I push the button to lower the window a crack, praying he doesn’t notice. For a few seconds, there is nothing but the silence of a snowy night, and then Delaney’s voice, distant but perfectly audible, filters into the car through the still air.
“Adrian,” she purrs. “How are you? That was quite the disappearing act.”
A fresh wave of pain rakes my insides like a spoon scrapes pumpkin guts. Why is he calling her now?
“Delaney, I want to make something clear, and I want to do it now.” Adrian’s voice is clear and sure. His back is to the car, but I can hear him easily.
“Sure thing, boss.” She laughs, clearly aiming for casual, but even this far away, I catch the hint of unease. “What do you have for me?”
Does shemeaneverything she says to sound like a double entendre? She’s a living big-tittied cartoon.
“First and foremost, you’re terminated, effective immediately. Secondly, I want to be clear, if I haven’t been in the past, we fucked, but there is no relationship between us. There wasn’t before, and there isn’t now. I made a mistake, and I assume I’ll pay for it. If you feel you are being treated unfairly, seeking redress is certainly your prerogative. You have my lawyers’ number. James will clear out your office. He’ll call you to see where you’d like the boxes shipped.”
“A-Adrian, what the hell?” she sputters. “Is your wife making you do this? You can’t be serious. It was just sex. We were just having a good time. You could’ve said no. This isbullshit.”
“Nevertheless,” he says. That’s it.Nevertheless.
“You can’t fire me! Iearnedthis job!” Her voice rises in pitch with each word. I sink down in the car seat as if her volume is somehow going to bust me for eavesdropping. “You think clients won’t go with me? You think I’ll go quietly? Fuck you, Adrian Maddox, you’re a goddamn cliché. Your wife is a fuckingchild. You men are all the same, picking little girls who don’t know better because grown women can smell your bullshit a mile away.”
I hate her, but she’s not wrong. The funny thing is, by the way Adrian’s shoulders stiffen, he knows it, too.
When she pauses to take a breath, he uses the opportunity to say, “This conversation is over.”
He ends the call, paces a few steps, and immediately dials another number.
“Yes, sir.” James answers halfway through the first ring.
“Delaney Pierson has been terminated. Deactivate her badge and accounts. Tomorrow, I’ll need you to notify HR and box up her office.”
“Yes, sir. Consider it done. Anything else?”
“I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future. Report there tomorrow. Let Michelle know. She can Zoom in.”
“Yes, sir.”
He hangs up, tucks his phone away, and then stares for a few long moments at the abandoned gas station before he strides back to the car.
He’s too quick, and my reactions are too slow. As soon as he settles in his seat, his eyes land on the cracked window. He raises an eyebrow. I raise mine back.
He raps on the divider, and the driver pulls off, retracing his way back onto the highway.
Adrian silently exhales, his shoulders lowering. “I should have done that weeks ago,” he says.
I shrug. He should have.
“I should have told her to get out when she walked through the door of the restaurant. She knew you’d be there.”
“Why didn’t you?” He doesn’t have problems barking orders, and he’s never affected by other people’s discomfort.
“Tonight? I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
“Why care now but not that night?” In the apartment, hedidn’t even ask her to hop off his dick. As a matter of fact, he demanded that she stay put.
“I cared.”
I snort. “You ordered me out, and then you lectured me about using the kids and told me to suck it up.”
He leans back in his seat, his head dropping against the rest. His legs are so long, they crowd the space between us. I could reach out and touch his knee. His thigh.
