by Tasha Fawkes
“So, you just found some random girl to make out with?”
“She's my ex,” he admits. “All right? It didn't mean anything. I was miserable and trying to forget, and she was there. Besides, you and I weren’t together yet. This was before—”
“Before I walked in and kissed you,” I finish for him, my voice is flat, devoid of emotion. “But it meant nothing, right? Just like she meant nothing.”
“Come on, Jane...”
“No, Anthony. You pushed her off your lap to make room for me. It’s how you are. It’s how you’ve always been. Don’t think I never heard rumors about your social life.” My hands are shaking, but my voice is still steady. “I was interchangeable. Just another body in the long line of women you've gone through. I wasn't the first, and I won't be the last.”
“You have no right to say that. My past has nothing to do with this.” He’s deadly calm now, his voice like ice. “You of all people should know that what's in a person's past shouldn't be held against him.”
“I trusted you,” I whisper. I thought nothing he said could break me more than I already was. Now I know better.
His shoulders fall. “Jane, I didn't mean...let’s not do this. Don’t you see what’s happening? Things were going so well, but here we are, letting something stupid get in between us.”
“You think it’s stupid? My feelings are stupid?”
“You know that’s not what I mean! Why do you insist on twisting my words around?” He points to the laptop, still sitting there between us. “What happened between Trinity and me means nothing. It’s stupid. A huge mistake. And we’re better than this.”
I shake my head and stand. “We're nothing, Anthony. If what you felt for me was real at all, you wouldn't have been able to go back to her like that. I know that it's my fault for running away and hiding, for not telling you what was wrong. I thought it didn't matter when you didn't come after me, because when I came to you, you kissed me back. But it matters now.”
“Why? Why does it matter now when it didn't before?”
I can't look at him. “Because now I know that you didn't come after me because you already had someone.”
Tears fill my eyes and this time, I don’t bother trying to hold them back. I was afraid to give someone my heart, but I took a chance on him. And he's destroyed me.
“What that picture doesn't show is that I stopped it. I told her that it wasn't going to work.” He takes a step toward me, and I fold my arms across my chest. “And that's because of you. I couldn't be with her because I didn't want anyone but you. I don't want anyone but you.”
I want to believe him. To brush it all aside and go back to the happy place, but the bubble's burst and reality is back. A reality where a poor orphan from rural Pennsylvania can never be with her billionaire CEO boss.
“You only think you want me.” The words are quiet, but I know he can hear me because I see him stiffen. “I'm something different. New. And pretty soon, you'll get bored, and you'll want to go back to your old life.”
“I won't,” he insists.
My smile is sad. “But you already did. As soon as things got tough, you went straight back to your ex. It wasn't cheating, I know that, but you didn't fight then, and you won't fight in the future.” I swallow hard. “It's better this way.”
He looks aghast. “But I love you.”
Tears roll down my cheeks. Nobody's ever said that to me before. Damn him for saying it now.
“I don't believe you,” I say in a voice choked with tears. Before he can add anything else, I continue, “I quit. I never want to see you or speak to you again.”
And I mean it. Every word. My heart won't be able to handle it if I do anything else.
Chapter 26
Anthony
I have no choice but to go to work. I just signed a multi-million-dollar deal, and I'm now legally bound to see it through. Nobody bothers to tell you there’s another side to success. When you finally score big, people expect you to keep doing it. You can’t crawl into bed and pull the blankets over your head the day after you bluffed your way into a big ad campaign just because you got dumped.
No, I didn’t bluff my way in. I knew what I was talking about. I just needed a lot of help. And now she’s gone. From my work and my bed and my life. She’ll never come back, not after everything she said.
My heart is heavy as my driver opens the car door for me. I usually enjoy the luxury of a chauffeured town car, but I can't even muster up the strength to care. All the money in the world and I couldn’t care less without her.
There’s one comfort: nobody at work knows what happened. Jane and I kept things quiet about us, so the only person who knows about that is Chloe. Everyone else only knows I scored big yesterday. And since I made it clear in the past that I didn't want an assistant, I'm sure no one will be surprised when Jane doesn't show up.
They smile when they see me step off the elevator and nod and congratulate me and tell me what a good job I did. Kiss ups, sure, but it still feels good to hear it. At least the entire world doesn’t think I’m a faithless, heartless loser. It doesn't make it feel any less hollow, though.
I’ll forget her. I’ll have to. At least there won’t be any time to brood when I have a campaign to head. I ignore the sick feeling in my stomach when I think about doing it without her. I can do this.
My chair is barely warm when Dad calls in on my speaker phone. “I want to see you, now,” he barks.
“Good morning to you, too,” I mutter under my breath as I stand, buttoning my suit jacket, and smoothing a hand back over my hair to make sure it’s in place. Why do I even care what he thinks about the way I look? Regardless, it’s a habit. I hope he doesn’t want to talk for too long. I’ll probably beg off, tell him I’m busy, then lock the door and sit by myself all day. I can’t imagine concentrating enough to get anything done.
