She was fine with not knowing. She could leave this company, leave all of this behind without ever knowing. It was the reason why she refused to talk to him. She was too afraid to find out. She had come to terms with the fact that there were parts of their relationship that were all pretend, but she was afraid to find out exactly which parts those were. That bit of information would be heartbreaking, yet not necessarily devastating.
But if she found out that he was still in love with Trisha…
That she wouldn’t be able to recover from. That would mean he had just redirected his feelings for a short space of time. That would mean he did pretend until it felt real. She didn’t want to find that out. She could go through life quite comfortably without ever confirming that. It was better to remain heartbroken and semi-delusional. It was better to torture herself with the what-ifs than ever know that with certainty.
This was why she needed to leave. Apart from their discussion in his office last week, Tyler hadn’t said one word about her career move. It seemed to be bothering him but he’d said nothing more on the matter. Actually, he’d been acting very strange. Even when she was curt and rude, he simply smiled and countered it with politeness. There was a part of her that wanted him to be as hurt and miserable as she was, but he refused to give her the satisfaction.
A ringing phone distracted her and when she saw the number, her heart sank a little. Kevin never called and now his number was lighting up her screen.
“Hey, Bink,” she said warily.
“Jo-jo…” His voice shook, trembling as if he’d been crying. That was even more worrying because Kevin rarely cried.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, panic racing through her.
“I need your help.”
“Anything. What do you need?”
More constricted breaths. “I need you to get me back home.”
“Okay.” With quivering hands, she reached for a pen and paper. “Tell me where you are.”
She got his location and hung up the phone. She spent the next few minutes on the phone with a cab company relaying the information and then she waited. It was almost four hours later when she got a text from her brother to let her know he was safely on his way back home and finally the tension left her body. Kevin only told her where he was. He gave no further information and, because he was so distraught, she hadn’t asked. Worry had her wound up pretty tight and she took a few minutes to just breathe. She didn’t care why he needed her help. The only thing that mattered was that he was safe.
When she eventually had the brain capacity to focus on work again, she encountered an email. Worry turned to pure rage. This day was going to shit!
She marched up two flights of stairs and stormed straight to Tyler’s office. He stopped talking to Matthew when she barged in.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she shouted.
“Please elaborate,” he responded politely.
“You know what I’m talking about. I just got an email from Alex Partridge informing me that Royal Holdings has cancelled my employment contract.”
He tried to hold back a smile and she wanted to throw something at him.
“That’s such a shame,” Matt said with fake sympathy.
“You told them I have a drinking problem?!”
“Jordan, you know I would never do anything to sabotage your career.” He was still looking way too amused for her liking.
“Well, Timothy and Alex seem to be under the impression that myproblemhas gotten so bad, I now take sick days to stay at home and drink.”
“Don’t you?” he asked.
“If I recall correctly, that did happen,” Matthew added. “You’re lucky you work here, Jordan. Most employers would frown upon that behavior…which is probably why you didn’t get the job. But we’re gonna help you through this. The first step is admitting you have a problem.”
She hated them. She hated them with every fucking cell in her body. “Idon’thave a drinking problem and you have no proof that I do, so I’m gonna call Timothy—”
“Actually, I do have this…one little drunk voice note.” Tyler couldn’t hold it back anymore. A shit-eating grin curved on those sexy lips and she wanted to strangle him.
“Please tell me you didn’t send that to him,” she said, her words laced with bitterness and humiliation.
“I told you I didn’t send him anything. And Timothy would never believe it if it came from me.”
“That’s why we got Stewart to send it.” Matthew smiled at her then too. “A letter ofnon-recommendation and a voice note with you saying such awful things about yourboss…it reeks of insubordination. And to get that from the Operations Director with such credibility in the field…Timothy gobbled it up without question.”
