Chapter 3

"I'm sleeping in the guest room tonight."

Claire walked away very slowly. I knew she was waiting for me to stop her.

That was how our fights had always gone. One of us gave the other an opening, and the argument ended. We'd been married too long to stay angry over every little thing.

But this time, I didn't want to stop her.

She practically shuffled all the way into the guest room. When I still said nothing, she slammed the door hard enough to shake the wall.

Early the next morning, Claire came out and found me eating breakfast at the table without any hurry at all.

She checked the time, and whatever anger she'd held onto overnight came rushing back.

"Why are you still here? I told you I need to keep professional distance at work. I'm not driving you to the office."

Normally, I got up an hour earlier and took the train so no one would see us arriving together.

Claire assumed I'd slept in because I was trying to force her to give me a ride.

"I'll get an Uber."

Only then did she relax.

"I'll reimburse it this time. Next time, don't oversleep."

"I'll eat on the road. Leave later than me so we don't arrive together."

She grabbed her breakfast and keys and walked out.

I had taken the morning off. I spent it with a lawyer drafting a divorce agreement, then went to the office around noon.

The moment I arrived, I found a group of employees gossiping together.

"Ms. Bennett actually drove out of her way to pick Ryan up this morning. So what exactly is going on between you two?"

Ryan gave Claire a tender look.

"We went to the same college."

Claire's expression turned almost dreamy.

"Ryan was the campus heartthrob back then. He could sing, played guitar, and was always performing out on the quad. Half the girls on campus had a crush on him."

Then she looked up and saw me.

The softness in her eyes disappeared at once.

"But Ryan and I were only classmates."

Ryan smiled vaguely.

"Exactly. There's nothing between us. I got this job on my own merits, so nobody should misunderstand."

He wasn't explaining anything. If anything, he was hinting that they simply didn't want to make the relationship public.

Everyone around them wore the same knowing expression.

I went back to my desk. One of my team members sorted through a stack of files while complaining about me.

"Ethan, all you ever think about is work. You even managed to piss off the boss's boyfriend. You're asking for trouble."

I kept working and asked, almost curiously, "How did everyone decide they're dating?"

Someone pointed toward Claire's office.

"The flowers. New bouquet every day. Ryan orders them."

A few of the women sighed enviously.

"He's handsome, rich, and romantic. Who wouldn't fall for that?"

I'd noticed the flowers in Claire's office a long time ago.

When I asked why she suddenly had fresh flowers every day, she said buying them made her happy.

So that was it.

She was happy because they came from someone she liked.

At three that afternoon, Claire called an emergency meeting to tear into our department.

Ryan had accidentally sent our proposal to the wrong client.

It was clearly his mistake, but as usual, Claire started by ripping into me.

"Yes, Ryan sent the file, but Ethan knew he was a new assistant and failed to supervise him properly. That's why this happened. Ethan bears primary responsibility."

Whenever anything went wrong, I was the first person she blamed.

Everyone was used to it. A few people gave me sympathetic looks.

In the past, I would have played along for Claire's sake and accepted the blame.

Not this time.

"You're right. This is my fault. I'm clearly not competent enough for the job, and I've caused a serious failure. So I resign."

I ignored the uproar in the conference room and walked out.

Claire started bombarding my phone before I'd even reached my desk.

"Ethan, have you lost your mind?"

"You know I was only using you to make a point. I wasn't actually blaming you. Why would you resign? Get back in here."

"We agreed on this years ago. Are you seriously going back on your word now?"