Fake Bride: A Fake Marriage Billionaire Romance (Forbidden First Times Book 2)

by Summers, Sofia T

  “This is all your fault,” Chris muttered as he walked to Mr. Carlton’s office. Chris opened the door and stepped in, and I followed him inside.

  “How is this my fault?” I muttered. “If you hadn’t undermined me and shot down my ideas, ideas which were really good, I wouldn’t have been forced to do what I did.”

  “We worked on this presentation together, we worked so hard-”

  “You worked hard? I tried so hard to please you that I compromised my opinion to suit yours,” I spat. “At every opportunity, I asked you to hear me out, and every single time you dismissed me like I didn’t matter. Do you know how that feels? Do you know what it feels like to be a woman in a predominantly male workplace? You get flirted with constantly, no-one takes you seriously, and the one time I tried to stand up for myself and prove that I’m not just another hot piece of ass who got the internship by sleeping her way to the top, you call me out on it and embarrass me in front of a room full of clients!”

  “You embarrassed me too!”

  “Oh, boo-fucking-hoo.”

  “That’s enough!”

  Mr. Carlton was in the doorway again, as if he magically appeared and I pursed my lips.

  “What the hell is the matter with you two?”

  “In my defense, Mr. Carlton, this was all Hollie.”

  I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, but I honestly wasn’t surprised that he threw me under the bus. Although Chris was loyal to me, there was one thing more important to him than I was.

  His career. And proving that he had what it took to be successful.

  “I was just trying to-”

  “Will you both be quiet!” Mr. Carlton bellowed, which silenced us both. “I don’t care who’s fault this is, or who started what. I can’t allow anyone to behave like that in front of potential clients. It’s unprofessional and goes against every single company policy we have!”

  I opened my mouth to point something out to him, but he raised his hand, and I stepped back.

  “You interns think that the sun shines out of your ass, doing as you please, behaving as you please, but I will not allow it any longer. You’re both fired.”

  “What?” both Chris and I gasped.

  “You heard me. Now get out of here. I have your mess to clean up.”

  Mr. Carlton stomped out of the office and I drew in a deep breath.

  “What the fuck, Hollie?” Chris exclaimed. “You just got us fired!”

  “We got ourselves fired.”

  “No, this was all you? Why did you have to do that? Do you honestly feel so insecure about being a girl that you will do anything to make me look bad?”

  “It’s not about me being insecure. I just wanted to prove to you that my idea was better.”

  “But it’s not! Now I’m fired from the one job that could have gotten me out of that shitty dorm and into a place where we could live the way we wanted to. With no loud music coming from across the hall, no drunken people barging into my room. I thought you wanted to be better than that?”

  “I guess I thought I wanted to be a lot of things,” I muttered and turned away from him.

  I didn’t wait for him to respond. I simply left Mr. Carlton’s office, grabbed my handbag from under my small cubicle and proceeded to the elevators.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked behind me, already in the elevator with me.

  The elevator doors closed, trapping me inside with him and I glanced up at him. “If you have to ask, you’re not as smart as you think you are.”

  “You think this is a game?”

  “You’re the one who’s acting the fool, Chris. I was trying to win us that deal, not make you look bad, or get us fired. I wanted them to be impressed with us-”

  “Well, clearly you failed,” he retorted snidely as the doors reopened.

  I stepped out into the parking garage and turned to him. “So did you.”

  I turned back on my heel and walked to my car.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Away from you.”

  “This isn’t over,” Chris called out as we stomped off in two opposite directions to our cars.

  “We both know that’s not true,” I said simply.

  Despite my cool, calm and collected demeanor, inside I felt as though I was breaking.

  Had it all been worth it? Was my insistence to prove that I was worthy of working successfully in a male-dominated workplace so important?

  I just lost my internship, and possibly my relationship with Chris, but if he couldn’t support me in the things that were important to me, then what I had done had just saved me from a life of misery and regret.

  Either way though, I wasn’t sure about my future anymore. What I was sure of was that it did not involve Chris Kinnison.

  Continue reading Chris and Hollie’s story here. (FREE in Kindle Unlimited).

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