Cree

---

“I know you’re in there!”

Dallas punctuated her sentence with another hard bang on the door.

As I had with all the others, I ignored it. I wasn’t in the mood for visitors, and that included her. Not that she was taking the hint. Still I ignored her and stayed glued to the couch in the same spot I’d been in for two days.

Dallas banged again, but then everything went silent, and I figured she’d finally given up.

We had that in common.

I’d given up on my job, given up on Aaron, and he’d given up on me too. I was coming to grips with that, slowly but surely, and any day now, I’d be completely over this and completely over him. And then I could get to the work of putting my life back together.

Tears burned at the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Crying wouldn’t change anything, and I’d done more than enough of that in the last forty-eight hours.

I’d decided no more.

Aaron had gotten more than enough of my tears, and I refused to let another fall. Yet even as I thought that, I felt my resolve wavering. Not about the tears. I was done with them, but about Aaron’s role. I’d played that afternoon over and over again, and though I’d been angry, hurt beyond belief, a little voice at the back of my head whispered that maybe I’d overreacted, that maybe if I’d just have heard him out, things could have turned out differently.

I wanted to believe that, wanted to with everything inside me, but I couldn’t let that thought take root. Because if it did, hope would grow next, and I couldn’t afford that. My heart was already in tatters. If I wasn’t careful, it would be shattered—

“Damn it, Cree!”

I started at the sound of Dallas’s voice emerging from my kitchen. It pulled me out of my thoughts, and I stood and rushed toward the sound, making it just in time to find Dallas pulling her legs through my kitchen window and resting them in my sink.

“Yuck! Get your feet out of my sink! And why the hell are you climbing through my window?” I exclaimed.

Dallas swung her legs over the counter and stood, looking proud of herself for a moment before she frowned.

“You don’t want my feet in your sink, then answer the damn door,” she said.

Dallas strolled over, her long legs quickly eating the space in my kitchen as she scowled at me. When I thought of Dallas, I usually thought of her artistic nature, her somewhat flighty personality, but as I watched her now, I couldn’t help but notice her curvy yet athletic build.

“Generally if a person doesn’t answer the door, it means they don’t want to be bothered,” I said snidely.

Dallas just brushed that off. “What the hell ever, Cree. Are you all right?” she asked.

In that moment, I could see her concern and tenderness underneath her annoyance and felt about two inches tall.

“I’m fine,” I finally said, after I swallowed back the shame-induced bile that burned at the back of my throat.

“Yeah,” she said. “I can tell.”

She wasn’t looking at me, though. Instead she headed to the refrigerator and grabbed the open bottle of wine. Then she got two wineglasses and took her loot to the kitchen table. She sat, looking at me expectantly, and after a moment, I caved and sat across from her.

Once I had, she poured two double-size glasses and then went quiet, still waiting.

“It’s nine in the morning,” I grumbled as I reached for the glass.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere, and if we’re at the point that I need to climb through windows, wine is in order,” she said.

“Your choice to play cat burglar. And what brought that on anyway?” I asked, sounding bitter, hating myself for it, but unable to stop.

“I heard you’d quit,” Dallas said.

“What? Has Kristian been gossiping to you about my life?”

Dallas lifted one brow, a spark of anger clouding her face before she wiped it away. “Actually, I called, anxious to hear what had happened and was informed by someone at the firm that you’re no longer there,” she said.

“That was quick,” I responded, annoyed that they hadn’t wasted any time in wiping any trace of me away.

I’d quit, but I still felt strangely bitter. They hadn’t even tried to talk me out of it, woo me back. No, I was gone, and that was that. A pit of dreadful despair made my stomach drop.

After another sip of wine, I looked at Dallas. “It went about like you’d expect,” I said, my voice angry.

“So they gave it to Aaron?” Dallas whispered.

I could sense that she didn’t want to say his name, and at the sound of it, I felt a sharp stab in my heart. I ignored it, though, knew that I’d have to get used to it.

“Yeah. And you want to know the bitch of it?” I asked.

“If you want to share,” she responded.

“He didn’t even try.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“Exactly what it says. He didn’t even make a presentation. I did mine, and they apparently loved it. But my best work isn’t worth as much as Aaron sitting in a chair. He said absolutely nothing of substance, yet the committee thought he would be an invaluable addition to the partnership.”

“What assholes,” Dallas said.

It reminded me that Aaron had said almost exactly the same thing, something I had forgotten in the haze of emotion.

“Yeah,” I finally said. “And I decided I didn’t need that shit. So I quit.”

