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I stare incredulously at Giles then Coach, who studies the floor. Dr. Carlisle looks smug as though he figured this out weeks ago.
“How come I’m not being punished then?” I ask.
Giles chuckles. “You’re not that naive, are you? You’re the star. We need your head in the game. We’re not going to fire you and ruin your career because you got caught up with a piece of ass. You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last.”
Dr. Carlisle laughs, and I swear to God I’ve never wanted to punch someone in the face more than I do these two right now.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“This is the real world, Lee. If you were so concerned for her well-being, you should’ve thought of that before you fucked her. At any rate, once she signs that contract, the two of you can do whatever you want. It’s no longer the organization’s problem. But we have to mitigate our losses. We can’t be dealing with any Me Too bullshit if things go south with you two.”
I push a hand through my hair. “This isn’t over.” I rush out of the room, anger propelling me forward.
Shayna isn’t in the building, nor is she in the parking lot. I need to find her. She’s gotta be so upset. This is exactly what she was afraid of, and I blindly thought they’d change the rules for us. Give us a slap on the wrist. Just like Giles said, I was fucking naive.
All I care about right now is holding her, telling her we’ll get through this.
Thirty-Six
Shayna
The knock at my apartment door doesn’t surprise me. I was expecting it after I tucked tail and left Mr. Hanover’s office. I don’t bother wiping the tears from my face before I swing open my apartment door.
Lee walks right in and wraps me in his arms, and for a brief moment, I allow myself to feel safe. But then everything rushes back to me and I push him away.
“Why did you do that?” I angrily wipe the tears from my cheeks now.
He looks confused for a beat, then his forehead wrinkles. “I didn’t leak those pictures.”
I roll my eyes.
On the way to the facility from the airport, I read Bryce’s frantic texts explaining that someone had tipped off the woman who does the society/gossip portion of theChronicle. I have no idea who tipped off the reporter, but it really doesn’t matter at this point. Probably just some random person who wanted to make a quick buck.
“I know you didn’t. But why did you admit to everything?”
He throws up his hands. “What was I supposed to say? We were obviously caught.”
“Did you stop to think for one second what I might have wanted you to say? You could have come up with a million different excuses—you know someone else in the building, you were picking up something from me to help with your recovery. I don’t know. Anything but I’ve known her since college and we’ve been sleeping together!” My voice grows louder and louder.
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t think of any of those things. They wouldn’t have believed them anyway. They wouldn’t have presented us the pictures and brought us in if they weren’t sure.”
“Maybe not, but they still wouldn’t have had proof that we were in a relationship and I wouldn’t have gotten fired!” I poke him in the chest, letting my frustration and anger boil over.
“You can’t let them fire you.”
I almost want to laugh—as though I have a choice. My name isn’t Lee Burrows.
“It’s already done. You made sure of that.” I turn away from him. I can’t even look at him.
“I’ll talk to my lawyer. There’s got to be a loophole or something.”
A caustic laugh leaves my lips. “Were you in the same meeting I was? I’m nothing more than a problem to be solved. Sign on the dotted line and fade away, don’t cause any trouble for the organization or you.”
“So that’s it, eh? You’re not even going to bother trying to fight for us? To fight for the position you earned?”
I scowl. “You live in la-la land. I’m trying to save what little pride I have left.” Crossing my arms, I turn away again.
He steps up behind me and rests his hands on my shoulders. “Look, I understand that you’re upset, but we’ll figure it out.”
