I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t concentrate.

Just getting myself to work every day felt like an accomplishment, even if I spent most of my time watching cat videos and crying quietly in the bathroom.

I hated this. I hated being this girl. I didn’t want to be crying over some guy. Eight years ago I thought I was done crying over Austin James, but it seemed as though history was doomed to repeat itself. I could only hope that this wasn’t going to happen again eight years from now.

The only silver lining to my current thundercloud was that I hadn’t been fired. Yet.

Richard hadn’t been pleased that I refused to change the article but he ran it anyways. It didn’t get the kind of clicks that he had wanted, but the words “Austin James Exclusive” had been enough to get a decent amount of traffic, so I still had a job. Even though I was once again forced to work on listicles. A part of me feared I would be stuck doing it for the rest of my life.

I was staring at my screen, half watching a video of two kittens wrestling, when there was a rustling of commotion all around me. I poked my head up out of my cubicle to find that all the cubicles around me were empty. Everyone had disappeared.

Was there a meeting that I didn’t know about?

I was about to head to the conference room when I got a text from Cassie.

“Get to the lobby,” it read. “Now.”

Oh shit. Was it some kind of emergency? I didn’t even wait for the elevator, instead running down the four flights of stairs and bursting out into the lobby, my breathing labored and sweat beginning to form at my hairline.

But what waited for me wasn’t an emergency at all. It was Austin. Standing in the middle of the lobby with his guitar. Singing.

I stared.

What the fuck was going on?

It was the first time I’d seen him in person since the release party, and my heart ached at the sight. He was so stupid beautiful, and I had missed him so much that I wanted to cry.

Except there was no way in hell I was going to start crying in front of all my co-workers. And Richard, who was standing off to the side staring at the spectacle. Everyone had their cellphones out and was recording Austin’s lobby concert, but he seemed to be ignoring all of them.

His eyes were focused on me. He stopped strumming his guitar.

“Mia,” he said.

You could have heard a pin drop. Every single head in the lobby turned in my direction as everyone’s attention focused on me. I felt my face grow red, and I wanted to run away. I saw Cassie across the lobby, her expression reflecting the shock and surprise I was feeling.

“What the fuck?” she mouthed.

I didn’t even have time to shrug. A gasp went through the crowd as Austin came towards me. Immediately people parted to let him through, everyone holding their phones in front of their face as they recorded everything that was happening.

I wanted to disappear.

“Mia,” Austin said again when he had reached me.

I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there as Austin began playing again. He started playing my favorite song, “Sara, Sara,” the sexy acoustic version he’d played at the club in Boston. The night we had kissed in the parking lot. The song made all of those memories come racing back, and I was overwhelmed with emotion.

I wanted to cry and kiss him and also punch him.

He played the song, and when he was done, a soft sigh rippled through the crowd. He had charmed them all.

Except for me.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, lowering my voice to a hiss.

“I wanted to apologize,” Austin said, his eyes never leaving mine.

“It’s a little late for that,” I snapped, anger rushing through me. He thought he could just show up here and bulldoze me into forgiving him?

“I’m sorry.” Austin’s gaze was sad, but I wasn’t about to be swayed by his puppy dog eyes.

“What are you sorry for?” I demanded. “Dumping me and then ignoring me for weeks, or coming to my work and embarrassing me in front of my boss and co-workers?”

Austin flinched. I could see that he hadn’t thought about that at all, which only made me madder.

“You’ve made a spectacle of me,” I hissed. “And who knows what this will do to my career?”

“I didn’t mean to—” Austin started, but I cut him off, my fury erupting.

“No, of course you didn’t,” I raged. “You never mean to do anything. I’m sure you didn’t mean to break my heart eight years ago and I’m sure you didn’t mean to do it a few weeks ago, but you did. Both times. But it doesn’t matter if you meant to hurt me—in the end you still did.” I took a step back from him, my heart breaking all over again.

“Please leave,” I told him.

There was a collective gasp from the crowd.

Austin hung his head, and without another word turned away and walked out of the lobby.

Immediately there was a buzzing of voices all around me, but I didn’t want to talk to any of them. I shoved their phones out of my face and marched over to Richard, fully prepared to be presented with a pink slip right then and there.

“I’m so sorry about that,” I told him, bracing myself for an epic firing. “I know I never should have gotten involved with a subject. It was terribly unprofessional, but it’s over and it will never happen again. I had no idea that he was coming here.”

But Richard only grinned at me.

“What are you sorry about?” he asked shoving his phone in my face.

Already a bunch of my co-workers had posted their videos on ChatBuzz, showing Austin’s private concert from a variety of angles, as well as my harsh dismissal of him. I watched myself—my face red, my expression furious—tell Austin to leave. And then I saw his face, the way it broke, the sadness and rejection evident as he left the building.

“This is great,” Richard told me. “This is exactly the kind of clickbait material I’ve been looking for.” He clasped me on the shoulder. “You did great,” he said.

I stared at him.

“You think I did this for clicks?” I asked, astonished at his crass reaction.

“I hope so,” Richard laughed.

“You’re disgusting,” I told him, and his smile vanished immediately.

“What?” he asked, his eyes narrowing in my direction.

I felt a hand on my arm, and I knew it was Cassie. I knew she was warning me to stay quiet, to go upstairs, to get away from this circus and calm down, but I shook her off.

“You’re an embarrassment to journalism,” I told Richard. “ChatBuzz has always had the opportunity to do something special, something important. All of us could be writing articles of actual importance, but instead you have us chasing shitty gossip for a living.”

“Don’t act like you’re better than me,” Richard sneered. “At least I don’t drop my panties for the first rock star that comes along.”

“You don’t know a goddamn thing about what happened between me and Austin,” I told him, poking my finger into his chest.

“I know that he probably thinks of you as just another notch in his bedpost.” Richard gave me a cruel look. “Guys like him have a girl like you in every city. And Austin James probably has at least a dozen in New York.”

“Austin James is a better man than you’ll ever be,” I told him. “He’s kind and generous, and he cares about the people around him. He’s talented and driven and never gives up. He values friendship and loyalty, and he doesn’t tolerate assholes.”

Richard snorted. “Sounds like you drank the Kool-Aid,” he sneered, but I’d done more than that.

I’d fallen in love. And I wasn’t about to let that love go without a fight, not this time.

“You know what? I quit,” I told him, and I walked out of the building.