Page 67 of So Not My Type

“You feeling all right?” Malcolm’s voice sounded behind her.

She snapped her head up so quickly she got a head rush, then pressed her thumb into her temple to stave off the impending headache. “Yep, I’m good.”

Malcolm’s mouth twisted, then he pointed to his office. “Come with me, please.”

Oh boy.That was definitely Malcolm’s stern dad/manager voice. She prayed he wasn’t about to give her a lecture on how workplace relationships jeopardize the ability to run a project effectively. She couldn’t handle that conversation right now. At this point, she could barely handle staying awake. She scraped at the remaining polish on her thumbnail and followed him to his office.

He shut the door behind them, definitely another terrible sign as he always liked his door open. She sat down with her shoulders hunched like she was called into the principal’s office.

“Ella is gone for an indefinite period.”

His voice was devoid of all playfulness, and she desperately wanted him to break this moment up and show pictures of his baby. “Wh… what does that mean? Indefinite?”

“Exactly how it sounds. George called me late last night and let me know.” He sat down and propped his elbows on the desk. “She will not be back to help finish this campaign.”

Christ. Taking a few days to reel from the whole Jasmine situation was understandable. But taking more than a week off because of what happened with them was over the top. The devil and angel sat on her shoulder, playing a hearty game of tug of war. Sophie was heartbroken and dealing with what this information meant. However, being a professional, she should know taking a week off was not feasible.

Her anger shifted, quickly and furiously, to anxiety. All her nail polish fell to the ground, and hot tears sprung to her eyes. “I can’t do this, Malcolm. I can’t.”

He put his palms in front of her on the desk. “You can, though. You absolutely can. And… you don’t have a choice. It’s too late to train anyone else.”

“It’s too much! I didn’t even get half of what I needed to do last night and I was here until midnight. I am totally fried. I’ve got nothing left to give… I just…” She started crying now, and buried her face into her hands. She was mortified she was crying in front of Malcolm. But she missed Ella, and God, she was so fucking tired. The only thing that made this situation less humiliating was the look of panic crossing Malcolm’s face.

He handed her a Starbucks-coffee-stained napkin from under his coffee cup. “I’ve ruined everything.” She wiped her nose with the napkin and her eyes with her sleeve. “We won’t get it done on time, and everyone is going to lose out on the cruise, and now Ella is not coming back, and it’s all my fault.”

Malcolm’s chin jutted to the side, and his eyes narrowed. “Ella not being here has nothing to do with you.”

How could Malcolm sometimes be the smartest man in the room and also so totally clueless? She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Yes, it is. I mean, I didn’t mean to upset her and everything, and I don’t know how to make it up, but it’s one hundred percent my fault, and I wish I could fix it so she could be here with me”—she coughed—“to finish this campaign.” The tears bubbled again, and she hiccupped. “I ruined everything.”

Malcolm ran his fingers over his tight curls and interlocked his fingers above his head. He exhaled a slow, steady breath. “Look. Ella’s gone because of an HR-related issue, and we don’t know when she’ll return. But I can assure you that you had nothing to do with it.”

What in the hell is an HR issue?“What do you even mean?”

“I’ve already said enough, and this is a sensitive topic. But you don’t have to do this one hundred percent alone, okay? Give me an hour to readjust some schedules. I can pitch in, we can see if George’s EA can book the rooms, I can have a junior designer upload the assets instead of you. I’ve got you.”

Sophie nodded and stood, her chest allowing a bit more air in than when she arrived this morning. But still, what was an HR issue? George and Malcolm both assured them that dating in the office was okay since they were peers. Sophie checked her watch. A few minutes remained before her next status meeting and she decided to do something bold, ballsy, and something she’d never done. She went to George’s office.

“I know we are not supposed to pop by like this,” she started as she stared at a heavily annoyed executive assistant who was juggling ringing phones and instant message pings firing on her computer. “Can I please talk to George for like just a minute.”

“He’s not here.”

Of course not.Even in the midst of the deepest shit show, he was MIA. Although, after learning more about him lately, Sophie wondered if maybe he thought his presence was too much additional pressure. For once, though, she wished he were hovering. “When is he going to return?”

“I don’t know,” she said, without looking up from her computer.

“Well, where is he?”

The executive assistant looked up now and ceased her typing. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

That’s fair.“Can I please schedule something?”

Her lips pulled into a tight line. “Listen. He’s gone, probably for a few days?—”

“A few days? We have this campaign and we’re going to?—”

“I will send him an email letting him know you stopped by.” She flicked her hands in a dismissive wave. “If that is all, I need to finish this.”

Sophie turned without response. The EA was George’s gatekeeper and doing her job well, but she needed to talk to him.Fine. But she had to figure out how to talk to him later. The buzzing of her phone in her pocket was like a yellow jacket. Instant messages and texts hit her at the same rate as her heartbeat. She scrammed back to her desk with more voices clamoring.

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