Carter Reed(46)

“Oh yeah.” She brushed her hand back and smoothed her hair from her forehead. It only pulled more out of the ponytail. “Since Noah added Allison, this week has been hell. I meant to call you the other day and see if you wanted to meet at Joe’s for a drink after, but I never got time to do that. I haven’t had a chance to check my email. Can you believe that?” She groaned. “I know that once we finish this, I’ll have a week’s worth of email stuff to catch up. And that’s on top of everything we’re going to be doing after we present to the board.”

“Wait.” This wasn’t making sense. “Noah pulled me?”

“Noah pulled Mr. Worthless. He didn’t want your boss to get the credit so he added Allison and Harold instead. Talk about being ineffective. With you, we would’ve had a great week and had all this done by Monday. With her, I’ll be lucky to get it all done by the time we walk into that boardroom. I wish you were coming, trust me.”

“Oh.” That was unexpected. “I thought it was you that requested the switch.”

“Gosh no! I wish you were still on it. We could’ve been relaxing poolside with margaritas by now if you were on the project.” When the last piece of paper had been picked up, Theresa stood, smoothing out her skirt and her hair. More strands were pulled from her ponytail. “By the way, who was the hottie getting into that car with you?” She laughed, “Next thing I know, I’m returning from the bathroom and Noah’s says you got a ride home. Imagine my surprise when we leave later and there you are, holding hands with Mr. GQ himself.”

Mr. GQ himself? Did she really not know? “Uh,” I laughed. “It was kind of sudden.”

Theresa snorted as the elevator slid open. “You can say that again.” After she stepped out and saw that I remained, she caught the door. “Aren’t you coming?”

My exit was a floor down. “I forgot something by the lobby. I’ll see you next week.”

“Oh. Okay. See you! Let’s have wine when I get back!”

When the doors closed behind her, I was left with one very confused thought. What the hell had just happened?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I should’ve gone through the back exit I had come to use since Carter came back into my life. I should’ve gone home, but I didn’t. Feeling rebellious for some reason, I went out the main entrance and turned into the café where Amanda worked. With a quick scan, I saw that she was working. She was placing cookies onto a tray for their display case so I rounded the counter and leaned against its side next to her.

She kept sliding the cookies onto the tray and ignored me.

I had sent another text earlier that morning, but it went unanswered. Again. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, pretending I didn’t exist, but I knew Carter advised against communicating with all three of them. He said they were a risk. They could hand me over to ensure their safety, but when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Mike pretending to study the menu by the door and one of the other guards just came out of the bathroom. I was safe. I had no idea how they moved that fast, but they were good and since my visit to Joe’s they had upped their surveillance over me.

“Amanda.”

Nothing. She rearranged a row of the cookies now.

“You can’t ignore me.”

She sighed and moved an entire row of cookies to the side on the tray.

“Why are you mad at me?”

She shot me a dark look, moved the same row back to their original spot.

Okay. I got the message, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I was tired of being alone. Since I got the boot from the account, the other girls I’d previously been friendly with had taken her cue. They stayed away. I didn’t get a hello in the break room anymore so my week had literally been spent by myself in the office. Mr. Hudson hadn’t come back to the office since he gave me that warning and his secretary only shook her head every time I popped in to see if he was in or not. I had sent Theresa emails and considered emailing Noah himself, but he was the Big Man. Before last Friday, I would’ve pissed my pants at the thought of sending him an email without having it approved by Mr. Hudson. I didn’t think it was appropriate now.

Maybe it was my sorrows at disappointing my boss or thinking that Theresa had been the one to boot me from the account. I didn’t know, maybe it was just that Carter had been gone all week and life felt lonelier to me now, but I missed Mallory. I missed Amanda and I even, only slightly, missed Ben. I wasn’t going anywhere, not until she said something to me. “How’s Mallory?”

The entire pan fell off the counter. As it crashed to the floor and everyone in the café looked over, Amanda knelt down and starting grabbing all the cookies with frantic hands. I knelt beside her, she was blushing. The back of her neck was bright red. She smacked my hand. “Don’t!”

“Hey.” My eyes lit up. “Hey!” She talked to me.

She cursed under her breath, reaching for the cookies that went the farthest. “Go away, Emma.”

“No.” I frowned. “Why?”

“Because Mallory and Ben are gone,” she hissed. We were still on the floor. Most of the cookies had been collected.

My hand jerked and the few that had been in it were now crumbs. “What?”

“They’re gone. Like you. You’re gone too. Everyone’s gone.” She stood and brushed off her pants. “You should take that as a clue and stay away. I should take that as a clue and get a different job.”