Chapter 15 Jonathan
JONATHAN
“Still nothing … Did I do something wrong?” I ask myself as I walk into an empty office on Monday morning. I arrive early because sitting at home would surely drive me insane.
I’ve been texting Lizzy since last night, all the way until this morning, and she still hasn’t gotten back to me. She did let me know she made it home from her parents’ safely, but that was it.
I set my things in my office before walking around and getting the lights turned on and the heat turned up to keep everyone comfortable from the harsh wind outside.
I hit start on the coffee maker and check my phone one more time. Maybe I did do something wrong, and I didn’t catch on to it. After I fill my mug with fresh coffee, I find my way to my desk and fire up my computer.
Since I’m here, I might as well send out a few follow-up emails, confirming some of the meetings I have set up for the next week or so. It doesn’t take long for my employees to start filing in, and getting their morning started.
It’s nice to hear some other voices in here, other than my own. I immediately perk up in my chair when I see Lizzy dropping her bag off under her desk. She spots me and I wave subtly, but she only half smirks before dipping into the bathroom.
Something is definitely wrong … But what?
The rest of my morning is spent watching as Lizzy stays quietly at her desk, standoffish and seeming to avoid me as much as she can. She is keeping herself busy, which is great for work, but not for me.
When she looks up and sees me, her eyes immediately go back to her computer.
This is absolute torture, I think to myself, running my hand through my hair. If she is mad at me, then message received.
It’s nearing lunchtime and she’s barely said a word to me, let alone looked at me.
Thinking back to the weekend, I replay every detail I spent with her. Even when she was leaving, everything was perfect.
Did something happen with her parents? When I messaged her last night, she was short with her response when telling me she got home okay. I assumed she was just tired, and that’s understandable with everything we did, but this isn’t right.
I replay every moment in my head, hunting for the slip. Nothing. Unless it’s that dinner with her family. Maybe that’s it.
The not-knowing gnaws at me until I start inventing excuses to cross her desk—fake files, questions I already know the answers to—just to catch her eye.
Each time, I’m blocked. Phones ring, assistants hover, someone else barges in. And she… she keeps her face locked down, polite, unreachable.
By lunch, I’m done playing subtle. If she won’t give me a moment, I’ll take one. I buzz her in.
She appears in the doorway almost immediately, expression flat, hands clasped like she’s bracing herself. “I need you to run next door and grab the food I ordered,” I say, too casually. It’s a lie, and we both know it, but it’s the only way to pull her in without an audience.
I wait for the eye-roll, the sharp comeback—her usual spark. Instead, she just drops her gaze to the floor, nods once, and slips out, her heels clicking quick and sharp down the hall. The sound leaves a hollow echo in my chest.
She’s not herself. Everyone else in the office hums along as usual. Sherry, of all people, is the only one grinning more than usual, and half of those grins are pointed at Lizzy like knives.
By the time Lizzy returns, ten minutes later, I’m restless, my knee bouncing under the desk. She sets two bags down without meeting my eyes, already turning to bolt. “Hey,” I cut in, harsher than I mean. She freezes. “Not so fast. Some of this is yours. Close the door.”
Her hand hovers on the knob, the smallest hesitation. Then she lets it go and turns back. “Sit,” I add, softer this time, gesturing to the chair across from me. “We should talk.”
I’m not giving her an option. She needs to tell me what is going on before my head explodes. Even in the beginning of her working with me, she wasn’t this quiet and timid. I fear that she doesn’t want to be with me anymore.
While I would respect her decision, it would kill me inside. I’ve gotten to know the real Elizabeth, one that no one in this office knows. She’s funny, she’s warm … she’s everything I would have ever hoped for in a partner.
If she leaves me now, I’m afraid I’ll never find someone to fill the void she’d leave behind.
Lizzy sighs, shuts the door with a clenched jaw, and sits down in the seat across from me. To my surprise, as her eyes finally meet mine, they begin to well up with tears.
“Hey. Please don’t cry. What happened?” I’m immediately concerned because it must be bad to make her cry. “You seemed fine yesterday before leaving. Did something happen at your parents’ house?”
