Chapter 12
Ellie, Six Weeks Later
It’s been six weeks since the day I cut off Cole. We still talk here and there and steal glances at each other while we are at work. We are in a meeting in the conference room when my phone buzzes on the table. I look down, and it is a text from Jason.
Jason: Ellie, I miss you. Can you call me later? I feel like we should talk about everything that happened.
My heart rate instantly increases, and I sit up straighter. It has been weeks, and now he wants to talk?
Ellie: Jason, any chance you had to talk to me left the moment I walked in and saw your dick inside another woman. Do not text me again.
I’m suddenly feeling hot and nauseous. I jump up and run out of the conference room, ignoring everyone watching me.
I barely make it to the bathroom in time.
I just finish puking when I hear the squeak of the door, thankful that the person didn’t come in while I was hurling.
I wipe the sweat off my face with my hands that I can and head toward the sink to wash up.
When I walk out of the stall, Cole is standing there.
My eyes go wide. “What are you doing in here?”
“I came to check on you. Are you OK? Do you need to lie down?”
“I’m fine. Something I ate just didn’t agree with me.”
“If you need to go home, it’s OK. Someone can take notes of the meeting and fill you in when you are feeling better again.”
“Cole, I’m fine. Can you just go, please?” I say as I start wetting a paper towel to wipe my face with.
“Fine. I’ll go. Just tell someone if you go home,” he says.
He finally leaves, and I continue cleaning myself up. Once I’m finished, I go to my office to give myself a few more minutes to calm down before I go back to the meeting. I pull out my phone, and I instantly regret it, as I have another message from Jason.
Jason: Ellie, please. Just give me a chance. I will come to New York if I have to. You gave up on us too soon. I miss you more than you even know.
Ellie: I didn’t give up on us, Jason. You did. If you wouldn’t have fucked her, I would probably still be there. This is your fault. Now LEAVE ME ALONE!
I feel like I am going to puke again. I pull the wastebasket to my side just to be safe. A few minutes later, there is a knock on my door.
“Come in,” I say, praying it isn’t Cole again.
Renee walks in. “Hey, Mr. Simmons wanted me to come check on you.”
“Of course he did,” I say with a roll of my eyes.
“You really don’t look so good, Ellie. Are you sure you don’t want to go home?”
“My ex is texting me, I think it’s stress or nerves or something. Tell Cole I am fine, and I’ll be back in a few minutes. I just needed to get away from everyone for a bit.”
“Do you want me to bring you anything?”
“Actually, yes, a water would be great. Thank you, Renee.”
She leaves and comes back in and hands me the water, and I chug the entire thing.
“I think the meeting is almost over, do you want me to grab your stuff for you, so you don’t need to go back in there?”
“That would be amazing. Thank you so much, Renee.”
“It’s no problem at all,” she replies before leaving. I remain at my desk, trying to calm myself so I don’t throw up again.
Cole
It’s been six agonizing weeks since Ellie and I last hung out, and I am struggling.
The work-related conversations and stolen glances with her are not enough for me.
I still don’t know what I did wrong that day to make her still not want to talk to me.
I’ve thought many times about trying to talk to her about it, but I don’t know that I can take any more rejection from her.
We are in the middle of a meeting in the conference room. I don’t even know what has been said in the last twenty minutes, because I’ve been too busy staring at Ellie the whole time. Suddenly, Ellie looks down at her phone, she goes ghostly white, and then she starts texting angrily.
Next thing I know, she is up and running out of the room.
Everyone watches her as she goes and then looks from one person to the next.
What the hell just happened? “Continue, I’ll be back shortly,” I say before I go check on her.
I thought she’d be in her office, but she isn’t.
Just as I walk by the women’s bathroom, I hear what I think is her, but I can’t tell.
I debate just going back to the meeting, but I decide to go in the bathroom to see if it is her.
After some words with Ellie in the bathroom, I walk back to the conference room feeling frustrated and let down that she just continues to push me away.
I walk into the room, and everyone stops what they are doing again.
“Let’s get this over with, Renee, would you mind helping Ellie?
” I say. She leaves, and we continue the meeting.
A few minutes later, we are about to wrap up when Renee comes back in.
She starts packing up Ellie’s belongings.
Sarah leans over and asks if Ellie is OK.
I try to eavesdrop, but it’s hard to hear over the person who is currently concluding the meeting.
I think I hear something about her ex, but I’m not certain.
