006| A Madwoman's Logic

ALICE

I was frozen. Not just physically, but mentally.

I didn't even know how to approach this situation. This incredibly messed-up situation. So beyond fucked up.

What was Emma doing in my fiancé's car?

Why were they kissing each other?

These questions were enough to make me move, and by the time I reached the side of his car, she was already getting out and cleaning her smudged lipstick with her thumb. She looked up sharply and we made eye contact.

The only thing I could say was, "What the fuck?"

Benjamin got out of the car, and he stared at me long and hard. It was hard to look away from Emma's face. Hell, she was my friend for some time now, and I considered her the only real friend I ever had.

This was what she did to me? I couldn't even make sense of it.

"Alice," Benjamin began in a cold voice he had never used with me before, "don't cause any trouble. Just walk away."

His words made me scoff before I laughed. It was a weak laugh with barely any emotion in it. "Don't cause any trouble? You have the audacity to say that to me after what I just saw? What the hell is going on here? Emma?"

"What do you want me to say?" Emma asked. I didn't like her tone or the way her lips thinned like she was fighting a smile. "You were the one who was cheating on him. Is it bad that he went where he was appreciated?"

"Appreciated," I echoed before slapping her across the face. Benjamin was standing beside me in a heartbeat, and the way he pushed me, with so much aggression that I hit the car parked next to his, made me realize I would never take this asshole back.

"What do you think you're doing!?" he shouted right in my face before putting his arms around her. She was clutching the side of her face I slapped and peering at me through her fingers. The look in her eyes was triumphant, and that was when I realized that it was all a setup.

Everything.

It was all her.

The pieces came together so easily and quickly in my mind. I saw the picture. It was so bright.

"You bitch," I whispered. "You set me up!"

"Just go home, Alice!" Benjamin yelled. "Go!"

I addressed her when I said, "You're the one who...I don't know how you knew what would happen, but you're the one who put Mr. Linden-Hawthorne's number on my phone! You...I remember you told me to text Benjamin and send him a photo. What have you done? How did you...?"

I couldn't even finish my sentence. Emma insisted that I go to that stupid party. She texted my fiancé and told him to meet me there. All behind my back. She made me drink. She told me to send a photo of him, and if she had any access to my phone, which she always did, she knew—the nosy bitch—that I always sent Benjamin nudes. Always.

Especially when he was away at work.

My God. What had I done? I trusted a snake, and she had succeeded in ruining my relationship.

But not only that...

"You wanted to get me fired, right? That was the whole point of this. You wanted to go from junior to executive assistant. You want to take my place. Wow," I laughed hysterically, without humor, "everything just worked out perfectly for you, didn't it? I bet you didn't even plan for things to be so perfect!"

Emma only stared at me. It was Benjamin who started saying, "Alice, I think you need to—"

"Shut up! Shut up! I can't even look at you right now! Are you blind? Can't you see? Are you even listening to me? How could you run to her?" I asked Benjamin. "How could you believe her over me?"

He didn't answer, and I nodded. I stepped away from them both, too disgusted to say anything else.

Instead of heading back to my car, I turned right around and headed straight toward the entrance of the building.

I wasn't going to let Emma win. Not a chance in hell.

She wanted to get me fired by sending that nude to our boss. That was because she couldn't have guessed how things would turn out between us. She didn't know that he wasn't offended. 

He was treating this whole thing like the most amusing game.

I was being insane for what I was about to do, but I was driven by rage and the pain of being betrayed. I didn't want her to win. To take the one thing from me that she obviously wanted the most.

My job. The one I worked so hard for.

I reached our floor again, and this time, I got looks. I must've looked like a madwoman to the rest of my coworkers, but I didn't care. I didn't even knock on his door. I just opened it.

He looked up at me and didn't look surprised at all. He sat back in his chair and said to me, "That didn't take long at all, did it?"

"I'm not playing any games, contrary to what you may believe. But I do want my job back."

A smirk curved his lips. "Of course."

"I mean it," I said through my teeth. I already had a half-formed plan in my head on what I'd do with this situation, and here it was:

Nothing.

I would go on doing nothing, at least until I had a better plan figured out. Right now, I was too pissed off at Emma to give her the satisfaction of seeing me on the streets.

I wouldn't give her my fiancé and the position I've fought so hard for all in one day. 

This plan wasn't ideal, and the truth was that I didn't know what I was signing up for, but the thought of Emma winning sickened me to my core. 

Mr. Linden-Hawthorne put his fingertips together and stared at me for a long time, long enough for me to want to change my mind and walk right out of this office again like a lunatic. But I raised my chin and stared right back at him, almost daring him to say something else inappropriate. 

Why should I feel ashamed for this alone? He sexted me back, too. 

And he knew who I was. 

Maybe that was what made what I was doing so dangerous. 

"Alright, Miss Rhodes," he said in a manner that suggested he'd given up on what he initially proposed. "The choice is yours. If that's how you want to go about things, then I guess we have nothing else to say to one another."

"I just want everything to go back to normal," I clarified. "Normal."

He tilted his head like he understood what I was saying.

"No more talks about the sext—I mean text. Or the...the photo. I'm willing to forget it and brush it off as a misunderstanding if you are, Mr. Linden-Hawthorne."

Again, he nodded, but this time, he was trying to hide his grin behind his fingers. 

I took the opportunity to leave his office. I closed the door behind me, looked up, and saw Emma standing beside the front desk. We made eye contact and I saw how her eyes widened. Her cheek was red from my slap, but her eyes were almost daring me. 

I straightened my spine, looked away, and headed toward my office right next door to Mr. Linden-Hawthorne's.

If I just made the biggest mistake of my life, then I'd probably find out soon enough. 

Until then, there was no point obsessing about it.