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The following week was torture. Grayson was in a foul mood, and everything I did was subjected to criticism, which was more surprising to my colleagues than it was to me. I’d barely set a foot wrong since my first day at Maude.
“What did you do to piss off the boss?” Marlene asked as we left the conference room after our weekly staff briefing.
With a quick shrug, I scooted back into my office to gather up my photography gear. After Grayson’s last outburst, I planned to spend the rest of the afternoon as far away from him as possible.
“Excuse me, Josie. Adam would like to see you in his office,” Linda said, poking her head through my door.
“Sure,” I muttered, dropping my bag onto the desk and making my way up the hall. I knocked twice on Adam’s door before entering.
Adam glanced up and sighed, before closing his laptop. “Josie, take a seat.”
I did as directed.
“I want you to take the rest of the week off.”
My eyebrows drew together. “What? Why?”
“Because it’s becoming increasingly obvious something is going on between you and my brother, and we need to tread very carefully at the moment.”
“There’s nothing going on between us.”
He scoffed. “If that were true, he would’ve told me.”
“I’m perfectly capable of being professional around Grayson. He’s the one who’s embarrassing himself.”
“Regardless, I want you to make yourself scarce for a few days. Work from home, take a mini break, I don’t care. I have to fly to LA to sort out an urgent contract, so I need Grayson thinking straight while I’m gone…which he doesn’t seem to do when you’re around.”
My mouth fell open.
“And keep clear of Melanie. She’s a loose cannon right now…no thanks to you.”
I hadn’t seen Melanie since the exhibition, but according to her latest posts, her social life had been pretty wild. Adam clearly thought I was to blame, and it pissed me off.
He rubbed his eyes. “You couldn’t have picked a worse time to bring Scott Blackwood back into the picture.”
I gnashed my teeth. “Don’t you get it? He was always in the picture! She never got over him.”
“I think you’re mistaken,” Adam said, leaning back into his leather chair while tapping his pen on the desk. “Melanie moved on remarkably quick after he left. Hell, she jumped into bed with Grayson just days later.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t you think it’s a little coincidental she got pregnant just days after Scott left, to someone who conveniently doesn’t remember anything that happened that night?”
The tapping slowed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying…that unlike Grayson, I won’t take responsibility for something that has nothing to do with me.”
Adam’s face fell. “Jesus,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “How do you…”
“She told me,” I said quickly, before I lost my nerve.
“Does Grayson know?”
My eyes glistened as I shook my head. “I can’t tell him. He’ll be crushed.”
“Leave it with me,” Adam said, rubbing his forehead. “Just go home and I’ll see you next week.”
The door opened and I jumped, glancing back to find Grayson pause in the doorway.
