“So,” I said, “let them talk.” I didn’t look at my friend or my brother, instead carefully arranging the pens on my blotter.
“Besides,” I added. “All that has been cleared up. The false stories should be removed from the internet by now.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Walker said. “Our employees are talking. Productivity’s down.”
“I can’t fire her today,” I said quietly.
“Every time we bring it up, you say you’re working on it, that you need to break the news gently. Time’s up, Beck,” Owen said. “Either you can fire Tess or I will.”
60
Tess
My alarm went off way too early the next morning. I ignored it and turned over to go back to sleep.
“I’m just going to call in sick.”
“No,” Maeve said, standing up to shake me. “We have a ton of work to do. Besides, Cressida’s going to be extra obnoxious today. I can’t face her by myself.”
“I can’t face Beck after that betrayal,” I reminded Maeve.
She cut off a slice of cake and took a bite. I had had to do a lot of late-night baking to calm myself down. I couldn’t fucking believe Beck! He had sold a piece of my soul and then tried to gaslight me about it.
“Maybe I should quit.”
“I have job interviews lined up,” Maeve said. “There’s a few places that are looking for multiples, either assistants or in marketing.”
“I guess I need to start looking,” I said dejectedly. I slowly climbed out of bed and started to dress.
I didn’t have the wherewithal this week to look for jobs. Besides, now that I was not going to be living with Beck anymore, I definitely needed to not have a funding gap. Rent was due soon, and it would take at least a month to be hired somewhere else, what with submitting an application and doing interviews.
I needed to keep my head down until then.
After everything, Beck would probably just let me work from the lobby anyways for the next few weeks until I found a new job.
“Screw that guy. Last time I date,” I grumbled as Maeve and I hoofed it to the subway.
“I thought you didn’t like him,” she reminded me. “It was just supposed to be about sex.”
“I might have already been planning the catering menu and picking out cake flavors for our wedding,” I admitted sheepishly.
Maeve shook her head. “Guys like that should only be used for sex. The good-looking ones are always dangerous.”
“But he said he cared for me!” I said a little too loudly as we headed down the stairs to the subway.
“Maybe he did, but more along the lines of, say, caring for a houseplant,” Maeve replied as the train drove into the station. “He’s clearly emotionally stunted. I mean, what kind of person gives away someone’s deceased mom’s painting? That’s a whole extra level of sociopath.”
“He was trying to save his sisters, to be fair.”
“He didn’t even ask,” Maeve told me. “He just did it behind your back.”
“If he had actually asked, I might have said yes. If he had called me up and said, look, these are all the things I tried, and I need your painting, and I’ll make it up to you, I might have agreed. I’m not a monster, unlike some people.”
Maeve hugged me.
I fiddled with my purse strap. The fake leather was fraying. I needed a new one. I needed a new life.
“All my life, I was trying not to be like my mother, and yet here I am. I fell for a guy who was just using me the whole time.”
