Chapter 29
29
THE TRUE DEFINITION OF GRACE, PRINCESS
“ Y ou ready for this?”
I watch as Amelia draws in a large breath and squares her shoulders.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She gives me her best smile.
After Corina urged us to get some rest once we left the hospital Friday, Amelia explained what happened during the visit with her father. The first conversation with her father in three years. She told me she had decided, with the help of her father, to begin her transition into her new role at Thatcher Inc. immediately.
The first step in doing that is coming to Atlas Tech. to clear out her belongings and to resign from her current role. I don’t hesitate when she asks me if I would come with her for moral support. So here I am, carrying an empty cardboard box beside her, ready to pack up everything she feels she had worked so hard for on her own over the past three years.
I follow behind her through the glass lobby, she flashes her employee badge to the receptionist, quickly fills out a guest pass for me, and heads straight to the elevator. I wait for the doors to close before I place a hand on her shoulder to ease the tension in them.
“I don’t want anyone here to know why I’m quitting.” She says without looking at me.
“I won’t say a word.”
The elevator dings on the fourteenth floor and I fall in step with Amelia as she makes her way to her desk. It’s eight forty-five and the place is nearly empty.
“Does no one work here?” I mutter under my breath.
She snorts and rolls her eyes. “Yeah but it’ll take another fifteen minutes before anyone steps foot in the door.” I place the box on the desk she points to as hers. “If I showed up to work as late as they did I might’ve had a chance to join their cool club. They liked to make it known how annoying it was that I showed up to work on time. They thought it made them look bad.” She finishes with a shrug.
I lean into her. “You know, technically you could fire those arrogant bastards since technically you’re their boss’s boss’s boss’s?—”
“I get it.” She cuts me off with a chuckle and a soft push against my chest.
Tugging at her wrist to pull her against me, “you know, I’ve always had a thing for women in charge.”
She molds her body against me a split second before she jerks her arm out of my grasp at the sound of the elevator door announcing the arrival of some untimely employees. I’m torn between being annoyed and grateful for the intrusion. Annoyed because I want nothing more than to see Amelia breathless by my touch. Grateful because an office building is not conducive to the overwhelming urge to take her here against her desk to show her just how much she affects me.
Amelia’s body stiffens. Go ne is the lusty look in her eyes, replaced with her typical guarded facade.
“You own this fucking place. Don’t allow them to let you forget that.” I say only loud enough for her to hear. She nods her head and starts emptying the contents of her desk drawers. I watch her as she meticulously places each individual item like it’s an adult tetris.
As I stand there next to her, I notice the wandering eyes of the people around her. Five males so far, no females in sight. All have curiosity plastered on their faces. There is something about watching them that gives me joy knowing these assholes that made Amelia feel less than will find out in a few short weeks that their future is held in the palm of her hands.
Amelia makes quick work of packing her desk. “Will you wait here for me while I give Charles my resignation letter?”
I nod.
She closes the lid of her box and takes the sheet of paper that she had requested Randy print out for her this morning. She stops at a door I’m assuming belongs to Charles’ office, squaring her shoulders once again before walking in and closing the door behind her.
I scroll through the mountain of emails on my phone I’ve been avoiding since I left the office Friday afternoon while I wait for her to finish her conversation with Charles. A few clients requesting advice on this and that but one email in particular stands out to me that immediately makes my blood boil.
To: Riley Anderson
Sender: Anderson & Anderson Law
Subject: Celebration for Phillip Anderson
Message: We here at Anderson & Anderson Law pride ourselves on being a family company. We would like to invite you to jo in us in celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Phillip Anderson to Cecilia Vancent on the tenth of June for an engagement party at Waverly Place at six p.m. Please feel free to bring your significant other to partake in the festivities.
Vincent Anderson - C.E.O.
Anderson & Anderson Law
The pressure I use to close the app should’ve been enough to break the screen.
I’m assuming he sent it to all the Senior Partners at the firm as a courtesy, but he could’ve had the decency to keep me off of this particular email. It shouldn’t surprise me with how little shits he gave about me regarding this situation but I still feel the knife to my back twist just a little deeper than it already has.
I push all thoughts of Phil and Cecelia aside when I hear the door to Charles’ office open and see Amelia walk out stone face. I grab the box of her belongings from her desk as she nears me.
“Ready?” I ask, attempting to hide the gut wrenching fury brewing in my chest.
