19. Lucy
LUCY
L ucy was worried.
Elliot had run off to Chicago without a backward glance, which she’d understood.
Obviously, he needed to do what it took to keep his company afloat, and she’d suggested herself that he should go back and check on things.
No, her worries sprung from the fact that, since he’d left for Chicago almost a week ago, she’d barely heard from Elliot beyond brief texts letting her know that he was all right and that work was piling up. He was still in Chicago now.
Lucy spent her weekend doing a little work in her apartment and catching up with her roommates, who she hadn’t spent a lot of time with over the last few weeks.
She watched a movie on Sunday night and went to bed early.
Carrying Borderless herself the past week had been a struggle, though she felt she’d risen to the challenge.
Monday morning, Lucy was in the office bright and early as usual after a brisk swim session in the local pool. She rode the elevator up with Gabriel, her friend and colleague in the HR department.
“You’re in early today.” She smiled at him as she pressed the button for their floor.
“There’s lots to do today.” Gabriel smiled at her. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“Oh, thank you.” Lucy beamed. “Our campaign has been a success, at least so far.”
“Your campaign?” Gabriel’s brow furrowed. “No, I was talking about the CEO job.”
Lucy was momentarily confused. After all, she’d been CEO, alongside Elliot, for more than a month now, and she’d met Gabriel plenty of times since then. He could have, and had, congratulated her on any number of occasions.
“It’s all right.” Gabriel smiled. “I know we aren’t supposed to know yet, but I’m processing Elliot’s exit paperwork this morning, so I know you’ll be taking over as sole CEO soon. And I know you’ll do a fantastic job. No more sharing the office, right?”
The bell dinged, signaling their arrival on their floor, and Gabriel got out.
Lucy followed, shellshocked. He must have gotten some incorrect information from someone, because there was no way that Elliot would quit the job they both loved without at least talking to her first. Plus, he was still in Chicago, as far as she knew.
Lucy hurried down the hall to her office. As soon as she opened the door, the worry in her heart eased. Elliot was sitting at his desk, typing away on his computer. He smiled when she came in and shut the door behind her.
“You’re back!” Lucy said.
“I’m back.” Elliot got to his feet, circled the desk, and gave her a tight hug. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Lucy hugged him in return before gently extricating herself. “When did you get back?”
“Not long ago,” Elliot said vaguely. “I wanted to surprise you by being here this morning.”
“Well, it’s a pleasant surprise indeed.” Lucy smiled, though she still felt confused about the interaction she’d had with Gabriel in the elevator. There was no time like the present to clear it up. “Something strange just happened.”
“What was it?” Elliot led her to the small couch at the side of their office, where they both sat, angled towards each other.
“Well, someone from HR mentioned that he was processing your exit paperwork and congratulated me on the new CEO job.” Lucy laughed, but it sounded thin even to her ears. “That’s ridiculous, right? It must be some sort of rumor.”
Instead of laughing, rolling his eyes, or telling her that it was all just gossip, though, Elliot winced. Immediately, Lucy’s blood turned cold.
“This isn’t how I wanted you to find out,” he said in a low voice.
“So it’s true.” The ice spread through Lucy’s veins as she stood. She couldn’t quite look at Elliot. “Are you really leaving?”
“Yes, but not for two weeks.” Elliot held his voice steady.
“Oh. Great!” Lucy gave a strained laugh. “Well, that’s fine then. You quit this job without talking to me, a job Dominic wanted us to do together, but at least you won’t actually leave for two whole weeks. ”
“I know this isn’t ideal.” Elliot stood and reached for Lucy before seeming to think better of it and changing the motion to a sweep of his hand through his hair.
“But the truth is that as much as I’ve enjoyed being here in New York with you, it just isn’t sustainable.
I can’t run two companies at once, and my home is in Chicago.
I know you’ll do a fantastic job with Borderless on your own.
You’ve already been running the company solo for a week.
That’s why I spoke to the board about selling my shares and giving my notice. ”
So, he’d also talked to the board. It seemed that everyone had known about his plans before Lucy did.
“Wow.” Lucy could barely speak. Her heart ached, tears burned in her eyes, and her throat felt sore from holding back tears. “I can’t believe you’d do this.”
“You have to understand.” Elliot crossed his arms. “I have a life back in Chicago. My own life. My own company. It’s all been on pause for weeks, and I can’t go back and forth like this forever.”
“And you never considered choosing Borderless?” Lucy asked. “Dominic asked you to be a CEO here. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“I know I’m leaving the company in good hands,” Elliot said simply. “Yours. And Dominic wouldn’t have wanted me to give up everything in Chicago. He would have wanted us to have our own lives!”
