“Is it? Because if I didn’t know this was an arrangement, I’d swear he was crazy about her.”
“Exactly. He’s a good actor. He’s been in the spotlight his whole life; he knows how to turn on the charm when he needs to. But there’s no way any of it is real. He’sAsher Langford. He can have any woman he wants. He was forced to take on Ella.”
“He was forced into this situation, but hechoseElla.”
“Yeah, after she clearly set her sights on him. The night we all went to the club, she showed up looking like a slut. Remember how they were just holding hands out of nowhere? She rode in his car that night, and I’d bet anything she sucked him off on the way there.”
“Shh! God, Daphne, do you have a death wish? You can’t just say shit like that.”
“No one can hear me in here.”
“Why do you care about this so much? While I highly doubt anything like that happened with Ella, he still chose her.”
“I care because this is supposed to be a PR improvement for his image, and it’s been nothing but a nightmare.”
“That’s not true. Their trip to London was one slam dunk after another. Asher even said the executives at Lennox Rose were so taken with Ella that it was a huge factor in their agreement to sign with Langford Holdings. There was also the movie premiere. That was another huge hit.”
“What are you, Ella’s little bitch? Why are you defending her?”
“Because that’s my job, and in case you forgot, it’s yours too. Whatever this petty jealousy is you have with Ella, you’d better figure out how to forget it, or it’s going to cost you your job.”
Daphne scoffs. “I’m not jealous.”
“Please. You’re so jealous, and you’re barely even quiet about it. We can all see it, and I’m sure Emily’s about at the end of her rope.”
“I’m not jealous, I’mannoyed. If Asher had chosen an heiress like he was supposed to, our jobs would be a lot easier.”
“Who’s to say? All those heiresses had major skeletons in their closets. We would be fighting stories like this no matter what. It comes with the territory of dating Mr. Langford.”
“Yeah, well neither of them would have had a psycho ex-boyfriend come for them with a gun. This isn’t just PR, this is like a trashy cop show.” Her voice is slightly distorted as she speaks, then she finishes with a popping sound, like she’s just finished applying lipstick or something.
“No matter what it is, you still need to do your job. And you need to remember that even if Mr. Langford hadn’t chosen an heiress, and he hadn’t chosen Ella, he still wouldn’t have chosenyou. You need to come back down to earth and stop being salty about the fact that you somehow think he chose Ella over you.”
“Fuck you,” Daphne hisses.
“See? You’re defensive. You’ve somehow convinced yourself into thinking you were an option when you never were. Ella wasn’t supposed to be an option, but she and Mr. Langford clearly have a connection. So, get over it and do your job.”
“Ella is nothing but a white-trash slut who somehow got into Mr. Langford’s head, and you won’t convince me otherwise.”
Heelsclackagainst the marble again and then a door slams. A few seconds later, a second set of footsteps follows, and the door opens and closes again. God, I can’t even escape the ridicule at work. I’ll have to thank Heather for standing up for me, but I want to strangle Daphne.
I go to the sink and wash up, then head back to the conference room. I’m so worked up I’m ready to confront Daphne, butI stop short when I see a delivery man set a massive vase of flowers on my desk. I decide I don’t want to confront her in front of the team and create more drama, so I let it go for now and head to my desk.
I try to tip the delivery man, but he waves me off and tells me it’s already been taken care of. Emily and Heather come to stand by me, clearly curious and wary.
“Who are they from?” Emily asks as I pluck the card from the arrangement. I open it and groan as I read the note.
I blow out a breath and show her the card. “They’re from Blake Covington, Vericom’s CEO. He sends his condolences on what transpired and tells me to call him if I need anything or if I need better security measures.”
“That was nice of him.”
I let out a humorless chuckle. “Nice or not, I need to get rid of these.”
“Why?”
“This isn’t the first time Blake Covington has sent me flowers, and Asher was less than thrilled the last time.”
Emily raises her brows.
