The Design(63)

Done. There’s no going back.

By the time I made it back up to the twentieth floor after slipping the envelope into the building’s outgoing mail, I felt completely numb. I should have felt guilty, angry, sad, or at least somewhat regretful, but I couldn’t manage a single thing.

I stepped into the office to find Alan, Mark, and Peter at their desks, chatting amiably. I watched Peter peel his satchel over his head and hang it on the back of his chair as Mark silently took his seat.

They didn’t notice me at first, not until I was almost at my seat.

“Hey Cammie. I was wondering if you’d left your stuff here last night,” Peter said, pointing to my purse on my desk.

“Nah. I got here a few minutes ago and then ran down for some coffee.”

Peter glanced down to my hands, which were clearly not holding a cup of coffee.

“Drank it down there,” I explained, though I should have just shut my mouth.

Peter nodded slowly and Alan turned to inspect me.

“Morning,” I offered. He gave me a curt nod and took a seat.

I was the last one to sit down and as soon as my butt hit the chair, Alan began to drone on and on about the company’s design submission.

“We’re a little behind on our proposal and it needs to be in the mail by noon today,” Alan said, reaching into a desk drawer to pull out our design packet.

I hid a smug smile. I’d done all of the design work on my own and I’d still managed to get it done, yet as a group, we were behind.

“I want you each to set aside your morning work and focus on this. We need to have everything together by 11:30 am at the latest. They pick up the mail downstairs at noon and we don’t want to chance it.”

We all agreed, and then Alan doled out tasks to each of us. Mark and Peter were both given actual design work but he put me on letterhead duty.

“They want a summary of our submission. Just explain our design and give a general idea for the project,” Alan said, sweeping his hand to dismiss me to my work.

I opened my laptop and opened a blank word document. I was more than prepared to write our summary considering I’d just finished writing one for myself.

“And only go off of the things we discussed during our meetings. None of that other crap you tried to suggest,” Alan added with a clipped tone.

I clenched my fists to keep from saying anything too disrespectful.

Any small flame of regret that was burning inside of me was effectively squashed by his attitude.

“Sure thing, Alan.”

He glared at me from the corner of his eyes, but I was too busy typing bullshit to notice.





Chapter TwentySix





I obsessed about the message I’d heard on Grayson’s answering machine for the next twenty-four hours. I tried to convince myself I’d heard the wrong apartment name, the wrong apartment number, the wrong words altogether. I tried to convince myself it’d been part of an elaborate dream, but in the end, I knew what I’d heard, and I knew that Grayson and I had a relationship that was muddied with deceit and lies.

I tried to pin Grayson down on Tuesday so that we could talk, but his schedule was jam-packed with design meetings. At 10:30 am, he had a meeting with Mitch. That meeting overflowed into his 12:30 pm meeting with Serenity. I watched her pace back and forth in front of his office, expelling an exasperated huff every few minutes so that we’d all know just how much of her time he was wasting. Finally, at 1:00 pm, Grayson’s office door opened and I twisted my head to watch him say goodbye to Mitch and then turn to greet Serenity. He looked devastatingly handsome. His suit jacket was gone, probably hanging on the back of his chair. Everything else was quintessentially Grayson: shined shoes, cuffed shirt sleeves, gelled hair, straight tie, and killer smile. The killer smile was directed at me when he caught me staring up at him. My gut reaction was to smile back, and I did, before realizing how twisted our relationship had become in the last few days.

There was very little to smile about.

Did he have any idea that I’d broken into his office? Had I left anything out of place?

“Sorry for the wait,” Grayson said to Serenity. “I have about thirty minutes before I’ve got to run to a job site.”

“That’s fine.” She smiled. “You’ll approve these designs as you always do. I know exactly what you like,” she gushed. I rolled my eyes.

Grayson offered her a curt nod and then ushered her into his office, leaving the door slightly ajar. It was a thoughtful gesture, but I had too much on my mind to care that he was alone with Serenity.

“Cammie, I need you to stay late tonight. We’re behind on a few projects because of that design proposal,” Alan said, jarring my attention back to our table group.

“I can stay late too if you need it,” Peter offered, meeting my eye.

I gave him a small smile, inwardly cursing Alan to the pits of hell.

“Fine,” Alan agreed before picking up his phone and dialing out.

I stayed busy the rest of the day, nearly jumping out of my skin every time Grayson’s office door opened. Finally, around 3:00 pm, he bid farewell to Beatrice and left the office for a job site. My phone vibrated with a text message a few minutes later.



Grayson: Had to run down to Malibu for a meeting. I might stay overnight depending on how late it runs.