What the fuck? After delivering that horrible soliloquy, Juno slams the door in my face so hard that if my nose had been an inch closer, I’d look like a pug right now.
Shit. I knew she’d be upset, but that was something else. That was more violent than I expected. And she didn’t give me a chance to say what I came to say.
I knock.
She doesn’t answer.
I ring the doorbell.
Same result.
I call her so-called phone.
It goes straight to voicemail.
I shout her name, loudly, but there’s no response.
I doubt it will make her calmer if I break this door, even though it’s tempting.
No. For now, I’ll give her a chance to cool off, and then we’ll talk.
I’ll make sure of it.
When I stride into my building, everyone steps out of my way, no doubt picking up on my foul mood.
Then, to my surprise, one of the security guys shouts, “Sir?”
I look at the fellow.
Nope. Have never spoken to him in my life. I forget names but not faces. Is this an attempt at a promotion or something? I’m never in the mood for those, but especially not now.
“Did Juno find you?” the guy yells.
And just like that, he’s got my undivided attention.
I nearly knock down a few of my minions on the way to the security desk, where I demand, “What do you mean by that?”
He pales. “She was here. Looking for you. She spoke to Ms. Avalin and then ran off.” He looks around furtively and then adds, “Juno looked upset.”
Eidith spoke to Juno? What the hell for?
I resist the urge to grab the guard by his collar. “What did they talk about?”
He shrugs. “They didn’t talk here.”
“Where then?”
Something in my expression makes him turn even paler. “I don’t know. They took the elevator.”
I join him behind the desk. “Pull up the security cameras.”
He does, and we watch as the two women walk to the nearest elevator.
“Pull up the feed from that car,” I order.
After Juno and I got stuck, I had all the elevators equipped with cameras, microphones, and a two-way speaker. A special team now watches and listens to those feeds at all times, and if someone gets stuck, their job is to get the situation resolved.
It feels like it takes forever, but finally, I see the recording on the screen… and hear every word Eidith said.
“You’re promoted as of today,” I say curtly to the guard. “But if I learn that you mentioned this to anyone, I’ll make sure you don’t work anywhere ever again.”
He nods, eyes bugging out.
I grit my teeth and stride to the executive suites.
“What the fuck?” I say to Eidith instead of a hello.
“Excuse me?” She stands up, the very picture of innocence.
“Your elevator conversation was not private. You have two seconds to explain yourself.”
She blanches, then lifts her chin. “What am I supposed to explain?”
“You mean besides the fact that you snooped in my desk? How about you tell me why you’d dare pay my girlfriend to break up with me?”
She’s almost translucent now. “What girlfriend? It was all fake.”
“Nothing is fucking fake,” I say through clenched teeth. “Either way, it’s none of your business.”
She looks at me like I’ve turned orange. “You actually care about her?”
“Yes.” She doesn’t deserve my answer, but I’m not about to lie about this. “Either way, you shouldn’t have meddled in my affairs.”
Eidith stares at me with a wounded expression. “But you can do so much better than her.”
“Oh?” My voice drips with sarcasm. “Like who?”
“Me,” she says and flushes. “Real. Fake. Either way, it would make a lot more sense.”
I make sure she can see the disdain on my face as I slowly enunciate, “You and I do not make sense. You and I will never happen. Not in a million years. In fact, after today, we will never see each other again.”
She staggers back as I add, “Oh, and it goes without saying, but you’re fucking fired.”
For the rest of the day, I try to get a hold of Juno without much success.
The flower delivery guy tells me she tossed the bouquet at his face. She also trashed the chocolates I sent her, and she refused to sign for the jewelry.
The only gift out of many that she accepted was the fairy castle cactus—but she ordered the delivery lady to, and I quote, “Tell the sender that me taking in this poor, overwatered guy doesn’t mean squat.”
Fine. I just need a more creative way to get her attention.
And I think I have one.
It’s crazy, almost fatally so, but I have a feeling that it might just work.