Page 90 of Beautiful Crazy

What do I say when she sees me?

“Nah, we’re good, Cheyenne. Emmett’s still in with Jane. We were just talking about Instagram. He’s not getting fired, is he?”

What?

Emmett?

Why the hell would he get fired?

What did he do?

“No, ladies,” she responds with a bit of irritation in her voice. “I don’t think he’s getting fired, so unless I can help you with something that has anything to do with what you should all be working on, perhaps you can move along. Emmett doesn’t need anymore…distractions.”

Distractions?

He’s been distracted?

There’s a pit in my stomach that wasn’t there when I walked into this building minutes ago. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what those girls were talking about and now I’m scared to find out. My hand shaking, I whip out my phone from my back pocket and tap on my Instagram app to look at my notifications.

They were right.

I was tagged in a post by The Watering Hole. When I open the post it’s a picture of me talking to several other singles at the Valentine’s Day singles night as an advertisement for another singles event they’re putting on in Raleigh, but it’s not me I notice in the picture. It’s Emmett and the woman who was talking to him at the bar when I finally approached him that night. They’re in the background of this picture too and she’s got her hands on his chest like she’s about to kiss him.

He didn’t tell me they kissed at all.

It didn’t look that way when I saw them.

He didn’t give me any indication when I pulled him away from her.

He never mentioned her again.

It was me he played Twister with.

It was me he took home with him that night.

It was me he gave a goodnight kiss to.

So why is this picture and the mere idea of him touching her bothering me?

Fear splinters my heart. I suddenly don’t feel so well. Maybe if I just leave, he won’t even have to know I was here. I can tell Mrs. McMurray I’m not feeling well and will come back another time. Peeking out again over the cubicle, it doesn’t appear that anyone is around.

Thank goodness.

Quietly, I step around the set of desks and out the office door to head down the hall.

“Emily?”

I turn so fast I nearly trip. My eyes bulge and my heart pounds when I see my best friend standing next to another woman and looking at me like I’m a ghost.

My voice shakes. “Emmett.”

His head tilts, and he gives me a confused smile. “Wha-what…what are you doing here?”

My hands are sweaty, and my chest tightens. “I umm,” I want to throw my hands through my hair but realize I pulled my hair back into a ponytail so now I’m just standing in the middle of the hallway with my hands on my head.

What the hell am I doing?

I have to get out of here.

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