Chapter 27 Emilia
EMILIA
We were in the final hours of the reception and despite the drama of the lead-up, the day had been perfectly perfect. We’d made all of our happy couple’s dreams come true.
There were hiccups, of course. We couldn’t source another green suit with all the sensors, so Kristen couldn’t have her dance with her grandfather.
The bridal party had attempted a surprise viral dance that turned out to be more cringey than cute thanks to the X-rated lyrics and twerking.
The band had gotten Kristen and Carter’s first dance song wrong and they’d had to start over.
Twice. Not to mention, we were edging closer to the roller skating portion of the night, and based on how drunk everyone was I doubted it would end well.
At least the company required participants to wear helmets.
But Carter and Kristen were blissfully happy, and that was what really mattered.
Every lens was zoomed in on the glow of their joy, and for once, they didn’t seem to notice the cameras at all.
The only thing they seemed to see was each other, and I was pretty sure they hadn’t stopped holding hands for the past two hours.
Drew, for his part, had been the perfect host. Nothing escaped his notice, except for me.
It was like the man couldn’t even bring himself to glance in my direction, except when we were dealing with something work related.
Thankfully, the snafus on our end were minor.
One missing vegetarian meal that Chef quickly substituted and a dropped tray of champagne and we were basically flawless.
The night was almost over, which meant my time with Drew was speeding to an end.
My heart felt like it was filled with bricks. Thanks to my training I could manufacture a convincing smile, but it made me feel like I was wearing a mask.
Since everything was going smoothly for the moment I opted to hang out in a quiet corner, still as a statue until I was needed again. Nora drifted over to me wearing a worried expression.
“Home stretch,” she whispered in my ear.
She’d been rushing around all night snapping photos, but things were slowing down for her as well. She’d told me that after a while, all drunken dancefloor photos looked the same. She’d captured the moments that people would actually remember, so her work was basically done.
“You okay?” Nora asked me.
I nodded. She knew every detail about what had gone down the night before, which meant she’d been shooting the evil eye at Drew all night. “You?”
“Yeah, it’s going really well. Turns out there’s an editor from InStyle Magazine covering the wedding and she likes my stuff. She took my card and said that we need to talk about possible future projects.”
“Nora!” I grabbed her arm and squeezed it. “That’s amazing.”
“Something good from the wreckage,” she said. “And hey, this mess led to you getting a permanent gig here. Once we get past the collateral damage you’ll see that this turned out to be a good thing.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Yes, well, about that. I’ve been thinking.”
She nudged my shoulder with hers. “What do you mean? This job is a good thing. Think about the bank you’ll be making now—with a full load of benefits, too. Decent health insurance for the win, right?”
“True, but... Can we talk about this later? I have a lot to think about.” Nora agreed but she didn’t look happy about it.
I’d been trying to focus on the positives of the scenario. Stable work with a steady and predictable paycheck. And instead of needing to hustle for clients in a crowded market space, I would be able to rely on the resort’s star power to bring clients right to me. On paper, I was golden.
I glanced down at the ring on my finger. Nothing golden about that part of my life.
Nora jutted her chin to where Kristen and Carter were dancing in the middle of all of their friends. “How long do you give ‘em?”
Carter was spinning his bride around the floor, mouthing the words to “Crazy in Love,” and she was beaming at him. She’d changed into her third outfit of the night, which was a beaded white bandeau top and miniskirt that was a couple inches away from being a bathing suit.
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other, but by now I knew that it was more than just a physical connection.
Carter protectively elbowed anyone about to accidentally dance into her, and he always placed his hand on the small of her back when they were walking anywhere.
At one point he’d kicked off his shoes so she could wear them instead of going barefoot when she couldn’t take her heels anymore.
“I don’t know, those two just might make it,” I insisted.
“Right? I think so too. Carter is sort of a tool, but in a cute way, and I think his heart is in the right place. I heard he made a big production about tearing up the prenup and signing a new one.”
“He did. It was actually really sweet. And she’s incredible,” I added. “He’s definitely punching above his weight, but they make it work.”
Nora was scrolling through her photos. “Check this out. I couldn’t resist.”
