Page 89 of Tempt Thy Neighbor

He doesn’t look at me. He’s too busy staring straight forward, ignoring me.

Jessa shakes her head. “To say I’m disappointed would be a great understatement. You two may be new here, but you’ve worked so hard in a short amount of time and you’ve easily become my top two employees. I’m devastated that you would go behind my back with this, especially when you were the top candidates for the project manager promotion.”

Sutton got the promotion, and I was runner-up.

He won.

I lost.

I lost everything.

And with the way he’s reacting right now, I’m not even sure if it was worth it.

“I do hope your little tryst was worth it,” Jessa says, “because you’re both fired. Pack your things. I expect you to be cleared out within the hour.”

Sutton leaves without another word.

Me? I can’t move. My legs are too shaky.

“W-Who sent the photo?” I ask.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. I have friends in this office, and I’d like to know who it is that I can’t trust.”

She sighs. “Well, at least you were honest about not sending those emails to Larry. After you swore to me it wasn’t you, I had IT do some digging. We found that Emma has been emailing Larry from her personal email on her work computer for months now. The style of those emails matched the ones from your computer. When I confronted her, she sent over these photos and told me she wouldn’t be back at work. She and Larry have been having an affair for months, and they’ve run off together to Vegas to get married.” She runs a hand through her hair. “It’s been a hell of a week.”

It was Emma sending those emails, not Sutton? Then why did he take the blame for it? Why did he let me believe it was him?

“Thank you for telling me. For what it’s worth, I am sorry, Jessa.”

She gives me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry too, Holland. You would have made a great asset to this company for many years to come.”

When I exit the office, Sutton is nowhere to be found.

I try hard to ignore the stares and the murmurs as I quietly collect my things into a small box I commandeer from the supply closet, and without saying goodbye to anyone, I leave.

When I reach the elevator, there he is.

He’s leaning against the wall, chin tucked to his chest, waiting for me.

His head snaps up when he hears my heels on the floor.

Ignoring him, I jam the down button.

The elevator opens immediately, and I step in, smashing down theClose Doorbutton with haste.

But he makes it on before the doors shut.

We make it one whole floor before he speaks.

“Holls, I—”

“No,” I snap at him. “No. I don’t want to hear it.”

“But I—”

“No! There is nothing you can say right now to make this any better.”

---