"Would you even believe me if I told you I wasn't?"
He let his head drop between his hands, and for a brief moment, she felt sorry for him.
"I don't know, Emmy. I've been there before, and it didn't end well."
"Oh, and this has all the hallmarks of a happy ending, right? Well I'm sorry, Eric, but I for one don't want to pay with my livelihood for some really poor life choices I made. I knew it was crazy to get involved with you, but not that it was suicidal. And I don’t now what you think we’ve been doing but I have no idea what Afghanistan has to with any of this. If that’s why you decided to sell the building, you’ve fucked up on a monumental scale, and destroyed my business in the bargain. I urge you to reconsider, if it’s still possible.”
With that, Emmy got up and headed for the door, turning her back on him.
"And for what it's worth," she called over her shoulder before opening the door, "I didn't have sex with Jake or anyone else while you and I were together. I didn't want to — I thought we had something good going on. Just goes to show you're not the only delusional one."
She gave in to the temptation to slam the door and marched straight out to the elevators. It was only when she reached the pavement outside the building that she let go of the tension and had to steady herself against a streetlight. Standing in the pool of light, she took a few deep breaths, straightened her back, mentally strengthening her backbone with steel.
She wasn't going to let this bring her down. But God, she hated Eric Oswell.
Chapter Fourteen
The days that followed were bleak, as if all the fun had seeped out of Emmy's life from the moment she walked out of Eric's office, pursued by a black cloud of gloom. The shock of losing the store was a daily source of pain, and she wandered the aisles early in the morning and late evenings when it was quiet, looking mournfully at the shelves she’d designed, the walls she’d helped paint, all the decorative and structural changes she’d made to the empty rooms she’d walked in when she first got the lease. It was heartbreaking, all the more so as she came to terms with the knowledge that she’d been expecting Eric to backtrack as their romance grew. Now everything was gone.
So Emmy turned up at work every day, immersing herself in paperwork and accounts, dutifully reading through the ever-increasing pile of books by her bedside, but her heart was heavy and she often felt as though she wasn't really there. She'd tried talking about it, a little, but her ability to share had been damped down by her general depression. It wasn't that she was trying to hide anything, she was just too exhausted to explain it all, and she didn't want to think about any of it at this stage. So she went out a few times with Gina, Nat and Jake, together or separately, and she grimly played down the last confrontation with Eric. The news of the change of ownership had slammed any hope of further delays and negotiations.The bottom line was — it was over, he was a dick, it had all been a gigantic mistake, and they had to focus on what they could do to save the business, including finding new premises, stat.
To her immense surprise, it worked, although she knew her friends were humoring her, and would no doubt insist on digging things over later. Right now, though, they were leaving her be, and any relief, no matter how temporary, was welcome. The other piece of luck was that there had been minimal work disruption at the store, so far. Emmy expected it was only a matter of time before it all began, but any respite was better than none, especially in the run-up to the holidays, and it gave her space to plot countermeasures with her friends. Gina had already started a mailing list, and there were meetings planned before Christmas.
Jake was still crashing at her apartment, on the too-short living room couch, which he maintained was a vast improvement on the thin foam mats he had to sleep on in Afghanistan. She wasn't even sure why he was still here — he had a pad in the city, which he sublet when