"Enough," she snapped, and she struck his arm hard enough that he pulled back, letting me go. "Get out."
"I will not!" he protested, but I saw the few men at the bar lined up, staring at us, two of them stood watching, as if to say they were there to help should help be needed.
"You will or I'll call the police. You're drunk and you're assaulting one of my customers." Regan stood between us with her arms crossed and her jaw jutted out. "Get out."
"I paid for three beers and I got one. I'm not leaving." Clayton looked ready to push her as she stepped closer to him to prove her point, that she was in charge, not him.
"Come back when you're sober and I'll give you a refund, but you're not welcome here anymore." She refused to back down while I stood behind her sobbing, covering my face.
"This isn't over, Porter," Clayton growled. I heard footsteps and his voice got quieter, but he kept talking as he retreated. "I'm gonna ruin you. The whole board will know you were just a pawn this whole time. You don't get your cake and eat it too. Asher will know how you lied and he'll hate you."
The bell chimed as I felt Regan's arms wrap around me, but all I could do was stand and sob. Clayton was going to ruin my life. I had no doubt about it. And even telling Asher the truth now would do no good. Rega had been right from the beginning.
The only thing in this for me was heartbreak now.
"Come on, let’s get you cleaned up." Regan nudged me and guided me toward the bathrooms while I let out every ounce of heartbreak hoping this was the worst because if it got worse than this, I knew I couldn’t take it.
When a heart breaks it doesn't break even.
21
ASHER
The radiant smile on Veda's face had me captivated. I was ten minutes late to a meeting, still hovering over her desk speaking with her, and I had no intention of rushing out. She'd been moved to report fully to Jared now that I was getting sober and the board understood my duty was not to train interns. Clayton's little plan to hire a babysitter for me had backfired on him. The only thing that had come of that was my complete rehabilitation.
"Look, I know how you work, Mr. Locke." God it jazzed me when she called me that. "You only like visiting my desk because you're thinking of how you'd like to bend me over it." Veda's flirty comments had me going. My body was juiced up and ready to pound her, just like every time we engaged in banter but we were both wise enough to maintain professional decorum at work.
I had only stopped by to see if she was okay because she was a few minutes late this morning and she looked extra tired. It was worrying for me, though I was the type of guy who hovered and micromanaged. Emma used to hate me for that. I wouldn't lether lift a finger when she was pregnant and I got told a number of times what a pain I was.
So to see Veda looking like she hadn't slept, seeing her skip breakfast in favor of a few peppermint candies out of her desk and a cup of tea, and watching her pore over documents that had her looking anxious and stressed out made my heart go out to her. No meeting in the world was more important than making sure she was okay.
"Ms. Porter, you're going to get me in trouble."
"That's what I was hoping for," she said cheekily, and though she smiled it didn't reach her eyes.
"Hope you're not distracting our star intern, Mr. Locke. Veda's working on those grant proposals you asked for." Jared breezed up to her desk and stood there with a few file folders in his hand, which he dropped next to the work Veda was doing on her desk.
"Not at all…" I stood from where I had perched on the edge of the desk and smoothed my slacks. It was no shock to see me there. Everyone in this place knew I was dating her since the board announcement. But Jared was good at keeping us accountable and focused on work.
"You know, Mr. Locke, I'm seeing a different side of you. I haven't had one complaint from any of my team this week that you were out of control with them." Jared grinned. "It's good to see you getting sober and being more relaxed."
"He's doing incredible, right?" Veda chimed in. She took the stack of papers Jared had dropped and focused on them, but I swore I saw a hint of disappointment flash across her face.
"Well thank you for noticing, Jared. I can't even take offense to that comment about being out of control. I know I've been a bit of a bear…" Straightening my tie, I looked down at Veda again. I couldn't tell if she was voiding eye contact now or if she felt awkward speaking with me due to Jared's hovering. But I got the point. It was time to move on. " I have a meeting, if you'll excuse me."
"Of course," Jared stated.
I walked away, feeling much better about the state of things between Veda and I now that our work week was back in full swing. I'd been irrational when she left my place Saturday morning. It was clear to me now that Veda was stressed out, maybe by work or by how the dynamic had shifted between her and her coworkers. Instead of being skeptical and suspicious, I'd chosen to be respectful and compassionate.
Robert encouraged me Saturday night during that dinner that it was all part of the process of recovery. I had to accept hard truths and let go of trying to control things. It was the only way to force my emotions to listen to me so I wouldn’t feel the urge to control everything else.
I was on cloud nine as I walked into the conference room where Robert sat across the table from Clayton, who stood talking with a laser pointer in hand. On the whiteboard at the far end of the room were projection numbers, bar graphs, and the title "branding acquisition."
I stopped by the door, still halfway across the threshold as I read the words on the whiteboard and my body went through a shift from calm and relaxed to tense and angry in just a few heartbeats.
Two other board members sat at the table too, staring up at the screen before turning to look at me. And Clayton still kept talking as if I hadn’t just walked in.
"So it appears we'll get a great deal on this, probably only seventy-five percent of market value, which is incredible for a company this size." He turned to look at me as he clicked his laser pointer and the screen shifted.
