Page 57 of Executive Benefits

“Alright,” Mia said, handing me a glass of wine. “I didn’t want to be right about Nick.” She rubbed her arm and sat down across from me. My cheeks were tear-stained and I sat in a cozy cocoon of blankets she’d wrapped me in.

“It’s fine.” I sniffled. “I learned my second lesson.”

My phone vibrated. I picked it up and went to throw it against the wall. “No!” Mia lunged, grabbing my phone from my fingers. “That cost a lot of money. We might be doing well right now business-wise, but there’s no way to use it as a tax write-off if you purposely throw it against a wall.”

I looked at her as she plopped back down. “Hello?” she answered.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to flame that fire. I was proud of myself for finally sticking up for what was right. I wasn’t sad about the possibility of Nick thinking I was a bad possible girlfriend. I was livid that he questioned my work ethic and threatened my business.

Yes. I was heartbroken he would also think that about me, but his believing I would do something to damage his livelihood and take my reputation down with it said a lot about the place he was in.

It made the heartbroken part of me understand that maybe I had made a mistake with Nick, but too many other good things were happening with my company to even think about stepping away again.

I might not be good at love, but I would learn from it and move on.

“I don’t think she has anything positive to say to you right now, Nick.” Mia stood and pointed to the door. I shrugged and took a drink of wine. I didn’t care how long she talked to him. I had nothing to say.

Mia walked out of the apartment, and I could hear her giving him a hard time the whole way down the stairs. I snuggled into my blanket and promptly fell into a deep and warm sleep.

27

NICK

“You really are more of a dick than I gave you credit for at first,” Mia said over the line. “You have a lot of balls trying to call her and getting me to try and talk to her,” she said. I could picture her frowning at the phone with her dark hair flying in all directions. “I mean, I knew you were. But I was almost ready to admit I was wrong.”

I still didn’t have anything to say.

I had acted like an ass.

I didn’t know what was true and what wasn’t. But I hadn’t expected Julia to react like that. I expected her to tell me I was crazy, that it wasn’t what I thought. I expected her to cry fake tears or burst out laughing at what a fool I was for believing she would want to have sex with me or even that she would try and save my business. I didn’t expect her to question my trust and loyalty and how I viewed her business ethics.

Because she was right.

I didn’t trust her.

The second I had a chance to make the right decision, I bailed.

I didn’t respect her enough to even doubt the thought that she was working with Kendra even a little bit. Once the seed took root, it only needed a little light to grow and spread like weeds in my mind.

I was a fucking fool.

I’d played the game with Kendra for too long.

I’d proven to Julia that I was exactly like that other asshole she’d been with.

“I’m going to assume you’re no longer on the phone and hang up now. You don’t need to call back. She doesn’t want to talk to you, and frankly, anything you have to say can be said through an attorney or it can be said in an email. Oh! Because I can hear you and because I know you’re still there, you should have looked at the damn email address first before you jumped off the rocker and started to try to?—”

“You’re right.” I coughed.

“What?” Mia said. The shock in her voice sounded genuine.

“You’re right. I was an asshole.”

She paused for a minute.

Maybe longer.

It stretched out longer than I was comfortable with, but I didn’t know what was happening. I pulled the phone away from my ear and checked to see if she was still there, but the longer she was quiet, the more my skin itched.

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