Office Affairs (+18) | Completed

CHAPTER 28

Jane POV

With my steaming cappuccino in front of me, I anxiously awaited Amanda. I wasn't sure what she would look like. I expected, considering how hot Peter was, that she'd be an absolute bombshell. Then I remembered that I had also slept with him, and decided that was too vain to assume.

So I waited.

Peter had texted me at five p.m. on the dot, asking me to come over tonight. I'd told him I was busy. It wasn't a lie, anyway. I was busy. Busy meeting his former employee and possibly former girlfriend in order to find out whether he'd slept with her and then unceremoniously dumped her out of my office chair and into the depths of unemployment.

As soon as she walked in the door I knew it was her. Her hair was long, black, and impossibly sleek. It surrounded her face and spilled over her shoulders like water. Her face was tanned, and she had large, almond shaped eyes that snapped onto mine from across the room. She looked impossibly elegant, even in her jeans and raincoat, and I was immediately self-conscious. It was like meeting your boyfriend's ex and realizing that he had settled for you. She was an absolute goddess.

"Jane?" she said, taking the seat across from me.

I nodded. "Nice to meet you,Amanda."

She smiled wryly and slid her arms out of her coat, letting it rest on the back of her chair. "You as well," she said. "I just wish it could have been in slightly better circumstances."

I sighed, taking another sip of my frothy drink. "I hear that."

She ordered a cup of decaf from the waitress who came around, and then crossed her hands on the table. "I assume you had suspicions about my dismissal, otherwise you would have ignored my email."

I nodded. "I just thought it was odd that you were fired so abruptly, and nobody really knew why," I said. "Especially since we were in the middle of a huge property acquisition at the time, and Alana ended up stuck with all your work."

Amanda's mouth formed a grim line. "I feel so bad for her," she said. "She deserves so much better than working there, but try telling her that."

The waitress came over with her coffee, and Amanda thanked her and began to stir in sugar and cream.

"Why did you email me though?" I asked. "Why me? Why not a friend of yours from the office or something?"

Amanda looked at me softly. "It was by chance, really," she said. "I saw you leaving the bar with Peter about a week ago. I thought maybe you were involved with him too, and I didn't want the same thing that happened to me to happen to you."

I cocked my head. "But how did you know it was me?"

"Because I knew there was a staff party that night, and you were the only person I didn't recognize." She took a sip. "And you were pretty. Peter likes them pretty."

I hadn't been interviewed by Peter, but I didn't mention that. The compliment was nice.

"I decided to email the new Communications Coordinator on a whim, hoping that I had been right about you having the position," she continued. "I was right, anyway."

I nodded. "You're just as smart as he said."

"He talked about me?" she asked. Her tone only betrayed a tiny hint of nervousness. I brushed it off.

"I asked why you got fired," I explained. "All he had to say was that you were smart but a bad employee."

She chuckled. "That bastard," she replied. "I guess you didn't believe him, or you wouldn't be here."

"Another correct guess."

"And was I correct about you two being involved?" she asked casually, tilting her mug back to her lips.

I tried not to let my alarm show on my face. I'd already decided that I was going to keep my little tryst with Peter a secret from her, just in case. I didn't want anybody to know about what had happened, especially not someone who I still wasn't sure if I could trust.

"I've thought about it," I said. "I mean, look at him."

We both laughed.

She nodded along. "But you haven't?"

I hated lying directly. It was one thing to say that I'd thought about sleeping with Peter but not say that I'd actually done it. It was another to flat out deny my involvement with him. But this was important. "I haven't slept with Peter," I said. "And I'm assuming that it would be a bad idea."

She nodded vigorously. "Big time." She took another sip of her coffee. "I learned that the hard way."

"What happened?"

She placed her cup on the table and stared down at her hands, fidgeting for the first time since she'd gotten there. "I was dumb," she said. "I fell for the boss, which is the dumbest thing a person can do."

She seemed so sad, so hurt. My heart went out to her even as it was breaking for myself.

She took a steeling breath and brought her chocolate eyes to meet mine again. "We had a great time together. The sex was incredible, and I was so enamored with everything about him." She took another breath. "And then I guess he got tired of me. Dumped me. Fired me."

"Why didn't you go to HR?" I asked, horrified.

"I tried. It was my word against his, and he was the company golden boy." She clenched her teeth. "Then he had me blacklisted. Every job I applied for, they mysteriously never got back to me after my interview. Even the ones that I had thought I was for sure going to get."

My heart sank. Was this going to be my future? I could feel my fingers trembling, and I hid them in my lap so she wouldn't see how much this news was affecting me. I tried not to panic. I told myself to remember that I didn't trust her yet. What Peter had said about her played in my head. And I knew him better than I knew her. I'd spent time with him-quality time.

But so had she, apparently.

"Why bother telling me all this?" I asked. "What do you get from it?"

She looked at me kindly. "I don't want it to happen to anyone else," she said. "But I can't pretend I don't also stand to gain from passing on my story."

Ah. Of course. She wanted something.

"What do you gain?"

She took another breath, tears gathering in her eyes. "I just...I just want my life back," she said, her voice cracking. She quickly looked down at her mug and took a moment to compose herself. The panic in my belly began to gnaw ever more hungrily at my insides.

"But how can I help?"

Her eyes shot up to mine, pink rimmed but full of hope. "You'll help me?"

My mouth fumbled for the words. "I'll try," I said. "But I can't promise anything. It depends on what you need."

Here was I, thinking that maybe she had some sort of pension plan in the company that she needed me to help find the number of or something. I was so stupid.

"I need to bring him down," she said, her voice shaky from pain and rage. "But I can't do it by myself."