A Heart to Trust, A.L. Brooks [speed reading book TXT] 📗

“Hi,” Jenny said.

Olivia took a moment before meeting Jenny’s gaze. “Happy new year.” She gave her a friendly-but-that’s-all smile; her stomach twisted with guilt as she did so.

Jenny nodded, then returned her focus to her laptop.

Chrissy appeared a moment later, a steaming cup of coffee in hand.

“Good morning,” Olivia said as politely as she could manage.

Chrissy smirked. “Hello.”

It was the smirk that did it. Olivia straightened to her full height and walked over to Chrissy’s desk. “Do you have a moment? There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

“I…um…” Chrissy floundered; Olivia knew she’d caught her out. Chrissy’s laptop wasn’t on—hell, it wasn’t even out of her bag just yet—so she could hardly claim she was too busy to talk.

“Shall we?” Olivia pointed toward the meeting rooms. She turned and didn’t bother looking back to see if Chrissy followed.

Once they were in one of the meeting rooms, Olivia shut the door and turned to her. “So, let’s talk about what you did during Catwalk, when you blatantly lied to Derek about a conversation you and I supposedly had about a change to Katherine’s arrival time.” There was no point beating around the bush, and Olivia also hoped the direct approach might catch Chrissy off guard.

When Chrissy let out a cruel and nasty laugh, Olivia’s ire rose.

“Oh yes,” Chrissy sneered, “Derek wasn’t impressed with you then, was he?” She folded her arms across her chest and her mouth twisted into a disgusted snarl.

“No thanks to you!” Olivia stepped into Chrissy’s personal space. “So why did you do it?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“How about we go and see Derek and you explain it to him? We can also tell him about that catering schedule mess you set Jenny up for when she was at the dentist.”

Chrissy’s composure slipped a tad, her gleeful smile dimming.

“Oh yes, I know exactly what you did with that.” Olivia jabbed a finger in Chrissy’s direction. “And I’m convinced it was you who did something with Jenny’s Excelsior photos and notes too. Tell me, is it really worth alienating your friends and teammates just so you can suck up to Derek?”

“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you? Miss High and Mighty, living in your fancy apartment with your rich husband.” Chrissy almost spat the words at Olivia.

“How did you—?”

“Hah! Yeah, you think you’re the smartest too, but I know a few things about you.” Chrissy leaned in, her eyes narrowed. “Little rich girl playing at working while the rest of us had to do it the hard way. The real way. People like you make me sick.”

The hatred in Chrissy’s expression and tone made Olivia physically recoil. My God, where is this coming from? “Not that it is any of your business, but my husband’s money has nothing to do with me. I pay my own way, and I’ve worked bloody hard to get where I am. Just what is your problem with me, huh? Is it you know I’m better at this than you? You feel threatened, is that it?”

Chrissy snorted. “Threatened? By you? Don’t be ridiculous.” The fear in her eyes told otherwise. “I hate the way you look down on me. People like you always have, just because I came from a poor family and had to work my way through school and college.”

“That is ridiculous!” Olivia threw her hands up. “I don’t know anything about your background, so how the hell could I look down on you? That’s just a convenient excuse for your incompetence.” She took one step closer. “But you know what makes me so angry about all of this?”

Chrissy took a half-step back, licking her lips. Her gaze darted from Olivia to the door and back again.

“It’s the way you’ve treated Jenny. Pretending to be her friend, then stabbing her in the back. That’s vile.”

Chrissy threw out that evil laugh once more. “Oh yeah, poor little Jenny. She was just too easy. You, yeah, you were harder, but I made it work. Because I am smart, bitch.” Chrissy walked to the door. “The best part is, you can’t prove any of it. It’s my word against yours. And, you know what? I’m totally going to have the last laugh. Because with everything I’ve done, I’ve made sure my job is secure. I guess we’ll just see about yours and Jenny’s, huh?”

She threw Olivia one more nasty grin and left the room.

“Everything okay?” Jenny asked Chrissy when she returned from her impromptu meeting with Olivia.

Chrissy was a little red in the face, but she seemed cheerful enough. “Oh yes.” She beamed. “Everything’s good. Wonderful. Oh great, my coffee didn’t go cold.” She picked it up and drank a couple mouthfuls. “So, how was your Christmas?”

Jenny blinked a couple times. Something was off here, but she didn’t know what. She chatted with Chrissy and Maxwell about the holidays, and all the while kept one eye out for Olivia’s return.

It took around ten minutes, but eventually Olivia reappeared. Although she smiled at them all as she took her seat, there was a tightness around mouth that told Jenny everything was not okay.

Before she could come up with a plan for what, if anything, she wanted to say to Olivia, Derek walked up to their desks.

“Everyone have a good holiday season?” he asked without preamble.

While Jenny and Maxwell had worked through most of it, Derek, Chrissy, and Olivia had all taken the week as vacation. Jenny didn’t mind; the office was quiet most days and distance from Olivia had definitely helped. Plus, she and Maxwell had managed to get some serious desk basketball practice in. In their ongoing competition, which had run for over a year now, Jenny was top with eighty-eight wins, but Maxwell was close on her tail with seventy-nine.

Everyone murmured something about all being good, and Derek nodded; it was obvious he wasn’t listening. “Great. So, team meeting at ten in meeting room B, please.” He wandered off again.

Jenny walked to the coffee