Marie's POV
It would have been a little better if I wasn't working at the same place with my boyfriend, Callum.
Knowing that you got cheated on, and seeing that you got cheated on are two entirely different things.
Maybe if I'd just heard it, I'd have forgiven Callum, but I caught him with Nancy, another colleague, at the worst possible time and place.
My boyfriend for three years was sleeping with my only friend at work, during their short break time.
I stood at the door of the storage room, my mouth wide open as I looked at them.
“Damn it, Marie, why are you acting like such a creep? You look like you’re going to freak out.” Callum asked the moment they sprang apart.
He was zipping his trousers and tucking his shirt as I watched.
Nancy had only had to lift her skirts and bend over a table. She was arranging her clothes now, completely avoiding my eyes.
“Freak out? I haven't even said anything,” I rasped.
There was a thick lump in my throat and it made speaking quite a task.
“Then maybe you shouldn't be standing there like that,” he went on. “Come on, Marie. Stop being dramatic.”
“I haven't even said anything, you bastard!”
That was it. I was mad enough to lose my cool.
“Listen, whatever you saw here wasn't anything you think it is,” Callum said, waving his hand at me defensively.
He always had his way around with words.
Like the time he borrowed some money from me and never returned it. Or like when he took my newest coat and never brought it back.
Maybe he'd given it to some girl. But I didn't really care.
“Callum,” I breathed, trying to regain my calm even though my hands were trembling badly. “Explain to me why you're f*****g Nancy in the storage room during your thirty minutes break at work!”
“Stop shouting,” he whispered.
“Well, Talk.”
“Nancy and I had some errands to run here. We're supposed to be sorting out some items in the storage room,” he said, his hand raking through his hair.
He was really a boy. Maybe I didn't have any business dating a twenty six year old boy who wanted nothing more than to own a few fancy clothes and take nice pictures for i********:, but I loved him.
“Even a toddler would doubt such a poor lie,” I declared.
I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes now. The lump in my throat only grew bigger and became impossible to ignore.
“Well, if you weren't so insecure and distrusting, you'd have seen that nothing odd was going on here,” he spat maliciously.
That was it.
I was going to lunge at him, rip out his eyes and stuff his mouth with the roughest thing I could find.
The bastard of a boyfriend hadn't just cheated on me, he was calling me stupid for seeing it!
But the manager called.
“Marie, you incompetent b***h! I asked you to grab a bottle of wine and get back here!”
Yeah, Brandon was toxic like that. I didn't take it to heart. I walked off, grabbed the bottle of wine and headed back to my duty, quickly wiping off the line of tear that had stained my left cheek.
My hands were still trembling and the lump was still in my throat.
Usually, I cried into my pillow after an extremely hard day. So maybe I was going to get through my double shifts as a good staff and then get home and yell into my pillow.
Some days, being an orphan who grew up without siblings was the most f****d up thing, and on some days, knowing that your rent had expired and you couldn't repay it yet, was even worse.
But finding your boyfriend cheating with the only girl at work you ever made friends with, was the most f****d up thing ever.
But this was my life and there was no escaping it.
I continued waiting tables for the day.
I was cleaning glasses when the glass doors got pushed open and two men—real men walked in.
That was Ryan Cole, the CEO of Turnip Corp.
This was the first time our bar, as classy as it appeared, was going to host the wealthiest man in Glendale.
This would make Brandon jittery. He would expect us to be at our best behaviors and smile extra wide when we got called to serve his table.
I didn't care. My life was falling apart and my rent had expired.
“Clean the damn cups you slow b***h!” Brandon snapped from behind me.