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“Hmm. Looks like you’ve been on one wild rollercoaster ride.”
“You know it.”
“Want some sorrow-drowning company?”
“Molly, normally I would say yeah, but not tonight. I just want to hang and feel sorry for my own stupid butt for believing such bull. You know what I’m saying?”
“I do. If you change your mind, you know where to find me. Oh, you never said if you liked the job though.”
“It has potential. It’s not true copy-editing, but it pays a hell of a lot better.”
“Well, at least you have that.”
“Truth.”
After I hung up, I started to think about my day. What a stupid mess I’d gotten myself in. How could I have let this happen? I’d gone from the frying pan straight into the fire and here I’d thought I was stepping up in the world.
A knock came at my door. I knew who it was so I ignored it. I wasn’t falling prey to his games anymore.
It persisted, so I went to the door and yelled, “Go away.”
“I have a delivery for a Miss Landon.”
I peeked out the peephole and saw a deliveryman standing out there with a gigantic floral arrangement. Then I checked the time to see it was after six.
When I opened the door, the man asked, “Miss Landon?”
“That’s me.”
“These are for you.”
He handed me the huge vase and I nearly dropped it. It weighed a ton. “Uh, thanks,” I said as I grabbed it with both hands. After kicking the door shut behind me, I carried it to the table. There was a large card sticking out of it, so I pulled it out.
Dear Chloe,
I know what you thought when you saw me with that other woman, but it wasn’t what it appeared. Please let me explain. It was all a mistake. I swear to you, if you’ll only give me a chance, I promise I’ll make it right.
Yours,
Ryan
Right. ‘I thought I saw.’ I knew exactly what I’d seen. As I went to stuff the card in, I noticed an oblong box inside the flowers. When I pulled it out, I opened it to reveal a gorgeous bracelet. I clamped my lips together. While the piece of jewelry was undeniably beautiful, the fact that he thought he could just buy off my anger launched me into a whole new level of fury.
There was another knock at my door and this time I was ready to take him on. When I jerked the door open, I nearly yanked it off its hinges. But it wasn’t Ryan. It was my former boss.
“Mr. Hampton, what are you doing here?”
“Uh, Chloe, are you okay? You look a little, uh, tense.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
I blinked about thirty times. This couldn’t be the asshole boss who’d piled an inordinate amount of work on me and then only given me one day to complete it. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, I see that you’re upset about something and I was wondering if you needed help.”
“Why on earth would you wonder that?”
“Because you appear to need it.”
“Mr. Hampton, I worked for you for months while you treated me like a dog, heaping work on me like I was a farm animal. And here you stand asking if I need help? I needed help when you gave me impossible deadlines to meet and threatened to fire me if I didn’t.”
He stared at me with a blank look. “I did that?”
“You need to leave.” I shut the door in his face. Were all men that stupid?
I plopped down on the couch and guzzled what remained of my wine. On further thought, I was the idiot in this trio. I had allowed Hugh Hampton to railroad me in that job and then I’d walked right into Ryan’s trap like a defenseless rabbit. All I’d seen was his gorgeous looks and large penis. Penis be damned, and from now on, I was going to aim for the ugly guys. Maybe they knew how to treat women.
While that thought circulated in my brain, another knock pounded on the door.
“For the love of wine and beer, who is it now?” I yanked the door open to find Mr. Hampton still standing there. What the hell was he doing? “Are you planning on sleeping out here? Should I toss you a blanket or something?”
“No, I was going over what you said to me and I guess I was pretty hard on you. I wanted to tell you I was sorry.”
“Look, I think you’d better leave. This is too much.”
“But…”
My finger pointed to the street. “Just go.” Only then I heard a car door slam and someone yelling. I looked over at who was making the ruckus. “Well, I should’ve guessed this would get worse.”
“What’s he doing here?” Mr. Hampton asked.
“You can ask him yourself.”
“Get away from her,” Ryan snarled.
“Hold up there,” I began. But before I was able to say anything else, Ryan’s fist shot out and caught Mr. Hampton’s jaw in a right hook. Mr. Hampton’s head flung to the left and snapped back. Then he narrowed his gaze as he rubbed the place where Ryan’s fist had connected.
