The comment was so unexpectedly condescending that I physically reeled back. It seemed my news had got to him more than he’d let on, after all.
“Then what is it about?” I asked, trying not to raise my voice; the last of the guests were still filtering out. “Walk me through your decision making.”
“If you must know,” he said, still condescending, as if he were dealing not with his girlfriend but with a petulant child, “it was about Pablo. Because I’ve grown to love the little guy, and I feel bad that I couldn’t adopt him because of my house and my job. So I tallied up how much I thought it would cost to adopt him, and this is the number I came up with.” He flicked the pledge card with his free hand. “There, happy?”
I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry,” I said, keeping my tone measured. “But my first thought was that my boyfriend’s generosity came from an ulterior motive, and his first response was to tell me it wasn’t all about me, and to treat me like an idiot. So how could I be happy?” I opened my eyes to meet his gaze, expecting to find him looking sad, or even apologetic. But his eyes looked dead. Cold. Unfeeling. Just the way they had every time he’d put up his walls with me in the past.
“Well, I’m so sorry you’re so unhappy,” he said, keeping his tone low, too, but practically spitting his words out. “Maybe you should pull a Jared and just bow out.”
The suggestion hit me like a slap, and I actually gasped.
But I didn’t get a chance to react, because Chloe wandered over, Lauren having abandoned her to get the dogs back to the rescue. I willed her to look at me so I could just shake my head and get her to go away, but she was too busy looking at the grass, making sure her heels didn’t sink into it, and my attempts at telepathy failed again.
“You ready to go?” she asked Jack, but the moment she looked up and saw our faces, she stopped in her tracks. “Woah, what the hell did I just walk into?”
“Nothing,” Jack spat, not looking away from me.
“Hey,” I said, admonishing him. “It’s Chloe. Don’t be a dick.”
He sighed deeply and clenched his jaw. “Sorry, Chlo. Please just give us a minute.”
Chloe lifted the skirt of her dress and opened her mouth as if to speak, but I interrupted her.
“It’s fine,” I said to him. “I thinkyoushould go.”
He balked at me, as if the suggestion hurt him, but what did he expect? We were at myjob. I didn’t want to have it out with him on an already-stressful day in front of my colleagues. I’d thought he’d understood that, which was why he hadn’t brought all this up again since our fight on Monday. But clearly it had beenmyrestraint, not his, that had kept this at bay.
“Fine,” he said, looking away from me at last. “Come on, Chloe.” He started walking towards the exit, quickly enough that there was no way Chloe would have been able to keep up.
“Are you sure you don’t need me?” she asked me. “You okay?”
“Those are two different questions,” I said, looking up at the sky so I wouldn’t start crying. “Yes, I’ll be fine. I need to get back to work.” I stepped over to her and wrapped her in a hug. “But no, Chloe. I don’t think Jack and I are okay.”
* * *
The restof the evening was uneventful, which was good for everyone. I was finally able to go home at about one in the morning, where I proceeded to crash so immediately that I discovered the next morning I hadn’t taken off the tights I’d been wearing, leaving them on under my pyjamas instead.
Waking up in pyjamas was weird enough; I’d woken up naked next to Jack most mornings since we’d got together. So when I opened my eyes and felt the clothes touching my skin, it was an instant reminder of what had happened.
But there was no rest for the wicked, because it was Friday, and despite the fact that I had been up until the wee hours, I still had to go to work. Even Chloe had had the foresight to take the day as holiday, but I was saving mine up, hoping for a payout when I managed to finally get a job somewhere else. Speaking of which, I’d actually taken Monday off to go to York for my final interview with the software company.
I let myself wander into the office around ten, and when I got to my desk, I saw an envelope with my name written across it sitting on my desk. My first thought was that it was somehow the pledge card from Jack that I’d never handed in, but no, it wasn’t his handwriting on the front.
I looked over my shoulder to see Simone watching me from her office. I smiled, and she nodded at me and mouthed the word “congrats” before stepping back through the door.Well, shit.
I opened the envelope and unfolded the A4 sheet of paper inside with the charity’s letterhead across the top.
Dear Morgan,
We are delighted to offer you the role of Events Coordinator, Full-Time. This promotion will be effective immediately…
Chapter38
Morgan
Early Monday afternoon, I walked out of the software company’s headquarters and breathed in the misty Yorkshire air. It was colder here, and the slight nip made me feel awake and alive in a way I never did back home. There were trendy cafes, cute bookshops, and photogenic corners galore. As I sat in the window of a little hole-in-the-wall cafe for lunch, I couldn’t help but pull out my tablet and draw the streets and alleyways whilst I waited for my food.
The interview had gone really well. The Head of Design had shown me around the office, giving me a chance to meet the rest of the team. One of the other designers had shown me the tools they used, and I’d even seen their design pipeline with all of the projects coming up. It was no wonder they needed someone; the queue was even longer than what I’d seen at the charity. And importantly, they seemed like nice people. Easy to get along with.
