Page 479 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“I ruined your evening,” she said.
“No you didn’t, Armie did. I’m done putting up with his fuckery. That little bastard has been running amuck doing whatever he pleases and getting away with it because his last name is Bishop. How dare he treat you like this?” I seethed.
Tinsely put her hand on the door handle. “I just want it to be over.”
Her voice sounded far away. “He’s not going to be let off the hook. Not this time. I’ve let some slimy shit slip under the radar, but this? This is personal.”
Tinsely opened the door and got out. “I’ll see you on Monday.”
“Let me walk you in,” I said, unclipping my seatbelt.
She shook her head. “No. I’ll see you on Monday.”
CHAPTER 29
TINSELY
“Good morning, Miss Miller,” Andrew said as he opened the front doors of the Bamford’s building for me.
I pulled my scarf a little tighter around my neck as a cold wind picked up behind me. “Good morning, Andrew.”
He flicked the brim of his hat. “It’s a cold one, isn’t it?”
Not as cold as Saturday night, I thought as I smiled and passed through the doors. “Colder than the North Pole.”
He chuckled and wished me a good rest of my day. I moved through the lobby, tugging off my gloves and tucking them in the pockets of my winter coat as I went. Joshua, sitting behind the security desk sipping a coffee, waved from his chair. I waved back as he scalded his tongue and cursed the coffee. While he fanned his mouth, I got on the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.
I had an objective this morning.
I’d spent all day yesterday thinking about my situation with Chadwick, and I had come to a resolution. This thing between us had to end before it had a chance to gain any more momentum. Getting into an office affair with him in the first place had been short-sighted and unprofessional. That wasn’t me. I was the woman who adored her career and the life she was building for herself. I couldn’t let a guy deter me from my goals.
We just had to make it through the rest of the holiday season and then everything could go back to how it used to be. Well, sort of how it used to be. He’d be my boss now but I knew I could make that work if he was willing to play nice.
The elevator doors closed, and a pit grew deeper and darker in my stomach as I rode up toward the top floor.
Just because I knew this was the right decision didn’t mean it felt good.
It felt awful. But so did sitting in his passenger seat when he dropped me off on Saturday night after his father’s staff party. I’d never seen that side of Chadwick before, and his anger made me a little uneasy. I didn’t want or need him to fight my battles. The thing with Armie was over as soon as I got out of his car. Sure, he’d abandoned me on the side of the road, but nothing happened. I was safe.
Chadwick had a look in his eyes, though, that Armie’s actions were unforgiveable. Had he not been so bent out of shape over the whole thing, we might have been able to have a much-needed conversation before I got out of the Rover. Unfortunately, there was no talking to him in that state. I’d had to get out and bail before his negative energy consumed me.
The elevator stopped only once on the way up for a woman on the tenth floor to catch a ride up to the twentieth. She spoke on her cellphone the entire time to, I assumed, her kid, who was begging to be picked up from school. Her mother clicked her tongue and told her they weren’t playing this game again and that she could come home from school at the end of the day like everyone else.
“I love you,” the mother said at the end of the call, “and I know you’re brave and can finish your school day. Tell one of your friends how you’re feeling. Ashley will remind you that everything is okay. Good luck, sweetie.”
She hung up the phone and hung her head back to stare at the ceiling.
“Someone having a tough day?” I asked.
She gave me a tired smile. “Every day feels like a tough day lately. My youngest daughter has terrible separation anxiety that we’ve been trying to work through.”
The doors opened on floor twenty, and she got off.
“Good luck,” I called after her.
She thanked me and wished me a merry Christmas.
I wished I felt a little merrier inside as I finished my ride up to the top floor. I got off the elevator and shrugged out of my coat as I passed reception.
