froze on the L train on the way over here, and I’m not going to do it again. I open the door just as a delivery person knocks.
“Are you Olive?” the man asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
He hands me a package, and I step back inside for a second to open it. I pull out the coat. It’s gorgeous. It’s Gucci. It’s expensive. I slip it on as a note falls to the floor. I pick it up and read it.
A coat fit for a boss. Prove to me that you are one.
—Sean
I smile at the note. He got me an expensive coat. A beautiful coat that costs three times what my rent is.
“How did you afford that coat?” Keri asks.
I frown as I look at her. “Sean.”
Keri blinks several times but doesn’t say anything.
I grab my phone and begin typing a message to Jamie. Now, more than anything, I need to know what Sean does. I have to know how I hate a man that I also kind of love. He’s taken care of me more in the last few hours, not even being near me, than Owen did the whole year we were dating.
I press Send and then walk out the door with Keri running behind me.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“To get my cat back and to make sure that Owen knows we are still broken up.”
11
Sean
Fuck, I’m hungover.
And tired.
No, exhausted.
I could sleep for another week straight and still not get enough sleep. I thought I’d feel better after spending the last forty-eight hours doing nothing but sleeping and drinking. But I was wrong. All it did was make me feel worse. I feel no more rested than I was when I left, and I haven’t gotten the images of Olive out of my head any more than I could before I left.
So, that’s why I’m taking some drastic measures. I can’t get Olive out of my head, and I’m not sure if abandoning her in my apartment and not calling her is going to be enough to really make her hate me. I’m going to tell Olive the truth about what I do for a living. That’s the only solution I’ve come up with. If I tell her what I do for a living, then she’ll hate me. And, if she hates me, she won’t want to fuck me again. Problem solved. I might even get lucky, and she might quit.
Then, I can focus on what I really came here to do. Run a successful real estate company and to see if I still have a shot with Jamie. And, if I don’t have a chance with her, then I need to learn to get over her.
I step foot inside the office and expect it to be bustling with people, as it usually is on a weekday. I’ve learned from my week here and from speaking with Jamie on the phone that Monday through Friday are the busiest office days while the weekends are the busiest days for the realtors to be doing open houses and showing houses to clients. And my role as the boss is to get people straightened out during the week so that they can do their best at selling the most houses over the weekend.
But I don’t expect what I see when I enter the office. I was expecting the office to be a bit chaotic on Monday morning after a busy weekend and since I wasn’t here over the weekend to ensure that everything was running smoothly. But what I see when I walk into the office is complete chaos. People are running around everywhere with no clue as to what they’re doing. Papers are flying and strewed all over desks in complete and utter disorganization. But that’s not what worries me. Disorganization, I can easily fix. What scares me is the look on everyone’s faces as they run around the office. Something’s not right.
“What’s going on?” I ask Jennifer, one of the realtors, as she walks by.
She stops and looks up at me with fear in her eyes. “It’s Monday?” she half-asks and half-says, but I know it’s not the truth.
I sigh and continue walking to my office. I need answers, and I know the only woman who is going to give me any sort of honest answer as to what the hell is going on is Olive. And, as much as I’d rather hide in my office all day and wait to talk to her until later, it doesn’t seem