Dad’s sitting with his back to me when I get to his office. Funny, seeing as how he called me, but it's a power play. Everything with him is a power play.
I knock on the open door. “You wanted to see me?”
“Close the door.”
And here I am, thinking he was calling me to congratulate me again for yesterday. His voice is so cold, I’m surprised the windows aren’t frosted over. This is going to be fun. Once he hears the latch turn, he turns in his chair. It’s official. His face is roughly the same shade as an eggplant.
Fuck.
I sigh. “What did I do this time?” Might as well get it over with. I stand with my hands clasped behind my back and wait for the storm to rage, then blow over.
This isn’t one of the usual storms, however. I can tell when he doesn’t stand up. He normally does that when he wants to stare me down. Instead, he leans his elbows on the arms of his chair and tents his fingers beneath his chin.
“I want to preface what I’m about to say by stating that I don’t approve of sneaking around.”
“Okay…” Where could this possibly be going? Usually, he's yelling at me for not being subtle enough.
“However,” he continues, “when it’s in the best interest of my company, not to mention my employees and their livelihoods, I feel it’s warranted.”
“That’s…good to hear,” I reply, still waiting for the bomb to drop.
Then, it does. “What the hell were you thinking, using that girl’s ideas and calling them your own?” he explodes in a voice that practically shakes the windows.
I stare for a moment before I can even react. “What? Who told you that? How would they even—?” Before he can reply, I figure it all out. “Jerrod? That sneaky son of a bitch!”
“He accessed your email—”
“You mean broke into!”
“I mean accessed!” Dad roars. “It's my damn company! And he saw that she gave you all those ideas! He saw everything!”
I've never liked Jerrod. It’s been his mission in life for years to take me down, but never more than when I took the job with Dad. And there've
been times I've wanted to knock the daylights out of him, but this is the first time I feel like I actually might lose control if I hit him now.
“Do you even understand what you’ve done?” Dad asks. “Do you know how much trouble this could make for us? You used her ideas when you know damn well she’s not contracted to do that kind of work. She’s an intern, for God’s sake! Using her intellectual property under false pretenses could leave us open to a lawsuit!”
I have to admit, that gets through to me. I had no idea. I didn't even think that it could be an issue because I never bothered to pay much attention to, well, to anything really.
He's not done yet. “Not only that, but the scandal would ruin my reputation—and my political chances! And for what? So you could pretend to be a big shot?”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Yeah. You never mean for anything to happen, do you?”
I’ve never heard him sound so hateful before. That’s exactly how he sounds, too. Full of hatred. He hates me.
My father hates me.
“I’m sorry, son.” He doesn’t look sorry. Not even a little bit.
“Sorry for what?” I dare ask, though I have a pretty good idea of what’s coming. He warned me, after all.
“I gave you one last chance, and you blew it. You have to go.”
I feel cold inside. He really wants me gone, just like that. His own son. Okay, so I fucked up. But at least this time I was actually trying to do right.
“It was an honest mistake,” I manage to say.
“Bull. You didn’t make a mistake. You deliberately used that girl’s ideas, just like you use people for everything else you want. You're a screw-up, Anthony, and I can't have that around me, not when there's so much riding on my reputation.” He turns away again, facing the window.
The discussion, what there was of it, is officially over. It's not the firing that hurts, not really. If my father wasn't my boss, I probably would have been fired a long time ago. No, no probably, about it. I would have been. If it was just that, it wouldn't hurt so much. It's the fact that he's baldly stating what I've always known. His career means more than his son, and that's the real reason I'm being fired. It has little to do with work performance and everything to do with his image.
I have to go. I manage to hold my head high as I walk out of the office, but it doesn’t matter. He can’t see me, and I admit now that he never has.
Chapter 27
Anthony
I still keep my head up as I carry the cardboard box with my few possessions from what used to be my office to the elevator. My cheeks burn as I walk past desk after desk, knowing that everyone will know everything, if they don't already. Open office doors reveal people who must’ve heard Dad’s tirade, and they're at least trying to make it look like they’re not straining for a look at me as I leave in defeat. Same thing for the heads popping up over the tops of cubicles. And just twenty minutes ago they were congratulating me. Life turns on a dime.
I can’t let myself relax until I’m in the elevator with the doors closed. Nobody can see me in there. I don’t have to pretend not to care what they think. Normally, I wouldn’t. I really wouldn’t. But this on top of everything else, it’s just too much to smile my way through.
At least my car is waiting for me at the curb. I wouldn’t want to wait around on Madison Avenue holding a box full of office supplies, hoping for a cab. I'd be the universal symbol for somebody who just got canned.
“Anthony!” I hear my name and turn to find Chloe rushing to me. “I hoped I would catch you.”
I force myself not to snap at her. “What do you want? I’m not really in the mood to talk.”
“What if it’s about Jane?”
That gets my attention and sends my pulse racing. “What is it?”
“I noticed she didn’t come in this morning. I guess she’ll never be back.”
“No. She quit.” I shake my head. “Anyway, it's not like it matters, because she wouldn’t have a job now that I’m fired.”
