Page 73 of Silver Fake

"She just quit without notice. That's not something Lisa would do, so I know this is your fault." Melissa's voice is dripping with accusation and anger. "What the hell did you do to drive her away from all of us and this job that she loved?"

"Fuck." I groan, getting back up. I rush around my desk towards the door.

If Lisa just quit, maybe she's still in the building, and I can catch her and convince her not to do this.

"She isn't here," Melissa says, stopping me in my tracks.

Turning around, I look at her, and she's drilling holes in me with her eyes. "How long ago did she quit?"

"Half an hour ago. She didn't even come into the office to do it. She sent an email to HR."

I press the palms of my hands against the door and drop my head between my arms. Maybe if I stay like this long enough, I can pretend this is all a dream.

"So, is this what you're going to do?" Melissa says. "Stand around and pretend I'm not here and hope I leave? If you think that's happening, you don't know me at all. You're going to tell me what you did right now. And hopefully, there is some way this can be fixed because we need Lisa back here."

Gritting my teeth, I lift my head and drag my fingers through my hair.

I walk back over to my desk and sit down. I wait for Melissa to sit across from but she doesn't. She just walks up to the edge of my desk and raises her eyebrow, like she's getting impatient.

I sigh. "Did you know Victor offered her a job as his secretary?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Of course I knew.”

I feel like I've been sucker punched.

"What the hell, Melissa?"

"Don't give me that," Melissa snaps back. "Lisa is the best secretary the firm has. Victor may be an asshole, but he’s still a managing partner. "

"So what?"

"So working for him is a promotion and a big pay raise. Lisa deserves that. She has a right to consider her options. You do realize you acted like an asshole until you started dating her, right? Nobody would blame her for wanting to work for someone who isn't you."

Raw frustration seethes within me as I glare back at Melissa. "I was trying to keep my distance, and you know that."

Melissa throws her hands up in the air in exasperation. "And exactly how was Lisa supposed to know that? You can't expect her to read your mind."

"I wasn't expecting her to read my mind. I was just... trying to figure things out."

"Why did she quit this morning? And don't say you don't know because we both know that's a lie."

"We had a fight last night," I admit, my voice barely above a whisper. "About Victor's offer." I pause, rubbing a hand over my face, feeling the weight of my actions pressing down on me. "Victor was bragging about her coming to work for him after a meeting."

Melissa crosses her arms over her chest. "And while he was bragging, did he mention she hadn't accepted his offer yet?"

I sigh again. "He said he anticipated her acceptance by the end of this week."

"As I said. She had not accepted the offer, but based on how you look and the fact that I can tell you didn't shower last night, I'm guessing you ignored that tidbit and acted like a jackass when you left here."

There is no sense in trying to lie or sugarcoat anything that I say to Melissa. She can spot a lie a mile away. She's a damn good lawyer and even better at reading people.

"It was worse than that. I was hurt, and I let that turn into anger, so I went to her place and went off. I didn't even give her a chance to say much at first, and when she got it out that she had already decided she would turn down the job, I basically called her a liar."

Shaking her head, she finally sits down and says, "Wow."

I lean my face on my hand, massaging my temple with my fingers. My skull feels like it's about to crack wide open from this massive headache I've given myself.

"I haven't even gotten to the bad part," I tell her.

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