Chapter 7
at ther
Monday morning, meeting, Jaime and Celia walked into the conference room hand in hand. The whole project team audibly gasped.
A Cartier Juste un Clou ring glittered on Celia’s ring finger.
She made a show of tucking her hair behind her ear with her ringed hand, the diamond facets catching the sunlight and scattering it across the slides.
was presenting.
“Good news, everyone! We’re officially together.” She leaned into Jaime’s shoulder, her face glowing with sweetness.
Everyone was stunned. They glanced at me, then back at the couple.
Celia covered her mouth with a giggle. “Jaime was the one who chased after me. To win me over, he even got my probation period shortened. Since he was so sincere, I agreed. From now on, let’s all just get along
like before…‘
My hand trembled, the laser pointer shaking slightly.
So that was it.
The proposal I’d pulled an all–nighter to finish last month–Celia’s name had ended up on the cover.
All just so Jaime could get her promoted.
After the meeting, the women in the office clustered around me. “Didn’t we warn you she was an attention seeker? Just look at how smug she is…”
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“Anyone want coffee?” I raised my voice on purpose.
The break room fell silent.
Celia strolled over, sipping on a straw. “Someone’s not gossiping about me behind my back, are they?”
She turned to the guys and shrugged. “See? I told you, girls always form, cliques. I’m not like them…”
“Ms. Tinsley.” My laugh was icy. “We’re all colleagues. Could you stop making everything a competition? It’s honestly pretty pathetic.”
“You!” Celia raised her hand to slap me, but I caught her wrist.
Suddenly, Jaime rushed in and pulled us apart.
She immediately burst into tears and flung herself into his arms, accusing us of badmouthing her behind her back.
I just curled my lips, didn’t bother to explain, and walked away.
Until the night of the department dinner.
Celia was tipsy, draped over Jaime’s arm.
“More drinks! Give me another…” She hiccupped, slurring her words.
“Celia can really hold her liquor!” Jaime’s college buddy and assistant. punched him on the shoulder. “She’s a lot more fun than some people who just cry all the time.”
Jaime laughed and tipped back his beer, silently agreeing with the comparison.
As the night wore on, Celia suddenly straddled Jaime’s lap, twirling his
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tie around her finger. “Honey, give me a kiss…”
The whole table erupted in laughter. Jaime frowned, brushed her hand away, and whispered something in her ear that made her giggle and playfully punch his chest.
I quietly ate my dinner.
Then, out of nowhere, Celia looked straight at me and raised her glass high. “I hope everyone here keeps their distance from my honey. Don’t go trying to be the other woman…”
She swept her gaze pointedly over the other women at the table. “I have zero tolerance for homewreckers. If I catch anyone making a move on my honey, don’t blame me for slapping you!”
Jaime finally spoke up. “Knock it off.”
Even as he said it, he reached over to gently fix her slipping neckline.
In the reflection of the wine glasses, my face was completely blank.
After that, their relationship only grew more public and intimate.
At work, Celia would fix Jaime’s tie or make him tie up her hair–always glued to each other.
“Gracie…” My coworker Mindy hesitated, handing me a cookie. “Are you okay?”
I took a bite. The sweetness tasted bitter.
Everyone in the company knew how in love Jaime and I used to be.
“Thanks, Mindy. I’m fine.” I looked out the window, my voice calm.
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The days slipped by, one after another. Just when I thought Jaime and I would never cross paths again-
He suddenly burst out of a meeting room, shoving his phone screen in my face. “Was this you?”
His voice was low and tense. “Gracie, I’m so disappointed in you. If you have a problem, take it out on me, not on an innocent girl…”
It was only then that I saw the blurry chat logs on his screen.
A post from Celia’s old college forum, exposing in detail how she’d dated three guys at once and scammed them for money.
“So?” I smiled and pushed the phone away. “You think I did this to get back at her? That I’d stoop to slandering her?”
“Who else could it be!” He slammed his fist on the desk. “She cried herself into an asthma attack this morning. Are you happy now?”
I almost laughed.
So, he still remembered someone could have an asthma attack–he’d just forgotten that someone was supposed to be me.
When I was 14, I cried so hard from one of our fights that I had an asthma. attack. He carried me on his back, sprinting three kilometers to the hospital, losing his white sneakers along the way.
“Mr. Lyndon.” I slid my laptop out from under his hand. “Need me to show you how to trace an IP address?”
Jaime’s fingers clamped around my wrist like a vise. I caught a whiff of unfamiliar perfume on his sleeve.
It was Celia’s favorite–Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium, sickly sweet.
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“Gracie,” he yanked me into the stairwell, the motion–sensor lights casting crimson shadows across his eyes, “for your own sake, I hope you didn’t do
this. Otherwise…”
I shook off his hand, my lower back slamming into the fire extinguisher
case.
The metal edge bit through my shirt, sharp enough to make me wince.
“Otherwise, what?” I pressed the toe of my shoe to his knee, keeping him at bay. “You gonna throw coffee at me again, or try hitting me this time?”
Suddenly, he grabbed my chin, his thumb tracing my jaw. “You know I’d never lay a finger on you…”
I let out a cold laugh.
He stared at me for a moment, his tone softening. “Gracie, just say you didn’t do it, and I’ll believe you…”
I stayed silent.
Jaime sighed. “Gracie, are you jealous? I know you’re upset I’m with someone else, but you don’t have to go after her like this…”
He hesitated, then lowered his voice. “Let’s just call it even for what. happened before. No more fighting, okay?”
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you out of your mind, Jaime?”
When we were kids, whenever I said we were done, he’d wait for me to
cave.
But we weren’t kids anymore.
“Jaime.” I pried his fingers off me. “After all these years, you really think
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I’d get my hands dirty for her? You give her too much credit–or you don’t know me at all.”
I was done with this. I shoved past him, ready to leave.
But he yanked me back, his grip tight on my wrist.
His eyes were red, his face a mix of helplessness and desperation. “What if I said I regret it?”
“That’s got nothing to do with me.” I cut him off, shaking him off.
Jaime suddenly pulled me into a hug. “I don’t believe you don’t care. Gracie, I’ll break up with Celia. Let’s start over.”
I was so disgusted I could barely stand it. “Let go of me.”
“I won’t, unless you say you’ll take me back.”
Without a word, I aimed a heel at his shiny leather shoes.
Before I could land the blow, there was a sharp “crack” behind me.
The sound of joints popping made Jaime grunt and release me.
I stumbled backward, straight into a cloud of cedar cologne.
Kamden Darrow’s suit cuff caught a strand of my loose hair.
“Careful, Gracie.” He had one hand clamped around Jaime’s wrist, the other hovering protectively at my waist. “Sir, forcing yourself on a lady is hardly gentlemanly.”
I stared at Kamden in shock.
He smiled, his dark eyes crinkling behind his glasses. “Come on, Gracie.
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Snap out of it.”
Jaime looked like that was the last thing he wanted to hear. “You two. know each other?”
Kamden nodded.
That’s when I noticed his badge-“Head of VC Division.”
So the new executive who parachuted in was him.
Jaime sneered. “Kamden, is it? I don’t care who you are–this is between. me and my girlfriend. Stay out of it…”
“Jaime!” I grabbed my phone and hurled it at his face. “Who’s your girlfriend? We broke up. Stop harassing me!”
The phone strap left a scratch across his cheekbone.
After I’d gotten it all out, Kamden shot me a sly wink.
Then he opened the door, standing firmly between me and Jaime.
I took the chance to break free and ran off without looking back.
