Page 4 of Punish Me

“Do you hate me that much?”

She turns her gaze away from me before saying, “I’d have to care to hate you. I simply don’t have it in me to care that much.”

“You never gave me a chance to explain or for us to discuss what happened. I need you to forgive me, Bryn. I swear that I never meant to hurt you.”

“It doesn’t matter what your intentions were. It only matters what you did,” she says calmly, belying the negative energy emanating from her.

“I apologize, Bryn. For everything,” I say, leaning forward and cupping her chin. I lift it so that her eyes can meet mine, and all I can see is the fire flashing in them. “You once told me I was your first, and I promised you I’d be your last. I still have every intention of making that promise come true.”

She jerks back. “You have one more time to reference my body, my past, or anything that happened between us, and Iswear that I’ll be turning in my resignation letter so fast I won’t be more than a breeze passing through here,” she hisses.

I rear back in my seat, caught off guard by the venom in her voice and her bitter attitude.

There was no way in hell that I’d caused this much rage in her. Even after we’d broken up and gone our separate ways, I had seen her on several occasions in passing, and she hadn’t been this angry. If anything, she’d looked hurt and pained at seeing me, but nothing more than that.

“Is that the way that you want it?”

“That’s the way that it is.”

“Bryn, what happened?”

“You happened,” she says, standing and grabbing her iPad. “Now, we can keep going down this road if you’d like, and you’ll see that it won’t be easy, or we can drop the matter and be the professionals I know we’ve both grown to become.”

I watch as she heads out of my office, closing the door behind her gentler than she had earlier when she’d left.

I was surprised when Adriana brought her to my office this morning and introduced her as my new COO. I knew they’d hired someone, but I hadn’t had a chance to review her resume or learn too much about her because I’d been acclimating to my new position. I’d seen a file with the name Brian St. Clair on it so it never would have occurred to me that it was my Bryn.

When she left my office in anger earlier, I figured she needed time to calm down from the shock of seeing me again and from learning that she would be working for me. Hell, I needed time to recover from that as well. I hoped she would have calmed down when I called her back to my office. If anything, she’d only grown angrier, threatening me with a sexual harassment claim.

It pains me to see her so angry and hurt, knowing I was the one who caused this change in her. She was always a sweet girl,one I’d been warned to stay away from, but I hadn’t listened because I wanted to have her for myself.

I’d loved Bryn back then, and though I’d done something stupid, I had never gotten over her.

By the time I head into the conference room for our staff meeting, everyone is gathered around the oval glass table: Chris Shannon, VP of Operations; Adriana Aguilar, CHRO; Noble James, CFO; Beth Stevens, CMO; Gabriel McBride, CIO; Sandra Crowe, Executive Administrative Assistant and the department heads, Farrah, Christina, and Ben, and Bryn, my new COO or CAO.

“Good afternoon, everyone.”

They all respond to my greeting.

“Last week, I met most of you at the board meeting where it was announced that I would be the new CEO, working with Chris Shannon, our VP of Ops, James Noble, our CFO, and CIO, Gabriel McBride, in the interim to make my transition into this new role as seamless as possible. You’ve had many changes this last week, and more will be coming up. This week’s meeting is to introduce you to our new Chief Administrative Officer who replaces John Parham. After I introduce her, I would like you all to take turns introducing yourselves to her.

“Ms. St. Clair is from Charleston, South Carolina and obtained her MBA at Clemson University. She’s worked for the Everett and Wyatt Building Group in Atlanta, allowing her to gain experience in operations management and business functions, working on projects like the Hartsfield-Jackson expansion, the renovation of the DeKalb County schools, and many similar projects. She also earned fiscal and capital planning experience as CFO at Layla Amara Cosmetics at their headquarters here in Ocean Falls. Please help me warmly welcome our new Chief Administrative Officer, Ms. Brynlee St. Clair.”

Everyone applauds and welcomes her, and I watch as she bestows the brilliant Bryn smile and charm on them that I’m familiar with. That same bright light that always drew me into her in the past, but now she hides away from me. Even now, the light goes out when her eyes land on me again.

Fuck! If Brayden had even a clue that not only I’d dated his sister for two years but that I was responsible for the pain in her eyes and the darkness lurking there, he’d kill me.

I ponder our past, pondering everything I would have done differently if given another chance. I don’t hear them as they take turns introducing themselves. I only tune back in when she speaks up, needing to hear the sultriness of that slow, Southern heat she emits. That’s what I call her voice. It’s deep, rich, and honeyed with a thick Southern accent.

“As Mr. Charles stated, I have spent several years working at Everett and Wyatt Building Group. In addition to the DeKalb County school renovation project and the Hartsfield expansion project, I headed up the project to overhaul the 75-85 connector that runs through downtown Atlanta and implemented a new process for our treatment plant facility projects.

“After several years of learning and growing there, I transitioned to Layla Amara Cosmetics as the CFO, where I remained for a few years before I saw the opportunity for growth again when I learned of this position.”

“I can tell you all that she’s one sharp cookie,” Farrah says. “I sat in on the interview process for your...was it your second interview?”

“The third panel of interviews,” Brynlee announces.

“Yes. She impressed us all with her resume, skillset, and executive-level positions at her young age, especially Mr. Cape. God rest his soul,” Farrah says.

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