Page 2 of Miss Belief

“My evening was good too, but Chloe left this morning, and so I’m sad, which is an emotion I have a hard time with, but thanks for asking. Really appreciate it.”

Asshole.There was no heat to my internal thought as it wasn’t actually true. Or at least he’d never shown these asshole tendencies before the breakup. I shook my head, missing the considerate, funny, friendly Reid.

I contemplated many ways I could broach the subject of his attitude. But thoughtfulness in speaking was not a skill I possessed. In other words, I didn’t know how to tell him, with tact and grace, to get his shit together.

Hoping to get my mind off it all, I began perusing my email until someone approached.

“Teagan, right?”

The voice belonged to a handsome young guy with an easy smile. I thought I recognized him perhaps working in Technical Support? Was his name Ned or Ted? I couldn’t remember if we’d ever been officially introduced.

His eyes, which had zoned in on my breasts, finally wandered up to my face. There you go, buddy, my eyes are up here. In his defense, my perfect C cups were hard to ignore on my tall, thin frame. Guess I had one thing for which to thank my worthless mother.

Although boob-gazer blondie was cute with his big brown eyes, he wasn’t winning any points with his lack of eye contact. But at least he was blushing as though he hadn’t meant to ogle.

“Yes. I’m Teagan.”

“I’m Fred. I work in Tech Support, and have seen you around.”

I tended to stick out, being the only five-foot-ten, red-haired, pale-skinned girl in the entire building. And considering I lived in the company's corporate housing, it made sense we’d probably seen each other at some point. “Yes, you look familiar, Fred. What can I help you with?”

“Um, I’m not quite sure how to say this.”

Was he about to ask me out? I was about to tell him I didn’t date people I work with when he surprised me.

“It’s about your boss.”

My brows shot up. “What about him?”

“Well, last night I was working the midnight-to-nine a.m. shift when Mr. Maxwell called because he couldn’t remember his password. No big deal except he couldn’t seem to follow instructions over the phone for resetting it, so I came up here to his office in order to help. I noticed the strong smell of alcohol on his breath. He seemed like he’d had a few too many.”

My lips flattened. I’d suspected Reid of drinking at night by his hungover appearance each morning, but this was beyond what was acceptable. Sure, I was hungover this morning too, but the alcohol was out of my system by the time I entered the building. “What time was this?”

“About two o’clock in the morning.”

Reid had no reason to be in the office at that hour. No international calls. No extra work I knew of. “Did you tell anyone else?”

Fred’s head was already shaking. “No. Mr. Maxwell has always been nice to me. Remembers my name when other directors don’t bother to recall anyone below the title of manager. Anyhow, I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I wanted to share it with you in case there’s something you could maybe do. I’d hate to see anything happen if it were to be another analyst who helps him next time.”

I was instantly grateful. “Thank you for your discretion. Yes. He’s, uh, going through some personal stuff.”

He sighed. “I figured. And hey, at least he didn’t drive drunk.”

Considering the strict laws in Dubai, I imagined the penalty for driving drunk would be severe. “Thanks for helping him. And for coming to me.”

“Sure. Take care.”

I sat there for a full minute after Fred left processing what he’d said. I couldn’t not say something to Reid now. This was it. It was the limit.

It was time for an intervention.