Page 88 of Love on Deck

He just stopped by. Amelia wouldn’t see him, so I’m betting he’s on his way home now.

Jack

She turned him away?

Lauren

She wants time. Whatever that means.

Three little dots showed up and disappeared over and over again before his next text finally came through.

Jack

Do you need time as well?

My job. The promotion. It all came crashing down on me with swift, blinding anger. I waited for my vision to clear.

Lauren

Yes.

I put my phone away and picked up my soup. “If we’re going to wallow, do you want to at least put on a movie?”

“Yes.”

“What sounds good?”

“I don’t care.”

I thought maybe staying away from romance would be smart, so I toggled onto my movie app and played Mean Girls. Then I pulled another weighted blanket onto the couch and nestled in. By the sound of Amelia’s revived crying, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

I didn’t get to bed until after one in the morning, and when I woke up and tiptoed out to the kitchen to grab breakfast the next morning, Amelia was zonked out. I had a feeling she would still be like this when I checked in on her during my lunch break. It was tempting to stay home and take care of her, but I’d already been out of the office for over a week, and my promotion was on the line.

Tucking my blouse into my pencil skirt, I analyzed my hair through the reflection of my microwave. It wasn’t weird to have professional hair at work, but Jack made me second-guess the bun I typically wore. My eyes closed, shutting out the image of his face and smudging the sharp edges of my memory.

Jack’s opinion was irrelevant here. The man had made me believe he could help me, and he didn’t. He persuaded me to drive way the heck out of Dallas to go to a party when I could have been home making a plan. Or he could have at least informed me as soon as he had the rejection. Instead he made out with me and gave me a tour of his town.

I shook thoughts of Jack away, pulled a protein drink out of the fridge, and gently walked outside, locking the door behind me.

I had a promotion to save.

Something felt weird when I got to the office. I was greeted kindly and asked about my vacation. Heather from accounting offered me a welcome back donut from her bag. Nothing was outwardly wrong. But something felt off. No one held my gaze for long.

A message popped up on Slack from Hal. Mandatory staff meeting at 9. I want everyone there.

Thirty minutes. Okay. I went through the PowerPoint I had been working on and deleted the slide for the MediCorp conference that was supposed to be my biggest selling point. Without it, there was just a pathetic list of things I’d done over the years, projects I’d headed up, teams I’d overseen... actually, if I just beefed up the slides with more bullet points defining the work I’d done, maybe throw in a few more of those events I’d begun listing while on the cruise, the PowerPoint wasn’t as weak as I’d thought.

I spent the next twenty minutes filling in the gaps and adding a few more key points that identified why I deserved this job. Camila had trained me specifically for this role before entering maternity leave, and that had to count for something.

Even if Jerry was heading up the lawyer conference this week, my resume for this company alone was three times longer than his.

Ten minutes before we were meant to meet in the conference room, I shut my laptop and carried it under my arm while I clicked my way across the cheap vinyl floor to Hal’s office. I didn’t need to knock for him to glance up and see me.

“Meeting’s at nine.”

Was it just me or would he not meet my gaze? “I hoped I could have a minute of your time first.”

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