and I couldn’t blame him at all for getting distracted.
“Mr. Mitchell has requested that you meet with him in his office,” she said. “I believe you know your way to the executive elevators.”
I eyed Alyssa’s smile and refrained from the one I was about to display. “Yes,” I answered. “I’ll be back as soon.”
“Get it, girl,” Amir whispered, Jim being the constant topic of conversation between all three of us at lunch. I never blamed them for their curiosity. I’d want to know more about the elusive man who ran the company if I were lunch pals with his girlfriend too.
I rode the elevator up to the top floors, the elevator that reminded me of Jim and me nearly going for it, and I got an exciting swirl in my stomach, knowing I was going to see him. Who the hell knew what he was up to, but I wasn’t going to complain. Maybe this was a new effort to see each other during the workweek? Perhaps he was going to make good on his funny little promises of wanting to fuck me in his office after he uninstalled the cameras in them?
“I’m here for Mr. Mitchell,” I said to Summer, Jim’s secretary and Alex’s girl. She was intently typing before she looked up at me and then stood.
“Follow me,” she said.
I trailed her into Jim’s office as she announced me, and then she quickly rushed past me again, closing the door behind her.
I almost said a joke about her leaving like something was on fire, but as soon as I locked eyes with Jim, sitting behind his imposing desk, his icy glare sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
“Jim?” I questioned.
“Avery,” he answered, his voice low and emotionless.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Since the debacle of the preschool situation, I had the company perform background investigations on all departments,” he started.
Oh, no. Not this. Oh, my God. My heart was pounding so hard that I was surprised I could still hear him speaking.
“The reports of those employees who did not pass the background checks made it to my desk today,” he finished.
I felt my stomach drop. I’d never thought that I had anything to hide from this man—and never did so intentionally, per se—but the shame that flooded through me at what I knew he’d seen was paralyzing me.
“I suppose I’m here because of that.”
“Yes,” Jim said, coldly. “Among learning why you’re not eligible to work at this company,” he sat back in his chair, “I’ve also discovered why I’ve looked like the asshole in our relationship for this entire last month.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I snapped back.
“It means that after discovering the reasons you failed background, I also found out that you’ve withheld pretty serious information from me. Information that leads me to believe these are the reasons you are so defensive of your ex and completely argumentative when I’ve asked you on numerous occasions to open up and explain why you feared taking him to court.” He cocked his head to the side, “I guess I was the fool in this relationship this whole time.”
“You…” I paused, my defenses shooting up around me, and my heart pounding with rage at his accusatory demeanor. “Jim, you were never the fool,” I tried not to shout. “That shit is in my past. I should have—”
“Past or not, Avery, you brought it to the present, and you keep it with you. You won’t fight for your daughter because of this?” He glanced down at the paper that I knew revealed my messed up past to him: the felony DUIs, possession of controlled substances, and God knew what else between all of the charges that had actually stuck and the ones that’d been thrown out or expunged over the years. It was all the horrible shit that’d stained my life, and that I had moved on from years ago, and it was sitting on his desk. “You made me out to be the sucker in all of this, knowing these were the reasons you won’t protect your daughter from that man. You listened to me go on and on about my mother for months, and you never said a word.”
“I have my own reasons for that. It was never your place to tell me how to take care of my daughter in the first place.”
“I won’t listen to you, standing there and trying to spin this into being my fault. You have proven that you have no respect for