Love was a bitch.And Justin was a bastard. He’d never beaten me to work before Georgina had come along, but evidently, today was the second time he’d managed it in a few weeks. I found him inmyoffice, leaning back inmychair, feet onmydesk and arms behind his head. “Well, well,” he said, making a point to check his watch. “Look who decided to show up. Latenight?”
“It’s barely ten,” I grumbled, furtively checking Georgina’s desk. It was just as she’d left it Friday afternoon. She must’ve been running behind this morning aswell.
“So, how’d itgo?”
“What?” I asked, dropping my briefcase next to his feet. He was mining for details about my night with Georgina, but after our argument that morning, I was in no mood to shoot theshit.
“You stopped answering my text messages after the movie last night,” Justin said, “so I can onlyassume. . .”
“You know what they say about assumptions.” I kicked the rolling chair so his feetfell.
He jumped up. “What the hell,man?”
“I’ve told you a million times to keep your grimy shoes off mydesk.”
“Jesus. For a guy who just got laid, you’re in a pretty shittymood.”
“Yeah, well.” I took my rightful throne. “I got some bad newsearlier.”
“Really?” Justin asked as he moved his plebeian ass to the couch. “Just completed my morning rounds for office gossip and didn’t hear shit. What isit?”
I was still reeling, even though I’d suspected this could happen. I wasn’t sure what pissed me off more—that Vance had told Georgina before me, or that she’d had the audacity to accuse me of manipulating her with sex. Maybe it was how she’d treated me like her ex when I’d only wanted to convey that her kindness was a strength, not aweakness.
I got up and shut the office door before returning to my desk. “Vance offered Georgina myposition.”
“What?” Justin shot forward on the sofa. “How are you not throwing things rightnow?”
“Georgina and I already had it out at her apartment this morning.” Ihadthrown out some words I regretted, but the strange part was that I hadn’t been as angry about potentially getting fired as I’d expected. That’d only come once she’d started in on me. “At least, we began to until she slammed the door in myface.”
“The whole point of having sex was to release the tension you two have been forcing on us for months. Where does she get off being mad atyou?”
The argument had happened so fast and gone downhill so quickly, I was still trying to figure out what the fuck had happened. “She’s upset because I didn’t consider what the job could do for her career. Instead, I just assumed she wouldn’t take it, but what the fuck was I supposed to think? It’smyjob, and she knows what it means tome.”
“I’m guessing by her reaction that it also means something toher.”
Not the job itself, but maybe what it represented—confirmation that she’d succeeded in the position despite the environment I’d created for her. Calling her unqualified had been below the belt. It wasn’t true. She deserved the offer, I just wished it wasn’t at myexpense.
The worst part was that it’d evenoccurredto her I might exploit the thing I liked most about her—her authenticity, generosity, the way she considered others. I didn’t know how anyone could see that as weakness, but that was what Neal had taughther.
I had a lot to apologize for when she gotin.
“She’s not planning to take the job,” I told Justin. “At least, she wasn’t before this morning. Who knowsnow.”
“Ah.” Justin extended an arm along the back of the sofa. “I wonder if that’s why she’s talking toVance.”
I froze in the middle of booting up my computer. “Rightnow?”
“Yeah. She didn’t even put her stuff down, just went right to hisoffice.”
“Fuck.” That was it, then. I’d pissed her off enough to accept the position. I’d barely had time to process all this, much less dust off myrésumé.
Who was I kidding? I’d worked my way up as an intern. I didn’t have a fucking résuméanymore.
And yet, as Georgina had pointed out, maybe moving on fromModern Manwouldn’t be such a bad thing. It had certainly opened my eyes finding out that, after I’d sucked it up and played ball when they’d hired Georgina, I still wasn’t valued by Vance or theboard.
I rubbed the inside corners of my eyes. “I should go inthere.”
“I wouldn’t.” Justin shook his head. “Let her cool off. Maybe just keep your mouth shut until she comes toyou.”
