No More Tomorrows

Chapter 21: Truths and Consequences

It's been over a month since I've seen Emily. I wasn't home the day she collected her mother's desk and left her keys and the new lease paperwork. Walking into the apartment to find her keyring on the counter was like a punch to the chest. My daily voicemails and messages had gone unanswered up to this point which both frustrated and hurt me. I could see she was at least reading my messages but I was unsure if she was listening to my voicemails. The Emily I knew wouldn't usually to stay angry for this long, she was too sweet to think of me hurting and not do anything to comfort me. For now I'd decided not to approach her at work because I knew that would upset her if I stepped into her professional environment, and I didn't need to give her any more reasons to be mad at me. 

I'd had plenty of time to think about the decisions that had brought us to this place and while I still felt my intentions were good I could acknowledge that a part of me knew she'd be heartbroken if she found out. And did it anyway. Risked it anyway. I let my confidence in my ability to keep my work and private life separate cloud my judgement. And it had imploded in the worst way. My decisions had hurt the one person I cared about and I was scared she'd stick to her current plan and not take me back. But after so many years together I wasn't letting go without a fight. 

So I continued to send her daily messages reminding her that I loved her. Forwarded her old photos of us and reminisced about the good times. I also had deliveries of her favourite flowers and treats delivered to the hospital and was hoping that by keeping myself in her space in a positive way, I could slowly get her to accept me back in her life. I was patient. I could wait until she felt I'd suffered enough.

Having been back at the Club multiple times over the last month I was reassured to not see her anywhere in sight. Bess gave me very unfriendly looks but didn't approach our booth. My guess was that Simon spent enough money there to give us some space. But I will say she made sure I understood I wasn't her favourite person. Simon was definitely pissed at me after I'd cursed at him the night of Emily's performance but I'd explained it away by saying that the foursome had been intense and then seeing someone I knew stripping had thrown me. That I'd worried she might tell Emily. When he questioned who the stripper was, I had lied and said it was a friend's sister and I was concerned why she would be in a place like this. He laughed it off and said maybe he'd invite her into the backroom if she performed again because she'd been stunning. It took everything I had not to punch him in the face. 

I'd also spent the last three weeks gathering evidence. With the help of Roxy who I'd had to continue seeing, reverting to our previous arrangement of only getting her off and not letting her touch me. She was angry, but with additional payments had accepted that was all I could offer her. She'd been helping me capture video recordings of the team during private dances for even more cash and I had a friend discreetly taking video of our table and the goings on. He'd captured footage of everyone in our team with strippers on their laps, walking towards the back rooms and then returning some time later with clothing askew and on occasion still groping their stripper of choice. Add that to all the screenshots I'd been capturing from our group chat and I had put together a large portfolio of wrong doings involving my entire sales team. 

Thinking on what to do with it was making me nervous. I knew if I took it to Simon he'd find a way to have me fired and there'd be no justice. I had decided that I should put out some quiet feelers about new employment in case this all blew up in my face. After a call to a friend in recruitment I knew that Baxter and Finch were hiring and although I'd only been with Kent and Brockman for less than a year they were keen on meeting with me. They were interested in what I could bring to their small firm and impressed that in my short time with the company I had been lead on the Kingston Account and recently joined the Flinders Account. I hoped that both clients would provide me with a glowing reference if approached. One upside of Emily leaving me was that I had been working insane hours and both my accounts were making some serious money and seemed very happy with my services.