“She didn’t want to, but…yeah.”
“God. Okay, I’m going to text her and see if she’ll come over. Maybe we can figure out who sent it in.”
I went back to watching the TV and contemplating how horrible my life was at the present moment when Julia showed up in my apartment.
“Hey,” she said tentatively.
“Come on in,” Emery said.
“Is she…”
“A wreck but not mad at you.”
Julia deflated. “Thank God. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done at work before.”
I dismissively waved my hand and then turned back to the TV. She was just doing her job. I couldn’t blame her. I was busy blaming myself and Landon for this catastrophe.
“Did it say who that email was from?” Emery prodded.
“No, it was anonymous.” Julia frowned. “I thought it was weird, but there were enough different images that we couldn’t think that they had been doctored. Then, Heidi agreed that they’d gone away together.”
“I didn’t know you were going to fire me if I said yes,” I muttered.
“I know. I’m sorry. I feel like the worst friend ever.”
“How is Landon taking all of this?” Emery asked.
I frowned and glanced away. I hadn’t asked about Landon. I hadn’t even checked my phone to see if he had texted or called. My fury was building again, and I didn’t know if I could handle seeing him when I was like this.
“I have no idea,” Julia said. “He was in some meeting for the higher-ups all day. I never saw him.”
“Does he even know?” Emery asked. “I mean…he has to know, right? You ran this by him first?”
“I…I don’t know. I thought that everyone had done what they were supposed to do in this situation. It wasn’t my job to follow up with Landon. I mean…I thought he had already been questioned.”
“Heidi, you should probably text him.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“He might not even know.”
“I said no,” I spat.
Both girls stilled. They could feel my anger from where they were standing next to the couch. I couldn’t seem to get it under control.
If Landon and I had just waited, if we had listened to everyone else, if we had done the smart thing and stayed away from each other, I never would have been in this situation.
Emery and Julia shared a meaningful look, but they didn’t say anything further about it. They just put on Mean Girls and brought me ice cream. We were only twenty minutes into the movie when my front door sounded like it was going to be broken down.
My eyes shot to Emery’s. “What did you do?”
She gave me an innocent look. “Who me?”
“I hate you.”
“I know. I love you, too, buttercup.” Emery nudged Julia, and they both headed to her room.
Slow and creaky, I eased my body off the couch and wandered to the front door. I felt like I’d aged a lifetime in the few hours since I left work. I turned the doorknob and found an irritated Landon standing at the entrance.
“Is it true?” he asked.
“Like you don’t know.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Can I come in?”
“I guess you can. Doesn’t matter anymore,” I said as I walked away from the front door, leaving him room to follow me in. I heard the door click shut behind him.
“Emery said that you were fired,” he said.
I winced, as if he had slapped me. Fired. That fucking word. Poisonous and toxic. One word able to do so much damage.
“Happened this morning.”
“Why didn’t you call or text me?”
His arm landed on my sleeve, and I jumped away from him. A look of horror flitted across his face and then disappeared.
“What would I have said?”
“I could have been here. We could have worked this out together.”
“I think we already did. And it happened just like I’d said it would, Landon. That time I told you what would happen and you didn’t listen. You just had to move forward. You had to have me. You couldn’t listen to me when I told you that this couldn’t work, that my job meant something to me, that I needed it. I even told you why I needed it, and that didn’t seem to be enough. You had to push. You had to demand. Well, congratulations! You got exactly what you wanted.”
“You think I wanted this?” he asked in disbelief. “You think I wanted you to lose your job?”
“I think you didn’t care one way or another as long as you got what you wanted,” I said with venom in my voice. My hands were trembling at my sides.
“That is not true, and you know it.”
“No, I don’t!” I shouted at him. “Because here I am, without my job, and you get to keep yours because you’re a fucking Wright brother.”
“I didn’t even know that this was happening. I never would have let them do this to you.”
“Well, it seems we’ve found something you’re not good at. I thought what we had between us felt so right.” I shook my head and looked away. “I was wrong.”
“Heidi,” he moaned. He ran a hand back through his hair. “Please, love, let me fix this. I can make this right. I know I can.”
“No, you can’t. And you don’t really want to. You all have millions of dollars. You’re a fucking celebrity. How could you possibly understand someone like me?” I threw at him.
“I didn’t think any of that ever mattered to you,” he said stiffly.
“And here I thought that I mattered to you. Guess we were both wrong.”
Landon recoiled at my words. I was hurting him on purpose. I knew I was. But I was so angry with me and him and the world. He was just an easy target. Because we could have stopped. He could have not pushed me the way he had, but he didn’t stop or back down. And, now, I was the one paying the price. Not him.
“You should leave,” I told him.
“Please, don’t do this.”
“I said, leave.”
“Heidi, I won’t just leave you.”
I turned my back on him. “Just go, Landon. Now.”
Tears welled in my eyes again. I heard him breathing deeply behind me. I knew that he didn’t want to go. And part of me wanted to turn around and beg him to stay.
But I didn’t.
And he left.
Thirty-Four
Landon
I tried to put my hand through the brick wall outside of Heidi’s apartment when I left. It didn’t go so well.
“Fuck!” I cried as I stomped over to the Mercedes.
I shook my bleeding hand out before getting into the front seat, but it didn’t do much good. The knuckles were broken, and it hurt like a motherfucker. At least the pain kept me from thinking about the train wreck I had just walked into.
When Emery had texted me and told me to come over, I’d expected it to be bad. But I certainly hadn’t thought it would be as bad as it was. I couldn’t fucking believe that Heidi had been fired without anyone even talking to me. It was so unbelievably fucked up that I was beyond livid. I had known Heidi would be a pissed, but I hadn’t prepared for her to take it out on me. I hadn’t been prepared for it to be my fault.