Chapter 21
They spent Saturday night and Sunday in bed at Emmy’s place, making up for lost time but also getting a feel for what it would
be like to have weekends at home together. Emmy had no regrets over their decision when she woke in his arms Sunday and then
spent the morning sipping coffee on the couch before they went back to bed. Gabe didn’t shave on weekends, which meant his
jaw became deliciously scruffy against all her most sensitive skin. As they lay in bed, she found herself tracing his lips
with her fingertips and feeling lucky to have his hands on her. By the time Sunday night rolled around, she nearly had to
pry herself from him like a barnacle.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said from her doorway and planted another goodbye kiss on her swollen lips.
She dreamily leaned against the doorframe both for support for her wobbling knees and because of exhaustion. “See you.”
They’d decided to spend the night separately and meet at the office before they went to HR to share their decision, agreeing
it was best to have some final space in case anyone changed their mind at the last minute.
But they weren’t going to change their minds. Emmy knew her mind was made up, and she could feel Gabe’s certainty in every
kiss, every touch, every whispered sigh.
It’s you.
On Monday morning, Emmy walked into the office feeling both nervous and sure, and like she stood on the precipice of something large and thrilling.
Gabe wasn’t at his desk yet—no one was, actually—so she ventured down the hall to see if she might find him in the kitchen.
On the way, she heard voices spilling from an open door. Familiar voices.
“...something I’ve been dreaming of for a long time. I’m so thankful for the opportunity,” Gabe said.
Emmy froze in her tracks. His voice leaked out from the director’s office door.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Mr.Olson,” Director Allen said. A pause passed that sent Emmy’s heart racing.
Why was Gabe talking to the director?
Director Allen’s voice came back a tad quieter, almost as if he was telling a secret. “And what about you and Ms.Jameson?”
Emmy stilled once more. Her breath stopped in her throat. She heard someone shuffle inside the office, and then Gabe’s voice
again.
“That won’t be a problem.”
“Excellent,” the director said. “Glad to hear it. Well, we can have you in your new office by the end of the day, if you’re
ready for it.”
“I am most certainly ready for it. Thank you, sir.”
“Of course, Mr.Olson. We’ll make the arrangements.”
More shuffling sounds came from the room, and Emmy imagined a handshake occurring over the top of the director’s busy desk.
She’d turned to stone by the time Gabe left the office. He found her standing in the middle of the hall on the verge of combustion
from a deadly cocktail of shock and rage.
“Emmy!” he said, and immediately flushed.
She stared up at him while thoughts crashed together in her mind. At the same time, her heart was breaking as realization
settled in.
Gabe stared back at her, cool gray polo, sculpted hair, handsome face, but all she saw was her own foolishness.
“What did you do?” she said hardly above a whisper. The earth was falling out beneath her all over again.
He didn’t need to answer because it was written all over his face.
Emmy scoffed in bitter resentment and shame. She gazed around the underground hall, the stone castle ruled by men that she toiled tirelessly inside of and saw it for what it was. A trap she’d walked straight into. And the man in front of her, the orchestrator of the biggest prank to date.
“ God , I’m so stupid,” she muttered and spun on her heel.
“Emmy, wait!” Gabe said, and followed her.
But she could hardly hear him. Her own humiliation deafened her to everything except the sound of her heart pounding in her
ears and her own mind screaming at her for being so naive.
“Emmy, hang on,” Gabe said. He caught up and gripped her upper arm.
She whirled on him, and something inside her snapped. Something that had been about to break for a long, long time but that she’d kept bending because she was flexible, a team player, the Only Girl who could always take a joke.
“You couldn’t stand it, could you?” she said. Her words slid out like venom. Gabe flinched, but she didn’t back down. She
shook her arm from his grip and poked a finger at his chest. “You couldn’t live knowing I’d beaten you, could you?
That I was chosen for something over you , so you went behind my back and took it .
And of course they gave it to you because that’s how things work around here.
This goddamned boys’ club I thought—foolishly—I’d finally become an equal in. ”
Emmy glanced sideways and saw Alice’s office door was shut but the light was on, shining from the crack underneath. Rage roiled
inside her that Gabe had skipped Alice, skipped HR, and gone straight to the director to take her job.
She smashed her hands to her face in shame. “I should have seen this coming. I should have known this was how it would end up.” She dropped her hands and glared at him. “I can’t believe I trusted you.” Her voice, which
had risen with all the emotions roiling inside her, cracked on the last word. The sound shot a bolt of pain across Gabe’s
face.
He hadn’t said anything to defend himself—because what was there to say after such a betrayal?—but he suddenly looked angry.
“Emmy—”
“No.” She cut him off with a raised hand. “You convinced me to agree to give up that job so you could swoop in and take it.
