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“I know.”
“You kissed me, remember? Are…” she crossed her arms. “Do you regret what happened?”
“It’s not like that,” he said. “It’s not totally that,” he corrected.
Why couldn’t he stop shaking? The thought of hurting her like he knew he was going to was keeping all of the words from forming. He’d lost track of what he was going to say, how he was going to say it.
“Tallah…” Even just saying her name gave him a thrill. “What happened was amazing, really, but I need to tell you—“
The office door opened. Both he and Tallah jumped. Kelly, his fiancé, walked through the door. Justin’s heart seized, and sank.
“Excuse me,” Tallah said, “you can’t come in here without an appointment.”
The breath caught in Justin’s throat and he coughed to try and make a sound over what she was saying.
Kelly, though, laughed. “Oh she is a feisty one. It’s okay darling, I don’t work for or with Mr. Gilmore, here.” She came right up to him and planted a kiss. “Hi sweetie. I’ve been calling you. Busy day?”
Justin looked past her head to see Tallah standing behind her, eyes wide, face looking ready to explode.
“Swamped,” he said, and in that moment, had never felt worse about himself.
Tallah stood in frozen shock. He had a woman? He never mentioned her. Why hadn’t she come by before, or called? The woman said she’d been calling all day, but Tallah never received any. Private line. Must have been. What was he thinking? Was she supposed to be some side-piece why this skinny bitch gets all of the status? Bullshit. Tallah didn’t share, and she sure didn’t play around with trampy scumbags like him.
“If that will be all,” she said.
The woman laughed and turned toward her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I forget he’s someone around here. I just see him as my Justin.” She pinched his cheek playfully and laughed. “Were you in the middle of something?” she asked him. “I can come back, sweetie?”
“No no,” Tallah said sharply. “We’re done here. Stay as long as you like.”
“Oh, thank you,” the woman said with a smile. She was nice, too! Genuinely sweet. Tallah couldn’t hate her, but she could hate Justin.
She marched out of his office and sat at her desk. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of murdering him. The act would be simple enough, but what would she do with the body?
Instead, she sat at her computer and typed up her resignation. It had only been a couple of months, but there was no way she could come into this place again after today. Not after this.
She printed it up, and when his woman left with a smile and a wave, Tallah walked right in and slammed the office door closed behind her. There was going to be yelling, and it was nobody’s business but her own.
“Tallah, wait,” he said coming around the front of his desk again. Apparently he sat down thinking he was going to get some work done? Hell no.
“This is my official resignation. I am no longer under your employ.”
“Please, you have to believe me, this wasn’t how I wanted you to find out.”
“Oh I understand,” she said, convincing herself again that murdering him would be a bad idea. Somehow. Somehow it would be a bad idea, even though in that moment she couldn’t come up with a single reason why. “I wasn’t meant to find out.”
“No,” he said quickly, “that’s not it. I was going to tell you.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“Just when she walked in!”
Tallah laughed. It was spiteful and entirely without joy.
“Please, would you just hear me out? I didn’t mean for any of this.”
“Don’t you worry,” she said, “I’m no longer your problem. Enjoy your life.”
She turned her back on him and strode across that damned carpet to the office door.
