"Okay," she said flatly, still with her back to me.
"Turn around, please."
She slowly turned her body until she faced me. "Yes, Mr. Tanchen?"
Mr. Tanchen? Why had we returned to that now?
"What's wrong? You haven't called me that in weeks," I said as hurt coursed through me.
Emma shrugged but looked away. "I just figured that was better."
"Why?"
"I just do. By the way, I got a call from the staffing agency last night. Tomorrow is my last day here with you. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess."
Stunned by her comment, I stood there and didn't stop her when she walked out with her bagel in hand. So that was it? Our relationship had fizzled to nothing in the space of a week, and now she'd be gone in twenty-four hours?
I couldn't let that happen.
I found her sitting at her desk but not eating that bagel she'd spent so much time bothering with. Clearly, she'd been avoiding me since she hadn't taken even a single bite out of it.
Leaning against the doorframe to her office, I said, "I know about the penalty if you break your contract with that staffing agency, Emma. I'm willing to pay it if you agree to stay."
Instead of being happy with my offer, she looked up at me and all I saw was anger in those beautiful blue eyes of hers. "So then I'd be your paid whore? Is that how this works?"
"No…no…wha…" I stuttered out, unable to get a full thought to move from my brain to my mouth successfully. How could she think that?
"Isn't that what the issue with your partner was, Mr. Tanchen? He rolls into town, and you get jealous because he clearly liked me. But you did nothing about that. Not a thing. You didn't make any effort to see me. You didn't even make any effort to text or call me. You just decided to ignore me while he was around because you were ignoring the fact that Josh wanted me. Men generally don't miss a woman twice if they have no interest in sleeping with them, you know. At least in the past week he bothered to pay attention to me, but then again, I'm just your employee. You just made that perfectly clear when you offered to employ me as your personal whore for hire."
Shaking my head in disbelief, I again tried to explain what I meant by my offer. "No, Emma. I didn't mean that at all. I just meant that I wanted you stay working with me."
But that answer didn't fix anything either. She stood from her chair, and as it shot back away from her toward the wall, she grabbed her purse and turned to face me with anger flashing in her eyes.
"You know what? I quit. And for your information, Mark, at least your partner is honest about what he wants. He doesn't couch his interest in a woman in a job that makes her feel like a bought-and-paid-for whore. Goodbye!"
And with that, she walked out of my business and my life, leaving me standing there not knowing what I'd do without her.
Chapter Seven
Emma
By the timeI made it back to my apartment, I couldn't hold in my tears anymore. I'd been stupid to think Mark and I were something real. Oh, I was something to him. His in-house fuck toy.
God, I was so naïve! There I'd been going to work every day thinking I had what Maddie had with Eric, but the truth was I had nothing. When the time came for him to stand up for me and declare I was his, he did nothing.
Not a damn thing. And that's exactly what I meant to him.
I threw myself onto my bed and buried my head in my pillow as I sobbed uncontrollably. How could I have let myself be fooled like that? I knew as soon as Josh offered for the three of us to go out together that I meant nothing to Mark. A man who considered me his would have put his foot down, but he didn't.
Then when Josh kissed me outside the wing place, I knew Mark had seen it all through the window. And what did he do?
Again, nothing.
And I had a feeling I knew why. He was fine keeping me for his fuck toy inside his home, but I wasn't anyone he wanted to be seen with romantically in public.
Shame covered every inch of me. He didn't care at all about me. I was just another hole to fill.
I imagined there had been a long line of women before me who were merely that for him. A thing to get off on and nothing else. No wonder a man with a successful business who looked like he did was single.