Page 40 of For The Record

He flings the words at me. The difference is, he asked for fame.Inever planned on it for a second.

“You win this one,” I say, waving an invisible white flag at him. “Go ahead.”

“I’m not asking to win,” he says. “I’m asking you if you’re the one who sabotaged my career, Skye. I mean, look at this. I can pull up the licensing contracts for the song right now.”

He opens his computer and types for a few seconds, the guitar pick necklace hanging around his throat. “Look. The only people who had access to this document were you, me, Leo Perez, and Mark Leong.”

I don’t miss the way that Ryder says Leo’s name, like a curse word. “And you don’t think that Mark did it? You know what, maybe you’re the one who sold your own song for publicity. Since all you seem to want is fame.”

“This again? Seriously?” Ryder throws his hands in the air.

“You admitted it yourself,” I say. “When we were talking about your album name.”

“I already have an album name,” he says. “I don’t even know why you’re bringing this up.”

I would be shocked if steam wasn’t pouring out of my ears by now. We broke up six months ago yet I feel like I never stopped dating and arguing with him. “Okay, then what is it?”

“For The Record,” he says, standing still. “Sincesomebodyhas to get their facts straight around here.”

I take a deep breath.Try to see it from his point of view, Skye.The thing is, he has every right to his career. But I have a right to be believed in mine.

There’s a knock on the door.

“Mr. Ryder Black?” Annabelle Kim, Leo’s secretary says. “You’re needed in the green room.”

The tension that has suffused the air, threatening to suffocate us both, reaches an unbearable pitch. I drop his gaze first, picking up my bag and marching out of the door before Ryder can reach it. On my way out, I hear him say, “We can talk about this later.”

Heck no.

I take a deep breath outside of the conference room, trying to collect myself. My throat is raw, and I stare straight ahead, not blinking. I willnotcry at work.

“Skye?” Leo’s voice reaches my ears and I nearly jump out of my skin, pressing a hand to my chest like a swooning damsel from a fifties sitcom. I look up at him, at his usual charcoal suit and a navy and coral striped tie, before my gaze reaches his. My mouth goes dry for reasons I can’t articulate. “That conference room is about ninety percent glass.”

My heart sinks deep inside of me, never to resurface again, at the expression on his face. Grim. Stern. Completely disapproving. I swallow down the lump in my throat. “I guessed, from all the windows.”

“It’s about as soundproofed as the walls of a fifth-floor walk-up, even if no one could see you,” he says, in a tone that makes me think he’s slept in plenty of those, hearing his neighbours argue or throw parties or listen to heavy metal. “I heard everything, and so did everyone else in this office. Thankfully, almost everyone was out on errands when you were having your… spat. And this isn’t the first time, is it?”

“Am I being fired?” I clutch my laptop bag to my chest, as though it will shield me from his angry gaze. The worst part is, I don’t even see a drop of fury in his green eyes. All I see in them is resignation. Disappointment. Like he expected this to happen.

The moment of silence that follows my question stretches into infinity. In that second, in that lifetime, I come up with a dozen excuses.Ryder started it!But he wouldn’t fire Ryder. Ryder’s the talent. I’m the one who’s under suspicion, who he never wanted to hire to begin with. I think of my small corner desk in the back of the offices at Wong and Winston, next to the microwave and the bathroom, taking orders from Jennifer like I’m her assistant. I don’t want to go back to that. I’ve made at leastsomethingof myself here, more than I would have been. Am I about to lose all of it?

“I’m giving you a warning,” Leo says, and his voice is almost gentle, as gentle as the way that Isabelle and I used to fight over borrowed clothes or secrets spilled; when she’d rake her nails over my wrist before digging in with the manicured talons.

I shake my head. “I don’t want you to give me preferential treatment-”

“It’s company policy. You’re taking the rest of the day off.” He jerks a finger toward the door, not looking at me. As though to acknowledge my presence will break something in him.

“I know I messed up,” I say. “I said I wouldn’t let the whole ex thing interfere with my job, and I didn’t do a good job of that. But, Leo, if this…”

He sighs, running a hand over his hair. “I said I wasn’t firing you, Skye. But I don’t want to see you here until I’ve figured out what to do with you.”

What to do with me.As though I’m a poorly trained puppy who just ruined his white rug. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he says. Calm. Unruffled. Like nothing in the world could shake him, and certainly not me.

“No, you heardus,” I say, my hoarse voice rising. “You heard how heattackedme andaccusedme, and you’re sendingmeaway while he’s going to the green room. Do you know what you are? You’re jealous. You can’t stand that I ever dated him, and you’re punishing me for it.”

“No, I’m not,” he says, his green eyes like chips of jade. Flinty. Stronger than steel. Impossible to break. “Because unlike the two of you, I don’t bring my personal life into my professional one.”

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