“Mmhm.” She mumbles between tight lips.
We walk to the elevator and pass two men no older than me entering the office. They wear khaki pants, a plaid button down, and one had a gray zip up vest, the other green. If I had to guess, I would say one of them is named Chad by the looks of their appearances alone. As they pass, I overhear one of them let out a sinister chuckle as the one in the green vest mumbles under his breath, “ look who finally realized they couldn’t cut it .”
Without thinking I drop the box on a nearby desk before turning around. “I dare you to repeat that.” I demand in a low threatening voice.
The two men turn around with a surprised look on their faces. The man with the gray vest speaks first, “nothing man.” While the other says, “let's go. We don’t even fucking know this guy.”
“I said, repeat that.” I tower over the two men. I refuse to be a witness from the sidelines while anyone disrespects Amelia. “If you have the audacity to say what you just did, then you should have the balls to man up and say it again loud enough for the intended recipient to hear.”
The timid one, clearly the sheep, responds first. “Greg didn’t mean anything by it, man. It was just a joke.”
“Fuck off asshole.” The man with the green vest attempts to rise to his tallest height but still comes in shorter than me by at least five inches.
Amelia grabs my arm. “It’s ok Riley. Let's just go home.” She pleads. Her attempt at avoiding a scene.
Knowing she would hate the idea of me pummeling this piece of shit right now is the only thing stopping me from letting out my frustration with a fist to his face. “I hope I’m here to see the look on your face the day you realize what a fucking mistake it was to say what you just did about this woman.” I turn away from the now red faced man, grab the box I had just placed down, and walk back towards the elevator with Amelia.
“You didn’t have to say anything you know.”
“They had no right to say anything.”
Amelia will always be the better person. The bigger person. As much as I want to praise her for her ability to listen to that shit and walk away, I would’ve much preferred to beat the shit out of them for her. I’m hoping that once she feels comfortable in her new role, she’ll be empowered to never cower to another person and draw a line in the sand wi th what she’s willing to put up with.
“I told you. It’s a boys club. I’m used to it.” Amelia doesn’t make eye contact with me knowing this infuriates me to no end. “I can’t control what they want to say about me but I can control how I react to it. And I choose not to react.” She says stoically.
I take a calming breath. “The true definition of grace, Princess.”
I throw my jacket over the back of the couch as I reach the bar cart to pour myself a drink. I don’t really give a shit that it’s barely noon on a Monday. It took everything in me to keep a smile on my face for Amelia but the email from my father bore a hole in the back of my mind the entire time.
We here at Anderson & Anderson Law pride ourselves on being a family company.
What a fucking joke.
I technically am family and yet they’re treating it like they didn’t just all stab me in the back by not only accepting this relationship publicly, but also callously celebrating it like it’s the match of the century.
All I wanted today was to support Amelia quitting her job and be there for her after she met with Emily regarding her next steps to taking over the company. I was present for the first part of the day but I need to get my shit together, mentally, if I’ll be seeing her later tonight. She has enough on her plate. The last thing she needs to do is comfort me and help me wade through the shit I’m going through. Which she would do regardless of her day if she knew about the email.
Hence why I’m home downing a drink like doing so will wash away my annoyance. I have another five hours before Amelia said she’d be done with Emily. We made plans to meet back at her place. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of the day with her. Being around her is the only thing these days that keeps me from letting the anger of betrayal consume me.
Being alone for the next five hours will allow me the time to wallow in whatever bullshit self pity I'm willing to feel before I shove it all under the rug. She needs me to be there for her even if she doesn’t say it. Something she will never admit but I’ll be damned if I let down the one person that I care about.
Amelia’s ears must have been ringing at the thought of her because my phone vibrates with a message from her.
Amelia
Bad News Bears.
Riley
This’ll be good.
Amelia
Dad’s home from the hospital.
Riley
A normal person would assume that’s a good thing.
Amelia
He wants to have a family dinner tonight.
Amelia
Where you’re the guest of honor.
I look down at the drink in my hand. There goes my plan of drinking myself to oblivion for the next few hours.
Amelia
You can say no if you want.
Riley
No one says no to being the guest of honor. ??
Amelia
Fine. It’s your funeral.
If I’m going to be meeting Amelia’s dad tonight, I sure as hell won't be drunk for it. I finish my glass and place the lid back on the decanter. Since my plans have changed so drastically I figure instead of drinking away my frustrations, I’ll hit the gym instead.