MY BEST ADDICTION

Chapter 14

“Another guy of yours?”, he asked glaring at me.
“My boss, and even if he was my guy what has that got to do with you?”, I answered dragging my suitcase behind me leaving him alone outside.
Just as I entered the house he pinned me to the wall caging me from both ends.
“Getting smart with me, aren’t you? You belong to me and only me. Do you understand?”, he yelled at me.
“I’m not yours Andrew and I never will. I’m tired and I need to rest”, I said trying to bypass him to go to my room but he held on to my hand tightly making me wince. I managed to free my hand from his and left leaving him trailing after me.
“Why are you here?”, I asked while packing my things.
“I came back for you. I missed you, I missed us”, he said coming closer to me.
“There’s no us okay and you better leave before I…….”, I started to say but was interrupted.
“Before what? Will your new boy toy come here to save you?”, he asked coldly that I felt scared. “I came for us okay, I want to make us work again, like we were before”, he said sweetly and I was reminded once again why I thought I was in love with him.
“I’m saying this for the last time, there is no us and you better leave my house before I get really pissed at you”, I said with finality shocking both of us. I didn’t know how I was able to muster the courage to stand up to him after all that happened between us. He tried to convince me he was going to be better but I was tired of hearing all that he wanted to say after hearing him say the same thing numerous times already in the past. I went back to my packing. After packing, I locked my door and laid on my bed to rest for a while. Seth sent a message telling me to take the rest of the week off and thanked him. I just hoped he didn’t misunderstand the relationship between Andrew and I causing a strain in ours. Andrew left during the week but still tried to get in touch with me to no avail. The week passed in a blur and before I knew it Monday was in front of me once again. I did my business as fast as I could and left for work but still managed to be late. I got Seth his breakfast before going to his office. I knocked on his door and entered when I was called in but for some reason I felt self-conscious after what happened the other day.
“Good morning, I got your breakfast”, I said placing it on his desk and fumbled with my hand.
“You’re late”, he said seriously not even sparing me a glance and I knew something was amiss.
“I’m sorry, I….”, I said feeling nervous and tried to justify myself but kept quiet knowing it wasn’t going to change the outcome.
“It better not happen again”, he said dismissing me.
‘What happened?’, I thought and left without asking him anything. Just as I opened the door, I found Marcus at the other end about to open the door.
“Hey Penny how are you doing now?”, he asked concerned to which I hummed in response and left the office.
I went back to my office and went through the documents I missed the previous week. I was later called to the Human Resource office and I panicked because I thought I had done something wrong, but was relieved when I realized Marcus was going to be there.
“Come in”, I heard when I knocked on the office door. I entered and found a young woman there to be specific Marcus’ assistant, Silver Woode.
“Good afternoon. I was called Ms. Woode”
“Ms. Whyte, right? Please have a seat”, she pointed to the seat in front of her desk. I didn’t blame her that she didn’t know who I was since I always got in touch with Marcus himself.
“Thank you”
“How long are you interning for?”, she asked confusing me. We all had a general internship period so I wondered why she asked.
“Three months”
“How much more are you left with to complete?”, she asked and it took me awhile to answer because I almost forgot this was just an internship and not a full time job. I calculated the time I had spent and realized I only had a few weeks before I left.
“Three weeks including this week. Please is there a problem?”
“No problem whatsoever. You can leave now if you have no other questions”, she said writing something in her note.
“Thank you. Um by the way please where is Ma... Mr. Spears?”, I asked looking around.
“Marcus? I thought you would know seeing as you are Seth’s assistant”, she said as if she didn’t believe I didn’t know where they were.
‘Would I have asked if I knew?’, I thought internally rolling my eyes.
“They are having a meeting with the shareholders”, she said going back to her tasks ignoring my existence all together.
“Oh okay, thank you”, I said and left her office thinking on the way.
‘Why would he hide his schedule from me? Does he not trust me anymore or does he not need my assistance anymore? What did I do?’.
Marcus called me later telling me to leave and not wait for them after working hours and before I could even talk he dismissed me and hang up. Now I was confused, even Marcus was in on it? I placed my head on my desk since I had nothing else doing and tried to catch some sleep before going back home. I woke up only to find out it was already late and everyone might have gone home leaving me alone, the specks of not having friends at work. I arranged my things and decided to leave but stopped when I heard voices from Seth’s office. Not knowing who they were I panicked and almost called security but calmed down when I realized who they were.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”, Marcus asked. It looks like the meeting didn’t go as planned.
“What are you chastising me for? They were being stubborn so I had to let them know their place. You being my friend doesn’t mean you can oppose me like that”
“It’s because we are friends that’s why I can and don’t forget I own a part of this company”, he said getting angry. “Do you think I don’t know, you’ve been different since that day. What happened when you went home with her?”, he asked but all he got was silence.
“Don’t bring her into this”, he said after a while.
“Why shouldn’t I when she is the cause of all this?”
“What do you mean by that? Do you think she has that much power to influence my mood and actions?”
“And doesn’t she? Seth look at yourself, you’ve never been livid during meetings before no matter how annoying the situation was. For how long are you going to lie to yourself about what you feel?”, he asked and you could feel the concern in his voice.
‘Who were they talking so seriously about?’, I thought.
“Don’t cross the line Marcus. There is nothing I feel for her and I will never feel anything for someone who works for me”
‘So she works here? Lucky her’, I thought.
“Is she just another employee to you? Who in the industry doesn’t know how you treat her? Listen I get it that you don’t want to acknowledge whatever it is you are feeling but if it is going to distract and affect you this much you better end it before she gets the wrong idea. I don’t want Penelope to get hurt by you. Either acknowledge her or let her go, your choice but it would be better if you let her go”, he said but was met with silence once more.
‘So her name is Penelope, lucky girl’, I thought and felt a pang in my chest. ‘He has someone who could affect him this much and he still spent his time with me? He…….’, I thought but stopped when something clicked. They were talking about me. I couldn’t believe what I had heard and pinched myself to wake up thinking I was still dreaming. The pain I felt indicated that I was awake and everything was real too. I decided I had heard enough and got ready to leave. I knocked on my door to notify them of my presence and turned the nob to leave but halted when a thought came to mid.
‘Was I going to be in trouble for eavesdropping on them? Would I be fired even before my time was up?’, I thought worriedly. I mustered the strength and opened the door. They got quiet when I entered the room, greeted them and walked out hurriedly to the elevator, pressed the button and entered when it arrived. I pressed the first floor button and waited for the door to close but before it could I heard my name. I raised my head to find Marcus walking towards me motioning for me to stop the doors from closing but I allowed it to close looking straight at him.