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She inhaled sharply and folded her hands on the table. Nodding her head and staring out into the room at no one in particular, she didn’t say a word.
I looked between her and her mother and wondered if this was a normal conversation between them. Was there always this much tension?
“I thank you, Mother. But I do not need a bodyguard.” She stood up to leave, and my body automatically followed her movements.
“Nikole, sit back down,” the governor called out.
“I will not.” She turned to grab her coat.
“You have no choice in the matter.” Her mother threw back at her.
Nikole smiled sweetly, but her eyes burned. “Oh, yes, I do. Just watch me.”
I stood to follow her, and she caught my gaze once again. “Jacob? Is that your name?”
“Yes.”
“Nice to finally meet you, Jacob,” she said with that same controlled smile.
“It’s nice—”
She put up her hand to stop me. “That’s not necessary,” she said. “Because we won’t be speaking for much longer. You’re fired. Good day.”
She turned, opened the door, and left.
The silence that followed her exit was deafening. It was followed by the shouting in my head.
Fuck.
Did she just leave me standing here?
Yes, just like I had done to her. The irony was not lost on me. Well, she would definitely be a challenge. But I was ready for her.
4
Nikole
The door slammed behind me and for a moment I regretted the dramatic exit, but then my fists curled at my sides and my anger returned.
How dare my mother try to control my life again? Did she think I was that seventeen-year-old girl she could tell what to do, what to wear, and which school to attend? Well, if she did, then I quickly disabused her of that notion.
And him!
Of all the men on this planet, it had to be him standing in her apartment. What kind of sick sense of humor did fate have? As though I wasn’t humiliated enough the other night, I had to be faced with the one man who found me so off-putting that he couldn’t even sit and have a twenty-minute coffee date with me.
Oh no, I would not give either of them the satisfaction. I was tired of being the biddable daughter. I would not be told what to do.
I inhaled, and my shoulders loosened at the realization that I had done it. I had walked out on my mother and fired a complete stranger simply out of spite. While it may seem immature, for me it was finally a step in the right direction. I was putting myself first.
“Nikole, wait.”
Jacob called after me. I pressed the ‘close door’ button in the elevator and watched as he came dangerously close to reaching me. His body moved faster than I would have imagined a man his size would move. His arms were the size of my thighs. When he was only a couple of feet away, I waved at him as the elevator doors pressed softly together.
The old me would have thought that rude, but not now. Setting boundaries with my mother was exactly what I needed to do. Firing Jacob, in particular, was just a happy coincidence.
The elevator made two stops on the way down and with each descending floor, my spirit felt lighter and my smile grew brighter until the doors opened and Jacob stood in front of me.
His chest heaved with each breath, and when he saw me, he grasped his knees and lowered his head, panting.
