I can’t hold back my anger and frustration with him. I thought we could be civil, for Lily’s sake, but I guess I was wrong.
“Next question. What is the status of your relationship with your fiancé?”
Lily freezes as the tension rises. She’s unsure of who to answer or what to say. We are making this worse. If she can survive the day with the two of us arguing, she will be able to survive any stupid interview questions thrown her way. I’m just not sure if I can put up with Carter for an entire day without killing him.
“I can’t handle this anymore!” Lily screams, grabbing her head.
Carter and I both freeze, staring at her. We’ve spent the better half of the morning arguing about how she should answer each question. Every single question came with an argument. Every. Single. One.
I’m not surprised to see Lily breaking like this. She deserves better than what we are giving her.
“This was a mistake,” she says, standing up and pacing back and forth in front of the table in the room we have been cooped up in.
I stand up and walk over to her. “I’m sorry, Lily. We will take it down a notch. You’re doing great. If you can put up with us drilling you now, then you will do a great job tonight at your interview.”
Her eyes widen, and I see the true fear and anger come out in one look.
“No.” She strides over to her chair, grabbing her jacket and her purse.
Carter stands up, blocking her way to the door. He grabs on to her shoulders. “Relax, Lily. You got this.”
She laughs. “I’m not worried about myself. I’ve done interviews countless times. I know what to say and what not to say. I know how to say charming things to distract the audience from what they should be worrying about. How do you think I got this far? But what I can’t put up with is you two bickering. I thought I was being smart when I hired both of you, but now, I realize just how much of a mistake that was.”
She takes a deep breath and then looks back to me. “I’m going to the salon to get my hair colored and get my nails done. Give me the interview questions.”
I slowly walk over, handing her my notebook of questions.
She snatches them out of my hand. “I’ll prepare for the interview on my own. And, when I get back, you two had better have worked out whatever shit is going on between the two of you. And, if I hear one more stupid argument, then I’m going to fire you both. I don’t need this stress right now.” She looks at Carter, who is still blocking her path to the exit. “Now, move.”
He opens his mouth to say something but thinks better of it and steps out of her way. She stomps out of the room, leaving Carter and me alone in the meeting room.
“Great job,” Carter says, snarky.
“You’re an ass,” I say, gathering my things.
I take Lily’s lead and walk out. I know it is going to do nothing to solve our current predicament, but I can’t let myself stay trapped in the same room with him for another second.
I march quickly out of the building, not caring that, by doing so, I’m probably losing yet another job and my best shot at starting my own firm. My head is already spinning with how I can salvage this, but my ideas all start with me strangling Carter to death because he is the root of all my problems. Every problem I’ve ever had started with him.
“Tori, wait,” I hear Carter yell behind me as I continue down the sidewalk to my rental car.
I freeze. Don’t engage him. Just walk away. Give up. Let him deal with Lily. I can find a new job. I don’t need this one client in order to start my career. That’s what I should do. Just get in my rental, go back to Logan’s, pack up my things, and get on the first flight back to California.
But I can’t give up so easily. I’m too stubborn for that.
I turn around. “What did you just call me?”
He cocks his arrogant head to the side. “You aren’t running away, are you, Tori?”
I can’t control myself anymore. I stomp over to where Carter is standing on the sidewalk, and I slap him. Hard. Across the face.
It’s not one of my better moments as far as judgment goes, but I can’t let him just get away with being the biggest jerk on the planet anymore. I’m tired of him hurting me even though I should be used to it by now.
He doesn’t seem shocked that I hit him. In fact, he seems like that is exactly what he wanted. “I thought I couldn’t hurt you anymore.”
My nostrils flare, and my face turns bright red as I try to keep my breath
ing even and cold. “I lied.”