Page 28 of Stuck On Them

“Hush money! The nerve!” If Nora was in my place, she would have already been down the hall yelling at them.

It was weird to say the least and made me feel like a toy. This could have all been avoided if I had just used my brain and looked up the company. Their business photos were right at the bottom of the main page.

I scrolled down further to a non-disclosure agreement. I’d signed one in regard to the company with my hiring paperwork, but this one was about that night. It was vague and only mentioned Ryker, but it was clear as day to me.

My lunch turned in my stomach. It was one thing to fire me because they were uncomfortable having me as their employee, but something else to legally bind me to never speaking of it.

“I don’t want their money.” I closed out of everything and shut down the laptop. My decision was made. There was no way I was going to sign my rights away.

“Technically it’s LRG Marketing’s money. It’s normal to get a severance package. Either way, they’re going to fire you, aren’t they? Might as well get paid.”

“They want me to sign an NDA about my one-night stand. I believe the verbiage it used was ‘the previous relationship between Ryker St. James and Paige Harper’. Who does that?” I grabbed a pad of sticky notes from my purse and a pen. “I’d rather eat rice and pasta for the immediate future than give them the satisfaction of treating me like I’m dirt beneath their shoes.”

On one sticky note I wrote “fuck you” and on another “I quit.” I put them right in the middle of the desk and stood with my bag.

“Rich people do that, that’s who. Maybe they just don’t want it to get out that they like to watch and be watched? What are you planning on doing?” Nora sounded suspicious, as if she just watched me quit via sticky notes.

“Quitting.” I peeked out the door to find the hall empty and made a mad dash for the stairwell. If I went to the elevator, I’d have to pass by their offices, the conference room, and Ethan.

“But-”

Our call was cut short as I lost reception in the stairwell. It was just as well because I didn’t want to doubt or regret my decision. Was it stupid to not take the severance package?

I was the one that had to live with my decision, and being forced to never say anything about it in exchange for money was where I drew the line—even if I never planned to do so. There was an icky feeling that came with even thinking about accepting it. Had I just been a random hire, it would have been a different story.

I stopped on the next floor down and had my hand on the door handle before reconsidering going through another floor. People would wonder who I was and possibly call security, but the other option was going down sixty-nine more flights of stairs.

“Fuck!” My voice echoed in the stairwell, and I slipped off my heels. They weren’t that high, but my feet would be dead if I wore them.

Going down wouldn’t be so bad. I needed the time to think.

* * *

“Does catching your fiancé cheating kill your brain cells?” I typed into Google on my phone as I sat on my couch with my feet propped on the coffee table. My legs and feet were killing me, and I didn’t know what the hell I’d been thinking going down all those stairs.

You weren’t. That’s the problem.

I tossed my cell phone away from me and watched it slide between the arm of the loveseat and the cushion. Good. Now I wouldn’t have to see Daniel’s name come up at five-minute intervals as he tried to text and call me.

He’d been relentless over the past hour, and I’d chosen to ignore him. I probably should have turned my phone on silent before chucking it.

We were a month out from what would have been our wedding day and he said he needed to know what I planned on doing. I thought I’d made it blatantly clear, but apparently, he thought each time he asked I’d change my mind.

In hindsight, there were a lot of issues with our relationship that I’d ignored, and I felt like such an idiot for almost marrying him. So much time wasted on a man who gaslit me and treated me like a doormat.

I grabbed an Oreo from the package next to me and shoved the whole cookie in my mouth. I’d made my life infinitely worse by making an unplanned decision to move to New York.

The sticky notes of my debts lining one edge of my coffee table reminded me as much.

37,000 student loans

3600 credit card one

5900 credit card two

7200 credit card three

2000 dental bill

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