Chapter Fourteen
Harris
I was a fool in love and I knew it, but instead of it making me happy, I was tormented instead. Every day I was faced with seeing a woman who wasn’t really mine. On top of that, she was so young. I was a fling, a curiosity to her, nothing more. When she got tired of me or decided to start taking her romantic life more seriously, she’d drop me like yesterday’s afterthought. She’d go on to find love in another man’s arms, and I would be wrecked having to be so near her every day, all the while knowing that she wasn’t mine and would never be mine again.
These were the thoughts that cut a swath through my brain every time I stepped out of my office and saw Addilyn sitting at her desk, looking as if everything in life was well. It told me one very important thing—she was happy, but her happiness right now wouldn’t do. If she was happy, then there was something wrong. And, it was something I needed to fix.
I slipped back inside my office and then sent Pam a note that I needed to see Addilyn when she was available. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on my door.
“Come,” I called out, and then felt the tension drain away from my shoulders when I saw that it was indeed Addilyn. She closed the door behind her as she always did and started the walk across my office to me, her smile growing more radiant with every step. She was gorgeous today. The sun that filtered through my office windows made her golden hair glow like a halo around her head, and the way she looked in her turquoise pencil dress could have landed her a modeling job with any agency in the city. I loved her, and I had to grip the arm rests of my chair tighter to keep myself from reaching out for her as she neared.
“Hey, you,” she said as she rounded the corner of my desk, her voice a caress to all my senses.
“You’re fired.” I croaked out the words, and if I had not known that it was me speaking, I would not have recognized my own voice.
Addilyn stumbled to a halt, catching her balance with a steadying hand on my desk. “What?” Her eyes were full of disbelief.
“You’re fired, Addilyn.” I kept my voice flat without any inflection even though I felt as though I were ripping my heart out.
“Why?” Indignance crept into her voice. “On what grounds? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
She was right. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and she could sue me for wrongful termination since we’d been having an affair.
“I can’t do this to you anymore.” It was a lie. What I should have been saying was that I couldn’t do this to me anymore. “You have talents other people don’t have, Addilyn, and I won’t let you throw them away by using them here anymore.”
She gaped at me. “You mean such as by finding millions of unrecorded dollars? That kind of ‘throw them away’?”
“Have you ever once in your life thought, ‘Wow, I’d love to be a glorified accountant’? Have you, even once?” I challenged her.
Her face flushed with color, and she seemed to have to search for a return argument, but finally, she found one. “So? That doesn’t mean I’m throwing my talents away. I’m using them. I’m helping to secure the health of your company which in turns secures your ability to offer long term employment for everyone who works for you. You told me that yourself!”
I shook my head and waved my hand as if I could brush away what she’d said. “None of that matters, not for you. Working here isn’t what you want to do with your life, and I’m the only thing that’s keeping you from moving on. What about NASA? Did you apply to their engineering program yet?”
She tried to buoy her confidence by cocking out her hip and propping her hand on it with her elbow jutting out. “It’s none of your business,” she answered simply yet defiantly. “What I do with my life is up to me. Not you! Not you, not my fathers, not anybody. It’s my decision!”
“Well given that I made you come like a banshee three times last night and that I love you, I’m making it my business,” I spat out. “This is over! You are no longer an employee of Select Holdings. Your employment is being terminated immediately.” My words faltered at the end as my brain scrambled to keep up with what I was saying, and I quickly added, “with three months’ severance pay.” Whatever she decided to do, that would give her some time to be able to land on her feet.
I thought she would rage at me. I thought that she would threaten and maybe even storm out, but instead her luscious lips pouted as her large eyes pinched in worry. She played with her fingertips, showing her uncertainty, before asking, “Does this mean that we’re done?”
Lunging forward, I hooked her around the hips and pulled her into my lap, kissing her temple and then her lips. “God, I hope not, but that’s really up to you. Are you done with me? I’m crazy about you, and while I don’t want to get in the way of the rest of your life, I hope that maybe there’s a little room for me to be a part of it.”
She brushed her fingers through my hair, seeming to study my face. “I think I could keep you around for a little while longer,” she said, one corner of her lips teasing up in the beginnings of a smile. “I mean, you did make me come like a banshee...”
Her smile grew and my heart lifted, happy to get to see at least one more day with the woman who had stolen my heart.