AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had a company that would do well now, thanks to the contract I’d just gotten. Yeah, so I hadn’t won it fair and square, but winning was winning, right?
Why, then, didn’t it taste sweet?
It tasted bitter. So fucking bitter.
24
MACKENZIE
Aftereverythingthathadgone wrong the past couple of days, it was almost expected that when I looked at the pregnancy test I’d just taken, it was positive.
I flipped down the toilet lid and sat on it, pushing my hand into my hair.
What the hell was I supposed to do now?
I’d lost the contract for the Elecoms project.
Rachel was still in hospital and not showing any signs of getting better. She wasn’t getting worse, either, which was something I should have been happy about, but she still wasn’t out of the woods just yet.
And then there was Troy.
“Are you home?” I asked Hailey when I called her.
“I just got in,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Can I come over?” I asked. “I just need a friendly face.”
“Of course,” Hailey said. “You’re always welcome.”
I ended the call, grabbed my things together, and left to go to Hailey’s place. When I got there and she opened the door, I burst into tears. I hadn’t meant to go there and start crying right away. I hadn’t realized my tears were so close to the surface, but the moment she’d looked at me, I hadn’t been able to hold back.
“Oh, no,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “It’s going to be okay.”
“It’s not,” I cried into her shoulder.
Hailey rubbed my back while I sobbed until I pulled it together enough to snivel and looked up at her.
“I’ll put on coffee,” she said. “Unless you need something stronger.”
“I can’t,” I said and new tears welled in my eyes.
“Oh,” Hailey said softly, understanding exactly what I meant.
I followed her into the apartment and stood in her small open-plan kitchen while she made us each a cup of coffee with her new fancy machine.
“Tell me,” she said.
I took a shuddering breath and told her about the presentation and what had happened. I told her about what Troy had said and that he hadn’t told me about the new brief.
Hailey handed me my cup of coffee somewhere in the middle of my story, and when hers was ready, we walked to the couch together.
“I can’t believe he would do that to you,” Hailey said, shaking her head, incredulous.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Me either.”
“So… what are you going to do?”
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll go back to work, take the heat for losing the contract, and keep moving forward. There isn’t much else I can do, you know?”
