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Anxious, I pace my sleek, modern office, tugging at my clothes before smoothing them out again.
Simone’s here, in the building and with my man. The bitch is back, and Trent looks pleased.
This isn’t good. Simone is too close. With her back onsite, Trent may be tempted to rekindle a romance with his ex.
Oh, who am I kidding? Trent has been ready and willing to go back to Simone since the day she caught the two of us in bed together. The only reason Trent is with me is, Simone wouldn’t take him back. As much as I loathe Simone, I owe her for leaving Trent.
But she’s here, auditing the firm. I nearly fell out of my heels when a staff member from the ground level called to inform me she spotted Simone walking through the building with a group of muscled men.
Impossible.I couldn’t believe the news, didn’t want to believe it was true. Having to see if the gossip was real, I rushed downstairs. To my great contempt, it was. And to make matters worse, Trent was standing beside Simone, looking the happiest he’d been in a year.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
With shaky fingers, I snatch my cell from my desk, punching out another text message to Trent.
*Come to my office.*
It’s the same message I’ve sent a dozen times, each one going unanswered—not his norm.
Old insecurities have me running my hands over my hair, ready to rip it from the roots. I may have the desired pedigree, the Ivy League education, the better job title, more income, but Trent still favors Simone, the woman who has none of my qualities.
It doesn’t help my ego when Simone is a far more superb financial accountant. The pressure I got from upper management to increase my productivity to the same level as Simone was enough fuel to detest Trent’s ex. I may have been Simone’s boss, but the firm favored Simone.
Waiting for Trent, I continue to pace a hole in the carpet, slipping back into the past as I recall what my life was like when Simone worked in the firm.
No matter how many projects or clients I took on, Simone was doing more, running circles around me and our department. I was living in the shadow of my underling, and others noticed.
Jealousy is an ugly thing, and I’m green with it. How could a young, buxom, state college, Los Angeles projects kiss-ass outshine me?
It wasn’t fair. I should be the favorite, the one all staff want to emulate. I was the total package, but no one took notice of me.
People make assumptions when you come from money, like you have things handed to you. Not me. I worked my ass off, even engaging in colleague sabotage a time or two to get where I am today. My efforts didn’t make me the smartest; only the most conniving. And I’m okay with it as long as it made me the top dog.
But I wasn’t the alpha accountant. Simone was.
Attempting to set Simone up to fail, I purposely gave her a larger workload compared to others on our team. All it did was make Simone work harder, to the point where upper management was looking for a way to advance her from under me to a level above me. With every success Simone had, my contempt for my employee grew.
And then there was Trent, the crown jewel in Simone’s life, or at least in my eyes, he was.
Trent was an attractive man, by far the most handsome in the company. He was intelligent and well-educated. His vast knowledge of investments and financial planning brought in a slew of A-list clientele to the firm. The man was a celebrity in the financial world.
For years, I secretly pined for his affections, flirting shamelessly with him, with no reciprocation. When Trent finally showed interest, it came as a complete surprise. What made Trent change his mind out of nowhere? I never questioned. It didn’t matter. Trent was paying attention to me, and I was enamored.
Although Trent was already in a committed relationship with Simone, it wasn’t a deterrent—it was an incentive. And in a sick, vindictive way, I justified the affair as reclaiming the power Simone took from me in the firm.
I fell hard, faster than Superman dodging a speeding bullet. From when Trent returned my affection to us escalating our secret relationship to the bedroom was less than a month. The sex was something to be desired, but it was all the sweeter knowing I was fucking Simone Holland’s boyfriend behind her back.
And here we are a year later, with Simone walking around the firm like she owns the damn place and catching Trent’s attention once again. His shutting the door in my face seems more like foreshadowing than refusing me access to a private auditing meeting.
Trent is mine, I chant in my head, reminding myself I have everything Simone doesn’t.
The office door swinging open snaps me back to the present. My posture sags with respite when Trent enters, shutting the door behind him.
Sporting a pinched expression, he clips, “I’m here. What’s so important you keep blowing up my phone while I’m with the auditors?”
Ignoring his indifferent tone, I rush forward, throwing my arms around his neck. He grunts at the impact, though he allows me to hug him. He’s never been overly affectionate. I try not to let it bother me when he doesn’t hold me with the same enthusiasm.
“What took so long? Is Simone giving you a hard time?”