She held out her fancy camera to show me a photo from earlier in the evening.
It was of me, standing at the edge of the dancefloor, and based on the way the glowy light was hitting me it was taken right as the baby fireworks were set off during the cake cutting.
I was wearing a genuine grin, because how could you not get caught up in the moment?
I zoomed in and spotted Drew off to the side in the image.
Instead of looking towards the flames like the rest of the guests he was watching me with an intense focus, like I was the only thing worth watching, despite the cartwheeling sparklers going off.
As always, Nora had managed to tell an entire story in a single image, using the lighting and composition to create a photo that looked like a Renaissance painting.
“Unresolved feelings much?” Nora asked pointedly.
“Please. He looks like he wants to murder me.”
“Hardly. More like he wants to eat you alive,” she insisted. “Either way, he’s not as checked out as you think. He might be trying to pull off indifference but this photo tells a different story.”
“It’s one photo,” I scoffed.
She yanked her camera back and scrolled through a series of images from around that moment, and all of them showed Drew staring at me. The entire time the sparklers were going off.
“Maybe he was mad because I okayed indoor pyrotechnics,” I said.
“You’re ridiculous.”
The DJ switched to a slow song and Kristen and Drew bumped close like they were magnetized.
“Aw, too cute,” Nora said. “I need to go grab that. See you at home?”
I nodded, trying to push down the unexpected emotions bubbling up inside of me. I’d heard “From This Moment On” played at dozens of weddings, so there was no reason to get teary as the joyful couple swayed. I was overworked and overtired, that was all.
The night wore on, the roller-skates came out, and to my shock, zero bones were broken.
A win all around. By the time Kristen changed into her final look of the night for the dash into their chauffeured Bentley, I was cooked.
All of the scaffolding that had been holding me up until this point seemed to collapse at the same moment.
I felt like I needed to take a year-long nap.
And now I had to face Drew, to give him back the ring and say goodbye to a stable paycheck and health insurance.
The drunken stragglers were doing their thing like at every wedding, screeching out their own music on the dancefloor while the servers tried to shut the place down. I looked for Drew and spotted him chatting with Carter’s father, no doubt fielding compliments over the picture-perfect event.
Mission accomplished. The Ashford was back on top.
I walked back to my office, which was conveniently nowhere near Drew’s. My plan was to grab an envelope, drop the ring in it and leave it in the resort’s main safe, so I wouldn’t have to deal with talking to him. I would email my resignation to HR.
There was nothing left to say.
I didn’t even bother flipping the light on.
My new office was an incredible upgrade from my home office, a light-filled place with a big glass desk that felt official, and important.
I ‘d been looking forward to truly claiming the space as my own. Except, of course, that wasn’t going to happen.
Not now. Even with him moving on to check on the other resorts, Drew Ashford was everywhere.
There was no way I could work here and be able to get past my Drew-baggage.
“Envelopes,” I muttered to myself as I fished through the drawers. The truth was I hadn’t spent much time in my office so I wasn’t sure where they might be hiding. The desk had been stocked by someone else, and I hadn’t reworked the organizational system yet. Not that I needed to now
The light switched on and I froze.
“There you are.”
It was the last person I wanted to see.
I nodded at Drew then went back to searching the drawers, because looking at his beautiful face hurt me. Even after working a seemingly endless day, Drew looked perfectly unruffled. How was it possible that his suit was crease-free?
“What are you looking for?” Drew asked.
“Nothing,” I sighed. I pulled the ring off for the second time in twenty four hours and held it out to him. “This is yours.”
Making him cross the room to come to me was a tiny flex, a power move even though we both knew that I didn’t really have any power in this situation. He didn’t move from the doorway, his expression as tense as I’d ever seen it.
“I told Ethan to release your new hire paperwork tonight. Have you received it?”
“I haven’t looked at my email,” I replied. “Sort of a busy night, and I don’t like to divert my attention from the main event.”
“What if you miss something important?”
Was he seriously pulling a boss move right now?
“If it’s time sensitive, most people know to call or text.” I couldn’t resist a little dig at his technophobe ways.
He frowned harder. The world’s tiniest victory.
