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He looked at his lawyer. “You don’t understand. I know how much money the CEO of this company makes. It’s not fair. He’s raking in all this money and us lowly guys at the bottom don’t get any of it!”
The lawyer raised a brow. “Mark, I know you’re my client, and I shouldn’t disagree with you in front of the company lawyer, but I’ve seen your severance paperwork, and you were paid a very generous salary.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” I took the files back and stuck a hand out to the other lawyer. “Now then, do we have a deal? Can we all move on from this messy little disaster and call it a day?”
“You can’t be serious!” Mark said. “You can’t be considering taking this deal.”
“Legally speaking.” the lawyer said. “It’s the best deal you’re going to get. Unless you want to face jail time and lawyer fees that’ll soon amount to more than you made in a year of working here. Trust me, Mark, what she’s offering you is more than you deserve. Just take it and leave.”
“And what if I say no?” Mark asked.
“That’s your choice,” the lawyer said. “But I won’t be representing you, anymore. I’m done.”
I watched as Mark weighed his options. His face went from angry, to indignant, to defeated all in quick succession. Then his lawyer packed up his things and walked out. Mark gave me a rude look before going on his way out the door as well.
So—I’d won.
And yet, I hardly even cared. The only person I wanted to talk to about this case and my victory, was currently in the process of ignoring me at all costs, so the whole thing felt very… empty. I went back to my desk, finished the rest of my work, then took a call from Michelle as I ate my lunch alone.
“Give me an update,” she said. We had talked the day before. “Is he still not talking to you?”
“Yup,” I said. “Still radio silence.”
Michelle sighed. “Man, that issoweird.”
“I know,” I said. “I think so too. I honestly cannot figure out what I did to make him so angry with me. If only he would talk to me, we could work all of this out.”
“At least this way, you can avoid having an awkward conversation with him. You don’t have to tell him that you’re not interested in him anymore, so that’s a plus.”
“Right…”But what if I was still interested?“But I still want us to be friends. That was the whole point of talking to you on Tuesday so that we could brainstorm a good way for me to let him down easily. I had that whole speech memorized so that he and I could hopefully still be cordial to one another, and now that’s all down the drain. I’m really bummed.”
“Maybe in the future, you can start to be friendly to one another again,” she said. “He can’t stay mad at you forever, and in the meantime, you’re free to focus on work, maybe go out and meet some new guys.”
I don’t want to meet any other guys…
“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “It’s just so crazy. I wish I knew what made him flip on a dime. I mean, Monday afternoon he was chasing me through the street, begging for me to give him the time of day, and then by Tuesday morning, he wants nothing to do with me… How does that even happen?”
“How was the sex Monday night?”
I laughed. “Best so far.”
“Then I don’t know. Men are strange creatures. Especially rich and powerful men.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I said after a few seconds of contemplative silence. “I just thought David would be different. Does that make me an idiot? I mean, am I such a fool as to trust a man again? After what Bret did to me!”
“You’re probably asking the wrong person,” Michelle said. “You know me, I hardly trust anyone, but especially not men. But really, I think this whole thing is a blessing in disguise. You two can now walk away without having to make anything more uncomfortable than it already is, and you got out of the relationship before things could get too emotional. You dodged a bullet. It’s better to find out that he wants to end things now, than to find out after you’ve already caught strong feelings for him, right?”
“Right.”
In theory, what Michelle said was true. The problem was, I knew I had already caught feelings for David, and I was starting to think they were, in fact, strong ones. I was mad at myself for falling in love again, but it wasn’t as if that anger was going to change the way I felt about the man.
“I think I’m going to leave work early, take an afternoon off,” I said, talking to Michelle but also talking to myself. “I’ve finished all my work and I’ve been putting in long hours lately. I need a break.”
“I am in full support of this plan,” Michelle said. “Too bad I’m not there to take you out, but you should think about coming to New York soon to visit me. I miss you!”
“I miss you too. I miss all my girls.”
“Speaking of, have you spoken to Rose recently?”