You really are Gabe Ruthless after all. First Mikey Walker and now me. I should have known. Turns out I’ve been the obtuse one this whole time.” She was fully crying now. Tears streamed down her face; her voice wobbled. A gush of
heartbroken truth rushed out of her before she could do anything to stop it. “You made me fall in love with you all for a
job.”
Whatever retort had been poised on his tongue disappeared as if he’d swallowed it. A look somewhere between shock and tortured
pain bloomed over his face. When he spoke, his words came out in a hot rush. “You’re in love with me?”
Emmy didn’t get the chance to respond because Alice’s office door swung open. Her confused face filled the gap. “What’s going
on out here?”
A pang of embarrassment hit Emmy. She wiped at her weeping eyes and tried to gain her composure. Alice looked between her
and Gabe in concern. “Nothing,” Emmy said. “I’m not feeling well and think I need to take a sick day.”
Alice eyed her like she didn’t buy it, but eventually nodded in approval. “Sure. Take what you need.”
“Thank you,” she managed in a steady voice. She shot Gabe one last hard glare before she turned around. She half expected
him to follow her, but the sound of Director Allen’s voice calling him back determined his next move.
“Mr.Olson, one more thing?” the director said from his doorway.
Emmy didn’t stop to see Gabe choose his new job over her because she knew without looking that that was what was happening behind her.
It took all her strength not to collapse on the concrete floor.
With every step forward, the fury inside her grew hotter and hotter, dampened only by the humiliation drowning her in waves.
She wanted to burn the stadium down with herself inside it.
“I’m such an idiot,” she muttered and gathered her bag from her desk. She needed to make it back home where she could collapse
without worry of judgment. Without anyone calling her hysterical or emotional or unhinged for bringing her personal issues
to work. But the line between personal and work had disappeared. They’d become one and the same, and she saw now what a mistake
that was. Letting Gabe close, handing her heart over to him so he could use it as a professional stepping stone, was her own
fault. She should have known better.
She’d made it all the way up the elevator and into the employee parking lot before her phone pinged.
Axe Murderer had texted her. A fresh wave of tears slammed into her at the sight of his name. Her better sense told her not
to read it, not to inflict any more pain on her shattered heart, but curiosity got the best of her. Because what could he
possibly have to say?
We need to talk.
Emmy realized with a swift kick of certainty she had nothing to say to Gabe. Not anymore. The absolute indignity of telling
him she was in love with him burned with a flame too hot to touch. There was no way she could face him, not even through her
screen. The mortification was a hundred times that of finding out his true identity that day in the park. She had to sever
the tie before it strangled her.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she deleted their thread and blocked his number. She gasped like she’d been punched
at such a significant move, but it had to be done. She dropped her phone into her bag and got in her car.
Later, Emmy was on the couch under a pile of blankets with cramps again and watching a Drag Race marathon like she really was having a sick day when her phone lit up with a notification that someone was buzzing at her door.
She squinted at the screen through eyes still puffy from crying and saw a familiar wave of dark hair.
Gabe leaned into the camera, chewing his lip and looking fraught.
She sat up on alert, surprised he’d come all the way to her apartment. No way was she going to let him in; she needed to maintain
the barrier she’d constructed by blocking his number. He’d emailed her a few hours ago but she’d deleted it without reading.
Now he was calling at her gate, and the idea of granting him entry felt traitorous to her own heart.
But he had come all this way. And he looked like hell.
Her single heartstring that remained intact vibrated like it had been plucked. In a moment of weakness, she tapped her phone
screen to answer his call. She remained silent on the receiving end.
Gabe all but dove on the camera. “Emmy? Hello? Are you there?”
Again, she remained silent.
He leaned in close like he might see her through the box. “Okay, I hope you can hear me. Sorry to show up, but you’re not
answering my calls or texts, so I assume you blocked my number. We need to talk. About this morning—”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
He jerked at the sudden sound of her voice. “Emmy, please—”
“Your actions have spoken loudly enough. All I have to say to you now is congrats, I guess. Good job on besting me in the
cruelest way possible. I mean really, it was genius. It might have all started out as a mistake with the phone numbers, but
once you knew it was me, you saw an opportunity, and you took it. You really are as ruthless as everyone says. Winning is
all that matters to you, I can see that now. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.” Her words faded out bitterly. The
embarrassed rage surged inside her again, and she regretted answering his call at all.
A long pause passed, filled only with the sound of her heart beating hard. Gabe blinked at the camera with a furrowed brow.
“Is that really what you think?” he eventually said.
She shrugged and then remembered he couldn’t see her. “The shoe fits, Olson.”
He looked down at the ground and put his hands on his hips. A sharp pain lanced Emmy’s heart, but the addition to the ache
already there hardly registered. He eventually nodded with a sigh. “Okay, Jameson,” he said in a defeated tone and then turned
away.
A gush of tears wetted Emmy’s eyes. She fought to tamp them down but quickly realized it was a losing battle.