I realized that I was still holding the ring.
My impulse to fling it at him was long gone.
The anger I’d felt last night had faded to sadness.
I hated coming to terms with the shift in my feelings.
Being furious with Drew felt way better than feeling depressed about what we’d lost. Anger made me want to make a Drew voodoo doll and shove a million pins in it.
Sadness would leave me curled up on the couch for a week or so.
He shuffled his feet. It was clear that he wasn’t going to come all the way into my office, like he was a vampire who hadn’t been invited past the threshold.
“Here.” I placed the ring on my desk.
We both stared at it.
If I was angry at anyone it was myself, because deep down I still hoped that Drew was going to come to his senses and do something brave and romantic to try to win me back. To show that he believed our love was worth fight for—worth putting in the effort for.
“I’m heading out tomorrow morning,” he said. “You obviously won’t be reporting to me from now on. Ethan can handle any of your questions.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got a few stops planned,” he said dismissively. “Shelby can also be a go-between if necessary.”
I nodded. He was leaving, ASAP. I was already in his rearview mirror. The realization ignited a prickle at the back of my nose but I refused to succumb to the tears. I definitely couldn’t stay here.
“I want to thank you for everything you did to make this event a success. You knew how critical it was, and you delivered,” he said.
Drew sounded painfully formal, and it stung to have those lines so clearly drawn, showing that we were nothing more than boss and subordinate.
But I code-switched as well, leaning into my role as obedient employee. “I’m glad it was a successful event.”
The ring was still sitting on my desk. I pointed at it. “Do you want me to put this in the safe, or …”
He shook his head. “No need. I’ll take it.”
Drew finally strode into the room and grabbed the ring, immediately depositing it in his blazer’s breast pocket without glancing at it.
He stood on the other side of my desk, staring downwards. Neither one of us saying anything.
I felt like there were so many unresolved issues between us.
Even though we’d started off faking it, I knew we both had allowed the relationship to go places we’d never expected.
I’d become a part of his real life. Drew’s family had welcomed me, and now I wanted to know more about what was going on between Candace and Oliver.
I wished I could go to Gwen’s upcoming baby shower.
I wanted to get to know little Noah better.
But it wasn’t going to happen.
Why hadn’t he stormed out of my office by now? He had the ring, and we’d discussed my new hire paperwork. There was nothing left to say.
There was no point in prolonging the agony, so if he wasn’t going to cut off the air flow, I would.
“I’m done,” I finally said as I put my laptop into my bag. “I’m leaving and I won’t be back. I’ll email HR in the morning. I’m too exhausted to do it now.”
“What? Why? You earned the job. If it’s the money, I can—”
“Stop right there. Even after everything, you still don’t understand.” I gathered the rest of my things and moved past him. I could hear his footsteps following behind me.
“Let’s talk about this. Emilia, what—”
“I think we’ve already said everything there is to say, don’t you think?” I said interrupting him.
Why the hell did I keep hoping for a cinematic moment? That clearly wasn’t in the cards.
I bobbed my head at the various colleagues I passed on my way out knowing that I probably wouldn’t see them again unless I had a client who wanted their wedding here.
Drew was still behind me as I walked out to the parking lot.
It was late enough that no one was milling around in the lobby or parking lot.
The night was clear, and the moon cast a blue glow on us.
I kept my distance from him since we were now nothing more than colleagues.
“Thank you again for your hard work,” Drew said.
“I’m glad it turned out okay,” I replied. I hoped I was hiding how raw I felt. Drew seemed to be perfectly fine with the end of our charade, so I could be too.
It was a lie, but I could fake it.
I turned to walk away, still hoping against hope that Drew would come to his senses and realize that he was making a mistake. I could feel him watching me, but I kept walking.
“Emilia.”
My heart started pounding like I’d just finished a sprint. I turned around slowly, hopeful but wary.
“Yes?”
The moment I saw his expression, my heart sank. He was stony-faced, as usual.
“Take care of Winston. And please give your grandfather my best.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, hoping the physical pain would short circuit the emotional ache.
“Yup, got it.”
I walked away, grateful for the darkness as the tears finally spilled down my cheeks.