“No, honey, I— What the actualfuck,Ned?”
“What’s happening here?” Stan asked. “Why did you call her ‘honey’?”
“Because I love her and because I’m trying to help!”
My face went from ice-cold to red-hot. “This is the opposite of helping, Cole.”
“You two are in a relationship?” Anita demanded.
“This is utterly inappropriate,” Stan said. “Bridget, I’d have given you more credit than this.”
“What?” I yelped. “It was consensual.”
“You know better,” Anita said. She didn’t have to remind me that the woman always had more at risk.
Unfair as it was, I did know better. I needed to leave before I burst into tears and before Cole made me unemployable in Northern California. Clutching my severance package, which seemed more necessary by the minute, I stormed toward the elevators. A uniformed security guard appeared and followed.
“Bridget, don’t go like this,” Cole pleaded. “I can figure this out.”
“Of course you can,” I tossed over my shoulder. “After all, it’s just you now.”
The one thing that went right for me all day happened: I pressed the down arrow, and the elevator doors opened immediately. I stepped inside, and so did the security guard. I jammed the button to close the doors.
An arm like a small tree trunk blocked the door, and Cole’s face appeared. “Bridget, sweetheart, don’t go. I love you.”
“Do you? Or did you want to fuck me into a sense of security before you and Ned truly fucked me over?”
For the first time ever, I’d shocked him speechless. Anita, Stan, and Ned, too. They glared at me from behind him. As the doors closed, shutting out Cole’s wide-eyed face, I feared I’d never work in this town again.
I blocked his number before we made it to the ground floor.
36
UTTER DEFEAT
A challenge you’ve overcome?
Cole:I climbed El Capitan once.
Bridget:Every fucking day as a woman in technology leadership is a challenge.
COLE
We were back in our office. (I wouldn’t accept that it wasmyoffice alone.) Ned was sitting inherchair, and I sat in front of him in one of John’s old, humiliating guest chairs. We hadn’t taken the time to swap them out, and now that felt like a mistake. One among many. But a too-low chair was the least of my concerns right now.
The buzzing in my head was relentless. I gripped the hair at my temples to make it stop. “What the fuck, Ned?”
“I don’t know why you aren’t happier,” he said. “You’re CEO. Alone. It’s what you wanted.”
I balled my hands into fists. “No, it’s not. I wanted to share it with Bridget.”
“That’s not what you said two months ago when we initially offered you the position.”
“Everything’s different now.”
He snorted. “Now that you’re fucking her.”
I was on my feet before I realized I was moving. “Take that back.”
