PRESENT
My fist clenches around the cup of coffee I haven’t taken a sip from, even though I’ve been clutching it harder than necessary, then I throw it in the rubbish bin.
Fuck.
Bloody fucking hell.
It’s been an hour since I fired Nicole, but the wildfire that’s erupting inside me isn’t close to dying out.
She just had to run her mouth about what never should’ve been spoken out loud. How the fuck did she even know all those details when my own mother, brother, and Astrid didn’t?
Everyone thinks I’m picky with food because I’m hard to please or that I’m being a dick on purpose.
Everyone looks at the surface.
Except for fucking Nicole. The previous queen bee and the resident evil of my childhood and teenage years.
It doesn’t make sense that she of all fucking people knows.
I’m tempted to go find her, grab her by the hair, and make her talk. I’m tempted to do a lot of things while grabbing her by the hair.
There was a tremble in her body when she stood in front of me, even while she didn’t cower away. Even when she met my malicious stare with a venomous one as if she was the wronged party in this.
As if she’s the fucking victim.
Maybe making her work for me was a mistake. Plotting revenge against her was also a mistake.
I expected to feel triumph for tormenting her and turning her life to hell, but that’s the last thing I’m feeling.
It’s, in fact, nonexistent.
In fact, it might be the exact opposite.
But I have the decency to trick my mind into thinking I’m relieved and should ride some unicorn to the sun.
Maybe burn in the process.
It’s what happened before, I got too close to the sun and it roasted me alive.
That’s the thing about the sun.
I could look at it all I want, could even spin in its orbit, but the moment I touch it, my only destiny is to burn.
The door to my office opens and I stare back to find Knox standing there wearing a stupid fucking grin.
“What?”
“Looks like I’m going to win the bet.”
My eyes track his movements as he rounds my desk and stands in front of me, facing the window. It must be my fucked-up mood and the need to fill it with anything that makes me swallow the bait. “What bet?”
“If you’d bothered to check the group chat today, you would’ve seen it.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I retrieve my phone and go to the group chat that I muted after they made me the joke.
After ignoring several of Ronan’s one-man show texts, in which he’s promptly ignored but carries on anyway, I stumble upon Knox’s text.
Knox: Who’s in the mood for a game?
Xander: Hell yeah.
Cole: I’m bored, so why not?
Aiden: Did someone say a game?
Knox: It’s more of a bet, actually. As everyone knows, our Dan the Man is traumatized by blondes because a bombshell who goes by the name of Nicole broke his heart. He says he’s keeping her as his assistant for revenge, but I was neither born yesterday nor am I blind. I see the sparks.
Levi: Are you going to keep your one-sided monologue going or is there a bet in there?
Knox: I was getting there, if you had some patience, twat. Now, where was I? Right. I bet ten thousand dollars that Daniel will cave to Nicole like a hooker for an old rich man.
Cole: Ten thousand pounds, not dollars.
Knox: Call.
Xander: Count me in.
Levi: I’ll raise you fifty thousand.
Aiden: Make it a hundred for me.
Xander: What? Why? Why are you and Levi raising? What did I miss?
Aiden: Your whole second year in school apparently, because Daniel used to watch Nicole like a kicked puppy who was crushing on the prettiest Chihuahua.
Knox: Did you just compare them to dogs?
Aiden: Your point is…
Xander: Explain the reason why you and Lev raised?
Levi: I know things, but no questions, please. I won’t answer until the bet is over.
Ronan: I’m here! Miss me, fuckers?
Cole: As much as the desert misses the sun.
Ronan: Stop it, you. Don’t make me blush.
Aiden: Astor, read Cole’s message again. Slowly this time.
Xander: *laughing out loud emoji*
Ronan: Wait a minute. It’s always sunny in the desert, so it doesn’t miss the sun.
Cole: Exactly.
Ronan: Fuck you, Nash. You’re not invited to my next party and the one after. Actually, you’re on a three-month ban and working your way up to a permanent ban.
Cole: Be right back. I’ll go cry in my pillow.
Knox: Focus, Ron. We’re now in at one hundred eighty thousand pounds for Daniel caving to Nicole and announcing their wedding soon. Are you in?
Ronan: Sure as fuck. Let’s round it up to two hundred.
Knox: Fantastic. If Daniel caves in a month’s time, he pays us. If he doesn’t, we pay him.
“Better start writing checks, Danny.” Knox grins when I finish reading.
“You’re the one who should pay me. I’ll start with your check.” My jaw clenches. “I fired her.”
“Nice try.”
“She’s fired, Knox. Sorry to take away your change, but I’ll gladly accept it.”
