Page 88 of The Chase

“Look, I’ll be honest with you. Before I hired Rox, I wanted to give you her job. I asked you twice for a reason, but Rox mentioned she thinks you don’t particularly like your job. I have to admit that’s disappointing…”

I froze at her words and stopped listening to the rest of her sentence.

I never told Rox how much I hated my job. I loved working for the team, but I hated the work itself. Was I going to get fired because I didn’t like my job? Rox could tell?

Then a dark thought emerged in the back of my mind. TJ knew I didn’t like my job. I had mentioned I wasn’t passionate about it and didn’t like it when we went to the speakeasy. He and his sister were close, so if my boss knew I hated my job, there was only one person who could have told her.

My palms were sweaty, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“Maxine, are you okay?” Quinn asked, and I realized I hadn’t answered her last couple of questions.

“Uh-huh,” I lied.

I was not okay. A hot flash of anger ran through me at the thought TJ had jeopardized my career. I couldn’t believe he did this to me. I had trusted him. I opened up myself to him, let all my walls down, and then he told his sister I didn’t like my job. What right did he have to tell her that?

“Rox didn’t tell you any of this, did she?” Quinn asked.

I shook my head.

“Shit. I thought she talked to you about this. I didn’t want to spring this on you without warning. It’s gonna be a lot of extra work.”

“It’s okay,” I lied.

She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Talk to Rox about it, and we’ll figure out a plan.”

“Okay, sure. I gotta get back to it,” I mumbled.

“Thanks, Max!”

I went back to my cubicle with my mind spinning. My head swam with all the thoughts in my head that I didn’t hear the voice calling my name until muscular arms were holding onto my shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” TJ asked. Confusion swirled inside his hazel eyes.

“Did you tell your sister I hated my job?” I snapped at him.

He looked taken aback at the venom in my voice. “Did I what?”

“Did you tell her I hate it here?” I hissed.

He held up the takeout bag from the vegan fast-food place I loved. “How about we go eat lunch and talk about what’s bothering you?”

White-hot rage coursed through me, and I shot him a glare. “It’s not gonna matter if I’m about to get fired because of you!”

A dark shadow of hurt fell across his face, and I immediately knew I had overreacted. He wouldn’t have looked that wounded if he had done what I thought he did. Then his face transformed into a neutral mask, and I knew I messed up.

I sighed. “T, I’m...”

He balled his hands into fists. “You know what? Call me later.”

“TJ,” I tried again, pleading with him to let me apologize.

He wouldn’t even look at me. Instead, he stared down at his shoes. I shouldn’t have lashed out at him like that or accused him of something like that. I should have waited to talk to his twin sister, but I was angry and in the middle of another panic attack, and I wasn’t thinking straight.

His eyes were a storm of torment and anguish when he finally looked up at me. It was the same look he had on his face the night he begged me to go to therapy.

I was the worst girlfriend in the entire world.

“I’m gonna go,” he muttered.