“Madison!”
I turned around to see Sara walking across the parking lot toward me. I couldn’t stop the groan that broke from me as I shook my head, not wanting to have this conversation with her right now. I wanted to go into the building and find Tyler so that I could get these words off my chest and figure out what to do next.
“I have to go inside,” I told her as I shook my head. I had no interest in whatever she wanted to boast about.
“No, you don’t,” Sara sneered at me as she stopped in front of me. She smirked at me, nearly looking excited. “Have a good night last night?”
If I wasn’t cold already, I certainly felt like I was freezing now. I stared at her, remaining silent.
“It seemed like you were having a great time,” Sara answered for me as she tilted her head at me.
“What are you getting at?” I asked her, wanting the ball to finally drop. I didn’t have time to wait around and play games. If she had something to say, I wanted to hear it so that I could deal with it. I was already juggling enough problems.
Sara held up her phone. As I leaned closer, a grainy image of Tyler and me kissing in front of the Ashland Consulting building last night came into view. It looked to be taken from across the street.
My heart seemed to clench, pausing its beating as I stared at the image with wide eyes. I had been in my own little world last night. I didn’t know that I was being watched across the street! I had no reason to even look out for that.
“How did you get that?” I asked her, my words coming out weakly. The world felt like it was tilting beneath my feet, threatening to send me spiraling. I was already nearly at that point from the pregnancy.
“I took it. I knew something was up with you two,” Sara said, her voice dipping into a pointed tone as she narrowed her eyes. “So, I waited around outside after everyone went home. I noticed you two hadn’t left, so I waited until you did. Then, you gave me a picture-perfect moment.”
I didn’t know what to do. Part of me wanted to tackle her and delete that picture, but I was sure that she had it stored somewhere else. She wasn’t stupid. Another part of me wanted to run, but where could I go that this wouldn’t follow me too? I had to admit that I was trapped and cornered by Sara Deland of all people. This morning was a disaster.
“What do you want?” I asked her, tightening my fingers into fists to try to find some sort of stability. My world was threatening to split apart, and I hated feeling like I was at the mercy of someone else. She could pull my strings however she wanted, forcing me to move and dance at her order.
Sara took a step closer to me as she pocketed her phone in her red slacks. “You’ve been a pain in my ass since day one. You’ve embarrassed me in front of Tyler. Now, I see that you’ve been fucking him all along,” she scowled, looking as pissed off as she sounded.
I took a step back, my eyes widening as I listened to her. I knew that she had a crush on Tyler, but I didn’t think that it was bothering her so much. She had to have known that Tyler hadn’t even been interested in her from the beginning. It wasn’t like he had led her on to think that she had a chance with him.
“We didn’t mean for this to happen. It just did. He hasn’t been biased to me in any way when it comes to work,” I assured her. I knew that it was hard to not think that I had any special privileges, but Tyler kept the playing field as even as possible. He made me work just as hard as Sara, and I wouldn’t have accepted any special favors anyway.
Sara rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever. You knew that I liked him, and you still made a move on him!” she snapped at me. She then took in a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest. “And I know that he gave you special treatment. Jason mentioned seeing you two at a business gala that I hadn’t been told about.”
My jaw tightened as I mentally curse Jason for running his mouth. I knew that the combination of Sara and Jason wasn’t a good one. They were both toxic in their own ways, and it was spilling out and infecting everything around them.
“Tyler just doesn’t like you in that way, Sara. I can’t control that. He can’t control that,” I told her, trying to reason with her. She couldn’t make everyone in the world like her.