by Layla Holt
Chapter 15
Megan woke up as she always did—with joy bubbling in her chest and eager to start the day, until she remembered what Ruby had told her. She fell back on the bed and fought the sob fighting to burst out of her. She hardened her resolve and shifted her thoughts to the things she needed to do first thing this morning.
She threw off the duvet and swung her legs to the side of the bed. Picking up her phone, she went to her inbox. Max was first on her to do list. She could not bear to see his cheating face ever again, if she could help it.
He had seemed so genuine. A bitter laugh left her mouth when she recalled his words that he had waited for her for a long time. She had bought everything he had said and even fantasized about their future based on his words. What a fool she had been.
Her lower lip trembled. Megan bit it to keep it still. With trembling fingers, she typed the message.
Megan: Don’t pick me up. Lance will drop me off at work.
She hit send and waited with bated breath knowing that Max would respond as soon as he read her message. Her phone lit up with an incoming call. It was him. She silenced her phone and stared at the screen as it rang and rang, then it went to voicemail.
Thinking that was the end of that, Megan stood up to straighten her bed when her phone vibrated with a message.
Max: What’s going on Megan?
Megan: I’ve come to my senses and made other arrangements. The contract is cancelled. Move on with your life.
Megan hit send and ignored the tears blinding her. She was not going to cry over Max, dangit! She had dodged a bullet and what she should have been doing was celebrating, not crying.
She went through her morning routine mechanically and at a quarter to eight, she was standing outside the cottage tapping her heels impatiently on the ground. Then the squeal of wheels broke the silence of the morning. Her ride had arrived.
Lance drove like a mad man and he was the last person she would ever ask for a ride. But she needed his expertise and if bearing his driving was what it took, then so be it.
“Morning sis,” Lance said when she slid into his fancy Chrysler.
“Morning,” Megan said and snapped on her seatbelt. “Thanks for agreeing to do this.”
Lance grinned at her. “I would never say no to car shopping. So tell me, what’s the urgency in buying a car? I thought Max was picking you up and dropping you off.”
“Not anymore,” Megan said harshly. “He’s fired and I never want to see him again.”
Lance threw her a glance. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Megan said.
“Fair enough,” Lance said. “Let’s talk about the car you want to buy. Specifics?”
“That’s why I asked you to take me,” Megan said. “I just know that I want something safe and reliable.”
“You sound like you’re ninety years old Megs,” he said.
“I feel like I’m ninety years old,” Megan said and slumped into her seat, sounding as miserable as she felt.
Lance was silent for a beat. “I haven’t told you this but I think you’re doing a fantastic job at work. It’s not easy adjusting to a new department every few days. I also know it was a difficult adjustment to make when you were expecting the strategic management position. Sort of the way Adrian and I felt when dad came back to work full time.”
“Yeah,” Megan said, pleased with the compliment. “It’s actually been fun seeing first-hand how all the pieces work together.” Those had been Max’s words and suddenly she missed him with an intensity that frightened her.
How could she miss someone who had cheated on her or with her?
It was discerning how she oscillated from intense dislike to missing him. Experience, however, had taught her which voice to listen to.
There was no use thinking about Max. He was in her past and his reasons for cheating or leading her on to think that something could happen between them didn’t matter. The fastest way to heal from heart pain was to move on swiftly and to ruthlessly remove that person from your life.
“What’s going on at the top?” Megan asked, eager for snippets of news on the overall happenings at Candin Inc.
“Tough times,” Lance said and she sat up straighter. “We actually have a management meeting in the conference room to discuss it.”
“What?”
“There are new health guidelines from WHO advising people to reduce their sugar intake to ten percent. It’s hurting our industry and we’re getting the same bad rap as tobacco companies, which is really unfair,” Lance said hotly.
Megan fell silent as her brain formulated possible solutions, discarding them as she brainstormed the pros and cons. “Can I attend the meeting today?”
“Sure you can, we need all the help we can get on this one. Maisie is invited too as the head of social media. You can come with her,” Lance said.
Megan perked up. Her melancholy was pushed to the side now that she had something else, something important, to focus on apart from Max. They stayed for an hour at the car dealer and by the end of it, she had a new car and a promise to have it delivered to Candin Inc by noon.
She was late for work when she stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor. The Marketing Department occupied one side of the floor and the social media people occupied half of it. Maisie had her own office at the very end and Megan made her way there.
The door was halfway open. She knocked and entered. Maisie was just finishing with a call. She glanced at her watch pointedly but did not say anything regarding Megan’s lateness. Her frosty reception said it all, however.
“Hi,” Megan said.
“Good morning,” Maisie said. “We were waiting for you before starting our meeting. I’ll let the rest of the girls know we’re ready.”
Max had described Maisie as crazy and funny. Looking at her sister-in-law, Megan saw nothing of the sort in her. She just looked pissed off and understandably so. Megan was late.
