Page 29 of Buck ’Em Cowgirl

I blinked rapidly, my brain scrambling to process. “I-I don’t understand. The event⁠—”

“The event was amazing, and it’s over now.”

“I can bring other events to Bucking Energy. The tour doesn’t end with Chicago. There are other events that I’m willing to travel to, and we can promote them nationwide to gain a larger audience.”

John shook his head. “No. We’ll have another team do that.”

My mouth hung agape. “John. Reason with me. I’ve been working with your company for four years.”

It was the first job I’d gotten out of college. I had always been a hard worker and rarely missed a day of work. This was the biggest event I’d had. I had no idea what was happening, but as I looked down, the germs on my hands seemed to come to life, and I needed to go wash myself. Wash myself of the disgust I felt for what I did this weekend with Beau. The disgust I felt for myself for hitting rock bottom. Because that’s what this was—rock bottom. It had to be.

“Yeah, and in those years, I asked you many times to work over, to stay at night and come to dinners with me . . .”

Wait . . . wait a fucking damn minute. I flew off my chair. “Is this because I won’t fuck you, John?”

“No, I would never⁠—”

“Oh, shove it.” I threw my hands in the air. “This is disgusting. I was engaged, John! I wasn’t fucking your tiny dick because I was in a relationship, you absolute worm.”

His jaw tightened, and he leaned forward, his voice flat and patronizing. “That’s the way the world works, Fable.”

I shoved my finger into my mouth and made a gagging motion. “You are a foul, pathetic piece of shit. I would never have fucked you even if I was single.”

I hated this. I hated him. I hated my life, but if everything was going to burn, then I was going to be the one holding the damn match. No one was taking that from me—not John, not anyone. If this was the end, I wouldn’t go out quietly. I was going out in flames, burning so brightly no one would ever forget it.

“What about Harleigh?”

She technically worked for me, but if I wasn’t there, I was hoping they would assign her to another person.

“She’s fired too.”

“John!” I shouted.

“Calm down, Fable. You’re starting to cause a scene.”

“A scene?” I threw his chair toward the desk. “A fucking scene?!”

“Fable.” John tutted in warning. “Stop it.”

I was done with men like him—like Mike. So fucking done with men who thought they could control the narrative. I might’ve been messy, crazy, and anxious, but I wasn’t someone people could walk over. Not anymore.

It was the same reason I’d walked out the back door after Saturday night. I wasn’t going to let some bull rider define what that night meant. I wasn’t going to wait around to be told I was a one-night stand. No, he was the one-night stand, and I was the author of that story.

“Bye, John,” I said, standing tall. “I have absolutely nothing else to say to you, except that I expect Harleigh and me to have a thick-ass severance package. Otherwise, I’ll be going straight to HR to let them know the real reason you’re firing me is because you wanted to fuck me.”

John laughed. “And you think they’d believe you?”

Probably not. The odds were stacked against me, but I wasn’t going to let him see an ounce of doubt.

“It’ll stir up plenty of problems for you. Start rumors you don’t want following you around. You wouldn’t want that, now, would you?”

John mumbled something under his breath, his eyes darting away from mine.

Good. Let him squirm.

“That’s what I thought,” I huffed and then turned my back on the only job I had. I glanced over my shoulder. “Say goodbye to the worst decision of your life, John.”

I didn’t wait to hear a response as I left his office and slammed the door behind me.