Page 45 of Designed for Disaster

Erik smirked. “Let’s just say it involved a girl.”

Shay groaned. “Here we go. You know this guy literally followed some girl to Paris one weekend?”

“It was a cheap flight,” Erik said, shrugging. “Why not?”

“Umm…because she ditched you the moment you landed.”

“How was I supposed to know that would happen?”

“People like that just have vibes, Erik. And she was a screaming red flag.”

“Maybe I’m not good at reading vibes.”

“Maybe it’s just a guy thing,” Bonnie said.

“Definitely not just a guy thing,” I said. “I was with my ex for years and missed some glaring red flags.”

“Ohhh, spill,” Shay said. “I want details.”

“She loves mess,” Erik said.

“Exactly, which is why I love you,” Shay told him, blowing him a kiss before turning her attention back to me. “Now tell us about this ex.”

I sighed. It wasn’t a very fun story—but Shay looked so eager to hear it I couldn’t refuse. “Before Saunders, my last furniture gig was with Echo.” It was a solidly successful, mid-priced furniture company with a horrible reputation for the way they treated their staff. I didn’t know that back then, though. I was just happy to have a job in the career I’d always dreamed about.

Bonnie wrinkled her nose. “I’ve heard some things.”

“Probably all true,” I said. “Anyway, I got a job there with my then-boyfriend, Fisher.”

Shay shook her head. “Fisher…just sounds like bad news.”

“Yeah,” I laughed humorlessly. “Wish I’d figured that out sooner. But I was fresh out of school, and I was stoked that we’d both managed to get jobs working for the same design team. I was even grateful to Fisher for it—his family had some connections that helped land us the jobs.”

“Right,” Shay said, elbows on the table, leaning toward me. “He didn’t get you fired, did he?”

I winced.

“Shut up! Really?”

“How?” Bonnie demanded.

“It was a real dog-eat-dog culture there, you know? When it came time for the annual review each year, if you hadn’t produced any high sellers, you’d be fired. And Fisher…turns out he didn’t perform well under that kind of pressure. None of his designs were panning out. Meanwhile,mydesigns were doing great. And we lived together, so he had access to my laptop, my sketchpads, everything.”

“He didn’t,” Bonnie said, eyes wide.

“He did,” I confirmed.

“Wait, how the hell did him stealing one of your designs mean thatyougot fired?” Shay asked.

I shrugged. “He was the one who had an in with management. When I told them what he’d done, they chose to believe him over me.”

“Even though he’d done nothing but make garbage all year while your designs were taking off?” Erik asked, frowning.

“That’s right. The design went on to be the year’s best seller for Echo,” I said. “And Fisher got a promotion out of it.” It still made my blood boil.

“What a major dick,” Shay said, her jaw hanging open. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”

I let out a little laugh, more resigned than amused. “I couldn’t believe it either, at the time. But looking back…there were so many red flags, like we were saying. We went to design school together. I saw him cut corners on assignments, take more credit than he deserved on team projects. He came from money, and he was used to coasting through life. He never had to take anything seriously because he never had real consequences when he screwed up. I knew he was a little spoiled, a little immature. But I put up with it because he was fun and charming—and I thought he’d grow up eventually. When all this went down, I finally opened my eyes and saw him for who he really was. Do you know, he didn’t even apologize for getting me fired? Just said that I should’ve known better than to go to management. That if I’d kept my mouth shut, we could’ve both kept our jobs.”

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