Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 249(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 249(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Chapter Nine
Constance
"Your cousin sucks," I mutter, stepping into the winery at the end of the day.
Haven glances up from her computer, a furrow between her brows. "You're going to have to be more specific than that because I have nine hundred cousins, and most of them suck."
"I heard that!" Jax shouts from his office.
"You were supposed to hear it!" she yells back, grinning. "What did Bastian do this time? And if it's about listing your job, you're right. He does suck."
"We were supposed to meet behind the winery, but he's late. I guess he's still…" I trail off, blinking as her words register. "Wait, what?"
"Shit." Haven's brown eyes widen. "You don't know."
"Know what?" I growl, feeling a little like I can't breathe.
"Um…"
"He's firing me?"
"No. Not exactly." She grimaces, looking wildly uncomfortable, which is just great because that's how I feel right now. "Um, you should really talk to him about this, Constance."
"I want to talk to you about it. What's going on?" I demand, crossing my arms. "What do you mean, he's listing my job?"
She stares at me for a long, silent moment, and then sighs before turning to pull something from the printer. She glances at it, hesitates, and then holds it out to me. "He asked me to get this ready a couple hours ago," she says softly. "He said we need to hire someone else for the position."
I take the paper from her with shaking hands. People say you can't hear a heart break, but that's a lie. There's an audible snap when mine cracks in half. I feel the jolt all the way to my bones, and it hurts enough to bring tears to my eyes.
He's replacing me. Just like that.
"Jesus," I whisper, choking on a hysterical laugh. "He's actually listing my job. He can't fucking wait to give it to someone else, can he?"
"That's not true," Haven says. "He wants to move you somewhere else."
"Where? To Italy?" I snap, dropping the paper on her desk.
Her face falls. "Of course that's not what he wants. You really need to talk to him."
But I don't really want to talk to him right now because nothing he says will change the fact that he did this behind my back, without even talking to me about it. That's not respect. It's not partnership. It's him, moving me around on the board like a damn chess piece, slotting me in where he thinks I should be.
I tell him my fears, and this is his response. To just…give my job to someone else. No conversation, no explanation.
"Yeah, I'll do that," I mumble, spinning on my heel to stride for the door. My heart is pounding like a war drum. I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to hunt Bastian down and run him over with a tractor.
But I already know if I even try to talk to him right now, I'm going to say something I might regret. I'm too damn mad to listen right now, and too damn hurt to be reasonable.
I feel like he just pulled the rug out from underneath me, and I don't understand why. I tell him my fears about us being together when he's my boss, and he just…goes behind my back to give my job—the job I love—to someone else. Yeah, that hurts. It hurts like hell.
I stumble toward my car, the ground blurring beneath my feet.
God, I fell in love with him, and the whole time, I was just…what? A problem to solve? Something that needed a solution so he could feel good about what we've been doing? He just had to be in control.
"Constance?"
I glance up to see him striding across the parking lot toward me, his jacket over his arm and his tie undone around his neck. He looks so damn good. I choke on a whimper.
I can't talk to him right now. I'll crack, and I'll break, and I'm not sure there will be any pieces left to put back together.
I hurry my steps, practically racing toward my car.
Of course I don't make it before he gets to me. Of course I don't. He hits me like a ton of bricks, pinning me up against the side of the car.
"Why are you running from me?" he growls, trying to spin me around.
"Do not touch me," I snap, trying to shove him away from me before I fall apart. "I am so mad at you right now!"
"Fuck." His wild eyes run across my face. "What happened, baby?"
"You're an asshole, that's what happened!" I shout, clinging to anger because it's better than curling up in a ball and sobbing. Mad hurts less than broken. "You're hiring someone else for my job!"
"Fuck. Haven told you." He doesn't even try to deny it. He doesn't even look guilty.
And that's the confirmation that sends tears slipping down my cheeks. It isn't a misunderstanding or a mistake. He's really listing my job.