She didn’t offer an excuse remembering how irritated she used to get when the workers at the vineyard were late and made up silly excuses. Her phone rang loudly from her purse and she gave Maisie an apologetic smile and fished it out.
“Sorry but I have to take this call,” Megan said and answered her phone. “Morning Jaime, did you get my message?” She could see judgement on Maisie’s face but she didn’t care.
“Yeah, I did,” Jaime said. “I don’t understand. I thought things were going well with Max and the contract period is not over yet.”
“I want you to call Max and cancel that contract.” Megan spat the words through gritted teeth. “I’m not a child and I can take care of myself.”
“Calm down Megan. Don’t make rush decisions.”
“Now Jaime,” she hissed into the phone.
“Okay okay,” he said.
Megan exhaled when she disconnected the call. She looked up to find Maisie staring at her.
“Is everything okay?” Maisie said.
“Now it is. My brothers think they can interfere with my life whenever they feel like it,” Megan said hotly.
Maisie put on a sympathetic expression but did not say anything. The four women who worked in the social media department entered the office and Maisie did the introductions.
Maisie handed her a tablet as they went through their social media accounts and the women discussed the responses they had received to the previous week’s posts.
“These trolls,” someone commented. “This one in particular always makes nasty comments.”
“Noise,” Maisie said, waving a hand away. “But this is serious.” She directed the rest of them to the post she was referring to.
The woman was claiming that she had found a piece of wood in one of their chocolates. Her post was getting a lot of comments.
“This is the kind of thing that can bring a company to its knees. We need to arrest it early. June, I need you to find this woman and invite her to Candin Inc. We’ll do a video giving her a tour of our
production. We need to leave zero doubt about our hygiene levels. A piece of wood indeed.”
Every negative comment was treated seriously and by the end of the meeting, Megan had a healthy respect for her sister-in-law. No wonder she headed the social media department.
She was a problem solver and nothing was too complicated for Maisie. After the meeting, they had an hour before attending the other meeting in the conference room.
For that hour, Maisie showed her how to come up with interesting posts, and then how to analyze their campaigns and the effect on the overall brand of the company. It was fascinating work and time zipped by. The only time she thought about Max was when Maisie said she was going for the meeting.
“Oh, I’m coming along too,” Megan said, grabbing a notepad and a pen from her purse.
Maisie stared at her and then slapped her forehead. “For a second there I thought I misunderstood, then I remembered who you are.” She spoke in the tone that Megan remembered. Disdainful.
“What do you mean you remembered who I am?” Megan said, looking at the other woman straight in the eyes.
“The boss’s daughter,” Maisie threw back. “Someone who doesn’t have to earn her way to the top.”
Megan stared at her incredulously. “You’re right Maisie, I shouldn’t have because my father started this company but guess what? I have to because my family doesn’t hand things to people. You have to earn it.
“That’s what I’m doing. And I don’t have to explain to you why I’m interested in attending that meeting. You call me all the names you want. I don’t care.” She turned and stalked out of the office.
Megan’s jaw hurt from grinding her teeth. Who the heck did Maisie think she was to accuse her of not earning her place at Candin Inc? Even if she had not started at the bottom like her brothers, she had done so in Italy.
She had literally worked in dirt for years. She knew what hard work was. She got into the elevator and made herself breathe in and out. she couldn’t get Maisie’s tone of voice and disdainful expression from her mind.
Megan got out of the elevator and strolled down the hallway still stewing. As she turned a corner, she bumped into someone and his hands shot out to steady her.
“Hey sis, watch where you’re going,” Sean said, steadying her. He peered into her face. “I know that look. Who annoyed you?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to dump on Sean the unfair comments that Maisie had thrown at her. Then she remembered that Maisie was his wife. She wasn’t going to cause a rift between them. Besides, she could fight her own battles.
Megan plastered a smile on her face. “I’m okay and no one annoyed me. I’m looking forward to this meeting. I just hope dad doesn’t kick me out.”
“Maisie can say she invited you, right sweetheart?” Sean said and draped an arm around his wife.
Megan had not heard her footsteps.
“Yes, of course honey. I will.”
They were the first to the meeting, followed by Adrian and then Lance. Dean came in together with their father. He shot a glance at Megan but did not comment on her presence.
She inhaled a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding. The meeting got under way and she took a back seat as she listened to them discuss how to handle the announcement from WHO.
“Are people talking about it on social media?” Lance asked Maisie.
“There’s a whole hashtag on it. We’re staying clear of it until we get some direction,” Maisie said.
Everyone threw their opinions with their father expressing his frustration with social media. Megan understood his feelings and even admired him. Social media had entered the business world like a storm and he not only knew all the platforms but he also knew the lingo. His pronunciation of some of the words was a little off and it made her want to giggle, but it was neither the place or the time.
If she and Maisie were friends, they would have giggled about it later.
Megan had an idea but she waited until they had exhausted all of theirs. “May I speak?” she said, knowing she had no say in the meeting.
