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“Shut up Edith.” I give her a slap on her knee. We all laugh for the first time again.
I go into the details of how Ethan designed the thoughtful and beautiful room for me in the Korrina, with all the pictures I had taken including the selfie from Hawaii, the picture which he had initially wanted to destroy and my pictures from the trip.
“Got to hand it to Ethan Knight, dude’s got style,” says Edith shaking her head in some kind of stupid admiration. “But we hate him so much.” She adds quickly.
I recall the time last night at the warehouse and our pact to keep things professional in NYC at least until the end of the year until we launch our new product line for Cork materials.
And lastly, of course what happened this morning. When he found me coming out of the Foster Design Company office. When he just let me walk away from him. I feel my anger and hurt coming back to me, but this time the pain has been dulled or delayed. I feel lightened by finally speaking about what the hell has been going on in my life. The strawberry ice-cream bucket has received a lot of damage, but it has performed with honor.
“So, we hate him, right girls?” I want final confirmation.
“Oh, uh yeah… I mean definitely,” comes the pathetic response from Sylvia.
Edith is equally unhelpful with my quest for hatred. “Brooke I am with you girl, and for you we’ll try our best to hate him. For now, just call in sick.”
I send an email because I don’t want Jessica to hear my voice.
JUDGEMENTS
ETHAN
After seeing Brooke betray me to the Fosters, I return to my office, but I can’t stop thinking of what she has done. Plus, I found out she has taken the day off.
“Pricilla please cancel all my meetings for the day.”
“Mr. Knight, you don’t look good. I saw you in high spirits when I picked you up from the airport.”
“Pricilla, this is not aMr. Knightconversation. Can we cut the formality? You have known me since I was visiting the office with my father as a scrawny teenager. You know I respect you like a big sister and rely on you in all things important. I know you have your work ethics, but can we cut the professional bullshit?”
She presses a button that locks access to our floor entirely. She turns off her cell phone.
“What’s wrong Ethan. You were so happy on Friday, literally bouncing with ideas. I know you are in good health. What the hell happened to you this morning?”
“Well, uh… you know in Hawaii I ran into Miss Brooke Banner. This was before she was an employee at Elysian.
“Let me get the wine Ethan. This is a drinking situation.”
She’s right. She returns with two glasses, and we uncork a French wine we usually keep for our best customers. The cork reminds me of our last night of passion in the warehouse on that floor mat.
“Now tell me everything Ethan, and none of that understated English style bullshit. I need to know the facts to protect you, and Elysian.”
I nod and launch into how I feel for Brooke’s beauty the first time I saw her. How I deliberately treated her rudely when she turned up as an employee. How I then kept making excuses to be in her presence, showing up deliberately in the hotel lobby, giving her a project to take pictures while I walked with her around the streets of Lisbon.
“I got scared that she might know what I am doing, how much I yearn for her, so I resorted to being extra mean, telling her that I would trash the selfie she took with me.”
“I am sure you were quite convincing. You do have a talent for rudeness.” Pricilla is frank as drinks the wine.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t.”
“Anyway, I thought I was free of her now that I had been rude to her. But she sprained her ankle on that mountain in Alentejo, the one outside the craftsman’s village.”
“That’s a good hike, I love Alentejo.”
“Well let’s just say so did we.”
“Okay, so you had physical relations.”
