The CEO's Secret✔️

ii: S H A T T E R E D

July 2018

S H A T T E R E D.

Katie looked in complete frustration at the many bouquets of flowers laid out around Cheryl's desk. A delivery man then passed her on the floor and placed another two bouquets down on the ground beside the desk, there was no more room to put them anywhere else.

"I can't believe this..." she shook her head in disbelief as Cheryl watched close from the corner of her eye for her boss's reaction.

"Did you read any of the cards?" Cheryl asked because of the way Katie was lingering around looking at all the bouquets.

"I don't want to, that asshole's said enough to me to last a lifetime. I don't need another card to read." She crossed her arms.

"Maybe you should talk to him, he seems very- eager to see you again. You know he turns up here almost every day to see if you'll let him in again."

"The only reason I let him in in the first place was because I didn't know it was him." Katie sighed.

She didn't want to think about Colin anymore. She was done with him, or at least that was what she was supposed to say after everything. Her mind was telling her that was the truth but her heart was saying it was a complete lie. For years, Katie had pushed him to the back of her mind, but now, he demanded to be heard and seen and thought about without doing very much at all. One visit and dozens of bouquets were all it took for her mind to be fixed on him again.

The words he spoke in her office kept bouncing around like an echo in her brain, if she had heard that a couple of years ago, they would have changed everything but things were different then- or at least that was what she wanted to believe. Colin had a record of letting her down, she didn't know if her heart could take another heartbreak caused by him but she did have to admit that seeing him again made her think a lot about what possibilities lay ahead if she would just forgive him.

But he completely broke her, left her shattered after so many times of trying to help him. Katie didn't think she possibly had it in herself to forgive him this time. Or maybe that was her head thinking over her heart, deep down, she felt like that statement was false but didn't elaborate on the thought.

"How come I've never seen him before?" a curious Cheryl asked, butting into Katie's thoughts.

"Because he's a part of my past and I wanted to keep it that way."

"Hey what did he do to you that he feels the need to do all of this?" she gestured all around her to the vibrantly coloured flowers. Katie hesitated, still getting flashbacks.

"Things I don't think I can forgive..." she said before she walked into her office and closed the door behind her, clearly not wanting to talk anymore about Colin.

Cheryl felt like she would never find out the story behind all of this. Her boss was certainly a wonder,  before that man turned up but even more so after his arrival. She looked around at all the flowers that surrounded her and read every one of the cards that were in her eyeshot although she had read most of them a couple times before. She did not need to read them a second or third time- they all said the same thing:

I'm sorry x