Bullshit. He’d fucked his PR woman. His VP’s assistant. He’d been slapped on the wrist and got to keep the people he loved.
“Link is the best,” I said. “You can’t—”
“His job isn’t on the line.” Grant talked over me.
Judith was spending a lot more time studying her hands than was normal for her.
I didn’t want anyone in the company gone, but I was grasping to make my case look mild. Tame. Easy to overlook. “What about Adrienne? She works for Phillip still. Jeremy still works for Sonya.”
“Both happened before the new rule was put into place,” Judith said.
The new rule. The anti-fraternization rule that went into effect a few months ago that said managers couldn’t sleep with the people who reported to them. Seemed like an obvious thing to make against the rules, but it hadn’t been, and people here tended to hook up.
Which was also why anyone who’d gotten together in a longer-term relationship was grandfathered in under the non-existent rules that weren’t there before.
“Besides being more than decades-long fuck buddies, Phillip and Sonya no longer have final say in Adrienne and Jeremy’s futures here.” Yup. We were in an official meeting, and Scott had just used the phrase fuck-buddies.
I wanted to call bullshit on at least part of his argument. That my relationship with Link was at least as valid, and far older than either of those, but it wasn’t. It hadn’t been. He and I had always insistedjust friends.
Whether or not that was a mistake, I wouldn’t wield whatever I had with Link like a shield. He deserved better than that.
Which meant I was out of arguments.
“We’re all on the same page?” Grant asked.
Scott nodded. “Let’s make this official. Do we allow Elliot Howard to stay in this position, or is it time for him to go?”
Time for him to go. Fuck me. The words were a punch to the gut.
The vote was split. Grant and Oliver were in favor of firing me and buying me out. Judith and Scott voted in my favor.
At least that was something.
I would be the tie-breaking vote in any other circumstance, but since I couldn’t be, they needed to find a fifth, impartial party to make the decision.
“Take the rest of the week off,” Judith said. “I’ll tell your team and everyone you’re out for a few days. I won’t say more until we know more.”
I gave her a thin smile, but couldn’t manage athank you.
The entire drive home, alone with my thoughts, was agony. This was it. I was about to lose it all again. I felt my entire world slipping through my fingers.
Because why?
Because I was fucking my best friend and refused to call it lo—
Because I might make the company look bad?
Given everything they represented?
Why didn’t they understand? I’d do anything for AcesPlayed. I’d give them anything.
By the time I got home, the hole in my heart was gaping and festering. I couldn’t give up Link. I couldn’t send him away. I couldn’t give up this company. This job. These people.
Why had I let myself feel so much again? A decade or two passed and I let the walls crumble. I let the feelings in. The people. The place.
I stepped inside, and found Fallyn in the living room. King was next to her on the couch. The Christmas tree was sparkling in the background. The only thing missing from this scene was Link.
Andfuckit hurt to look at. It ached so much I couldn’t breathe.