He wouldn’t have wanted us to be together was the unspoken ending to that sentence. Lucy knew it was true, but that didn’t mean that this hurt any less.
“So, you’re going back to Chicago?” she asked, furious. “You’re done here?”
“I’ll still be available to offer advice,” Elliot said. “Any time. That’s probably what Dominic intended anyway — for me to help you but for you to run Borderless yourself. You can do this on your own. You don’t need me. And I need to be in Chicago, not goofing off here.”
That made things clearer, too. Elliot wasn’t just backing out of his CEO position.
He was backing out of their relationship, too.
Otherwise, he would have talked to her before doing this.
He would have let her know what he was thinking before moving back to Chicago.
He would have said that he would still prioritize their relationship, even if he wasn’t working for Borderless anymore.
He hadn’t said any of those things.
Lucy’s heart ached. It was true that they’d never talked about exactly how long this second chance would last, but it seemed it had reached its natural expiration date.
“You should go, then.” Her voice sounded hollow. She turned away from Elliot to look out the window. “No need to give two weeks’ notice. I can run this place fine on my own, just like you said.”
“I’ll still take the two weeks,” Elliot said. “I wouldn’t want you to feel like I’m walking out on you.”
But he was walking out on her.
“No, you made the decision to leave on your own, so I’m making this decision on my own.” She whirled back to him, hands on hips. “You don’t want to be here anymore? Fine. I don’t want you here, either.”
Elliot’s brows narrowed. “All right, then. If that’s how you feel, I’ll be on a plane tonight.
It was a pleasure working with you.” The last words sounded so professional that they made Lucy’s heart ache all the more.
They’d talked about taking a trip to Europe together, about how happy they were to have a second chance.
But as soon as Elliot’s company had run into trouble, he was ready to give all that up.
He was ready to give her up. Maybe that was all this had ever been to him: business.
“It was nice knowing you,” Lucy replied, fury dripping from every syllable. “And don’t bother about the advice, either.” They looked at each other for a long moment, then Elliot got up.
“No point dragging this out. I guess I’ll see you around.
” He grabbed his bag and left. His computer was still open on his desk, and he clearly hadn’t done any exit procedures.
Lucy waited until she was sure he was gone, then locked the door and sank onto her chair, tears spilling from her eyes.
That was it, then. Whatever they’d once shared was now over.
Part of Lucy wanted to run after Elliot and ask what he’d been thinking, but it was clear that he hadn’t been thinking about her. He cared only about his company. What they’d shared over the last few weeks had been a bonus, perhaps, but not enough that he would change any of his decisions.
She was truly alone now.
The tears that had threatened spilled down her cheeks in twin rivers.
In the last few weeks, she’d found Elliot again, and she’d lost him.
Again. Lucy had thought that the rich, entitled jerk Elliot had seemed like the first few weeks had been nothing more than a cover for the romantic, goofy, smart man he really was, but maybe it had been the other way around.
Maybe the rich jerk was who Elliot really was.
Some small part of Lucy worried that she’d made a mistake by not pushing Elliot to explain his actions.
But the bigger part knew that Elliot had had plenty of chances.
He could have told her what he was thinking about before he decided to sell his shares and step down.
He could have taken her aside and explained himself.
Even now, when Lucy had confronted him, he could have taken the time to tell her that he still cared about her.
Yet he hadn’t. And the fact that he hadn’t made it clear that he didn’t care about Lucy, not even enough to give her an explanation.
Not even enough to tell her he was leaving himself.
So, that was it. Lucy dried her tears and checked her reflection in her phone camera.
Her eyes were a little red, but that could easily be explained by a night of poor sleep.
She could do this — for Dominic. She reopened her office door.
Next, she called Gabriel in and asked him to help her remove her desk from the office they’d shared.
There was no use in keeping it around. She could use her brother’s desk, the one Elliot had commandeered on that first day, the one she should have had from the start.
Lucy packed up Elliot’s things, from his pictures to his fancy pen to his stapler.
There were a few items Lucy wasn’t sure were his, but she tossed them in the box anyway.
It was better to make sure that every trace of him was gone than to stumble across his things later.
Finally, she sat down at Dominic’s desk, her desk now, and got to work.
She was carrying her brother’s company from here on out, and she needed to do her best to live up to his legacy.
There was no time to cry over a man she’d already lost more than ten years ago.
It was beyond time she let Elliot go.