It’s almost weird to be back in the office.

We flew home on a Friday, took the weekend to decompress, and now we’re back to work on Monday. I haven’t seen or spoken to Riley since we landed except for one brief text, (“Thinking about me, hon?”) which she responded to only briefly (“Not at all, asshole”). I figure I should give her space, since she did lose out on a lot of money at the end of the day.

I hate that I couldn’t pull it off for her. I went into this so fucking confident with a bunch of solid leads thinking it would be a piece of cake, but at the end of the day, there were only maybe two sales that I felt might really happen, and we needed at least three. Most of those assholes didn’t give us a real shot, and a lot of them were downright fucking sexists.

I wish we had given more of them shit for being dick-less misogynists, but we wanted to try and make the sale. It felt good to watch Riley stand up for herself with that last guy, though. I don’t even know where it came from. She has a spark that mostly only shows up when she’s angry with me or when I’ve pushed her too far, but normally she keeps that under control. She’s kind to everyone, almost to the point of it going too far, even when she’s bored and would rather be somewhere else. But I know she has that fighter inside of her, itching to get out and unleash some hell, and I’m glad I got to see it. The look on that guy’s face was absolutely delicious, right up until I thought he was going to hurt her.

I’m not sure she noticed the change in him, but I saw it right away. He was loose and relaxed up until he stood and went closer to her, and that’s when his whole body tensed. I knew he was about to do something stupid, even if his face stayed the same. I’ve seen it before in other guys like him, bullies back at school that never bothered me because I was big and strong, but were always willing to knock around the smaller guys. I’ve seen that stupid smile turn into a punch to the nose lightning quick, and it always starts with the whole body going stiff. That guy looked like a bully about to strike, which is why I stepped in at all.

Petty little bastard. I’m glad Riley made him feel small. I bet he’s been making other people feel small his whole life, and now he knows it feels pretty fucking bad.

I lean back in my chair, savoring that moment again, when there’s a knock at my door. It cracks open and Mitch looks inside at me.

“Come on in,” I say to our CEO, standing as if he needs an invitation.

“Good to see you.” He comes in with a big smile on his face, but I can instantly sense something’s up. He looks tired, and his normally pristine suit is a little rumpled around the edges like he didn’t have time to get it dry-cleaned over the weekend. I come around my desk to shake his hand and he meets my gaze, still smiling, but there’s an edge to him now.

“Been a while,” I say, gesturing for him to take a seat. I go back around my desk as he gets comfortable.

“I’m glad you’re back,” he says. “Office hasn’t been the same.”

I grin at him. “Oh, I’m sure. You’re just trying to butter me up.”

“You got me.” Even his smile looks tired. “How was the flight back?”

I relate the trip home to him, omitting what happened at that last dealer. He might get a call and he might not, though I suspect he won’t. Bullies usually avoid further conflict if they can, and plus, that guy knows he was being a dick. Nobody wants to admit that they were being a sexist cock and got called out for it.

“I’m glad it was uneventful,” Mitch says. “I have some good news for you, though.”

I raise an eyebrow. I wasn’t expecting good news. “What’s up?”

“We’ve been getting calls,” he says, and now his smile looks genuine.

“Calls?”

“Orders,” he clarifies. “Six so far.”

My eyes go fucking wide at that. “No shit,” I say, and he laughs.

“No shit,” he confirms. “Six real orders so far, with a few more nibbles. I don’t know what you guys were doing out there, but it seems to have worked.”

“Six,” I say softly. “Holy shit. I thought… I thought we got two. At best.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really,” I say, laughing. I probably shouldn’t admit to this. “But this is amazing.”

“You can tell Riley that we’ll honor the deal,” he says, smiling with me. “I’m glad it worked out for you guys.”

“Yeah, me too.” I’m practically buzzing with excitement as he stands and we shake hands again. He hurries out of the office with a backwards wave, maybe getting out of there a little too fast, but I’m too excited to read into it.

We made the fucking sales. I thought we were way off and had absolutely no chance, but here we are. I sit back down in my chair, feet practically kicking like an excited toddler. I grab my phone and flip through the menus, texting Riley as fast as I can, telling her to get her pretty ass to my office immediately or else. I delete the pretty part and send it with a smirk.

I don’t have to wait any longer than thirty seconds before there’s another knock at my door, this time louder.

“Come in,” I call out, brimming with energy. I stand up, coming around the desk, as Riley bursts into the room.

“Did you hear?” she asks, and I laugh, nodding my head.

“I just heard,” I say. “It’s fucking amazing, right?”

“Amazing?” She stares at me and slams my office door. I realize that she’s not excited, not smiling, and not happy, not at all. Her hands are balled into little fists and she’s practically standing on her toes like she’s getting ready to start swinging any second.

“They changed them,” she says.

“What?”

“They changed them, Aaron.” She steps closer to me, and I’m pretty sure I’m about to get beaten up. “They changed my design.”

“Slow down,” I say. “Tell me what happened.”

“They took all my hard work, and they fucking changed it. All of it, all fucking gone.”

She slams her fist against my wall making the bland painting of a boat clatter against the sheetrock and I have no clue what to say to make this situation work.