I glanced at my phone. The booking confirmation was still on the screen.
I was going home soon.
I couldn't be bothered to argue with her.
“You're right. I was being dramatic.”
“It won't happen again.”
When she saw my reaction, a flicker of confusion crossed her face.
She'd been ready for me to do what I always did,
demand to know when we were getting married,
demand to know what was really going on between her and Julian,
but she never expected me to just surrender like this.
After a few seconds of silence, she tossed out a “Whatever” and left.
She didn't come home that night.
The next morning, I went to the office as usual.
I could let go of Felicity, but Evergreen Era had every ounce of my blood and sweat poured into it.
Even if I was leaving, I needed to make sure everything at the company was in order first.
Besides, the shares would still pay me a steady dividend every year.
I was working through who I could promote to take over my frontline role so I could manage things remotely, when
Kenneth Dickerson, the sales department manager, appeared at the elevator bank looking like he'd seen a ghost.
He was one of the company's original crew, had been in the trenches with me through more deals than I could count.
I'd never seen him this defeated.
“Mr. Whitfield, last night we sent the quote to Ms. Pruitt for review. Her assistant said she was asleep and that he'd handle it.”
“But he accidentally sent our floor-price sheet to the client along with the proposal.”
“Now the client's demanding a twenty percent discount, and our gross margin is only thirty.”
His voice cracked.
“We've been chasing this project for the better part of a year. If we go through with it now, we're losing money. If we walk away, we lose the client for good.”
I nodded as he spoke and pushed open the door to Felicity's office.
Julian was lying on his side on the sofa bed while Felicity fed him water, one careful spoonful at a time.
That sofa bed was from the very beginning, back when we first started the company.
Felicity had bought it to force me to rest.
She'd said：“My office is your personal lounge.”
So even after the company relocated and we bought our own building and renovated from the ground up,
I'd brought that sofa bed along.
Now another man was lying on it, and she was at his side, tending to him like something precious.
The way she once tended to me.
Something caught in my chest, but strangely, it didn't hurt anymore.
The moment Julian saw me, he sat up.
“Ash, don't get the wrong idea. I felt so guilty I passed out, so Felicity was just giving me some honey water.”
I still remembered the first time he'd met Felicity. He'd called her "sis." Somewhere along the way, that had changed.
I didn't acknowledge him. I walked straight to Felicity's desk and slapped the report down in front of her.
“At the client's current asking price, closing this deal costs us a hundred and twenty thousand dollars.”
I looked from one to the other.
“Which one of you is covering it?”
Julian's eyes went red instantly.
“It's all my fault. I should've woken Felicity up. I just couldn't bear to because she was so exhausted.”
“I'll go find Mr. Lee right now. I'll beg him myself!”
Felicity stared hard at the documents, brow furrowed, and made no move to stop him.
Kenneth and I stood right where we were, with zero intention of stopping him either.
Caught in his own bluff, Julian froze in place.
I folded my arms and watched him.
“Julian, crying and begging don't close deals.”
He threw off the cashmere blanket and took two steps before crumpling to the floor.
The performance was so clumsy that even engaging with it felt like losing brain cells.
But Felicity, the woman hailed as a business prodigy, bought every second of it.
She helped Julian up and settled him gently back onto the sofa.
“Ashton Whitfield, you never change. Always pushing people too hard.”
