Flirting with the HR Girl

Chapter 59

"You smoke?" Jennifer asked horrified at the fact that she apparently knew nothing about this guy.

"Me? No!" Austin said but then looked at the cigarette in his hand. "I mean, I used to. But now only when I'm really stressed out."

"I'm sorry you're really stressed out," Jennifer said taking another step away from him towards her car. How had she been so stupid? How had she given up her whole future for a guy she hardly knew? Obviously, she had been thinking too much with little Jennifer. Hot guys were nothing but trouble.

"Jennifer, wait!" Austin said, coming up behind her and gently taking her by the arm. He threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it. Now she could add litterbug to the growing list of his awful qualities. "I am so sorry. I didn't know what to say. I was expecting Cynthia to ask me about Todd and sexual harassment, not us and what our relationship was. She caught me off guard and apparently my face gave everything away."

"All you had to do was deny it," Jennifer said her anger bubbling up to the surface, driven on by the tequila. "Instead, I got to walk in there and get ambushed right after you. But I wasn't only ratted out by my boss but also my boyfriend."

"I'm your boyfriend?" Austin said looking ecstatic for just a moment before returning his face to the seriousness of the situation.

"I don't know if you were my boyfriend; we didn't have time to figure that out," Jennifer said pushing him, feeling better just for the expression of surprise on his face. Maybe it was time he learned a couple of awful things about her. Like her temper. And that was because she tried to remain calm all the time, when she did lose her shit, she really lost her fucking shit. "Now I can add you to the category of ex-boyfriend. Congratulations, boyfriend, you're now an ex-boyfriend. I would never go out with someone who would rat me out like that."

"I didn't rat you out," Austin said looking defensive. "I told her as little of the truth as I could."

"As little as you could to save your own ass," Jennifer said turning and stomping away.

"That's not true," Austin said following her to her car. "I was caught off guard. I told her it wasn't your fault."

"Way to make me sound like an incompetent idiot," she said glaring at him. "Then I just sound like some stupid little girl you talked into bed. You should have just kept your mouth shut. Like you said you would. It was all just a fucking lie to get what you wanted. You're no better than Todd."

"That's not true," Austin said, hurt apparent on his face. This time when she stepped away, he didn't come after her. "I am nothing like my cousin."

"Really?" Jennifer said, swinging her car door open but stopping to give him a full look. "You said whatever you needed to say to get a girl into bed and, then the moment that there might be trouble, you said whatever you needed to say to get out of it."

"Jennifer," Austin said putting his hand on the car. "Please give me a chance to explain."

"No, I'm done giving piece-of-shit men chances," Jennifer said slamming her car door and stepping on the brake to start her car. She saw Austin standing with his hand still on her trunk as if trying to prevent her from leaving. She revved the engine and threw the car into reverse. Backing out and watching him stumble, she rolled down her window and said to him, "If you're still so stressed out, why don't you go have another cigarette."

Rolling the window up, she drove off before he could see her cry.

She sobbed all the way home. When she opened the door, both Kelly and Zack immediately greeted her, rubbing against her legs for their dinner. They were totally oblivious to any turmoil she was in. She would definitely need more than cats in her life in the long run. When she had them settled, the three of them snuggled in the bed, she had a bowl of ice cream, and flipped on the Notebook. She had her box of tissues ready, but the tears didn't come. She was too angry. She was too tired of being made to feel like a victim. She had done that with Eric. She had let him win. Hell, she had laid down and been the bridge over the tumultuous river to his new beautiful future. She had willingly been a doormat and then been shocked when he hadn't offered to save her. He had saved only himself and disappeared.

She decided she wasn't going to do that again. She was going to get a new job and she was going to not let anyone get in her way this time. She would climb the ladder faster than she ever had before. Or maybe she would go back to school? Maybe she would take out the student loans her parents had been dead set against and take a risk on herself. She knew she could do whatever job she put her mind to. She'd proven that with her work at Peterson's as an HR assistant. She stayed up late, thoughts tumbling around in her brain. But every now and then a sharp stabbing pain would burst its way through her anger. She had wanted that future with Austin. She had wanted the student loans with him. And the teaching job. She had wanted to build it all, with him sleeping next to her with Zack and Kelly. Him coming home at night and telling her about his great sales. Him missing holidays because he was running the top store in the Midwest but then making it up on a different day because all that mattered was that their family was together. And now there was nothing. She could be angry, and she could plan her own future. But planning wouldn't fix her broken heart. She had let herself fall in love with him. And even though they had never said it to each other, she knew he loved her, too. She could see it on his face in the HR manager's office and again in the parking lot. She had driven an ex-smoker back to smoking. If that wasn't love, she didn't know what was.

But he let her down. He'd thrown her under in his own interest. He had done what she had learned every man would apparently do. The tears finally came again out of exhausted rage and disappointment. She finally drifted off to sleep from sheer emotional exhaustion.