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I’m so sorry about this. Was this handled? What happened with this?
Bella
She won’t respond until she’s in the office. She’s one of those “I stick to working hours only” and I actually admire that about her. And if Tom says everything is good, then I am not worried. If there is a signature still missing, I’ll correct it today. I make a mental note to look at the copies as soon as I get into the office.
Instead of worrying, I make River and me some breakfast and queue some music videos on. When a certain one comes on, I get distracted and spend the next four minutes sobbing.
When he comes into the kitchen and sees me crying, he rushes over, worried. “What’s wrong, Bella? Why are you crying? I will kill whoever made you this upset—”
I cry harder. “No, don’t kill him. It’s just, I watched Lewis Capaldi’s new music video and now I can’t stop crying.”
He pauses, studying me. “What?”
I restart the video clip and hand it to him. “Watch it and you will understand.”
Anything with animals in it makes me cry, I can’t help it.
He leans back against the counter and watches it, and then looks over at me, blue eyes as gentle as I’ve ever seen them. “You are very cute, you know that?”
I’m still wiping my eyes at this point. “How did that not make you cry, how?”
“It was very sad,” he admits, pulling me against him and stroking my back. “Anything with animals in it can be hard to watch.”
“I know,” I whimper, looking over at Hades, safe and warm in his bed. “I need to go and hug my dog right now.” He laughs and lets go of me as I all but climb into Hades’s bed and love on him. “Never leave me.”
He licks my face in return, and I take that as we have a deal.
River finishes up breakfast for us, and we eat it in the garden, sitting on the rattan love seat together. I do love the man. I meant what I said, though. I will not be in a relationship with someone who lies to me. I need to know what I’m getting into or else how can I really know the man I’m in love with? He obviously has some demons, but I know that he would never hurt me. I probably sound like an idiot with those famous last words, but I truly believe them. It’s what’s keeping me here.
Romeo calls River, sending us back into reality, and he leaves for the clubhouse while I get ready for work. When I get in the office, I pull up the paperwork from the Lansdale deal and see that my signature is in fact on the paperwork. Only I don’t remember signing it. Did Sally forge my name?
When Sally comes in, she brings coffee and doughnuts.
“Sally, can you come into my office for a moment?” I say.
She walks in. Sally is a petite woman with girlish features, someone who is hard to be angry at, but I can’t let this one slide.
“Close the door,” I say, and take a breath. I’m still not quite sure how to play this. Do I berate her and tell her to never do it again? But at the same time, she saved a hundred-million-dollar project. I can’t condone this behavior but at the same time I can’t yell at her for it. Shit. What would Julianna do?
“What happened with the Lansdale project?” Instead of making assumptions, I want to let her say her piece.
She starts wringing her hands. “Well, I emailed you and then I kept waiting for you to return to the office or call or email back. But it was 4 PM and I knew the papers needed to be in the seller’s agent’s office by five. So I started calling the emergency numbers you gave me, starting with Julianna.”
Okay, she is smart, she did all the right things. And I have to own my fuckup here.
She continues, “But no one was picking up until I got in touch with Rosalind Callisto. I think she’s Julianna’s sister? She said she’d be right in. You have on the information sheet that any Callisto can sign paperwork, so she signed. But...”
I sigh. “But you saw that she signed my name.”
Sally nods. “By the time she left, it was 4:45 and I knew if I left I could drive down to the seller’s agency to deliver the paperwork. So I made copies and delivered them. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. I assumed since Rosalind was a Callisto that she’d have authority, but I didn’t realize. Am I in trouble?”
Sally starts to tear up and I stand to give her a tissue. This is all my fault. My distractions almost cost a big deal. It put this poor girl in an uncomfortable position when all she did was follow directions. And fucking Rosalind. She’s been a wild card ever since she found out that Julianna was with Romeo, who she apparently was sleeping with before he met her sister.
“Sally, you did nothing wrong. I’m sorry you’re in this position. Please forget about it and I’ll figure out the best way to handle this.” I usher her out and sit back at my desk going over the possible solutions. I decide to call her.
“Hey, bitch, it’s been a while since you called,” Rosalind says in a cheerful tone. “What’s up? My sister’s an old married woman now, so you want to live it up?” Rosalind used to be so fun and easygoing. Over the last year she has turned bitter. I definitely went Team Julianna after everything went down and I haven’t been a great cousin.
“Hey, Ros, thanks for helping out at the office yesterday. Sally says you stopped by to sign some paperwork?”
