Her face fell. “God, I’m so sorry. You really are good at your job—even if you are a callous toad.” She toyed with her necklace absently, which had him remembering how her breasts looked bathed in neon as the silver flared with red sparks. Her eyes flicked up to his. “Is that why you’re in such a weird mood? Are you angry at the board and taking it out on me?”
Nicholas pushed his plate away. “Our VP of Operations resigned. Arthur and I are picking up the slack for now. It was only just announced to the other executives. Officially, it’s because she wanted to ‘change her career path,’ but really, shehas an issue with how I handle my business.”
Jay pressed her lips together. “She doesn’t like your fuck or get-fucked approach?”
“Something like that. But the board liked her. They like that new marketing director who’s driving me crazy, too. The first thing that dick-for-brains did was march into my office and demand to see all of our OKRs from the last ten years. I had Annica make him copies of the files and leave them in his office. I’m waiting to see how long it takes before he comes crawling back to me and admits he can’t make heads or tails of them without context.”
Jay gave him an exasperated look but the corners of her mouth were twitching.I saw that, he thought, and the tightness of his lungs finally abated. “You’re such a bastard.”
“We can’t all be sweetness and light like you.”
“Instead of fighting with people below your paygrade, why don’t you at least pretend like you’ve learned something from your training? Humble yourself a little. Pilot a company initiative to put the spotlight on some of your diverse staff or implement some culture workshops. Then tell HR that you got the idea because of them. They’ll fall over backwards with joy.”
Nicholas paused. “That’s brilliant.”
“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”
“I’m not surprised that it’s brilliant. I’m surprised that you can be so calculating.”
“I guess I’ve changed, too.”
Nicholas watched her swirl her mimosa glass, catching one of the little blueberries in a vortex.You have, he thought.And every fucking day, you make me more and more in love with you.
“What are you going to do about your apartment?”
“I don’t know. Hire a mover? It’s just something else to deal with. I’ll figure it out.”
A prickle of irritation crept down his neck as he wondered ifhewas one of the things she felt like she had to “deal with.” “Take some days off to handle it, then.”
“I can’t miss work.”
“You have PTO. Arthur can manage on his own—he has before. I’ll arrange the U-Haul and book your flight. You can put your things here when you get back.”
“You’d let me go?” she asked warily.
The look in her eyes left him chilled. It looked desperate. “You’re not my prisoner. I thought I made that clear.”
“You keep changing the rules. I don’t know what your expectations are.”
She choseme, he reminded himself.She chose to stay.
“Will you be coming back?”
“Yes, Nick,.” There was a slightly bitter note in her voice. “Of course I will.”
Chapter Three
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After that emotionally charged argument they’d had at the restaurant, the two of them circled around each other like wary cats in that big house. Nicholas seemed to know he was in the wrong; he’d arranged for a grocery delivery of some of her favorite things the next day. She would have rather had an apology but he’d always been bad at that. Even when he was a boy, he’d been overly solicitous, nearly transactional. Something else he must have learned from his father.
She suspected it was less that he was sorry for what he’d done and more that he was sorry she was mad at him. And that should have made her angry—god, it had made hersoangry when she was younger—but now it just made her sad, because it meant that nobody in his life had ever loved him enough to show him that forgiveness didn’t need to come with strings attached.
You’re one to talk.
Jay rubbed at the back of her neck, futzing with Arthur’s schedule for the twentieth time. After her last screw up, she was taking no chances, double-checkingallher work. Which meant that she was often completely drained by the end of the day, but it was worth it to remain in good standing.
She wouldn’t have felt so awful if there hadn’t been another text message from her mother waiting for her that morning.Don’t bother responding to this message, Justine. I can see you’re doing just fine without me.