“I’m so sorry,” she begins and wipes a stray tear from her cheek. “I didn’t want to lose it, that’s why I’ve been keeping to myself today.” She steadies her breathing and continues. “Something did happen, but it wasn’t at my parents’ house.”
Curiously, I raise an eyebrow and give her my full attention. “Well, when I was waiting for a taxi outside your place, Sherry walked by.”
“Sherry Wilson? What was she doing over that way? Okay … and what happened?” I reply.
“I didn’t tell you this before, but she threatened me here at work last week.
The other day, when I slipped out of the conference room, I actually went to ask why she was giving me all these dirty looks, and now she is threatening to blackmail me.
She is mad that I’m working with you, and she thinks something is happening between us, even after I told her there isn’t. ”
Fury builds inside of me. Who the hell does Sherry think she is? I noticed all the looks, but I never thought she would go to these lengths just because of jealousy.
Lizzy continues, “But yesterday, she saw me outside of your place while I was waiting for a cab, and I insisted that I dropped off some papers for you, but she threatened me again. I think she’s crazy enough to do something, and I don’t know what to do. Should we just …”
“No,” I say, cutting her off. “We aren’t going to let her win. Nothing has ever happened between Sherry and me, so I don’t know why she is acting this way. I assumed she had a little crush with the way she acts around me, but I always ignore her.”
The room falls quiet as I rack my brain on what to do. I can’t allow Sherry to get away with threatening people in my company, let alone the woman that I’m … growing feelings for.
“Don’t worry about anything. I will take care of it,” I instruct, but her face goes from upset to scared.
“Please don’t do anything, Jon.” Her voice is steady but her hands give her away, fingers worrying the edge of her napkin until it’s a soft, frayed rope. “We’ve got clients to win before the deadline, and we can’t afford distractions. Besides… she wants to blackmail me, but she’s got nothing.”
She keeps her eyes down on the Caesar salad she hasn’t touched, like the croutons might suddenly rearrange into an escape plan.
Sherry’s thrown her off—not because she’s scared, but because all she wants is to do her job, and every week a new landmine appears. Including me.
A slow burn moves up my throat. Sherry’s games were always annoying; now they’re a line crossed. A line Lizzy’s too professional to name.
I force my jaw to unclench. “Okay,” I say at last, voice low. “You’re right. But if she does anything else, you tell me. No more handling this alone. What she’s doing isn’t just unethical. It’s mine to deal with, not yours.”
She exhales like she’s been holding her breath for hours. “Alright.”
The tension at the table loosens a notch. She picks at her salad, stabbing at a piece of lettuce, while I tear into my turkey club like it insulted me. She looks up once, catches me watching her, and a ghost of her smile appears—the one that could make me forget my own name.
I lean back in my chair, wiping my thumb across my lower lip, eyes still locked on hers. “So,” I murmur, “do you want to sleep over again tonight?”
Her fork stops mid-air. A flicker of heat crosses her face before she schools it. “Jon…”
“Say yes,” I say, almost a growl. “You know you want to.”
“I’d love to.” Her lips part on the words, then close as she spears another piece of salad, buying herself time. “But I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I don’t want to add fuel to the fire now that Sherry suspects something. We have to be careful.”
I let a slow smile curl at the corner of my mouth, watching her pulse hammer at the base of her throat. “Careful,” I echo, leaning just enough for her to feel my breath against her knuckles as she lowers the fork.
It grates, watching what should’ve been fire and thrill sour into dread for her—all because of one bitter woman with too much venom on her tongue.
I hate that Lizzy’s smile dims because of it. I hate that she’s forcing herself to say no when every part of me knows she wants yes.
And yet, I get it. For now.
Lunch drifts into silence. She eats little, then retreats to her desk, back straight, eyes glued to her screen as if sheer focus could keep the wolves at bay.
I stare through glass, pretending to work while the only thing on my mind is how badly I want her back in my arms… and how badly I want Sherry out of my company.
Lizzy wants me to wait. So I’ll wait.
But only until the deadline is met.
After that? The gloves come off. And Sherry will learn exactly what happens to people who threaten what’s mine.