Page 17 of Melted by a Man

“What?” was her reply. I pushed her door open a little more and poked my head in.

“May I come in?” I asked. Jacqueline was just getting settled at her desk, her frown in place, and her eyes locked on mine. She stayed silent as she set her phone on her desk and pulled other items from her purse. Her iPad. A bag of granola. A small case that I assumed held the earbuds she always wore.

I ignored her silence and pretended it was an invitation as I entered her office.

“I, um,” my hand lingered on the doorknob, my fingers desperately tapping out a nonsensical rhythm as nerves erupted, “I wanted to apologize. For earlier.”

Jacqueline didn’t say anything to that. She just dropped her gaze to her items and organized them on her desk, before pulling her keyboard towards her seat and clicking her computer to life.

It was incredibly awkward.

I was both humiliated and in awe of how powerful she was in this setting. How she made herself the biggest person in the room, making a man like me want to cower under her judgment.

“Anything else?” Jacqueline asked when she glanced at where I stood. I gripped the handle of the doorknob tighter, something aching in my chest at her words.

“Um, no,” I shook my head, “Just the apology bit. I didn’t mean to imply anything untoward.”

Jacqueline scoffed in disbelief, “It’s not the first time a man has humiliated me in the workplace. It unfortunately won’t be the last.”

I blinked in confusion, defensiveness for her that I didn’t deserve to feel filling my chest as I stumbled out, “I—what? Jacqueline, that’s not—”

“I think we’re done here.” She interrupted me.

I shook my head, ignoring the voice in my mind screaming at me to let it go, “I think you misinterpreted—”

“I didn’t misinterpret anything, Mr. Turner,” I winced, knowing there was no convincing her of anything when she called me that, “An inappropriate innuendo is one thing. Humiliating me in front of employees is another.”

I raised both my eyebrows, glancing over my shoulder as if the explanation to her words would appear, before looking back at her, “What?”

“Though I may be a one-person department at the moment, I am more than capable of doing my job,” Jacqueline shook her head once, “Trying to repent for your slip of the tongue in the elevator by scolding employees—who will always,alwayscall me names behind my back—and implying that I am nothing but an overworked, rung-out and emotional woman isn’t the way to go.”

“Whoa,” I held both of my hands up at her words, “It was not my intention to offend you so thoroughly this morning.”

“Wasn’t it?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow at me.

I gaped at her, flexing my fingers nervously before I shoved both of my fists into my pockets to still them.

“What would I gain from trying to humiliate you?” I asked.

“Why does a man ever try to humiliate a woman?” Jacqueline challenged.

I couldn’t believe this.

Jacqueline truly thought the worst of me.

I ground my teeth together as frustration simmered beneath my skin, my fingers aching from how tightly they were clenched. I wanted to ask her what the problem was. I wanted to ask if this had anything to do with our one night together. I had so many questions, but none of them were appropriate to ask here. I was desperate for answers, to understand how Jacqueline arrived at this conclusion so quickly. It was like that nervous, flirty, fun side of her I met at the bar didn’t exist anymore.

But I kept my mouth shut.

My jaw ached from how hard I was grinding it, so I opened my mouth and rubbed my hand along the side of my face in an attempt to loosen the muscles there.

“I see,” I couldn’t keep the edge out of my tone, “Again, my apologies. I will be more mindful going forward.”

I saw something waver in her expression, or perhaps I was just desperate to see something that she would never reveal to me again. Regardless, I nodded at her before seeing myself out of her office and closing the door behind me.

I scraped a hand down my face, finally walking back to my office as if I had a tail tucked between my legs. I slumped down into my desk chair, running my hands over my face again and again in an attempt to calm myself.

I’ll never get her to like me,I thought to myself,She’ll never like me. She decided to hate me the moment I walked into the conference room all those months ago.

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