With a final smile, he swaggered to the door like he thought he’d won.
A bell signaled his departure.
Jay waited until he was out of sight before grabbing her ruined sweater and what remained of her drink and hurrying out of the café. Her skin was crawling. A man shouted something at her from out the window of his car, but she barely noticed.Damon used to look at me like that, she thought, her skin going clammy.Right before he—
No. No, she wouldn’t think about that.
But this was just a taste of what awaited her if she did accept Nicholas’s proposal. Beyond the exquisite agony they brought out in one another, there was the judgement of the town to consider. The contempt and disgust would be bad enough but the sly, leering glances from men like Jake would be worse, because she would know what they were thinking. She would know and she—
Jay gripped the doorhandle to Beaucroft Assets and yanked it, letting herself into the building.
For a man who had grown up with so little physical affection in the home, Nicholas was very handsy. When he stood behind her while she was cooking, he would sometimes lay a hand on her waist as he asked about the ingredients or pestered her for a taste. If he passed her in the hall or she was getting in or out of his car, it wasn’t uncommon for him to catch her by the chin and pull her in for a kiss that left her feeling dizzy.
Too many times, she had stumbled into her bedroom afterone of his kisses and finished herself off until she was squeezing her eyelids so tightly shut that she saw the burst of phosphenes, wondering what cruel god had forced them together only to watch them repel with the violence of two opposing poles.
Jay dropped into her seat like a lead weight, exhausted by the exchange. Her cooling coffee sat beside her like a stark reminder.
Her phone buzzed.That’s your third coffee break. I believe the employee manual says that you can have two.
Jay pursed her lips. After their charged interaction in the kitchen that morning, she wondered if this was his attempt to bring things back to normal.
Finished torturing your clients already? It’s not even 3.
He sent her three devil emojis.I’d rather torture you.
I’m sure you can think of something else to do at your desk, Nicholas.
That was a mistake. Her phone began vibrating incessantly as the screen filled with bird, eggplant, and sweat droplet emojis. She glared up at the mezzanine, where Nicholas appeared to be propping his fist against his mouth in an attempt not to burst into laughter.
You are such a child.
Come teach me a lesson then.
By the way, I ran into one of your old friends in the coffee shop.
In the corner of her eye, she saw him sit up.Which one
Jake. He said to tell you hello.
Van Hoff?
Yes.
Three dots appeared. Then disappeared.
He didn’t write back again and the remaining hours of the day spun themselves around her in a slow web as she tried to focus on her work.
Arthur said goodbye to her at five and the lights went off at six with an audible hum. Jay could hear the cleaners vacuuming the conference rooms on the opposite side of the building. Almost everyone was gone now, except for them, her, and Nicholas.
The sound of his brogues on the stairs made her hair stand on end. She wasn’t expecting the hand on her back and made a sound as she whirled around in her desk chair.
He didn’t smile the way he usually did. “What did he say to you?”
“Jake? Um.” Jay glanced warily around the office.
“There’s no one else here.” There was a bite of steel in his voice. “Tell me. Did he say something to you? Threaten you?”
“N-no, nothing like that. He just said a lot of really strange things about your father’s trial before implying that there were rumors about us.” She checked his face and forced herself to go on. “Did you really punch him in the throat?”
