ChapterOne
“Look,Declan, you’re a smart guy. Talented, even. You’re just not a good culture fit.”
Thewords rang in Declan’s ears. He knew what they meant, despite this being thefirst time he’d heard something like it directly. He’d heard it second-handplenty of times from guys who were good at their jobs and deserved better thanto have to tiptoe around their bosses’ overly-sensitive son.
You’refired.
Thatwas what this meant.
Hisstomach bottomed out as he forced himself to make eye contact with his boss,his jaw tightening even as his heart pounded in his chest.
“Thisis about that hashtag campaign, huh?” Declan asked, trying to sound casual. Heknew what he’d done, but he’d briefly forgotten that acting in the interest ofthe client ahead of the golden boy was forbidden.
Well,no, he hadn’t forgotten.
Hejust hadn’t been willing to put his name to a marketing campaign that he couldsee was going to go down in flames from a mile away.
“You’rewhat they call a black hat thinker,” his boss said. “Always seeing the problemswith everything. This is a positive company.”
Declanrolled his eyes so hard it strained the muscles. “You were gonna pour a quarterof a million of the clients’ dollars down the drain for a slogan that has thewordshitin the middle of it when you write it down without any spaces.It’s like you’ve never been outside if you don’t know how the internet’s gonnarun with that. You hired me in the first place to know these things.”
“Andnow I’m offering you the chance to either apologize for it and keep your mouthshut over the next proposal, or to clear out your desk.”
Declanbit down on his tongue to stop himself from blurting out something likestickyour entire company up your ass,which he knew would only make his situationworse.
Hetook a deep, calming breath, let it out slowly, and then faced his boss again.
Hehated this job.
Thatwas a revelation he’d needed to come to for a while. It was the most miserable,soul-sucking version he could imagine of the career he’d studied for, which wason the cynical side to start with. Declan wasgoodat marketing, but hehated the way it was done on a corporate scale.
Whywould he want to stay here? Anything would be better than this.
“Stickyour entire company up your ass,” Declan said, standing up from the desk. Hishands were trembling, but he knew he was doing the right thing.
He’dgiven enough. Enough of himself, enough of hislifeto this place. Itwas time to stop.
“Anddon’t you think for asecondthat I’m gonna work a single minute ofnotice to mop up after you. You don’t get to fire me. I quit.”
Declanturned and stormed out of the office, his pulse racing in his ears. He’d neverdone anything like that before. He’d endured years of bullshit in this place forthe sake of job security, too scared to rock the boat. He’d spent years doinglackluster work that he hated.
Thiswas terrifying, and his legs were trembling under him as he swung by his deskto grab the few personal things he had there, but he felt like a weight hadjust been lifted off his shoulders.
Hehated this job. He didn’t want to spend his entire life miserable andoverworked. He was staring down the barrel of thirty and he had nothing to showfor it while other people had celebrated careers, or beautiful families, orboth.
Screweveryone in the entire office. They’d made his life hell for the past sixyears, and he wasn’t about to take it anymore.
Therewas more to life than working himself to death in a job he hated for no thanks.It was time he went out and found it.
AsDeclan walked out into the cool January air, he breathed a sigh of relief thathad been a long time coming. He never had to go back there again.
Hedidn’t care what he ended up doing next, as long as it was anything but this.
ChapterTwo
Ashperked up the moment he heard keys in the front door, looking over at eagerly.The only other person who had keys was Declan, and he was just the man Ashwanted to see.
Thiswas Declan’s apartment, after all.
