Page 96 of Love and Cherish

“Is it love?” Febe asked.

“What?”

“With Haylee, is it love?” Febe crossed her arms, her gaze never wavering.

Cherish froze. Not just her steps, or her hands that kept balling in and out of fists. Everything froze from her head to her toes. Her blood halted in her veins, and the air solidified in her lungs.

“Cherry?” Febe pushed off from the desk, hands on Cherish’s elbows, nails digging tightly into Cherish’s skin. “Cherry.”

With the last ounce of strength she had, Cherish forced her head to move, her eyes raising to meet Febe’s. As they connected, the storm finally broke through the last pocket of air pressure, and Cherish, having thought she had no more tears left in her, burst into a new wave of heartbreaking sobs.

“I’ve screwed everything up, Febe. Absolutely everything.”

“No, you haven’t. We can fix this.”

“I love her.”

thirty-one

The office had been eerily quiet most of the day, even when Cherish had brought in three people for an interview. Haylee had barely even spoken to them, though she really should be in on the interviewing. She was the one who understood and knew how to work with Cherish.

Cherish just kept sending her odd looks from the other side of the office. Haylee hadn’t managed to figure out what those looks meant, but it was getting ridiculous. The only words Cherish spoke to her were about work, and even then, they were limited. Half of the information Haylee was getting was coming in through email instead of Cherish just talking to her.

What childish game were they playing?

Haylee hated it. If she’d known it was going to be this bad, she would have told Febe to let her quit sooner. But as it was, she was stuck there for at least another three weeks so she could try to train her replacement. Not that whoever was going to replace her was going to last. Not with this random ass mood Cherish was in.

Cherish rubbed her temple for the sixth time in a row. Haylee couldn’t let her get away with it anymore. Anyone could see that she was in an immense amount of pain. Standing up, Haylee walked straight to Cherish’s desk and sat on the corner of it. She’d done this so often in the past, and it immediately brought back the memories of their first night together.

Cherish didn’t even notice she was there right away, which showed just how much pain she was in. “Cherry.”

Haylee cringed. Cherish had told her not to use that name, and here Haylee was, slipping back into a familiarity that Cherish clearly didn’t want.

When Cherish lifted her face though, her eyes were awash with pain, dark circles were under her eyes, and her skin was ashen. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks.” Cherish rolled her eyes and reached into her drawer, no doubt for that small bottle of pills she kept there. But when she pulled it up, it was empty.

Haylee snagged it to see what it was and if she had any. When she saw the name of the medication, she shook her head slowly. “Don’t you have anything stronger than this?”

“That requires a doctor’s visit, which I haven’t had time for since I’ve been interviewing your replacement.”

Guilt swam in Haylee’s stomach. She hadn’t thought that Cherish would be this bitter about her leaving, especially when it was because she was getting exactly what she had wanted, what they’d talked about. What Cherish was supposed to help her with. Haylee set the empty bottle back down on the desk.

“You do know that there’s a rebound effect with this medication, right?”

“A what?” Cherish frowned and stared up at Haylee, squinting, as if it was impossible for her to see.

Haylee sighed. “If you take too much of it, then it can rebound and cause more headaches than it solves.”

“I didn’t know that.” Cherish glared at the bottle as if it was now the enemy. Finally she sighed heavily. “I think I need a shot.”

“Do you need someone to drive you?”

Cherish nodded slightly. “Ms. Aarts has an appointment in an hour that she can’t miss.”

“I’ll take you.” Haylee slid her hand on top of Cherish’s, glad she was finally admitting to needing help. “We’ll take your car, then I’ll drop you off at home and come back to finish up for the day. I don’t think Ms. Aarts will mind.”

“She won’t,” Cherish agreed. “She told me to go two hours ago.”

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