Page 34 of Forever After All

Me: No freedom for me for another eight days.

Carter: Well, fuck.

Me: You need to get a job.

Carter: Where is the fun in that?

Carter: If I had a job, I couldn't piss you off at work.

Me: *middle finger emoji*

Me: I didn't realise retired athletes turned into lazy assholes.

Carter: I was already a lazy asshole, Alice.

Me: Here we go, self-deprecating again.

Carter: It's notself-deprecating when it's the truth. *smirking emoji*

Me: Dick.

Carter: Yes, I have one.

Me: Oh, I know.

Carter: I don't believe that you're working on a Sunday. Should be illegal.

I adjust my cleavage in my charcoal dress, fix my hair, and make sure my makeup is perfect before I stand in the middle of the office and spin around slowly, taking a video of myself. After I send it to Carter, I follow it with a message.

Me: See. Working.

Carter: You look good.

Me: I know.

Chapter 18

Alice

"Good morning, Calder Marketing, Brenna speaking." Brenna's cheerful voice bounces off the glass walls of the building. "Yes, ma'am. Give me a moment and I'll find that out for you."

Covering the mouthpiece of the telephone, Brenna leans over to speak to me. "Can you check Anna's meetings for me today? My PC is busted again," she whispers.

"Sure thing," I say as I bring up Anna's calendar. "Patrick Jones, meeting at ten. Two hours. Jessica Deary, meeting at twelve-thirty. Thirty minutes. Lunch between one and three. Carter Green, meeting at two-thirty. Blocked out two hours."

What the fuck?I double take at the last meeting and scowl at my screen, feeling irrationally annoyed.

"Thanks, Ali." Brenna finishes her call after confirming the scheduled meeting time with Jessica. "Why is Carter coming in?" she asks.

"Beats me." I shrug, yet feel myself fluster a little.

"Oh. My. Fucking. God," Brenna screeches at me, low enough for only me to hear.

"What?" I ask a little too quickly because I’m irritated. Not irritated by Brenna, but irritated by Carter. We've messaged back and forth for the last week, and without saying a word about it he has a fucking meeting scheduled at my office. After what I told him, and after what we did, I expect a little more from him and I'd be lying if I said otherwise.

"You slept with him, didn't you?" How the hell she knows that from me saying two words is beyond me, but I decide to tell her anyway.

Keeping my voice low, I confirm her suspicion.

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