“Sure.” I didn’t want her to suspect I knew anything more about Graham than she did. I surely didn’t want her to know we’d dated. I wished so hard I could be repulsed by the mere suggestion he was good looking, but I couldn’t. I’d always been drawn to him, and as much as I hated it, after everything he’d done to me, my eyes magnetically shifted down the hall to the transparent boardroom walls.
Graham sat at the head of the boardroom table; his chair angled a little sideways. One arm was on the table, presenting the sleeve of his suit jacket. Relaxed in his chair, he had one leg crossed at the ankle over the other as he leaned back. He wore an arrogance I’d never seen on him before. Whatever had happened to him these last ten years had changed him, made him different. Cocky. I didn’t like it. He never used to be like that. His lack of arrogance had been the thing that had drawn me to him.
“I’m going to work out here today. The light feels better.” I cleared my throat as I broke my gaze from Graham before I got caught staring at him. After all, glass walls were transparent in two directions. I took steps down the hall, calling back. “I’m going to grab my stuff—” I froze in the doorway, jaw dropped.
A mason jar of dandelions sat on my desk.
They were mangled, and half wilted, way beyond anything you could pass for rustic chic, but it was the exact thing thatmelted my heart. Graham knew me. I wasn’t into grand gestures or anything expensive. It was the little things that spoke to my heart. The backs of my eyes pricked with tears.
This couldn’t happen.
He was pretending nothing had happened. It’s like he was trying to pick up where we’d left off. He couldn’t do that because he was leaving out the chapter when he’d ghosted me. This would never work.
We weren’t friends.
We definitely weren’t going to be friends with any benefits.
I strolled to my desk, grabbed the vase, and was about to empty it on his chair but paused. If I did that, he’d know it had affected me. That would only encourage him. I knew how he was. He wouldn’t give up on anything until he took it too far. That included the way he’d dumped me. Fingers trembling, I replaced the weeds on my desk.
“I seized those days.” Graham’s gravelly voice wafted from behind me, startling me to full attention, and I almost knocked the jar over.
The way Graham always teased a little poetry was a bullet to my heart. Swallowing, I kept my chin down as I fumbled for my notebook and favorite fountain pen. “You seized the wrong days.”
He moved to the front of my desk, but I didn’t look up, even when his scent wafted under my nose, making my knees buckle, a muted amber musk I’d never smelled on him before that blended well with his natural fragrance. Just another thing about him that had changed. “I seized all my yesterdays with you.”
“Shows, because you’re clearly stuck in the past.” I sidestepped, taking the long way back to the exit in obvious avoidance of him.
“My meeting’s over.” His feet stayed planted in front of my desk, as if he thought I cared to talk to him.
“I’m working next to Mabel today,” I muttered.
“That’s fine.” In my periphery, I could see him rub his chin. “Can you complete what needs to be done in the office today? Tomorrow, I need you to come with me to close on some condos in Naples.”
“That’s Finance's job,” I asserted as sternly as I could. “You don’t need legal at an acquisition closing.”
“I didn’t ask.”
I fought the urge to huff because I knew the game he was playing. I couldn’t show him that he was getting to me. “Time?”
“I’d like to leave early. Seven at the latest. I can pick you up on the way out of town.”
“I’ll be here at six forty-five.” I envisioned one of those swinging doors closing behind me as I paced down the hall, but unfortunately, there was no barrier between us, and I could feel his eyes on me the whole way.
I had to find a way out of this contract. My cheeks raged with heat. I’d rather scrub toilets than do this. I dropped my notes on the corner of Mabel’s receptionist desk, where I had worked before getting my own office. A sarcastic chuckle bleeped out of my lips. So much for getting my own office. I didn’t even have to force a pleading expression. The tension had already boiled past my neck. “I’m having a hard time focusing back there.”
“Ah, you miss me.” Mabel's face was laced with a giant smile as she pushed her bowl of complimentary mints toward me and winked. “Happy to have you back. Have a treat.”
“Thanks.” I stuffed my hand in the jar, and pulled out a hard peppermint, squeezing it from the wrapper until it plopped into my mouth. I slumped onto my chair. After setting up my laptop, I pulled up my employment contract and zoomed in. Now, to find the loophole. The only thing I remembered adding requiredemployees to pay back two months’ salary to recoup training expenses. I didn’t have that much money. But taking out a loan might be worth it. Scouring the contract terms, I’d never wished for a typo more. Something to show this nightmare could end. Oddly, my gaze lowered to the keyboard.
The escape key!
That was what I needed.
I violently pressed it, ringing it over and over, but I stayed put.
My escape key was broken.
twenty
