“It really is. She’s a nightmare.”
The line is quiet for several seconds.
“Do you love him?” Asher asks.
Without hesitation, I answer, “I do.”
“Then I’m happy for you, Raven. I really am.”
“Thank you, Ash. I hope you’ll find someone who makes you feel this way someday.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“There’s always Lily,” I say, grimacing when I realize I’ve said that.
I promised myself I wouldn’t interfere in their love lives, but here I am, butting in.
“Who knows?” he says, catching me off guard. “How’s the presentation going?” he asks, changing the subject.
“It’s coming. Diosa agreed to give us the final meeting before they decide to break their contract with us.”
“What did Sergio think about everything?”
“We didn’t tell him, anything about what happened. Figured it would only sound like a lame attempt on our part to soil his relationship with Bauer. If we win this, we want it to be a clean fight on our end.”
“It was only ever a clean fight on your end, but I respect that. Cavendish is the better company, hands down.”
“Can we chat soon?” I say, needing to get busy.
“For sure. Raven, it’s good to have you back,” he says.
“It’s the best,” I agree. “Pizza soon?”
“Always pizza.”
I place the phone down and smile. It feels so good to be on speaking terms again with Asher, although I feel terrible that his job is on the line. And all because of some jealous girl who will never be happy, no matter what‚ or who, she has.
I stay in the office until Charles comes back forty minutes later.
“I hope you don’t mind that I stayed here. I just didn’t feel like going back to my desk.”
“It’s fine.”
When he doesn’t say anything else, I continue. “I wanted to find out what’s happening before going out there. I can’t even imagine the sort of rumors flying around about me.”
“Your name is cleared, and the police are involved.” He sounds exhausted. “They are both facing some serious jail time.”
“Good.”
“The board has been turned back to your side. They apologize for thinking otherwise. I showed them the tape, and they agreed it’s out of our control.”
“That’s a relief,” I say, laying my head back on the chair.
“Anyway, afterward, I called Bauer. That’s why I took so long. I wanted to make it clear that they’d be brought up in the police report.”
“How’d that go?”
He grunts. “The man is a bloody prat. I hope their shady business dealings come to light, and he suffers for it. I don’t mind competition, but not like that.”