Well, that was wise because Emily was furious now. “So over a year? You didn’t tell me you’ve been talking to him for more than a year?” Emily asked.
“It started slow,” Ray confessed. At least she had the courtesy to look guilty. “He said he tried talking to you, too, but you won’t text him back or pick up his calls.”
“You talked to him aboutme?” Emily asked. Somehow, that seemed worse than her best friend choosing Seb over her. Again.
“I mean, you’ve been a part of most of our conversations since school, Em. You know that. I don’t know what you want me to say. He’s trying, you know?” Ray, the betrayer, said.
“Wow! Have we suddenly gone back to being eighteen? Now I’m worried if that is evenmygodchild in your belly!” Emily accused.
“Of course it’s yours!” Ray said, offended. “The next one, however…” she said, smiling now.
“I hate you so much right now! I don’t know how this guy is always steamrolling my life,” Emily complained.
“C’mon, you don’t really feel that, babe. Talk to him!” Ray said, a little sternly.
“And why would I do that? If I craved conversations with selfish bastards, I'd just download Tinder!” Emily narrowed her eyes.
“Maybe because you haven’t been on a single date in the last four years?” Ray countered.
“That’s because I’ve been working on myself. It has nothing to do with that useless liar!”
“For someone who had not been single for more than a few months since middle school, that’s a drastic U-turn. Forgive me for worrying!” Ray argued.
“You know what? You’re being annoying. Go sleep,” Emily said. Ray’s pregnancy brain was obviously making her too trusting of even the worst betrayers, so Emily decided she shouldn't be too angry. At least until the baby was out of her.
Besides, Emily accepted years ago that she’ll have to share Ray with Sebastian, however unfortunate and frustrating it was right now. He was there for her when no one else was, and Ray would never forget that.
“I really should,” she admitted. “Hey Em, I know he hurt you, and I’m not trying to minimize that, but I think you should hear him out,” she said, looking resigned to her request being ignored.
“I don’t think I can. But I’m okay with you being his friend again,” Emily offered.
“Thanks for your blessing,” Ray said, rolling her eyes. “Now go home. Love you!”
“Love you,” Emily said and disconnected the call.
Emily hated that she didn’t see this coming. This man was on a quest to destroy all the parts of her life. But Emily wouldn’t let him. Not this time!
***
The time Emily dreaded but knew was unavoidable came a week later. Sebastian finally took up his responsibilities, and the first day went as well as Emily had imagined.
Emily burst into Sebastian’s office for what felt like the twentieth time that day. “Why did you change the estimate for the entire project?” They had already discussed this, and she was sure they agreed on the numbers. But apparently, Sebastian had decided to completely ignore the contents of the entire two-hour meeting.
“Hey Emily, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you can no longer survive without seeing my face every five minutes,” Sebastian greeted her with a huge grin on his face.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Why the new changes, Sebastian?”
A knock on the door interrupted Emily’s interrogation. “Come in,” she said.
Marissa came in breathing heavily. “Oh, thank god, Seb is still alive,” Marissa said, literally sighing with relief. Emily fought the urge to roll her eyes again, she realized she’d been doing it too much lately. Maybe that was the reason behind her recent, almost constant headaches? Or it was the person in front of her fighting a smile.
“Barely,” he said, making his eyes bigger. Were his lips quivering? Why were these people working in a marketing agency? They clearly belonged in a theatre.
Marissa turned to her and said, “It’s not Seb’s fault, Em. I just saw that some of the miscellaneous costs were calculated twice, so I removed them before forwarding the final budget to you.”
Emily slumped on one of the chairs, confused. “How could this have happened, though? We discussed everything on the call last week,” she contemplated out loud.
“It’s okay. I can sit back and go through everything again just to be sure,” Marissa offered. “Although…” she took out her phone and looked at something. “Actually, it’s okay, I can just not go,” she said and kept the phone back.
