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A grin spreads across my face. So much has happened while she’s been on vacation. She’s the closest thing I have to a friend here and I hope she will be happy for me…
“Hey. How’s your vaca—”
“Hope you’re happy back stabber,” she cuts me off.
“Sorry?” I reply. “Sasha?”
“You played this perfectly. Little innocent teenager from West Virginia Nowhere.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Stop the act.”
“What is going on?”
I hear her huff.
“They said you were on vacation.” My mind is racing.
“Vacation? You liar. You didn't call to check on me, because you know you’re the one who got me fired.”
“Fired?” I hunker down lower into my desk when I notice that I now am attracting the attention of my colleagues. “What are you talking about?” I whisper into the phone. “I didn’t get you fired. You’re fired?”
“Such a liar,” she spits out.
“Sasha, I swear, I didn't know you were fired. I didn’t call because I didn't want to bother you on vacation. Hell, I was so jealous and upset you didn’t tell me that you got to go to Greece!”
“Greece? I can’t even afford my apartment anymore. You’re the one who played me. Acting like my friend. Working with me, then blaming me for stealing your ideas.”
“Whoa. What the hell are you talking about? Listen, Sasha, I don’t understand. I’m working with a different team now. I haven’t talked to anyone, so I didn’t know. I’ve been so busy. Why don't we meet somewhere? I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s going on…” My voice cracks.
She pauses on the other end. “You really didn’t know?”
“Of course not. Meet me at Leo’s.” It’s the deli slash coffee shop across the street from the office building. “Can you be there in like, an hour? Maybe I can do something to fix this.”
She agrees, still sounding suspicious of what I did and didn’t know. As I hang up, my stomach is in knots once again, wondering if my promotion was as simple as Jack said.
It takes me a while to spot Sasha at a corner table. As I fall into the seat across from her, taking a napkin from the dispenser and wiping my face. A fine drizzle has started outside, the sky clouding over as the wind whips garbage through the streets.
Her blue eyes are puffy and swollen and a little wild with deep shadows underneath. Her skin is pale and splotchy, her usually perfectly slicked back hair in a messy bun and for the first time her lips are not perfectly tinted with her Gwen Stefani signature red.
“How are you holding up?” I ask, knowing what the answer will be but not sure how else to start the conversation.
“How does it look?”
I shrink back into my chair. “Look, Sasha. I promise, I had no idea. And I didn't get you fired. I even asked the twins, Mariana and Martha, about your sudden vacation. They just shrugged and blew me off.”
“I didn’t tell them. I didn’t tell anyone, but I was sure word had gotten around. I was humiliated. That group is nothing without me.” She chews the corner of a broken fingernail, then points it at me.
I flatten myself against the seat as the fury and distaste pour off her in waves.
“I want to help. Tell me how I can help.” I know what I can do. “Wait. I know.”
“What is it?” Her eyes narrow.
“I can ask Jack—” I catch myself before I say his last name. “I can ask someone in the executive office to review your case again and bring you back. Rehire you.”
“No, you can’t,” she scoffs. “You’re an intern.”
“Actually…” I bite my lip. I don’t really want to tell her, but I have to say something. “The fact is…” I look around. “I'm trusting you with confidential information because I want to help.”
She leans closer, her eyes clearing. “What?”
“The CEO, Jensen Harold, isn’t the only one in charge. I mean, he’s the boss, for sure, but, well, someone else owns the company. He just doesn’t usually get involved in the day-to-day operations.”
“Who?”
I inhale deeply. “Jackson Carter.”
Her brows lift higher. “Really? How do you know that?”
I don’t like the hardness in her eyes, but I can’t step back anymore.
I hesitate, wondering how much I should say. But Jack did give me the collar, didn’t he? He said that it was to tell the world that I was his. “Well… He and I are…”
She gives me a disgusted look. “You’re what? Old friends from Nowheresville? Your father’s went to college together?” Her eyes narrow then widen with revelation. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you? You’re practically jailbait.”
My cheeks feel like they are on fire. “Why are you being like this? I'm trying to help you.”
“Don’t fucking help me until you help yourself.”
She picks up her phone and starts poking at the screen.
“What do you mean? Help myself...”
