AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Irrelevant, but yes."
She was amused. "I won’t ask, but this seems to me to be the start of a very peculiar but interesting relationship."
"There's no relationship," I countered. "I'm not even working there right now."
"And it's a mistake," she said. "You should have gone in regardless, to see what he said and navigate your way from there. If he still insists that you continue on, then you do so, but if not, then you move on. But not even going in at all, I don't condone."
She was right. I grabbed my glass to swallow down my juice. I truly didn't want to think about it, but after last night, I've felt quite scatterbrained and disorganized.
"You really think so?" I asked, and she nodded.
"You just basically said that people make clear decisions in the light of day. Of course. Last night was a jumble for you two both professionally and privately, but you both survived it, fell asleep in each other's arms, and woke up in each other's arms, so maybe discard what you said yesterday as well as him and face the day with confidence."
"Easier said than done," I said. "He tends to not forget anything ever, so who knows if I will immediately get escorted out by security even before I'm able to get to the office."
"You're being too pessimistic," she said. "Which makes me think that you're not worried about your job. Instead, it's about your relationship with your boss, or the absence thereof after, and you really don't want to face it. Not yet at least."
"Yeah," I replied and agreed with her. A long silence followed as I thought about her words and moved on to eating my eggs and sausage. And then I pushed it all aside and rose to my feet.
"You're going in?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Yeah. It's killing me, so why wallow here? I'll slip in before it's too late and see what happens."
"Exactly," she said with a smile, and I hurried on my way.
I grabbed my purse and put on my heels, and then I hurried out of her apartment building and was hailing down the next cab I could find.
Chapter Thirty
Guy
This meeting was fucking going downhill, and I had the most probable theory that it was because I was so fucking pissed.
She hadn’t come to work. It was more than an hour now into the workday, and yet she was nowhere to be found. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I expected it, but I thought that she'd still come in.
Gloria had immediately been notified and had wanted to send someone over to take over for her, but I'd refused.
"Not yet" I replied.
At the time, I had thought I was calm and clear-headed, but now, the more I thought about her instead of paying attention to this fucking resolution meeting I was supposed to be giving all my attention to, the more pissed off I became.
This was the reason why I avoided office relationships or interactions of this sort. It's an immense distraction that seems so important as to deserve to hijack your time, focus, and emotional energy. And it fucking annoyed me.
Sighing, I released a deep breath, trying to also calm down with my scowling, and listened carefully as George led the settlement. I could tell the opposing party's lawyer and client were peeved that my associate was handling this, but I truly didn't give a fuck.
Gary, too, continued to sneak looks at me, but I ignored them all. George was asking all the right questions that were needed for the settlement to be amicable, so there was nothing to worry about.
Eventually, and after we finished presenting our own side of the case, George kept quiet, and we waited for the opposite party and their counsel.
"You don't take us seriously at all, do you?" he asked.
I expected this, so I relaxed in my chair and listened.
"Even after things have come to this and we've even granted you the courtesy of a settlement appointment you're still letting your lackey handle it instead of you? How fucking disrespectful are you planning to continue to be?"
Usually, I would find a way to amicably let things go, but I wasn't in the fucking mood.
"You manipulated my client for an entire evening," I said. "Not only did you invite him out under the pretense of discussing your collaboration on the new site, you use his penchant for alcohol against him and get him just drunk enough to agree to award you the contract at the fucking exorbitant rate you propose, and now you're here whining about me not taking this seriously?” I sat up. "You're right. I didn't take this nonsense seriously because only a moron would be blind not to see what happened here. You made him gamble first, lost all your money on purpose, and then made him feel indebted to you. That, coupled with the alcohol consumption, and you swooped in for your prey and closed the deal.”
