Page 25 of Love Marks
I drop the phone, hanging up. How do I salvage this? Maybe I can convince him I was talking about someone else. Some other guy whose floors I also happen to scrub. He’s staring right at me, his smirk fading into a glare as he watches the wheels spinning in my head. I land on apologizing.
“I am so sorry.”
“What did I say about personal calls on the clock? Talk shit about me on your own time. In your own home, preferably, instead of mine.”
“I wasn’t…I mean—”
“I could fire you. I already warned you once. Besides, I’m an ‘asshole’, right? That’s what ‘heartless assholes’ do — they fire people.”
My heart lurches. I can’t lose this job. I really can’t. I think of the stack of medical bills waiting on my counter at home.
“Please don’t.”
I bark the bitter words out, hating the way they taste. The words are pleading but my tone is hard, almost angry. His eyes snap up to mine as he switches tactics.
“Well, now’s your chance. Right to my face, you can tell me what you really think about me, hmm? Come on. Let’s hear it.”
He’s baiting me and I can’t rise to it. He’s just trying to get me to say something worse so he can fire me. I hold my tongue, staring down at the floor. Rage burns within me. The angry words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“What’s your problem with me?”
It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop. He narrows his eyes at me.
“Excuse me?”
I think he’s as surprised as I am that I spoke up, but I’m already too deep in this to stop now. “Ever since I met you, you’ve been completely rude to me. What did I ever do to you?”
My words are steady as I try not to betray my emotions, but my anger burns stronger than ever. We’re crossing the point of no return and I can’t find it within myself to care. I know I should stop pushing and just let this go, but I can’t.
“Seriously. What’s your problem? Why did you hire me if you’re just going to treat me like shit?”
He looks me dead in the eye, his chest heaving with an anger that matches mine.
“Oh, I don’t know, it could have something to do with you leaking the story that almost destroyed my family?”
Chapter 13
Wesley
“What?”
She rears back her head like she's absolutely shocked by my confession. Shocked. Why the hell should she look so surprised? She’s blinking back at me, her eyebrows bunched in confusion, but her face is still a mask of anger. She sputters for a while before she finally manages to speak.
“You knew who I was this whole time?"
Her chest heaves up and down in anger and I roll my eyes. It was almost satisfying to watch her mask of sweetness fall as she put her hands on her hips and demanded to know my problem with her. Standing in front of me with her jaw tight and her breath heavy, this is the Miss Taylor I’ve been waiting for.
“Of course. You think I'd forget the woman who almost single-handedly took down my family's legacy?”
She stares back up at me with those big, round eyes of hers, blinking in shock. I wish she'd say something — it's as if she's afraid to respond to my accusation.
“Why do you keep saying that?”
Is she serious right now?
“Do I need to refresh your memory?”
She still just stares back at me. I take her silence for a yes.