Page 54 of Icebound Hearts
I let out a little whimper of embarrassment—although I’m not sure what part of this is the most humiliating—but I don’t even think about trying to stand up yet in case there’s more. Sawyer crouches behind me, stroking my shoulder gently, for several minutes until my stomach settles. He offers me a hand and helps me to my feet, then pours a glass of water and holds it out to me.
“I can’t. I’ll get sick again,” I whisper, pushing away the glass.
“You have to. I don’t want you getting dehydrated.”
He hands it to me again, and although I’d really rather not, I know he’s right. I take a few tentative sips, worried they’re going to come right back up, but thankfully they don’t.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his brows drawn together.
“Yeah. I mean, not great at the moment, but I’ll be fine. Thank you,” I say and set the glass down to reach for my toothbrush. On top of everything else I just did in front of him, I don’t want to embarrass myself even more by having vomit breath.
Sawyer stays with me until I’m finished, then walks me back to my bedroom and tucks me in again. But he doesn’t leave when I’m snuggled in. He just sits staring at me, his eyes smoldering with a question that he obviously wants to ask but doesn’t seem to know how.
“Was it just the alcohol that upset your stomach?”
I get the feeling that’s not the question he really wants to ask, and I bite my lip, glancing down at the floor.
“No, not just the alcohol. It didn’t help, obviously, but… what woke me up was a nightmare.”
His expression takes on an even more serious edge. “I thought so. You called out in your sleep. That’s what woke me up.”
I’d already figured that part out, but I bet the way I fumbled down the hall in search of the toilet was noisy too. Sawyer doesn’t take his eyes off me, staring at me expectantly, and I wrestle with how much of the dream I should tell him. But eventually, I decide I can’t dance around it forever, so I might as well just tear the bandage off and get it over with now.
“I dreamed about someone I used to know. Someone who… who hurt me.”
His jaw tenses as soon as the words leave my mouth. “Was it the guy you mentioned in the car last night on the way home? Elijah or something like that?”
It takes me a second to place what he’s talking about—most of the night is a fuzzy blur in my head—but I vaguely remember mentioning something to him about Elijah at some point. If Sawyer already knows his name, there’s no point in denying it, so I nod.
“What happened?” he asks, his voice tight.
I bite my lip, hesitating. It’s not that I don’t trust Sawyer, it’s more that I haven’t really talked to anyone at all about what happened with Elijah. And I’m not sure telling my new boss about the shit my old co-worker put me through is the best idea.
Sawyer puts his hand on mine through the covers. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but if you do, you know I won’t share anything you say.”
“Elijah and I used to work together at a marketing firm in Chicago,” I blurt suddenly, surprising myself. “A place called Affinity.”
I haven’t really talked about this with anyone, but there’s something about Sawyer that makes me feel safe. I believe him when he says he won’t share any of this with anyone, and as weird as it sounds, I can’t really think of someone I’d feel more comfortable talking to about it than him in the moment. Sawyer doesn’t say anything, just hanging on my every word with his eyes locked on mine, so I keep going.
“I was doing really well at the firm. Like,reallywell. My star was rising. Elijah was ambitious too, and we were kind of coming up together at the same time, so we became work friends. I thought he really supported and believed in me, and I believed in him too.”
“Until…?” Sawyer asks, his brows raised.
I sigh. “Elijah made a pass at me, and I turned him down. I wasn’t offended by it, and he was good looking and everything, but I just wasn’t into him that way. But he… didn’t take it well.”
Sawyer’s jaw tenses. “What does that mean?”
“Everything changed all of a sudden. He started sabotaging me at work, stealing my ideas and pitching them to the executive team as his own. Talking shit about me to our colleagues, trying to turn them against me. Doing everything he could to make my life miserable.”
He scowls, his gaze hard. “What a fucking asshole. Is that why you left the firm?”
I nod as my eyes start to sting and water. “Yes. He ruined a job that I used to love, and I started to dread going to work every morning. I still love marketing, but that place… seeing him every day… I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
“Jesus. I’m so sorry. That’s beyond fucked up.”
“That wasn’t even the worst part of it. Elijah had so much reach and influence around Chicago that after I quit working at Affinity Marketing, I couldn’t even get an interview at any of the other good firms in the city. He talked to his friends at othercompanies and spread rumors about me to get me blacklisted, just because I wouldn’t fuck him.”
“Jesus. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Chicago. Otherwise, I’d track this piece of shit down and beat the hell out of him,” Sawyer bites out.