“Gerald, please leave.” Rosie stood up from her chair, but her voice hadn’t been heard by him.
No, a man that wore a face of someone who was about to leash out didn’t listen to anybody. “Well, well, well.” Gerald’s mouth curled in a grim mock. “Look at that.” He raised his voice. “Gets cozy with the boss and thinks she can go around, telling off people. Calling me stupid names.”
My whole world came to a halt. It simply stopped spinning. All that icy anger melted to the floor. The fear roared like a beast let out of a cage after an eternity in captivity.
There was a sharp beeping in my ears. My vision blurred. Memories from a past I had thought was left behind came rushing back, smacking into me with the force of a truck.
Whore. Slut. You fucked your way through college. Sucked some dick to get those grades.
I had done it again, hadn’t I? Stumbled upon the same fucking rock. Although this time, I hadn’t just scraped my knees. This time, I had gone down with everything I had. And I didn’t think standing back up, brushing it off, and moving on was something I’d be able to do. Not this time.
My career. All these years I had worked my ass off in a field that wasn’t exactly easy for a woman. Everything I had accomplished. All lit on fire by a vile man who had turned a beautiful thing—one I had just found—into gruesome mud and used it against me.
The warm grip of a hand against my arm. Delicate. Soft too. Familiar in a way that was contradictory because it felt like I hadn’t had enough time to learn. To tattoo it on my skin, so I wouldn’t forget.
“What’s going on, Lina?” a deep voice that spoke directly into my heart came through the chaos in my head.
My gaze wandered around, finding pairs of eyes upon more pairs of eyes staring at us. Eating it all up like one looked at a train wreck. How morbid. How very sad.
“Catalina?” I heard Aaron say with growing urgency.
I finally zeroed in on him, a smile wanting to claw its way out of me but dying off before it could. “Nothing,” I breathed out, shaking my head. Wishing to will him away from here. I didn’t want Aaron anywhere near this. I didn’t want Gerald’s poison to touch him, to splatter onto him. “Nothing’s going on.”
Something in his face was screaming at me to touch him, to cup his jaw and comfort him with soft kisses. But I didn’t do any of that. I simply watched how he turned toward my friend.
“Rosie,” Aaron said, sounding so … wrong. So unlike Aaron. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I looked at my friend, silently begging her not to say a word. He’d be enraged, and I knew Aaron well enough to be certain that he’d do something. He’d do anything.
But Rosie shook her head. “Gerald knows.”
Aaron didn’t need more than that to guess what had just happened because his profile hardened into granite.
“Not like you two tried to hide it.” Gerald laughed again, as if this were all a big joke to him. “Paul saw you two yesterday, but hey, I get it. It’s not a big deal, man.”
Everybody was watching, enraptured by the unfolding drama. And, God, I was so … weary and worn out. I wanted to rewind life and go back to any point before this.
“A word of advice? Don’t shit where you eat, Blackford. Word gets out. Especially if you are sleeping around with employees. But good for you, and hey, not that I blame her either. I see the appeal in getting it on with the boss.”
Silence. Thick, loaded silence engulfed us.
Then, Aaron’s voice sliced right through it. Sharp as a razor. “Do you want to keep your job?”
Oh no.
Aaron’s words had been meant for Gerald, but they harpooned their way right into my chest.
“Aaron, no.” I stepped forward, my hand coming to his arm.
“Oh, my mistake, Blackford.” Gerald tapped his head with a finger. “Future boss, you are not there yet. So, I think the firing privileges are out of your reach for now.”
Aaron shook off my hand, stepping in Gerald’s direction, into him. “I asked you a question.” One more slow, heavy step, and he got in the other man’s face. “Do you want to keep your job, Gerald? Because I can end you. Your golf friends up there won’t be able to do a single thing, and neither will your minions at HR.”
Gerald turned quiet, the mock falling off his face.
The frustration at being so powerless, so helpless at how everything had unraveled so out of control, brought a familiar pressure to the backs of my eyes.
I hate this. I hate it with all my fucking soul. Why do people find pleasure in bringing down others? Why us? Why so soon?