Caroline knocked on the window of Liam's office as she walked by it. Liam looked up and waved her in. She walked in slowly and hesitantly. She laid the sealed envelope on the desk and sat in the chair.
"What's this?" He asked, picking up the envelope carefully. Caroline cleared her throat and sat up straight.
"My resignation from the internship for multiple reasons." Caroline answered. She hated to leave the internship, but it seemed to be her only option. Gracie had helped her write the letter to give to him. "Department head of music will be getting a copy of it too."
Liam nodded his head and opened the envelope. The awkward silence was killing Caroline as he read the letter. His emotions on his face showed everything he was thinking.
"Conflict of interest? Plagiarism in portfolio? These are bullshit excuses, even for you." Liam scoffed, tossing the letter on his desk. He looked angry as he looks at her with narrowed eyes. "You're seriously wanting to give up this because you think we can't work together?"
"Something like that." Caroline stated.
"Mhm, right. Guess it's a good thing your internship ended two months ago officially." Liam replied, smiling slyly at her. Caroline's mouth dropped open in shock. Why had he even ended it 4 months early?
"What?" Caroline breathed out.
"I told you everything I could. I already had people requesting you to sit in sessions. I had a job offer for you, but I guess that's off the table now, huh?" Liam asked.
"Yeah. No way I can continue to work with you if I even have a chance to fix it with Brandon." Caroline stated. "Why didn't you tell me the internship ended? I was still getting paid too."
"I was paying you the last two months. I enjoyed working with you and I considered it training for the job. Gracie thought you'd be a great fit too." Liam replied.
"Of course. Gracie." Caroline said, trying to hide the disgust from her voice. "My decision has been made. Too much history to move forward with this."
"Understandable. I have a session with his band later if you want to sit in for one last gig." Liam suggested.
"No. I'm not working today. I have something else I need to do." Caroline stated, standing up from the chair.
"Okay. It really was a pleasure to work with you, Caroline. I'll have Gracie email you the recommendation that you'll need for future jobs." Liam replied, smiling at her.
Caroline nodded with a small smile and walked out the office and into the hall. She could see Gracie at the front desk with a thick stack of paperwork. Caroline walked up to her and rested on the desk. Gracie looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Did you know about the internship ending?" Caroline asked.
"Mhm. Who do you think did the paperwork?" Gracie replied, continuing to feed paperwork to the girl at the front desk. "This stack is for the interviews for Liam."
"Why didn't you tell Brandon?" Caroline asked. Gracie huffed and put down the papers in her arms and looked at Caroline again.
"Because you didn't know, Care. I also sent you the letter of resignation because I knew if you did that then you really do want to work things out with Brandon. Only you would throw away your career for a guy." Gracie chuckled.
"He'd do the same." Caroline shrugged.
"If you say so. I personally don't think Neviah would do that for me, but I'd like to imagine he would." Gracie retorted. "Brandon and Zion are coming into the studio in a few hours, so go talk to him."
"Wait. You're supporting me in this?" Caroline asked.
"I was never against you, Caroline, but Brandon is one of my best friends. Telling Liam and Brandon how you were two timing both of them was a friend protecting their friend. We all had to pick up the pieces of him after Char and I'd really hate to do it again." Gracie replied. "I hope it's not too late to fix what you broke."
Caroline could feel the years stingy as she looked at Gracie. Her face was stern and showed no emotion, a new for her. Her breath was shaky as she opened her mouth to reply to her, but no words would come out.
"Caroline?" Gracie said again, picking back up the papers.
"Hmm?"
"You're not the victim here, don't play yourself as one." Gracie stayed, turning her back to Caroline as she walked off. Caroline sighed and left the office. Once she got in her car she dialed the number she hadn't dialed in what seemed like decades. She waited for him to answer, halfway expecting to go straight to voicemail. Then, his raspy morning voice answered.
•••••
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