Page 56 of Mr. Bad News

"Percy, are you even listening to me?" Greg leans forward in the chair, knocking slightly on the desk.

"No, I'm not." I admit, causing him to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Well shit. I thought for sure you'd at least lie to me." He chuckles before leaning back. "What the hell is on your mind? You still thinking about what happened last night?"

Greg was there helping me look for Ella. A first hand witness to how crazy I was last night.

"Did she ever tell you where she went?" He asks and I huff out a breath.

"Yeah, she was with … a family member of mine.” I still haven’t told Greg about Ian and this isn’t the time for me to do so. “She went back to his place," I explain.

"What the fuck?" Greg pops forward, his jaw tense and the anger settling on his face.

"That's the same thing I said last night, but it wasn't anything messed up. She was keeping him company. Solely keeping him company for sobriety purposes."

Greg relaxes a bit, then asks "You believe her?"

"Yeah, honestly if it were someone else besides her I wouldn't, but I do believe she'd leave me before she'd ever do something like that to me." I push a stack of papers I have in front of me to the side and rock back and forth in my chair.

Greg shakes his head. "If everything is good, why are you still so pissed off?"

Thoughts run rampant through my mind as I try to form a cohesive explanation. "I don't want her to be away from me. I would chain her to this desk if I could. I never want to feel how I felt last night. The uncertainty, the worry … I've never felt anything so intense. Last night made me feel like I was going out of my mind." I admit.

"You were." He smirks and tilts his head to the side.

"Screw you, thanks for the support." I flick a paper clip at him and his eyes nearly bug out of his head.

"I support you. Believe me anything that has you acting like this ..." He shows me the paper clip. "I support you. It's nice to see you finally opening up and being free. She's bringing out a side of you I didn't know existed. Some of it is bad, but most of it is wonderful. You look happy even with all the fucked up shit that happened last night, it showed me just how much you actually want to be with her. If she makes you happy and it's not a toxic relationship then I support you a hundred percent."

"I didn't even know that I could feel like this." I murmur. "How do I keep her?"

"I can tell you one thing, cuffing her to the desk isn't the way." Greg laughs before he stops suddenly. "Or maybe it is. That could be fun." He waggles his eyebrows and I shake my head in annoyance.

If I'm going to cuff her anywhere it'll be in my bed.

28

ella

"Is this the final draft?"Sam looks over the six page article. I'd finished it and honestly I don't think I've ever been more proud of anything I've written in my life.

"I have a few tweaks I want to make. I was hoping to get a small personal quote from Mr. Snow as well, but it should be finished shortly." I nod and wait for Sam to let me know if he's going to run the article or not.

"Well Ella, I have to admit I was skeptical at first, but this is by far one of the best pieces I have ever had come through my office." He hands the article back to me and I can't stop myself from beaming at him.

"Really. You mean that? I know it's a little wordy in some places, but I needed to make the reader feel what I felt while I was with Mr. Snow and his employees."

Sam squints at me for a second before he continues to talk. "Yeah, I see that."

He continues to stare at me with his head tilted to the side as if he were trying to decipher some great puzzle.

Do I have food in my teeth? Ink on my forehead?

I subconsciously wipe at my forehead and clear my throat. "What?"

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were in love with that man." He smirks at me and my skin prickles under his judgemental glare.

"What does my love life have to do with writing a good article?" I cross my arms over my chest.

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