Page 4 of Selfless

“Bad day?” Jaycent asks.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I snap, “Fuck this day.”

He plops down in front of my desk as if he’s here to stay. “Drank a little too much last night,” he observes, looking me over.

“Not sure how much I had,” I say honestly, still having no memory of last night. Kelly was finally able to go to my apartment and pick me up a suit, but I haven’t had the chance to put it on yet.

“Enough to want to fuck a woman in the bathroom,” he says flatly.

My head snaps up, and I look at him wide-eyed “I did what?” God, I hope it wasn’t Vicki. She did send me a text …

He holds up his hand. “You didn’t do it. Just tried.” I fall into my chair and let out a long breath. “You really remember nothing?” he asks, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees.

I shake my head. “I woke up this morning on my office floor with a pounding headache and smelling like booze,”

He sniffs the air and pulls his lips back. “You do stink.”

I snort. “That’s the least of my worries.”

He sits back and stares at me as if I’ve fallen off the deep end. So I continue to fill him in on my day. “Then my sister shows up yelling at me about how I should do business.” I huff. “Like she knows what she’s talking about.”

“Did she make sense?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No. She doesn’t know what’s going on here, and I don’t have time to explain that to her.” She has a point. I’ve known all along that Ashlyn would lose her job. I didn’t tell her ‘cause I didn’t want her to hate me. Now she’s gonna think I did it for revenge. I’m fucked either way.

He nods as if he understands what kind of hole I have dug myself, but he can’t possibly know how deep I’m in. “And Ashlyn? How is that going?”

“It’s over.” I’m so tired of people talking to me about her.

“You didn’t seem that way last night. You were checking your phone every two minutes.” I snort, hoping I didn’t look like the little bitch I am. “Then you were willing to go to the bathroom with that woman like you were a man trying to forget another.”

“I’ve already forgotten,” I say flatly. Lies. All lies.

“You told me that you loved her.” My body stiffens where I sit. My eyes drill into his with my shoulders pulled back and body rigid. “Pretty sure you’ve felt that way long before last night. Remember that?” he goes on, shoving the knife deeper into my chest. He sighs when I say nothing. “Ryder, she …”

“I don’t wanna talk about Ashlyn,” I snap, and he stops. “It’s over. I have shit to do. Shouldn’t you be at work as well?”

He stands from the chair. “Yep,” he says and walks out, leaving me alone.

My head falls on my desk, and I take a deep breath. I should be ashamed of how pathetic I am. How I let myself get to this point over a woman. But instead, I just want to crawl into a hole. This morning, waking up here and hungover, I realize I can’t go home. I can’t chance seeing her on the elevator. In the lobby. Or out on the sidewalk. I have to move. Or possibly just live in my office. That’s when I realized I was at an all-time low. The fact that I’d rather live in my office than go home to my million-dollar apartment made me realize that no matter what, my life will never be the same without Ashlyn.

“What are you doing?” I hear a familiar voice ask.

I lift my head to see my father standing in my office, his hands in the pockets of his black slacks and dark brows pulled together in confusion.

I clear my throat and sit up straight. “Trying to get some privacy,” I tell him truthfully. “But people just keep walking in like they own the place.”

“I do own the place,” he says matter-of-factly.

I hold in a sigh. “What do you want, Dad?” I ask, rubbing my temples. They won’t quit pounding. Why isn’t this Advil working?

“So you broke up with your girlfriend and now your work is going to go to shit.” he states.

I narrow my eyes up at him. “Who told you I broke up with …?” My words trail off. I tilt my head to the side, and he raises a brow. “How did you know I was seeing someone?” I demand.

“I knew you were seeing Ashlyn,” he declares, and my jaw tightens. “I also know that she broke up with you.”

“I broke up with her,” I snap.

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