Chloe frowns. “She quit? But she loved her job.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes things just don’t work out, do they?” I can’t rehash this with her, and definitely not on the sidewalk.
“Did you do something to screw it up again?”
“Did I?” I can’t help but laugh.
Her expression doesn’t shift as she puts her hands on her hips. “Yeah. Did you? Because I know how much she cares about you. She wouldn’t have quit on you if you hadn’t done something to really ruin things.”
I sigh. She'd hear it from Jane anyway. “She saw a picture of me and my ex kissing. Some asshole paparazzi snapped it about an hour before you guys found me at the club. It turned into some whole big thing and ended with her walking out.”
“Dammit.” She wraps her arms around her thin body to protect against the cold air, but she doesn’t go back inside. She must really care.
“It’s over. I have to resign myself to that.”
“No! You can’t give up that easily.”
“Chloe, you don’t know. Okay? You just don’t.” My voice gets sharp.
“What don’t I know?” she shouts over the noise of the traffic going up and down the street.
“You don’t know how she looked. I broke her heart. I didn’t mean to, I swear to God. I wouldn’t hurt her for anything in the world, but I did because I'm a selfish bastard.” I'm surprised to feel my eyes burning. “I…I love her.”
Her face softens. “Then you have to fight for her.”
I shake my head even though this is eerily similar to what Jane said. That as soon as things were tough, I ran. Still... “It's a waste of time, Chloe. She made it pretty clear that she never wants to see me again.”
“Anthony.” She reaches out, putting a hand on my arm. “Did she tell you what happened to her when she was a kid?”
That sick feeling in my stomach comes rushing back, followed by the rage that made me track down that bastard uncle. I nod.
“That closed her off to men and relationships. She’s been afraid ever since. Until now.”
“Until me, you mean.” I feel lower than dirt as I remember the trust she put in me...and then how I threw her past back in her face like a spoiled brat.
“Yes. Until you.” Chloe looks me straight in the eye with the sort of no-nonsense stare that tells me she won't take any shit from me. “Which means if you really love her like you say you do, you have to fight for her. Prove that she can trust you.”
I can’t help but shake my head. “It’s not that easy. This isn’t the movies. What am I supposed to do?”
“Go to her, you idiot! Let her know that you choose her. Show her what she means to you. Don’t just tell her. Do whatever you have to do for her to know that you're in this with her. That you'll do whatever it takes. She’s too important to let slip through your fingers, Anthony.”
“I know that,” I snap. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“Apparently I do, or you'd already be on your way to her apartment.” She spins on her heel and stalks back toward the door.
Damn.
I turn back to the car and know I have a decision to make. I can go home and lick my wounds, mope around like a little kid who hadn't gotten his way, or I can fight for the woman I love.
It’s a no-brainer.
Twenty minutes later, I jump out of the car and run all the way up to Jane’s apartment. I have to talk to her, face-to-face. I have to prove to her that her trust isn't misplaced. That I'm done running just because something is difficult. That I can be the man she deserves.
“Jane?” I’m practically banging the door down, but no one's answering.
“Hey!” I turn at the sound of a semi-hostile voice in the hall. “What are you trying to do? Break in?” The woman is older, heavyset, and wears the sort of expression that tells me she doesn't take shit from anyone.
“Sorry, ma'am. I was looking for Jane.”
“She left.”
My heart drops. “Left? Like, left for good?”
“No.” She rolls her eyes. “I mean left for an appointment or something. I was coming in with my groceries when she was leaving. She almost knocked me over when she ran past, down the hall. And she's usually such a polite girl.”
I frown. “What was the hurry? Did she say?”
“Something about going to the office. An offer she couldn’t refuse, I don’t know.” The woman waves a dismissive hand. “Like that makes up for being rude.”
I absently thank the woman, but she's already closing her door. I'd been so ready to work things out that Jane's absence threw me for a loop. An offer she couldn’t refuse. What’s that supposed to mean?
Chapter 28
Jane
On the list of things I thought would never happen, being called into the CEO’s office after quitting has to rank right up near the top. Right up there with “sleeping with Anthony James,” at least. Because I didn't see that one coming when I got this job.
I’m really batting a thousand lately.
What’s even weirder, he called me personally—not personally as in through his assistant but actually himself—promising an offer I can’t refuse. A little eye-rolling at the Godfather reference aside, I can’t deny that he’s piqued my interest. Does he even know I quit? Maybe he does and he’s trying to offer me a better position in the company. Maybe he wants to apologize for his son being a total jackass. All right, that one’s doubtful, but a girl can dream. Maybe I'd read him wrong and he really is a decent guy and Anthony is the jerk.
I sigh, because I know that's not the case.
My brain's still going a mile a minute as the elevator doors open. What if he tries to convince me to stay on with Anthony? What if Anthony went to his dad about what happened? I can just see it: Anthony whining to Daddy that he can’t get what he wants, and Daddy swooping in to make things right. Probably to make himself look better, too. He wouldn’t want a sexual harassment lawsuit on his hands, not that I would ever do something like that, but he doesn’t know me. Powerful men like him have to be careful.