Dallas had lifted her glass for another drink, but paused and then put her glass down. “Wow,” she said.

“Um-hmm,” I responded.

She took a sip and after she put her glass down, she studied me. Then after a moment, her face broke out into a brilliant smile.

“Fuck yeah!” she exclaimed with a fist pump.

I laughed but then frowned, wondering at the source of her enthusiasm.

“So you approve, I take it?” I said.

“Approve? I’m positively giddy! I mean, fuck those dudes. They screwed you, and you don’t need them. You’re smart as hell, dedicated, and would be an asset to anyone. Dipshits & Associates aren’t the only game in town, and I’m looking forward to you kicking the crap out of them every time you have a chance.”

I smiled, both flattered and pleased by Dallas’s kind words. Then thought about Aaron saying much the same thing.

My smile dropped.

“What’s up?” Dallas asked, clearly having sensed the change in my mood.

“Nothing,” I said half-heartedly.

Dallas rolled her eyes. “Dude, you’re still a horrible liar.”

I sighed, then gave Dallas what I knew was a semi-depressing smile. “I’m okay. I just have a lot to adjust to,” I said.

“Sure, but you look like somebody stole your ice cream. You’re doing a great thing for yourself, but you don’t seem happy about it.”

“I’ll get over it,” I said glumly.

“Well, you know you have friends who can help you with that,” Dallas said.

I looked at her, and after a moment, the words started to spill from my lips.

“I’m slightly embarrassed to say this, but I don’t even really care about the job or the promotion,” I said.

I kept my eyes on Dallas, trying to gauge her reaction, but she gave me none, so I continued.

“I mean, it sucks, but I’m not naive. I had a pretty good idea of how the competition would play out.”

I blew out a harsh breath and brushed my hand over my uncombed hair.

“I’m glad my mother is out of town. She’d kill me for walking around with my head like this,” I said.

“Given the circumstances, I’m sure she’d forgive you,” Dallas said.

“How pathetic am I, Dallas?” I asked, my voice sounding anguished.

Dallas shrugged. “You fell in love with a prince. Nothing pathetic about that,” she said, her voice almost wistful.

I took another sip of my wine and then traced my finger around the rim. “Guess not,” I finally said. “Too bad he didn’t love me back.”

---

Aaron

---

“You haven’t had enough of this bullshit moping, yet?” Kristian asked.

“Fuck off, Kristian,” I said.

“It would be my pleasure, but my baby brother is pouting like a heartsick puppy—something he should know is unseemly for a man of his station—so I’m stuck babysitting him until he snaps the fuck out of it.”

Kristian punctuated that sentence with a hard punch in the shoulder, though I didn’t really feel it.

I didn’t feel anything except heartbreak. In a moment of weakness I’d called Kristian and told him about what had happened, and he hadn’t left me alone in the day since.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I asked bitterly.

“Yeah. In case you forgot, I have a restaurant, a business to run. Hell, I could be working on my lats,” he said.

That got a reluctant chuckle from me, but I soon went glum again. “Yeah. You have shit to do, and I have nothing.”

No job.

No Cree.

My heart squeezed at the thought of her name, and I sighed out hard. Kristian rolled his eyes.

“Get your head out of your ass, Aaron,” he said, a mantra he’d been repeating all day.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you have so much, but you’re too far up your own intestines to see it,” he said, exasperated.

“I don’t have the only thing that matters,” I said.

“But you could!” he practically yelled.

“Keep your voice down,” I chided.

Kristian ignored me. “No!” he said, talking even louder now. “You love the woman. Just freaking tell her that and put the both of you out of your misery. And spare the rest of us!”

“You make it sound so simple,” I said.

I felt glum, almost hopeless, but Kristian’s words were starting to penetrate, give me ideas like maybe I still had a shot.

“It is. Now go get showered. You stink!” he said.

I glared at him, but then moved. The shower would do me good and might clear my head. Nothing else had seemed to work.

By the time I was finished, I felt almost like myself, something I hadn’t felt for days. When I went back into the living room, I found Kristian flipping through the channels.

He turned the TV off and then looked at me, seeming to approve. “Well, you don’t look quite like hell anymore,” he said.

“Thanks,” I replied as I headed to the refrigerator to grab a drink of water, purposefully not offering him one.

Kristian didn’t mind. He just stared at me.

“What?” I said after I was done.

“You’re clean. You’re hydrated. Now stop being a bitch and go get your woman,” he said.

I didn’t move immediately. I just stood there, thinking, but in a moment, the decision was made.

I left my house without another word to Kristian.