"Miss Harding, the truth is Mr. Sterling bought this apartment a long time ago."
"He paid an extra two hundred grand on top of it, just so I'd route your rent back onto another one of your cards."
"He said you'd never move out."
Something turned over in my chest. After graduation, I'd stayed in New York to work.
Spencer was the one who decided to rent me this place, right near his.
I told him I couldn't afford it. He just grinned at me.
"I'll cover half the rent. Don't argue. That way, when I fight with my family, I've got somewhere to crash."
I was about to say living that close would bother Selma, but he cut me off before I could.
"Listen to me. You're out here on your own. The closer you are, the more I can look after you."
It wasn't until we married, in my last life, that I learned he'd already bought Selma a house.
That was just how he was. Good to Selma, and good to me too.
But I never once did anything to come between them. I just couldn't bring myself to leave.
Before long, the messages from Spencer started pouring in.
"You want out of the lease? Are you done making a scene?"
"After everything between us, you're really going to fall out with me over something this small?"
"I know you too well, Frieda. Three days, tops, and you'll have cooled off."
"Just don't come crying to me later when you've got nowhere to go."
I was about to power off the phone when another message landed.
"Hold on. You said there's someone you like. That wasn't supposed to be me, was it?"
"Even if I actually did sleep with you, you'd never be more than a bedmate to me."
"Selma and I have made up. You try anything, and I won't let it slide."
I laughed at myself. In my last life, he really hadn't let it slide.
But this time, I didn't want to be the woman I'd been.
I opened the message from my best friend.
"The director's very happy with you. He's agreed to the deputy manager position. Are you coming or not?"
"Or is it that you're stuck on Spencer Sterling and can't bear to leave?"
In my last life, this was the exact message Spencer saw, the one that convinced him I was wrecking his relationship with Selma.
This time, I didn't hesitate. I replied:
"Tell the director I accept the offer. The sooner the better."
"And tell him I don't love him anymore."
Once I'd decided, I went into the office first thing the next morning and handed in my resignation.
HR eyed me, skeptical.
"This trick again?"
"Heard Miss Cobb ran out on the wedding, so now you're playing hard to get to stir the pot?"
The gossip about me at this company had never once let up.
When I graduated, I'd interviewed somewhere else, precisely to keep my distance.
I never imagined Spencer would simply call them up and have me transferred to him.
"Are you out of your mind? A pretty girl like you, working at someone else's company? They'd drown you in talk."
"Just come work for me. I can protect you."
But when one of Selma's friends decided I was the other woman and spat in my face,
he didn't say a single word in my defense.
"We're just friends. People misread it because we're close. Don't lower yourself to her level."
His refusal to deny it was taken as confirmation. And so Selma ran out on the wedding for the first time.
That night, Spencer drank himself blind.
"Why did Selma run? Are we even still together, or is it understood that we're done?"
That was the first time he pinned me to the floor.
My face went hot, and somewhere in it, faintly, I heard him saying Selma's name.
"Frieda?"
HR slid the stamped paperwork across to me.
"Hand off your work first. Once Mr. Sterling signs, you're free to go."
"Got it!" I gave a polite smile and set the resignation request inside Spencer's office.
Outside the door, coworkers whispered.
"You think it's Frieda hanging on Mr. Sterling that's got Miss Cobb refusing to marry him?"
"Run out on the wedding that many times? If you ask me, this Selma's got someone on the side."
