I stare around the small place that she calls an apartment. But that’s obviously not what it is. It’s a closet or storage room. It’s definitely too small to be an apartment. I look around for a place to sit, but there is none. Because every inch of space in her apartment is filled with cookies, brownies, cakes, or muffins. I glance over at what is supposed to be her kitchen and have no idea how she’s made this many bakery items in such a small kitchen that I’m not even sure functions any better than one of those Easy-Bake ovens that kids use.
If this is all she can afford, she’s definitely not getting paid enough. Especially now that I know that, for some reason, the company practically falls apart without her there. But I’m not going to tell her that—at least, not yet. Not until I know that she has the confidence to actually earn the respect and that they think of her as a boss and not just a good-luck charm.
“Yeah, looks like you’re sick to me,” I say.
Olive glares at me. “I am sick.”
I look around at all the bakery items. “Then, why are you baking if you’re sick? Shouldn’t you be in bed? And aren’t you going to have to throw out everything now that they are contaminated with your sickness?”
An alarm goes off, and Olive walks over to the tiny oven. She pulls out a small pan of brownies and places it on the only space left on the counter. Then, she throws the dish towel at me. “Baking makes me happy. It relaxes me.”
“Relaxing won’t help you get over whatever sickness you have.”
“Migraines. I get migraines, especially when I’m stressed.”
“So, you’re telling me that I gave you a migraine?” I say, smiling.
She takes the tray of cookies off what I can’t tell is either a couch or bed and sits down, plopping the tray on her lap. She takes one of the cookies off the tray and starts eating it. “No, I don’t have a migraine because of you. I don’t care that you left me alone this weekend and didn’t call me. I’m not too embarrassed to go to work because I fucked my boss.”
I raise an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue because I just don’t believe her.
She sighs. “I’m anxious and stressed because Owen won’t give me my cat, Milo, back.”
I narrow my eyes at her. She’s never talked about a cat before, but then she does seem like the type to own a cat. Although I have no idea how two creatures could survive in such a small place.
“Have you learned nothing from me? If it’s your cat, you don’t have to ask permission. Just take the cat back,” I say.
“I tried, but it’s not as simple as that. Owen paid for the cat. I have no legal right to Milo, and he’s trying to blackmail me, so I’ll take him back. Because it turns out, he didn’t really cheat on me. It was just a quick kiss between him
and his sister. It turns out, he was going to propose.”
My eyes widen when she says propose because Owen definitely doesn’t seem like the type, and it pisses me off that anyone would think they had a claim to a woman I just fucked.
“And you don’t want to marry him anymore because of me?”
She looks up from her tray of cookies as her eyes grow darker. “No, not because of you, you idiot. I don’t want to marry him because I’ve realized that I don’t really love him. I’m not ready to marry anyone yet. I want to be by myself for a while and figure out what I want without a guy. I just want my cat back.”
I stare at her a second longer, trying to tell if she is telling the truth or not. “Then, let’s go get him.”
12
Olive
My heart is pounding right along with my head as Sean drives us toward Owen’s apartment. Sean is talking, trying to pep me up to talk to Owen, but he doesn’t understand that it isn’t going to work. I’ve already tried talking tough to Owen. I have no legal right to the cat. And I doubt that Owen will even open the door. It’s before noon. He’s probably still asleep. And I was stupid enough to date a guy for a year without asking for a key to his place.
Maybe Sean will know how to break into his place, or maybe he knows the owner of the apartment complex, and he’ll let us into Owen’s place. I grab my head that is pounding worse than it ever has before. I shouldn’t get my hopes up. I’m not getting back my cat or anything else I left at his place.
“Olive, are you listening to me?” Sean asks.
“Huh?” I say, looking at him, as he pulls the car in front of Owen’s apartment building.
Sean searches my eyes for a second as the valet opens my door. “You got this, Olive. Just treat him like you would me.”
I nod and get out of the car, but my legs feel unsteady the second I get out. I start walking toward the door, but between my head pounding and my legs being weak and wobbly, I know there is no way I’m going to make it without falling and embarrassing myself even more in front of Sean.