Instead, it was Anna who suddenly spoke up, saying she wanted to see what the documents were.
I gathered the papers up at once and said coldly,
"What gives you the right to look at my documents?"
That one line wiped the smiles off both her face and Gavin's.
To cover the awkwardness, Anna turned and held out the coffee on the desk to me.
"Eunice, I'm so sorry. I overstepped."
I didn't take the cup. I turned to leave.
But Gavin shot to his feet and grabbed my arm.
"Eunice, Anna's apologizing to you. Where are your manners?"
Fury flared up in me. Without looking back, I yanked my arm free hard.
I hadn't expected it to knock the coffee out of Anna's hand.
The whole cup splashed across my back.
The coffee wasn't hot, but the liquid ran down my white blouse onto my pencil skirt and finally soaked into my underwear.
That disgusting, miserable feeling made me whip around and slap her before I could stop myself.
The slap landed on Gavin's arm instead.
"Eunice! Are you done making a scene?"
She'd thrown coffee all over me, and instead of taking my side, he was telling me to stop making a scene.
But then I saw Anna holding the empty cup, the blue-diamond ring I'd once treasured more than anything sitting on her finger.
And suddenly I didn't even have the urge to say another word.
Anna started crying, flustered and helpless.
"Eunice, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! My hand slipped..."
She reached out to help wipe me off, and I took a step back.
She got so worked up that fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
Which made Gavin ache with pity for her.
"How could this be your fault, Anna? She knocked it over with her own arm."
Then he turned to me, reproach in his tone.
"Honestly, Eunice. It's just a stained outfit. Just change and it's done."
I kept a change of clothes at the office, but no underwear.
Anna seemed to catch on to this and hurried to buy me some.
I wanted to stop her, but she'd already placed the order at lightning speed.
While we waited, she asked me, eyes red,
"Eunice, it's all my fault for running my mouth and making you angry. None of this would've happened otherwise. This outfit was expensive, wasn't it? Let me pay you back!"
She pulled out her phone to transfer me money, but Gavin stopped her.
"It's just one outfit. Wash it and it's still wearable. No need for you to pay anything."
The last time he and I had something custom-made in the same fabric, it got a coffee stain that wouldn't come out, and in the end we just threw it away.
Now, to save Anna some money, he was claiming it could be washed clean.
I had no interest in watching him shield his little secretary, so I turned and went back to my office.
The underwear arrived quickly, only it was more than two sizes too small.
Looking at underwear practically made for a child, I laughed out loud.
Anna had already tried on my gown, so she knew my size perfectly well.
Which meant the underwear could only have been bought wrong on purpose.
I dropped the whole thing straight into the trash and reordered for myself.
When Gavin walked into my office, he spotted me throwing the underwear away at a glance, and his face turned absolutely foul.
"Eunice, what's the meaning of going out of your way to target Anna?"
"To show she's sorry, she even offered to treat us to dinner, and here you are, tossing the new underwear she bought you straight in the trash."
"She bought a children's size. It doesn't fit."
Gavin didn't believe me.
A man who'd always been a germaphobe actually fished the underwear back out of the trash.
After he saw the size clearly, he froze for a moment, then his voice softened considerably.
"Eunice, Anna probably bought the wrong size in a rush. Be the bigger person about it."
Be the bigger person again. I gave a cold laugh and told the two of them to just go to dinner by themselves.
