She was focused.
But she was interrupted by her assistant, who came in bearing lunch. Normally, Emily appreciated the break. She was a huge fan of good mental health. But today, she was hoping she could avoid Marissa.
“Dude, Seb is so hot! Why didn’t you tell me you had a hot best friend?” Marissa accused as soon as she entered, as if she’d been holding in her words for hours. Knowing her, she really was. The only reason Emily wouldn’t even think about firing her was that Marissa never broke the ‘gossip reserved for lunch breaks’ rule.
But she needed to set things straight right away to curtail the rumors. “Three things, he’s Sebastian or Mr. Raux, he’s not hot, and we barely know each other. He was exaggerating,” Emily clarified.
Marissa cleared Emily’s table, which was surprisingly messy today, and placed their lunches. “Three things, he asked me to call him Seb, he is extremely, undeniably very, very hot, and he shared your high school pictures with us. You were totally best friends, and you looked nerdy as a kid,” Marissa said, beaming.
Emily’s face went hot. “What pictures?” she asked.
“I wasn’t surprised by the bangs, honestly. I expected you to have them. But I’m thankful you decided to retire them. They’d make your face look tinier,” Marissa continued, completely ignoring Emily. She extended both her hands, framing Emily’s face without touching her like a movie director. “Yeah, long hair brings out your sharp cheekbones so much better. And you’re lucky your hair has always been so straight, otherwise, maintaining bangs would have been a nightmare. By the way, where did your glasses go?”
“You know what, I’ll deal with it,” Emily fumed. She let her anger carry her to Sebastian’s office. Marissa was clearly not going to be of any help.
“Will you two have your lunch together? That’s so cute. Let me update the group chat!” she heard Marissa’s faint voice as she left her office.
What group chat? Urgh, that was a problem for future Emily. She pushed the door open without knocking. She wasn’t feeling very civil anymore.
Sebastian looked up from his screen with an easy smile that Emily immediately wanted wiped away. He appeared calm, as if he was expecting her to barge in. She didn’t have the time to hate how Sebastian always finds a way to be in control of every situation. She was on a mission.
“What pictures are you showing everyone?” Emily demanded.
Sebastian leaned back on his chair, relaxed as ever. “Oh, you want to see?” he said gleefully. He even opened his phone.
“No, I don’t want to see!” Emily growled. “Why are you showing pictures to my staff?”
Sebastian didn’t even look up from his phone. “Oh, I cleared it with Candace. She said it was okay!” he deadpanned, as if that answered everything.
Emily could feel her blood pressure rising. She wasn’t even sure if you could physically feel that. But she was sure her blood had reached its boiling point. She wanted to snatch Seb’s phone away, so he could see how angry she was.
“I’m still talking to you,” she declared instead of behaving like a five-year-old.
Sebastian looked up, a bit surprised. Emily celebrated the small win before that stupid smile was back on his face. “Of course. You know you always have all my attention,” he said.
Emily had the sudden urge to pick up the pen holder in front of the desk and throw it at Seb’s face. That surprised her because she had never thrown anything at anyone’s face in her entire twenty-six years of life.
Sebastian looked at the pen holder and moved it away from her. Could he read minds now? “Wow, Em, loving theviolent streak! Anyway, look.” He turned his phone to show her the screen.
It was a disgusting collage of their pictures from high school and college, with the last one from this morning. But Emily didn’t look angry in it. Huh! Maybe she had finally perfected her ‘no, I’m not planning murder in my head, I’m a sweet person’ smile. It could also be because of dozens of tiny hearts spread around the pictures.
“Why would you make something so offensive?” Emily asked. She expected Sebastian to change over the years, but going batshit crazy was one thing she could not have predicted. Maybe that’s why he left without a word?
“I’m truly flattered you think I’m talented enough to do this. But it was shared on the group chat. People are shipping us!” he said cheerfully.
“What group chat?” she asked, feeling too lost to even retain her anger.
“Oh, of course, you’re not on it. You’re a narc,” Sebastian said with pity. “There’s another picture,” he said, moving his thumb over the phone. He looked at her doubtfully. “On second thought, I won’t show you, or the vein in your forehead will explode.” He kept his phone down.
Emily narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop sharing pictures with my team!” she ordered, truly feeling like she was throwing a fit.
“You got it!” Sebastian said and winked.
That was as clear and concise as she could be. So, she turned around and walked back to her office without any goodbyes.
Marissa was still in her office, slowly chipping away at her lunch.
“Why am I not on the team group chat?” she asked once she settled.
