Page 49 of Love.V2
“You don’t think I was too harsh?” I whispered, opening the files and dragging them up on the big screen in my office to review.
“Not at all. I would have gone a bit harder on her, actually.”
“You think?” Oh, those font colors were looking much better. I breathed through my nose as I clicked through them. Big in, big out. My heart rate was slowing. Dylan’s hand rested on my wrist.
“Victoria’s a bully, Tess. I don’t have room on my teams for people like her.”
I squirmed under his gaze and his touch. “She’s been with the company almost since the beginning. She was the third hire.”
“Third hire, yeah I know,” Dylan spoke at the same time I did, shaking his head. “I’ve heard that once or twice. Doesn’t change the fact that she’s toxic. Sooner or later, people like that can tear an organization apart. You want me to handle it next time?”
Yes. Six-year-old Tess was still cowering in a corner of my brain, nodding frantically at the thought of having a savior. Dylan was good for that, I knew. It would bring an enormous sense of relief if I asked him to take care of it. Everyone thought he was just a consultant from our parent company, but Victoria knew he was a big deal. She’d listen to him.
But even as I considered it, I knew I couldn’t take him up on his offer. Since he wasn’t CEO yet, I wasn’t sure about the power dynamics. What if he overstepped, and it made Eric think twice about him leading Jinx? Aside from that, how would I feel, knowing that I’d failed yet another test at this new job?
I wassupposedto stretch myself. The whole reason I’d taken this role was to get out of my comfort zone. Without Dylan.
“No,” I said with a sigh. He was still scrutinizing me, analyzing everything from the way I sat to the tone in my voice. I straightened in my chair. “I appreciate the offer, but this is my job. I need to be the one to handle this.”
“You sure? I don’t ask because I don’t think you can do it.” Dylan leaned forward, pressing his hands onto my desk. “You’re so strong, Tess, but conflict isn’t your favorite thing in the world.”
That was being generous. I’d do just about anything to avoid a fight, or even the possibility of making someone uncomfortable. Anything, like work for months with a woman who humiliated me at every opportunity, and not speak up once.
Anything, like end a twelve-year relationship, only leaving a note in my wake as an explanation.
The thought made me wince again. It had felt like the right move at the time. I had been so mad, so sad. So done. It had felt like putting a period on a sentence that was already finished.
Now, though…how had I thought we were done? I could still feel the sizzling kiss we’d shared just a few minutes ago. We weren’t done. We were so far from done, it felt like the beginning.
“I know. But that was old Tess. I’m…trying to be braver. Better.”
“Better?”
I nodded, blowing out a breath. Starting pottery, putting myself out there with my friends, giving my relationship with Dylan another shot…all individual lessons that built into one big one I was discovering more and more every day.
“Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.”
Dylan hummed, staring at me for a long time. There was a question hanging between us, that history we couldn’t quite overcome.
Yes, you beautiful boy, I’m talking aboutyou.
A soft smile flitted across his mouth. After another moment, he seemed to come to some conclusion, nodding. “Alright then, New Tess. Let’s see what we’re working with.”
As we moved through the slides, discussing the concepts or making small notes and final tweaks, my pulse returned to a normal pace. My hands stopped shaking. My palm didn’t leave a sweaty puddle on my mouse.
I knew eventually everything with Victoria would come to a head. In a few months, Dylan’s trial run at Jinx would be up, and we’d have to decide what we were doing here, and if we wanted to keep going. In a few days, we’d be in front of Botto, pitching the biggest deal of my life. Then after…probably doing something else in that hotel room Dylan had mentioned.
If I thought about any of that too long, all my calm would evaporate into thin air. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about Victoria. I had no clue whether my warm, fuzzy (increasingly hot) feelings for Dylan would stick around, or if we’d both slide back into that cold, distant place we’d lived in together for so long.
All I knew was that right now, I had my coffee, my Dylan, and a solid presentation that would hopefully knock the socks off an international robotics enterprise and secure my job at the best company I’d ever worked for.
Old Tess could have never.
Eight months ago
Dylan
Sometimes it felt like my world had diminished to the neat piles in front of me. Dark stacks on the crisp, white bedspread.
