“Oh, come on,” Weston complains. “Do it, Mel. Tell us.”
I hold up my hands, looking at Jack and waiting for him to put an end to this. “This is a little unprofessional, don’t you think?”
He crosses his arms over his chest, a slightly quizzical bend to his brow. “Well, now wait a second. I’m a little curious.”
I scoff. “This meeting is over.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Amelia says, trying to backtrack. “Just that Julian got stuck in an elevator with my best friend Freya and a hunk for twelve hours, and then the three of them went out to dinner not long after.”
Tilting my head down, I glare at my sister through my lashes. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry,” she says with a shrug. “I didn’t realize it was a secret.”
With a clearly defensive tone, I argue, “Can’t anyone have any privacy around here? That’s not what I was thinking about, and it’s not like that. We’re just friends.”
I should have known this was the wrong thing to say, because me admitting that I have “friends” only causes more of a stir among the team.
“Friends?” Jack laughs before quickly composing himself. “Sorry. I just mean that’s great. We should all have friends outside the club.”
I roll my eyes, turning away from him. “You can all go fuck yourselves,” I mutter, standing from the table and slamming my laptop shut. The presentation on the wall goes black. “I will email you the proposal so you have all the numbers and information you want.”
“Now wait a minute,” Phoenix whines. She’s the only one here who might actually be interested in the proposal now, and not my new budding relationships. To my disappointment, she asks, “Is the hunk single?”
Everyone at the table laughs.
“I hate you all,” I grumble.
“I’m confused,” Weston adds as I gather my things. “Which one is Julian into, your friend or the hunk?”
“Or both?” Elizabeth adds.
As the only other grump in the group, I glare at her as I mumble, “Traitor.”
“Oh yeah, is it both?” Weston asks.
Finally at my breaking point, I shove my chair in loudly as I bark, “It’s neither, okay? I’m not interested in either of them. In fact, we are not even friends. I find them both insufferable and annoying, and I’m never seeing them again. And I fucking hate you all. Goodbye.”
“Oh, don’t be like that,” Jack whines while the group laughs.
“We love you, Julian,” Amelia calls as I storm out of the room.
“I hope it’s both,” Weston shouts.
When I get to my office, I slam the door with a huff. This is why I fucking hate relationships. Everyone’s always in my business, wanting to know how I feel, wanting to know my personal details, and it’s fucking bullshit.
I don’t feel anything.
I don’t care about anyone.
I don’t want Archer or Freya, so everyone can just leave me the hell alone.
And yet at that very moment, my phone buzzes, and I quickly retrieve it from my pocket, seeing a new message in our group chat. For someone who doesn’t care about either of them, I scramble quickly to read it.
It’s from Freya.
Freya: What are you guys doing Friday night? I’m off, and I thought it might be fun to cook you dinner here.
Archer responds immediately.
