It Started With... Collection. Miranda Lee
of recent work experience, she needed a reference. Not that Justin would dare not give her a reference. She could make real trouble for him over this, if she had a mind to.
But Rachel had no stomach for such an action. No, she would simply resign and to hell with Justin McCarthy. In fact, to hell with him for the rest of the day. She was going to write out her resignation right now and leave. And then she was going to go out and spend every cent in her savings account on a brand-new wardrobe!
Leaving her coffee still untouched, Rachel stormed back to her desk and set to work on her resignation letter.
Justin was in front of one of his many computer screens, pretending to work, when his office door was flung open and Rachel marched in with flushed cheeks and her head held high.
‘There’s my resignation,’ she announced, and slapped a typed page down in front of him. ‘I’ll work out my notice and I’ll expect a glowing reference, though lord knows how I’m going to explain leaving my present position after so short a time. But I guess that’s my problem. Oh, and I’m taking the rest of the day off, starting right now!’
‘Rachel, don’t…’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t resign,’ he said wearily.
‘Too late,’ she snapped, and Justin winced. ‘And please don’t pretend this isn’t what you want. You’ve been working towards this moment ever since you woke up yesterday morning and found me in your bed.’
Justin could not deny it.
‘I’m beginning to wonder if the same thing happened with your previous girl. Or do you only screw the plain ones?’
‘Rachel, I didn’t mean t—’
‘Yes, you did,’ she broke in savagely. ‘You screwed me good and proper. But I’ll survive. I’m a survivor, Justin McCarthy. Watch me.’
He watched her walk with great dignity out of his office, and he’d never admired her more. But he didn’t call her back, because she was right. He had screwed her good and proper. And he wanted to do it some more.
Best she leave before he really hurt her.
Best he crawl back into his celibate cave, and best he go back to work!
Rachel felt tears begin to well up in the lift ride down to the lobby. Her anger was swiftly abating and in its place lay a misery far greater than she had anticipated. At the heart of her dismay lay the fact she’d really liked Justin. And she’d really liked working for him.
And you really liked having sex with him, came another quieter but more honest voice. That’s why you’re feeling so wretched. All your silly female attempts to look attractive for him this morning were a big waste of time. You vowed you’d never get that horrible sewing machine out again and what did you do last night? Hauled the damned thing out of the bottom of the wardrobe and worked till midnight practically remaking this wretched suit.
And what did he do? Hardly looked at it, or at you. He doesn’t want you any more. He never really did. How could you possibly have started imagining he might? You were just there, when he needed sex. He said as much yesterday. And now you’re a nasty reminder of behaviour he’d rather forget.
Rachel’s eyes were swimming by the time the lift doors opened, so she fled to the ladies’ room in the lobby and didn’t come out till she was dry-eyed and back in control.
But she no longer felt like shopping for clothes. What did it matter what she wore around Justin?
Hooking her black carry-all over her shoulder, she headed for the exit. Straight home, she decided.
‘Rachel!’ a male voice shouted, and her heart jumped. ‘Wait.’
Her heart began to race as she turned.
But it wasn’t Justin hurrying towards her across the lobby.
It was Eric.
‘ERIC!’ Rachel exclaimed, startled. ‘What…what are you doing here?’ Possibly a silly question when he’d always worked in the Central Business District in Sydney. It was inevitable that one day, now she was working in the city, she might run into him.
But to run into him only three days after running into him on the Gold Coast seemed to be stretching coincidence too far.
‘I was looking for you,’ he explained. ‘I asked around about your boss and found out he worked in this building.’
‘How enterprising of you,’ she said coolly.
‘I am, if nothing else, enterprising,’ he returned, and smiled what she’d once thought of as such a charming smile.
She no longer thought anything about Eric was charming.
She no longer thought he was all that gorgeous, either, despite his grooming still being second to none. His sleek black business suit would have cost a fortune. And he would have spent half an hour blow-drying his hair to perfection this morning. It must be killing him, she thought a bit spitefully, to find that it was receding at a rapid rate.
‘Why were you looking for me?’ she asked in a less than enthusiastic tone.
‘I was worried about you.’
She could not have been more surprised if he’d proposed marriage.
‘Good lord, why?’
‘Can we go somewhere and talk in private? There’s a coffee shop just off the foyer facing the street. How about in there?’
She shrugged with seeming indifference. ‘If you insist.’
He didn’t enlighten her till the coffee arrived, and she refused to press, despite being curious. The days when she’d hung on Eric’s every word had long gone.
‘You didn’t come to the dinner on Saturday night,’ he began, throwing her slightly. What to say to that? Rachel cast her mind back to the night in question and decided to go with the fiction Justin had created.
‘We had no need after my boss met with his client.’
‘Mr Wong decided against Sunshine Gardens?’
Rachel maintained her cool. ‘You don’t honestly expect me to discuss my boss’s business with you, do you? If that’s why you’ve come, to pump me for inside information for your girlfriend, then you’ve wasted your time. And the price of this coffee.’
‘That’s not the reason,’ Eric said hastily when Rachel made to rise. ‘I came to warn you. About your boss.’
Rachel sat back down, blinking. ‘Warn me. About Justin?’
‘Look, I know I hurt you, Rachel. I’m not a fool. The way you look at me now…you probably hate my guts and I can understand that. But I don’t hate you. In fact, I think I made a big mistake breaking up with you. You are one special lady and you deserve better in life than getting tangled up with the likes of Justin McCarthy.’
Rachel opened her mouth to deny any involvement with Justin, but after their performance on Saturday night it would be difficult to claim they weren’t lovers. Not that it was any of Eric’s business who she slept with.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said stiffly. ‘Justin is a wonderful boss, and wonderful in every other way. What could you possibly be warning me about where he’s concerned?’
Eric laughed. ‘I have to give him credit. He puts on a good act. But he’s not in love with you, Rachel. He’s just using you.’
‘How kind of you to tell me that,’ she said, struggling now to control her temper. ‘Might I ask what right you have to say that, what