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I throw my hands in the air. “Good. Now you understand that I don’t want you.” The minute the words are out, I instantly regret them.
He frowns before hurt registers on his face, and without a word he stomps out of his office.
Throughout the day, I try to keep my mind off Atlas. What the hell happened? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? He has been kind and protects me. I keep pushing him away when he’s giving me a lot, yet I keep hurting his feelings. I’m the biggest asshole on the planet. It’s time for us to go to the meeting with the creative team. He hasn’t been back to his office since early in morning, and it’s pushing toward ten. He strides back into the office, and my pulse quickens, and my palms dampen.
Without glancing at me, he says, “It’s time for the meeting with the creative team.”
The minute we walk into the creative room, everyone’s eyes are on us. The room feels stuffy, and I take my seat next to a woman, but she scoops away from me.
A few women glare at me, and I suspect they think we’re together. Maybe Alyssa opened her big mouth about what Atlas said to me in the office. When we’re passing each other in the hallway, she glares at me and rolls her eyes. Whatever. People want to assume shit, let them. I can’t change people’s minds, and I can’t control how they feel about me. My reputation is probably going to go to shit anyway. I don’t want people to believe I’m a gold-digging whore like how they described my mother in the blogs when she was a model. People painted a horrible picture of my mother because she slept with her photographer, saying he helped excel her career.
I watch as everyone goes up to the front of the room one by one, presenting their sketches, trying to earn Atlas’s approval. Once they are finished, Atlas clicks and unclicks the pen in his hand.
“These are the worst sketches I’ve ever seen. We need some good ones by the end of next month, and if any of you don’t come up with any of them, each one of you will be fired, even the people I pulled from Naked. My creative team is run by a bunch of lazy people who can’t come up with a bunch of drawings. That’s not hard. I don’t expect anything less than perfection from you guys.”
Everyone is quiet as the air conditioner pumps out cool air.
“Now, brainstorm.”
Clearly, he’s taking his anger out on them because of me. And that’s not fair. He won’t be mean to me, so they get the shit end of the stick.
“Stop talking down to them. These people work hard, and if they didn’t have a boss who berates them, maybe they can come up with something good,” I blurt out.
His eyes lift to me with a raised brow, and he crinkles the corner of his mouth.
“Excuse me,” he snaps. “You’re really testing my patience today, are you?”
“These people have worked so hard on their drawings, and you belittle them,” I snap.
Everyone watches us like hawks as if they are watching a soap opera.
A smile spreads across his face. “You think you can come up with something better, Miss Ortiz?”
Yeah, he’s pissed the fuck off, but I don’t care.
“Stop taking your anger out on them, it’s not cool. You’re being a dick for no reason.”
“Since you have so much to say on the way I run my creative team, then you can join them and come up with something. Otherwise, shut your pretty face up and stay in your lane.”
“Challenge accepted,” I answer. “I can help these people.”
“I’m not paying you extra, and it can’t cut into your hours of being my assistant.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll meet in the next few weeks about your sketches.”
Once the private elevator closes, my shoulders sag against the wall.
“What the fuck was that?” he snaps.
“What do you mean?”
“You undermined me during a team meeting, again.”
“You were belittling them; it was wrong, and you’re taking your anger out on them because of me, and I couldn’t bear seeing it.”
He cocks his eyebrow and shakes his head. “Interesting. You care about my employees more than me.”