“The floor is yours,” Adrian said with a sigh.
“What if we agreed with them?” Megan said. “All the other confectionary companies have come out fighting but what are we fighting? WHO is correct. Chocolate is not meant to replace food.”
“Whose side are you on?” her father growled.
“Go on Megs,” Lance said.
“Chocolates and candy are not meant to be eaten all the time. They are for special occasions. So rather than fight the media and everyone else about something which is a fact, I think we should have a campaign that educates our consumers on how to eat chocolate responsibly.”
The silence that followed her words was deafening. No one spoke for several seconds and she waited for her father to ask her to leave the conference room.
“That’s brilliant Megan,” her father said.
Megan thought her ears were tricking her.
“It’s so simple but genius,” Adrian said. “You can work on this one with Maisie and the marketing department. We need a massive campaign to turn this into a movement.”
Then everyone was speaking at once, except her father. He stared at her as though he was seeing her for the first time.
Later, when she and Maisie returned to her office, she shut the door. “That was a great idea. Well done.”
“Thank you,” Megan said, too excited to hold on to her anger from earlier. She was going to be involved in the campaign. She couldn’t wait to see all the stages of a marketing campaign.
She waited for Maisie to sit down but she didn’t. Instead, she stared at Megan with her mint green eyes and rubbed her hands on her thighs. Megan held her breath, expecting another rant even though she couldn’t see what she had done to deserve it.
“This morning, Sean asked me to make sure I took care of you and make you feel welcome. I didn’t do that this morning and I’m sorry,” she said.
“Tell Sean I can take care of myself,” Megan retorted.
“You didn’t snitch on me,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.
“I can fight my own battles,” Megan said. “I don’t need my brothers to fight for me. I told you that earlier.”
“I guess I didn’t believe you. Now I do,” Maisie said and then cocked her head to one side. “I’d like it if we could be friends. Do you think that’s possible?”
Megan held her gaze and then nodded. “I’d like that too.”
Chapter 16
Max grew jittery at twenty minutes to five, the time he usually left to pick Megan up. He had gone over every second they had been together and he couldn’t pinpoint what it is he had done to offend or hurt her.
He had been looking forward to picking her up as usual when she had sent him that text which said nothing and everything. The gist of it was that she did not want to see him again without explaining why. Then, Jaime had called him later that morning and relayed his conversation with Megan.
Clearly, she was upset about something, but what? Max pushed his chair back. He was going to get to the bottom of it even if he had to wring it out of Megan. He was not going to spend another hour missing her without knowing why he had been tossed to the side.
Max’s anger and frustration grew as he got closer to Candin Inc. It didn’t matter how upset at him Megan was. No one had the right to treat another person like that. If she didn’t want to continue with what they had started, all she had to do was to tell him, not toss him aside like used paper.
Max drove into the parking lot and hoped that Megan had not left yet. If she had, he would drive to her cottage. He waited for ten minutes and saw her striding out of the building. He quickly got out of his car and sprinted in her direction.
“Megan!”
She spun around to face. “What are you doing here Max? Our contract is over,” she said, speaking coldly.
The woman standing in front of him did not resemble the warm, happy, funny Megan he knew.
>
“Please let me drive you home,” Max pleaded.
She turned around and started walking away. He followed her. She stopped in front of a red Acura NSX. She tapped the hood with a finger. “This is my new car. Which means I don’t need a ride.”
Stabbing pain shot through his chest. “Can you at least tell me what it is I did?”
“Nancy. Your girlfriend.”
Max groaned and raked his fingers through his hair. The last thing he had expected was that. How had she known about Nancy?
“Yeah, I thought so,” she said and without giving him a chance to speak, she unlocked her car, entered and drove off.
She thought he was cheating! Unbelievable. A fresh wave of anger came over him before it dawned on him that he had no right to be angry, while Megan did. She believed that Nancy was his girlfriend.
He had never had eyes for another woman for decades. Of course he’d been in relationships but none of them had ever gone anywhere. How could they have when none of the women he had dated were Megan.
Her tires screeched as she drove out of Candin Inc. He had to make her understand that there could never be another woman for him. Not as long as she was alive.
He caught up with her after a few minutes but kept out of her line of vision in case she saw him and sped up. He paused for a few minutes outside the main entrance to Glenn Acres and when he was sure she had reached her cottage, he drove in.
Max parked his car behind her shiny new one and hurried to the front door. He knocked and a minute later, Megan yanked the door open.
“It’s you again. Max, you’re becoming a pesky fly,” she said.
“I know you’re upset—” he started to say.
“You think?” Megan said and then all the energy seemed to seep out of her, like a balloon which had been pricked and was deflating. “Please just leave Max. I’ve accepted that I was a fool and misread things between us. It won’t happen again, that’s for sure. If you’re worried I might tell my brothers and spoil your friendship, I won’t.”
She sounded so tired and so defeated. It took everything in Max not to step forward and gather her in his arms.
