“What the fuck, Audrey!”
I walk casually over to her and look her straight in the eye. “If you ever touch him again, I’ll rip your tongue out of your pretty little head.”
Audrey looks over at Nate. “This is who you want?”
“With every breath I take. Get the fuck out of our home, Audrey.”
The breath leaves me as I stare at him. Our home? He stares back at me, his jaw clenched, his gray eyes burning with need and love.
Audrey looks at us both and sneers at me. “At least I got you fired.”
“Get the fuck out, Audrey!” Nate yells and she jumps. She snatches up her purse and jacket and stomps moodily to the door, slamming it behind her.
I can’t move. I just feast on him with my eyes. He’s in his jeans and black t-shirt, showing off his beautiful tattoo. His hair is loose. His hands are in fists at his side and every muscle in his gorgeous body is tight.
“Are you really here?” he whispers.
“I’m here,” I whisper back.
“Why?”
Why?
I walk toward him and suddenly feel calm. This is where I’m supposed to be. But he still has some explaining to do.
“Because I’m done running.”
“Jules, what happened on Monday…”
“We’ll get to that. I have a question first.” His eyes narrow on mine.
“What is it?”
“Can I have my necklace back, please?”
Nate’s whole body sags as he sighs and closes his eyes in relief. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out the necklace. “I’ve been carrying it around for four days.”
He holds it out to me, but I shake my head and turn around. “Will you please fasten it?”
I pull my hair out of his way and he fastens the lovely silver heart pendant around my neck, but doesn’t touch me.
Not yet.
And that’s okay because once he starts I’m not going to let him stop and I need to hear what the fuck happened on Monday.
“Let’s sit.” He leads me to the sofa and we sit. I kick off my shoes and pull my legs up under me and turn to face him. He brings one leg up on the cushion and faces me too. We sit like this for a minute, just looking at each other, until I feel tears pool in my eyes.
“Don’t cry,” he whispers. “I can’t stand it when you cry.”
I shake my head and look down at my hands, then take a deep breath and look back up at him, the tears under control.
“I’m listening.”
“Where did you go?” he asks, his voice low and eyes fierce.
“I was at Will’s.”
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I’m getting there,” I respond.
“You’re done running, Julianne.” He clenches his eyes shut for a moment and then looks at me again, his eyes sad and filled with longing. “I can’t take it when you run away from me.”
“Nate, Monday was…”
“I know exactly what Monday was, and you would too if you’d have listened to me.”
“It hurt,” I whisper. “I needed you more Monday afternoon than I’ve ever needed anyone, and you weren’t there for me. You didn’t fight with me, for us. It made me feel insignificant and like everything we had was nothing.”
“I know, baby.” His voices softens and he reaches a hand out to run his knuckles down my cheek but I pull back out of reach. He flinches. “Jules.”
“Just tell me what happened.”
“You won’t let me touch you? Does that mean that you just want an explanation so you can leave for good?”
I swallow hard and look at his beautiful hands and shake my head slowly, but I can’t talk. Not yet.
“Monday was a clusterfuck, Julianne.” He pulls a hand down his face and suddenly looks very tired. “I was pulled into Vincent’s office as soon as I got to work. He told me that they’d received an anonymous phone call telling them that I’d been having an affair with you. He said that they didn’t have any proof, so at first I denied it.”
“Audrey.” I state and he nods.
“It was Audrey. She saw us at the market on Sunday.”
“How does she know about the no frat policy?” I ask, confused.
Nate sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I have a feeling she’s probably made it her business to look into most everything about me. She’s a nosy woman.”
“So it wasn’t Carly?” I’m so confused.
“No, but she was just a ticking time bomb too. After you asked about her in the meeting, Vincent had us do some checking into her computer and office. She had extensive notes on you, Jules. She’s the one who sent me that incomplete report in New York. Jenny admitted that she asked her to hit send on your computer after you called that day, and Carly set you up. She was trying to figure out a way to get you fired.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Who knows?” he shrugs and shakes his head. “To move up in the company faster, maybe she just didn’t like you, the possibilities are endless. When confronted, she denied it, but we had enough evidence to fire her.”
“So Carly’s gone too?”
“Yes.” He exhales deeply.
“What happened that morning?” I ask.
“Vincent told me that he was going to fire you whether I copped to it or not. He said he didn’t need proof, which is true. This is a no-fault state. They can fire anyone for any reason. So I called over to HR to have a representative present and I told them that yes, you and I are in a relationship.” He swallows and shakes his head.
“Then Vincent told me that he’d let you stay if I broke it off and transferred you to the New York office.”
I gasp and feel my eyes go wide.
“I told him to go to hell. I told him that I would stay on with the company if he offered you a severance package and cashed out your sick as well as your vacation time.”
“Nate, it wasn’t about the money…”
“I’m not finished, Julianne.”
Oh, that’s right, this is Nate.
“Alright.”
“Then I left his office and went to mine and starting making calls. At noon, I was asked to go to the conference room so Vincent could discuss some things with Luis and me about how we’ll handle the accounts with you gone.”
He looks me in the eye. “It was killing me. The thought of having to fire you, and planning how to divvy up your work was killing me.”