Renee grabs up Ellie’s items and walks out.
What in the fuck is going on? She wouldn’t go back to her ex, would she? I really hope that’s not why she’s been pushing me away. I am going to have to talk to Renee so I can get some answers.
A couple of hours later, Ellie is roaming around the office. She appears a little better than she did when I last saw her. I call Renee to come into my office so I can try to get some information out of her.
“Hey, Mr. Simmons! You needed me for something?” she asks, coming in.
“Yes, you can have a seat if you’d like.”
“Uh, sure.”
“Is everything OK with Ellie?” I ask her, and her eyes widen slightly.
“Yeah, she’s much better now.”
“That’s good. Is there something going on that I should know about?”
“Mr. Simmons, I’m sorry, but it isn’t my place to discuss Ellie with you.
I think if she wanted you to know, she would tell you.
” Ouch. Renee has never talked to me like that before.
Now I am seriously wondering what I did to Ellie, that not only does she not want anything to do with me, but also Renee is giving me an attitude.
“I’m sorry, Renee. You are right. I apologize for trying to drag you into this.”
“It’s all right, but for what it’s worth, I will say this one thing. Just give her some space for a little while. She just needs some time to breathe and figure things out on her own.”
“I will. Thanks. Again, I’m sorry for bringing you into this.”
She smiles lightly and walks out of my office, and I just sit there. This woman has me so messed up.
I sigh as I walk out of my office to go home. I wish I could do something without ruining everything. I get off the elevator on the main floor, and Ellie is standing there talking to some man. Their conversation looks heated. Who the hell is this?
I stand off to the side where she can’t see me, but I can hear the conversation.
“Jason, I told you to leave me alone. I have nothing to say to you. Anything you had to say to me, you should have months ago.”
“El, I just miss you so much. Please, just talk to me for a few minutes. We can go grab a coffee or even have dinner. Please, I just want a little bit of your time to talk to you.”
“No. I have told you to leave me alone. Honestly, I don’t even know why you came here. I told you earlier that I do not want to talk to you.” So they aren’t back together. Is he the one who texted her during the meeting?
“You know what, Ellie, you are being fucking ridiculous.” He’s slowly raising his voice at her as he continues.
“I made one mistake, and you didn’t even give me a chance to try and correct it.
You just ran off on your own to live in this shithole of a city without me.
You didn’t even give my feelings a single thought.
I came here to try and show you I fucking care, and you are just being a heartless bitch.
” He’s yelling at this point, and I’m not going to let him talk to my girl like this.
I come around the corner. “Is there a problem here?”
“This doesn’t concern you, prick,” he says, getting in my face.
“Oh, but it does. This is my office, and that is my employee at whom you are yelling. Do we need to have you escorted out of the building?”
“Fuck! Fine. I’m leaving,” he says to me. “But this isn’t over, Ellie. We are not done.”
“No, you don’t talk to her anymore. You can deal with me. I’ll be contacting the company’s lawyer, and Ellie will be putting a restraining order out against you.”
“Who are you to say what she does?”
“He’s actually my boyfriend,” Ellie says from beside me.
“What?” the dick says, and I try to not look so surprised by her confession and be convincing to this asshole.
“Jason, this is my boyfriend. Cole. We started dating recently.”
“Oh, this is just great! You made a huge deal about the whore I was in bed with, and then you go and fuck your new boss!” Jason laughs out.
“Jason. Just leave. You have come and said what you needed to, caused a scene, and now insulted me. I don’t even understand why you are here after all this time has passed.
If you really cared like you say you do, you would have been here weeks ago.
I think I will be contacting that lawyer.
You need to leave. Now.” Fuck, she is amazing. Her standing up to him is hot as fuck.
“What the fuck ever. I knew this would be a waste of time. I never should have flown here,” he says, finally leaving.
Once he’s gone, she turns to me. “I’m sorry I had to do that. I just needed to get him out of here, and I thought that would work. I don’t know why he thought flying out here would suddenly change my mind or why he is even contacting me now after all this time.”
“It’s all right,” I say, smiling. “I’ll be your boyfriend anytime.” And then I wink at her.
“You are ridiculous,” she says, laughing. “I’m going to go home, it’s been a long day. Thank you for your help with him.”
“It’s really not a problem. I’ll see you later, Ellie Girl.”
She flashes me another one of her breathtaking smiles and then turns and walks off. I go home to my quiet house, wishing I knew a way to make her see how much I really care for her.