He narrows his eyes, then searches her empty office. “You really fired her?”
“Her three-week trial is over and I don’t wish to keep her as my assistant.”
Knox watches me weirdly, as if I pissed on his engagement picture that he recently had taken with the mafia princess.
It’s one step below how he looked at me when I made the mistake of suggesting she sleeps with me because I’m a better fuck.
I am, but nearly having my nose broken for it was not worth it.
This motherfucker might seem charming, but he’s a criminal defense attorney. You should never trust someone who not only likes to get their hands dirty, but also strives for it.
“You sorry cunt,” he lets out in a whisper laced with a small chuckle.
“Either say what you want or piss off.”
“You’re even angry about it. Fuck, I should’ve raised my bet and took more change from you.”
“Do you have a point you’re about to reach? Preferably in the next ten seconds, before I kick you.”
“Don’t you see it?” A smirk tilts his lips. “You’re so into her, you fired her so you wouldn’t have to suffer by seeing her every day. I could’ve slapped any label on you, my friend, but a coward twat was never one of them. Until today, naturally.”
“I fired her because she’s incompetent.”
“She’s the best assistant you’ve ever had. You know that, your few functioning neurons know that, and even your dick would know that, too, if you stopped fucking random brunettes and gave him what both of you truly want.”
Before I can summon my dick-ish remarks, my office door is opened with a force that slams it on its hinges.
Aspen appears on the threshold, her red hair resembling flames from Satan’s favorite lair. She crosses her arms and taps her shoe on the floor.
“What is this?” I stare between her and Knox. “Barging into Daniel’s office day?”
“You fired her?” she asks in a slow, menacing tone that she usually reserves for the actual devil of this firm, Kingsley.
“I’m sorry, who’s her?” I fake nonchalance.
“Adler. Nicole Adler, who you’ve been a dick to ever since she started working here.”
“I don’t remember inviting you to my employer-employee TED talk, Aspen.”
“And I don’t remember you having the type of small dick energy to actively ruin a woman’s chances at custody.”
I’m about to show her my actual dick size and risk a sexual harassment suit, but before I can go the crazy route, her words sink in.
My throat closes as if I’m sobering up. Or getting drunk. I can’t tell for sure.
“Nicole has a custody case?”
“Yes. In England.” Aspen taps her shoe more manically. “She didn’t want to tell you, because, in her words, “You hate her and would rather see her lose than help her,” but the least you could do is let her keep a steady fucking job. Now, she’ll be at a huge disadvantage in front of that abusive jerk.”
I want to hit the wall for very irrational reasons. Like why the fuck does Aspen know all this information about Nicole and I don’t?
Because you made it your mission to erase her from your life. How is that working for you, by the way?
I shoo away the voice that’s perched on my shoulder, even though I’m not sure if it’s a demon or an angel in disguise.
He probably figured out I only listen to a creature with two tiny horns and, therefore, decided to start an up-and-coming fashion house that imitates an obscure section in hell.
“I’m bringing her back as my second assistant and you will stay the hell away from her,” Aspen tells me. No, actually, she informs me, and I’m starting to realize why people find her insufferable. She’s the reason redheads are stereotyped as hellions who only ride the devil’s face.
“No you won’t,” I inform her right back, sounding calm and definitely not on the verge of throwing her and Knox out the window.
“Yes, I will. Stay out of my way or I’m calling a board meeting on your ass.”
“Kinda bold coming from someone who’s facing their own board meeting. Heard King is kicking you out soon, Aspen. Will my disciplinary shit happen before or after yours?”
“First of all, he’s not kicking me out, not unless he wants me to haunt his nightmares. Second of all, if you don’t let her be, I’ll make sure to bring you down with me, even if it’s the last thing I do.”
“That’s a good one.” Knox grins. “I wish I’d brought some popcorn.”
Aspen lifts her chin. “You have two choices, Daniel. Leave her alone or suffer. Which one will it be?”
“I choose the third.”
“There’s no third option.”
“There will be after you tell me the whole custody fiasco.”
“Why would I?”
I grind my teeth and catch Knox grinning in the background and throwing imaginary popcorn in his mouth.
An hour ago, I was contemplating burning my office and detaining myself for my foolish behavior.
An hour ago, I was burning with fire because she said she spent the night taking care of her lover whose name is Jay.
An hour ago, I felt no different than the teenage me who couldn’t stop looking at her as she sucked on those damn lollipops where no one could see.
And I hated it.
All of it.
Now, I also hate it as I say, “Because I’m possibly the only one who can help her.”
