He worked himself to the bone. I saw what he did, having to direct grown men on when, where, and which flooring to install, and I realized that I truly didn’t have an understanding of how much work went into his job.
I knew people called him all the time, asking him this and that, but I never put much thought into it.
Never put much thought intohim.
I was a selfish person.
A selfish ho.
And I wanted him back, desperately.
That’s why I brought him lunch last week, to see what he would do, how he would react and gauge whether or not I would be able to win him back.
He hadn’t given me much, but he hadn’t turned me away either.
“So, when’s the wedding?” I jerk out of my thoughts at the sound of Cyrus’s voice and turn to look at my boss.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
He crosses his arms and leans against the wall. I hate being below him, so I stand and match his stance, my expression polite.
“I asked when the wedding was. We missed you guys at the couples cocktail hour.”
I don’t understand this man’s fascination with couples and people getting married. I get that it showed commitment or whatever. But I don’t need a man to do my freaking job and I was getting tired of everyone here thinking that was true.
“Yes, sorry we missed it,” I say, thinking over what I should say to him. Maybe it’s breaking up with Archer, maybe it’s not really giving a shit about this job like I thought I would or maybe it was this man’s old-fashioned ideals that a person needed to be settled and married by the time they were thirty to be successful, but I heard myself say, “Actually, we broke off the engagement.”
I didn’t intend to say that.
But… it was true, in a way. We did break up. There was just no engagement to break off.
“What’s that? You broke up?” He asks, his brows pinching together like he’s never even heard the term before.
“Yes.” I force a polite smile and bite out the next words. “It just wasn’t working out.”
“That’s too bad,” he says, bowing his head and sighing. Cyrus hums like he’s thinking and I wonder what about my breaking up with Archer is so hard for him to grasp. “Listen,” he starts, and I give him my eyes again. “That cologne campaign, I think we’ll let Abigail take the reins on it. She was so excited when we got presented with the idea that I think she’ll have a lot of fun putting something together.”
I feel my jaw actually drop. “Excuse me?”
“Yeah, I think it’s for the best. Plus, you have plenty of other things to do.” He waves me off and looks to be moving away.
I feel my arms drop from my chest and say, “I brought in the cologne campaign. I’ve already put in a ton of work on it.”
“Well, send it to Abigail and see what she can do with it.” He snaps his fingers. “Also, those new clients you mentioned, the ones you’re friends with, make sure to send the info my way.”
Leaving me in a state of fury and shock, Cyrus walks away, and I don’t know what to do.
“What the fuck?” Abigail spits at happy hour later that day. “I don’t want the cologne campaign. That was yours.”
“Well.” I clink my drink to her glass and give her a brow lift. “It’s yours now.”
“He can’t do that. You’ve been working on that for a week and your mock-ups are brilliant.”
“I don’t know what happened.”
“Hey, hey!” April bounds into the bar, looking chipper, and I wish I could bottle up her happiness and keep some for myself.
“Hey, Ap. This is Abbi.” Abigail graduated to Abbi last week when I declared it so. We were meeting my friends for drinks tonight, I thought Abbi would hit it off well with the other girls.