Chapter 36

Once again I arrived at work early. Eager. I wanted to make a name for myself. To get these reports implemented. All the work I’d done at home was waiting for me in my email. It would be quick to get it onto the work system and match it up with the actual numbers.

I emailed Richard first thing, requesting a meeting to show him my ideas. I was giddy with excitement. This was my chance to shine, and I intended to make a big impact.

Sam turned up just before nine. I hurried her into my office and gave her a quick summary of my hotel stay with Jay. I hesitated, then went on with my story.

“On Saturday night he sent me a pile of gifts.”

Her eyes widened. “Gifts, huh?”

“Expensive ones. Perfume with a real diamond on it! Plus Louboutins.”

“Shut up!” she interrupted.

“That’s not all. He sent a massive diamond necklace and matching earrings.”

The color drained from Sam’s face. It was difficult to comprehend. I spent Sunday looking at them over and over, trying to satisfy myself that they weren’t figments of my imagination.

And my insides clenched each time I imagined myself wearing it all for Jay. Okay, I may have put the entire outfit on once or twice and looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. Flashing myself with the trench coat. I wore the shoes all day, practicing walking in their impossible height.

“You are one lucky lady,” Sam said.

“No kidding. I was so lucky to meet him. But beyond all the gifts, I like him. A lot. I wouldn’t care if he was penniless.”

Richard walked past, and I shooed Sam away to catch him. My enthusiasm must have piqued his interest because he dropped wherever he was going and came into my office. I spent an hour going over my ideas with him and was encouraged by his response. He gave me the green light. Not only to implement the new reports, but to hire two new people to do the grunt work.

He left my office, closing the door behind him, and I watched him walk past the glass walls back to his own office.

I sat back at my desk and checked my email. I’d intended to email Marla, to give her the job briefing and have her find me some new employees. My cursor was on the compose button when an email from Calvin appeared in my box, the subject “James McAllister fucks his staff.”

Weird. Why would Calvin be emailing me about the owner of our company? I didn’t know much about James McAllister. His office was three floors above mine and I’d never met him. Who knows what went on up there in the upper echelons of the company?

But Calvin’s name alone was enough to increase my pulse.

I clicked the email open, the contents an instant kick to my stomach.

James McAllister fucks Abbie White in public and in exchange for a promotion

No other text. Only a picture. Of me straddling Jay topless at the lake.

I felt like my office chair was spinning me at ninety miles an hour. James McAllister? As in the founder of Force McAllister? Once I recovered from the shock of the intimate photo of me, I Googled James McAllister. Page after page of images of Jay came up.

His name wasn’t even Jay. James. James McAllister who just three nights ago lied his face off and had said there were no more secrets between us. That I couldn’t take his picture because he was insecure about his looks. And I’d believed him. I grabbed my recycling bin and dry heaved into it.

Sam rushed into my office, pushing the door shut behind her. She was at my side, rubbing my back and hugging me. I stood and looked aimlessly around the room.

“Come on, I’m walking you home.”

“Look at the email Calvin just sent me. Jay Mickle is James McAllister.”

Sam looked at me as though she was going to cry. “Honey, he sent that email to the entire company.”

I collapsed in on myself but Sam’s arms were around me, holding me up. My mind crashed with the new information. As fast as they left my life, all my problems were back. And bigger. I couldn’t work here anymore. Not when everyone had seen the photo.

“No, no, no. This can’t be.” Who was I pleading with? Anyone. How did I get into another relationship built on lies? Why? I was adamant I would never have another man in my life because they couldn’t be trusted. None of them. I learned that the hard way. I swore off them, but I caved and went out with Jay. Jay, I mean James, proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt.

“Honey, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay, you’re strong. You will get through this.” Sam kept her voice low as she rambled on, trying to comfort me. But the truth was there was no way out of this.

Through the glass walls, people kept walking past. Slowly. Peering in but trying to make it obvious they hadn’t come to laugh at me. Laugh at me naked and fucking in the woods. Laugh at me for being promoted for fucking the owner of the company. Were they also laughing because I didn’t know who I was fucking?

My office door flung open, bouncing off the wall behind it. Jay stormed in. James. Sam gripped me harder as he rushed over to us.