Page 81 of Perfect (mis)Match

“Why are you surprised?” she demanded. “Our agreement is over, you had to know this was coming.”

I blinked at her silently while I tried to make sense of what she was saying.

“I’ve scrubbed my laptop back to factory settings, and I’ll hand it over to IT before I leave. My work area is cleaned out. I created a status report on all my upcoming projects so the team will be up to date as to what’s next. I’m not sure if you want the official notice coming from me in a company-wide email, or do you want someone else to handle it?”

My chest ached with a feeling that was completely unfamiliar to me. I’d been blindsided by the news, sure, but there was more to it.

It was seeing Piper so upset, withme. There was a wall between us, bricked up and impermeable. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Not that I had any clue about the best way for us to end our partnership, but I knew for a fact that it wasn’t supposed to go like this, with her walking out of my life completely.

My wounded heart turned to stone. If she was done with me, fine, but I wasn’t about to allow her to damage Summit in the process.

“I don’t accept your resignation,” I replied in an even tone.

Her gaze turned stormy as she stomped closer. “I’m sorry,what?”

“The timing is all wrong. You quitting right after the scandal on Friday is a PR disaster. You need to hold off for a few weeks, until everything dies down.”

“Ineedto...?” she sputtered, incredulous. “No, youneedto stop telling me what to do, Vincent!”

“Piper, come on,” I grumbled at her. “You should know better. This is an optics game. How things look is all that matters. The health of this business comes before everything else.”

“Ofcourseyou’d say that,” she fired back at me, her voice full of venom. “All that matters to you is this business—you’ve made that incredibly clear.”

“Because business is the only thing that lasts!”

My voice echoed around the room like a slap. Piper’s tough facade crumbled for a second, and it looked like she was about to cry. Despite everything that had gone wrong between us, my body buzzed with the need to try to make things right for her. I’d never intended to hurt her, yet here I was, doing it again. I watched her closely, hoping she’d open up and tell me what was really going on beneath the surface. But no, she straightened her back and glared at me.

“Shockingly, I agree,” she said. “Businessisthe only thing that lasts. I’m dedicating my life to what matters, and from thispoint forward, it’s Strapped. We’re getting ready to sign the final paperwork with Mercedes. That means there’s no room in my life for this place.”

Or for me. She didn’t need to say it. The implication was clear.

“I’m sure my leaving won’t even cause a blip around here,” she said. “You were doing fine before I showed up, and I trust that’ll be the case once I’m gone.”

She was wrong. Every aspect of my life had been better with Piper in it. But her mind was made up. She was moving forward with her dreams.

“Thank you for the opportunity, Vincent.”

Piper sounded so formal, like I was nothing more than a stranger. This was wrong. Sure, we’d always had an expiration date, but I never expected the end would be so abrupt.

So…painful.

I forced myself to act like her leaving didn’t matter to me.

“You were a valuable addition to the Summit team, and we appreciate your hard work,” I said in an even voice. “Best of luck in your future endeavors.”

I hated speaking every fucking word, pretending like Piper was just a regular employee giving notice.

We stared at one another until the silence in the room turned into a ringing in my ears. Everything felt wrong.

“Goodbye,” Piper said simply.

And then she walked out of my office and out of my life.

Piper

I felt like I didn’t exhale the entire time I was in Vincent’s office.

My palms were indented with half-moons from my nails, and my shoulders were overstretched rubber bands. I wanted to kick off my heels and run a few miles to try to lose the tension and sadness my body was holding, but I still needed to finalize my last day. Yeah, I was quitting abruptly, but I wasn’t going to be acompleteasshole. There was paperwork to sign in HR, and I needed to say goodbye to my colleagues.

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