Chapter 10
Randi
Randi had known that public criticism came with the job and that proposals were meant to be tested and questioned. She had seen it happen to others and had even participated in the critiques. Working as a team meant that sometimes things needed to be dismantled for the sake of something stronger.
But nothing, not the late nights or the quiet warnings she had given herself about working under someone like Chance, had prepared her for the surgical precision with which he took hers apart while refusing to even look at her.
It wasn’t just what he said. It was how easily and thoroughly he had said it. He sounded almost vindictive.
He had deliberately kept his gaze fixed anywhere but on her despite his usual style of maintaining eye contact that she had heard others complain of.
They considered it an act of intimidation that you’d better have your facts straight.
But right now, he acted as if acknowledging her existence required more effort than he was willing to give.
She just sat there at the table with her notes neatly arranged in front of her, her spine straight, and her expression composed through sheer force of will. Meanwhile inside, something twisted tighter and tighter with each clipped observation and no eye contact at all.
“The concept lacks vision.”
Even as she struggled to listen to other topics being discussed, those words haunted her thoughts.
The part that really made her shake her head at herself was that she hadn’t even argued.
Not because she couldn’t or because she didn’t have answers, or data, or a dozen ways to push back against his points and force the conversation into something more balanced.
But because the moment she opened her mouth, she knew it wouldn’t matter. Not when he was like this, so she stayed quiet.
That was the humiliation. Not just that he had undercut her in front of the entire team, but that he had reduced her to silence in a room where she had fought so hard to have a voice.
By the time the meeting adjourned, the air felt thick with the kind of polite discomfort that no one ever addressed directly.
Chairs shifted, papers were gathered, and her coworkers avoided eye contact just enough to pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Randi moved with them and collected her things with steady hands that didn’t quite match the unsteady rhythm of her thoughts.
She didn’t look at him. With absolute will power she refused to. She already knew what she would, or wouldn’t, find in his eyes.
She stepped away from the table and headed toward the door with some part of her hoping that he would call her back. Maybe apologize or at least explain. But there was not a peep as she walked across the room. That absence where acknowledgment told her everything she needed to know.
Something in her chest went still. Not soft or hurt. Just quiet and empty. But as she reached her desk, that emptiness hardened. He didn’t want her or even appreciate her, and she needed to protect herself. After all, wasn’t that why she was there?
She had not come all this way and carved out this fragile, hard-won independence for herself just to let it unravel over a man who couldn’t decide whether to pull her close or push her away.
It would just end with her packing her life back into boxes and retreating back to Stagholt with her pride in tatters and her sister asking questions she didn’t want to answer.
No. Absolutely not.
If Chance thought she was disposable and could switch between warmth and indifference without consequence, then he was about to learn exactly how wrong he was.
From now on, work only with no distractions like moments on lifts or laughter in splash zones or anything else that blurred the lines she had been stupid enough to let blur.
No expectations.
And definitely no more hope or traitorous wondering if the version of him she had seen, the one who steadied her without hesitation and laughed like he meant it, might actually be real. That version didn’t exist.
Or if it did, it wasn’t hers to find.
By the time she stepped out into the hallway, the decision had settled into place with a clarity that felt almost like relief, even if it still stung around the edges.
“Randi, hey.”
She stopped and sighed despite herself. She turned to find Josh, one of her coworkers, catching up to her. His expression was a mix of concern and the kind of barely restrained irritation that told her he had not enjoyed the meeting any more than she had.
“That was…” he started, then stopped and exhaled sharply as he scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “That was rough.”
She snorted in a way that might have been a laugh if it had carried any humor.
“Part of the process,” she said, the words automatic and the kind of thing she would have said yesterday without thinking.
Josh made a face.
“Yeah, no,” he said and shook his head. “There’s part of the process, and then there’s whatever that was. He didn’t have to go at you like that.”
Randi didn’t respond right away. Her grip tightening slightly on her notebook as the echo of Chance’s voice threatened to creep back in, unwelcome and persistent.
“He does that,” Josh continued with his tone edging into something more openly critical now that they were away from the boardroom. “Gets in his own head, forgets there are actual people attached to the work. Doesn’t make it okay.”
A flicker of something shifted in her chest at that.
Not enough to undo the hard line she had drawn for herself or enough to soften the resolve that had just taken root, but enough to take the sharpest edge off the moment.
It reminded her that the entire room hadn’t turned against her, that what had happened wasn’t invisible.
“That proposal was good,” he added, more firmly. “You know that, right?”
She met his gaze then and searched for any hint of obligation or empty reassurance. She found none, just straightforward sincerity that felt unexpectedly grounding.
“I know,” she said, and this time it wasn’t automatic.
“Good,” Josh replied and offered a small, crooked smile. “Because if you start doubting it, I’m going to have to give a very passionate slide presentation about how great you are and how Chance can be a total ass. And that would probably get me fired.”
That pulled a real laugh out of her, brief but genuine, the tension in her shoulders easing just a fraction.
“Noted,” she said.
They started walking again, slower now, the immediate aftermath of the meeting giving way to something quieter and more manageable. Randi still felt the anger and hurt at Chance’s callous behavior, but it no longer overwhelmed everything else.
She glanced at Josh, at the easy kindness in his expression and the lack of complication. He had shown interest when she was hired, but she had been too focused on success to pay him any attention. But now, maybe this is what she needed.
With Josh, there was the absence of anything that might pull the ground out from under her without warning. She felt something else slip into place alongside that hardened resolve.
She hadn’t dated at all since Stagholt, and maybe that needed to change. Josh was a nice guy and deserved to be treated the same way.
“Thanks,” she said after a moment, the word quieter but no less sincere. “Thank you for being so nice and worrying about me. Well, my feelings.”
Josh shrugged, easy as ever. “Anytime. It’s a pleasure to be able to worry about you, Ms. Matsen.”
She laughed. “That’s the worst pick up line ever.”
“It got you to laugh. I can come up with others if you promise to keep laughing.”
The subtle flirting kept the smile on her face. And as they turned the corner, Randi lifted her chin just a little higher.
“How do you feel about tacos?”
His eyes widened slightly at her innuendo. “I love tacos.”
“What do you say we go after work and eat until we can’t move?” Her heart gave her a little pang as she basically asked him out.
“Can we drink margaritas with them?”
She gave him a face. “We do have to work tomorrow. And if we drink as much tequila as we do eating tacos, we’ll have to pour ourselves into our offices.”
He chuckled. “Maybe just one or two.”
They agreed on a restaurant and where they would meet before he kissed her cheek. “Keep your head up. You’re doing great, even if Mr. CEO is too stupid to see that.”
She watched Josh walk down the hallway. Chance knew, but for some reason, he was afraid to admit it. She gave herself a kick. It wasn’t her problem anymore.
She turned to head to her own office with a smile on her face. It felt a little strange that she had been the one to ask him out, but there was life outside of work, and maybe it was time to explore that, one step at a time.
Even if a small, stubborn part of her still remembered the sound of Chance’s laughter and hated that it mattered at all.