“This is a mistake,” Grace said. “Let me talk to Alex.”
“I already talked to him,” Autumn said. “And he told me to handle this, which is what I’m doing. He’s already trying to recover what was lost.”
“Handle this?” Grace swallowed. The fact that Alex wasn’t even here was very telling. Her heart started to race. Was it possible that he wanted her to be fired because of their night together?
“Yes. I’m doing my best here, and you’re not giving me any information to prove your innocence.”
“Autumn, please,” Grace said. “I think someone’s setting me up. I don’t know what happened here, but I swear, I didn’t take the laptop or lose it.”
“I wish I could take you at your word.” Autumn sighed. “But we have policies in place, and without any proof from you, I have to follow them. Josh here will escort you out.”
“Let me call Alex.” Grace fumbled for her phone. “I’ll talk to him, I’ll explain.” Even though they weren’t romantically involved, surely Alex wouldn’t throw her under the bus like this. Maybe, when he’d told Autumn to handle the situation, he’d meant investigate, not fire. He’d want to know that Grace was being pushed out, even though she hadn’t done anything wrong. Eventhough she’d signed the laptop back in on the log—she was sure of it!
But the phone rang and rang, and no one answered. Was Alex screening her calls? That seemed like a bad sign.
“Come on,” the security guard, Josh, said. His tone was kind. “Let’s go. No point in hanging around here.”
“I didn’t do this,” Grace repeated, but she stood. It was clear that there was nothing she could say, even though she distinctly remembered returning the laptop to Alex’s office. She’d never have stolen the laptop. And she’d never have been careless enough to misplace it.
“Let’s go,” Josh repeated. Grace followed him to her desk, where she packed up her few items. Her gaze landed on the duck Alex had given her. She picked it up, then slowly set it back down.
Alex must know what was happening. There was no way he hadn’t authorized this. Suddenly, it all made sense to Grace. Alex had slept with her. Now she was being fired. It seemed far too convenient, like he’d used her and then tossed her aside when he needed a scapegoat. It was the only explanation that made any kind of sense.
Even if he didn’t care for her, Alex must know that she’d never have done this. They’d had long conversations about being perfectionists and caring too much about work. And Gracehadsigned the laptop back in. In the best-case scenario, Alex was letting Autumn fire Grace despite no real evidence that she’d done anything wrong. In the worst case, this whole situation was manufactured to try to push Grace out.
“I’m sure you’ll find a better job,” Josh said kindly, breaking Grace’s train of thought.
“Thank you,” Grace said, but she wasn’t so sure. The San Valentino job market was scary at the best of times, and when potential employers found out that she’d been fired under mysterious circumstances, they’d surely pass her over. “Can we go to Alex’s office?” she asked. “I need to talk to him.” Some part of her still hoped that this was all a misunderstanding and that, when Alex found out she was being fired, he’d do something to stop it. Yet the bigger part of her knew that this was probably Alex’s doing.
“I need to take you straight out,” Josh replied.
“It’ll just be a second.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t.”
And then he escorted Grace, confused, humiliated, and hurt, out of the building. No one tried to talk to her. No one seemed to care that she had been set up and summarily fired, least of all Alex, who was conspicuously absent.
It was all over. Her dream job. Her flirtation with Alex. Her hopes that she could finally prove herself. Everything had disappeared with one false accusation and no one to support her.
CHAPTER 10
GRACE
At first, Grace was righteously indignant about having been fired when she’d done nothing wrong. She tried to call Alex several times, leaving voicemails explaining that she’d left the laptop in his office and checked it back in—she was sure of it. She asked him to check the log again.
But Alex didn’t reply. And Autumn didn’t reach out to say that they’d found the real culprit and that Grace’s name was cleared, as she’d initially hoped.
That first week, Grace half-expected to get her job back when Alex or Autumn or someone else realized that the laptop had just been misplaced by someone other than her. The second week, when she realized that wasn’t going to happen, she started applying for other jobs. It was increasingly clear that the missing laptop had just been a convenient excuse to get rid of her. They must have found the real culprit by now, or at least realized that Grace had checked the laptop back in like she’d said, but Alex still hadn’t reached out to apologize or to rehire her. It was a clear sign that he’d used her and tossed her aside. Even if he’d truly believed she had stolen the laptop at first, he must knownow that it wasn’t her. Keeping her gone was just a convenient way to avoid dealing with what had happened between them.
The third week, Grace was already overwhelmed by the job market. She’d sent her résumé and cover letter to more than thirty companies and had already received thirty rejection letters, a figure which seemed almost impossible. They must not even be reading her applications, just rejecting her when they realized she’d been fired.
By the fourth week, Grace’s savings were dangerously low, as were her spirits. She was tempted to send a scathing email to Alex or track him down at the office to confront him about how he’d used her, but her pride stopped her from doing so. He’d seemed nice, but he was a real jerk. Maybe he did this often, flirting with female employees and then finding convenient excuses to fire them when he was done. It had been Grace’s own fault for letting things with him spiral out of control.
By the fifth week, Grace was living on ramen and suffering from a series of terrible headaches and a kind of exhaustion she hadn’t known was possible. She was barely getting by on her savings and was seriously considering taking a job as a waitress again to make ends meet. Surely she could still get hired to wait tables, even if it was a step back career-wise. At least then she’d be able to pay the rent on her small apartment.
By the sixth week, Grace was so dispirited that she started filling out an application to work at the local diner. It was time to accept the reality that she’d never get hired at a San Valentino tech company again, not after being fired under mysterious circumstances. She was furious with Alex. How could he do this to her? A small, angry part of her wondered if he’d faked the laptop disappearance completely just to get rid of her.
Grace was about to hit send on the job application when her cell rang. She jumped a little, surprised, and reached for it. The number was blocked.
