She met his eyes and glared back before she shut the door behind her. I looked at Jude long and hard, he looked back at me and didn’t have a damn thing to say.
We could be in deep shit.
“So. What do we do here, oh wise one?” Jude took his jacket off and chucked it onto the couch.
Then he poured himself a scotch and sat back on the couch. He pressed the cold glass to his forehead first, before he drank it down and got up for another. He did that once or twice while we both said nothing. I stared at the numbers and knew something wasn’t adding up but I couldn’t place what. It truly didn’t make any sense at all.
Financial was always on point with their reporting. Accounting never missed a number, decimal, or comma. Human Resources kept everything in line. Our company had an amazing business model that Jude and I worked hard to establish. We couldn’t let this odd mishap take it all away from us.
“Jude.” I got his attention. He was back to laying on the couch with the scotch cup in his hand, leaning down and pointed towards the ground. A photographer would enjoy the picture but from my point of view it looked like he keeled over and died.
I laughed once and got up. He used to do this a lot in college, pretend he was sleeping to avoid the hard shit. I went and stood over him, knowing he knew I was there by then.
“Jude. I’m going to tea bag you if you don’t get up.”
He groaned and pulled back a smile before he got up. He turned to face me, and I sat on the table across from him.
“There is nothing we can do but hope for the best, man. That’s it.”
~
I spent the next few days buried deep in that account. Jude and I still worked out together as always, had breakfast most mornings. By week’s end we were buried deep in quarterly reports we nearly forgot about.
But we were in a damn conference room all day. Papers stacked the fucking table, cologne and ink scented the air and everyone’s cologne gave me a headache. It was why I worked alone in my office but I wanted to present the whole team player attitude to everyone. So did Jude, as much as he hated it.
“Sir I have this report from Hatchett, there is no folder for it.” A young intern got my attention. He was a recent college graduate and was pining for the permanent position we offered two of the interns out of ten. It was lucrative and hard but they all pushed through.
“Just give it to me.” I told him. “And Chad, hand me anything marked with this, will you?” I whispered to him. His eyes widened like I was giving him a special task. I suppose I was, in a way.
“Yes sir, I will.” He nodded and went off.
I got back to the work and Jude joined in. It was mostly matching numbers on numbers, making sure all streams of revenue were operating as they should be, if not better.
“Sir, it looks like our bonuses will be higher this year.” Someone from financial said to either Jude or me. I doubted it was Jude though, because he wasn’t nice to anyone.
Both Jude and I pretended we didn’t hear him because we weren’t sure who would even get paid this year.
14
Henley
I was once again a restless woman.
Even though the meeting
with Maverick and Jude went well and I signed a whole contract, I was still jobless. I couldn’t believe it.
The guys had… well I felt lied to. Could they really have only wanted me once, and that was it?
I doubted it based on their behavior the next morning. But it was a seed in my mind. I gave myself to them, let them fuck me and use me and they didn’t even call or email or fucking anything. What the hell?
I really thought they were stand up guys. I knew work was probably busy and they were running a company after all. But how could they be so busy as to not even call me? What if I was freaking out all alone, would they care? No.
I felt like a failure and settled into my couch one again for a movie. The plot twist was I had ice cream and could comfort myself with that. It was good, peanut butter. I had on sweats to match and everything.
But I kept thinking about them. Jude, the way he smiled at me all the time and Maverick, the way he always made me feel comfortable. They put effort into me, so why were they treating me like I didn’t matter?
I felt dejected and alone.