Page 79 of Serving the CEO

I didn’t stop to talk to him, though.

Fuck all this shit.

And fuck Jessica Ellis, too.

I’d busted my ass to make this worth her while and—

I stopped ten feet away from the bar’s entrance, hearing the bouncer yell out something, but I didn’t turn around. An idea unfolded in my head, and I smiled, savage satisfaction settling inside.

Pulling out of my phone, I moved to the curb and hailed a cab. Once inside, I started drafting an email.

She’d made her move.

Now it was time to make mine.

THIRTY

JESSICA

Wearinga pair of yoga pants and a faded t-shirt from my high school days, I sat on the couch and tried to focus on the movie I’d selected from a streaming service. One of my favorites, it was the equivalent of comfort food, the sort of thing I watched when I needed cheering up and didn’t want to think.

Except it wasn’t working.

I’d fallen asleep last night because I was utterly exhausted but as soon as I woke up, my brain had started going a million miles a minute.

It hadn’t stopped since.

“How am I going to go into work tomorrow?” Since I was alone in the apartment, it was a rhetorical question and I expected no answer, but damn, I wanted one. The uncertainty had been one of the things plaguing me all day.

Logically, there wasn’t any reason why Ihadto, really. I didn’t have anything scheduled or waiting for me since I was supposed to be on my honeymoon.

What a joke.

I couldn’t believe that I’d actually thought turning a marriage into a business deal was a good idea. And what sort of person not only wanted to hold an actual wedding but also go on a honeymoon as a fake couple? Sure, we’d been sleeping together, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that he couldn’t find plenty of other women for sex, no matter how kinky he liked it.

He was probably with another woman right now, working off his annoyance at me.

My chest ached, the pain there so intense it was like it would split me wide open. Even breathing was painful. Rubbing my chest, I stared hard at the screen, as if I could will myself into focusing on the scene playing out instead of the misery trapped inside me like a caged beast.

It didn’t work.

Surging upright, I threw the remote down and stormed into the kitchen. I yanked open the fridge and pulled a soft drink out, draining half of it in an effort to loosen the knots inside me.

It didn’t work. Still, I took it with me into my bedroom. Settling on my bed, I pulled my laptop out of my work bag. While I wouldn’t have any actual work scheduled, I could at least go through my email and see if I could get an idea of what to expect when I went in tomorrow.

I was expecting to hear back from Bristol’s agent soon but she knew I was scheduled to be out for a week after the wedding so she probably wouldn’t contact me until after, but I was tempted to reach out to her, even if it was a Sunday, just so I could have something to occupy my time with.

“Just do it tomorrow,” I muttered. “Let her enjoy her Sunday.”

I went to close my laptop but stopped and lifted my gaze to the ceiling.

“Just go ahead and look,” I told myself. “It’s just a work email. Probably all junk and inter-office memos.”

I’d left my phone facedown after texting my parents and telling them I needed some time to myself, which they’d respected. They’d stayed a couple hours yesterday after I’d told them everything, and I had no doubt they were still trying to process everything. Jami was out doing who knew what, giving me space. Basically, I’d spent most of the day just trying to pretend the outside world didn’t exist.

But I couldn’t pretend forever.

Bracing myself, I opened my work email log-in.

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