“Chip brought you out, and he was acting a little peculiar. I would’ve asked what happened, but after he fastened your seatbelt, you leaned over and kissed him before passing out. I took it by his reaction that it wasn’t the first time you’d done that.”
“Oh God, I kissed him!”
“Big, wet, moaning, sloppy kiss. Gotta say, it made me want to spank your ass again.” She laughed. “Maybe we should just be lesbians. Who needs men?”
She joked to ease Cassie’s mortification. It wasn’t working. She wasn’t able to stop the agonizing moan that escaped her lips.
“Hey, hey, stop that wounded-animal sound. He looked over at me and told me to tell you not to feel guilty about a damn thing. I promise that’s what he said. Then he wanted me to let you know that you can give him a call when you were ready.” She paused. “He knows you’re heartbroken right now, and he’s seriously interested in you.”
“I wish it were that simple, Sasha.”
“I know you fell hard, girl. You’ll get over that dickhead, and when you do, you’ll waltz into that bar and claim another man.”
As handsome and nice as Chip was, Cassie still couldn’t bring herself to think of him—or any other man—in that way. Only one man would do it for her. She sighed hopelessly. “Would I have to eat your pussy if we tried out this lesbian thing?”
Sasha made a choking sound. “Eww, gross. How ’bout we stick to dildos and only touch ourselves? I still need some dick if I’m going to play with a girl.”
“Then we’d just be masturbating in front of each other, and I think I’m good on that.” She tried to joke, but the memories of doing that with Ian were too painful right now. She pulled into the parking lot as she tried clearing her head. “I’m here. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye, girl. Call me if you need anything.”
Cassie hung up and walked into the building. It felt very surreal being here, knowing this wasn’t her job anymore. She guessed if she didn’t want to burn this bridge as her only job reference, she’d better officially put in some kind of notice. Just walking out with her tail tucked between her legs without any kind of word to her boss was unprofessional. She really hated taking the high road. Thoughts of uprooting all the plants and turning off the air conditioner in the server room crossed her mind. A little evil laugh made her feel better. Ah, if only she were a vindictive person.
She made her way to her desk and booted up her computer. At least they hadn’t disabled her network account yet. She figured Richard was hoping she’d be back next week. He’d be wrong. She opened her email and saw the hundreds of messages. Ugh! She sorted them by name and only read the ones from her boss, which were all work related. She had several in there from Ian, but she just couldn’t read them. She was a coward. So what?
She submitted leave for the time she was out last week and a vacation request for the rest of the month. She was just going to resign early, but she wasn’t sure what that’d do to her severance package. Those shitheads would be paying her for the six months they owed her. If her vacation time was denied, she’d reevaluate her circumstances.
Cassie cleaned out her desk, shredding old paperwork that nobody needed, and packed up her personal belongings. When she was finished, her desk resembled many others around her. It looked as if she wasn’t the only scorned employee who didn’t want to stick around for the guillotine. As she picked up her box, she noticed her message button blinking on her phone. She stared at it and considered listening to them all, but she knew at least one, if not a lot, of those would be from Ian. If she couldn’t bring herself to read his emails, no way was she able to listen to his voice. Besides, if any of the messages were work related, it really didn’t matter. She clutched her box tighter and strode purposely toward the front door, never looking back.
She felt really proud of herself. She didn’t cry until she was on the freeway, but once she started, she bawled uncontrollably. She’d kept her feelings numb, not allowing herself to grieve for what she’d truly lost, and now those emotions were pouring out of her. She pulled over onto the shoulder and buried her head in her hands, letting the tears fall. After she cried for a while, she figured she needed to get home before someone pulled over and checked on her. People were kind in the South. They did that sort of thing. Gathering her inner strength, she wiped her eyes and merged onto the road. Her breath was hitching and her eyes were sore and swollen, but she only thought about the road to home.
When she pulled up into her driveway, there was a large SUV parked to the side. Crap, she didn’t want company right now. She looked like shit. She didn’t recognize the vehicle and the windows were tinted. Oh well. She slid out of her car and grabbed her box. Whoever it was would just have to deal with her like this. When she walked up her sidewalk, the driver-side door opened, and a man got out. She did a double take when his profile was partially covered from the tall vehicle he was getting out of. She saw disheveled brown hair and sunglasses. When he turned and headed straight for her, she gasped and her body froze.
Ian.
The air locked in her lungs.
