Chapter 3

Conrad's eyes went red in an instant.

He rose to his feet.

"I didn't..."

I laughed, cold.

"Fine. Then tell everyone how you were thinking when you wrote this proposal."

"Enough, Blake!"

Winifred raised a hand to cut me off,

her gaze sharp as a blade.

"What matters right now is reflecting on your own mistakes, not pushing the blame onto someone else!"

"Meeting's over!"

Conrad hurried over, his voice cracking as though he were about to cry.

"Blake, I really didn't steal your proposal."

Several coworkers stood beside him, and every one of them looked at me with contempt.

"Somebody's just jealous of you and Ms. Cooley. Don't waste your breath on him. Come on, tell us more, what kind of watch did Ms. Cooley give you?"

They passed by me,

and I caught a glimpse of the silver band flickering at Conrad's wrist.

Two months back, before Valentine's,

I'd seen it in Winifred's shopping cart.

At first I thought she'd bought it for me.

She rarely gave me jewelry,

said wearing it out might expose our relationship.

So when I spotted that watch in her cart, I was happy for days.

Then, on Valentine's, she worked late,

and I stayed with her until midnight.

That night I took an Uber home by myself again.

I never imagined the watch I'd wanted would end up on Conrad's wrist.

I knocked on Winifred's office door with both proposals in hand.

When she saw it was me,

the softness in her face cooled a little.

My heart felt like it had been stabbed with a hot needle,

a dense, spreading ache.

"You knew all along that Conrad's version was the one I wrote. Why..."

"I knew. So what?"

I went mute all at once,

not knowing what to say.

Winifred lifted an eyebrow and went on.

"The words are already out. It doesn't matter who wrote the proposal. Besides, Blake, I did it for your own good. Do you have any idea how many people on your team can't stand you?"

"By doing this today, I drew their attention off you. Now you'll have an easier time fitting in. You really should learn from Conrad. People find him easy to like."

The office air-conditioning left me cold all over.

"And it makes you like him too, is that it?"

Winifred frowned.

Then, a knock at the door.

Conrad poked his head in.

I walked out of the office in silence.

And I heard a few voices behind me.

"Ms. Cooley's about ready to write 'I hate you' across her face, and he's still fawning over someone who wants nothing to do with him. Pathetic."

"Right? Ms. Cooley and Conrad are even wearing matching couple pieces. They just haven't gone public. Can't he stop throwing himself at her?"

When that was said, someone started laughing, though I couldn't tell who went first.

My eyes landed on Conrad's desk.

The markers, the vase, even the blind-box figurine,

all of it should have been mine.

To avoid suspicion, Winifred wouldn't use matching items with me.

So I bought her lots of things in the same color families and pressed them on her.

Even then she wouldn't take them.

When she finally did,

those gifts were on Conrad's desk by the next day.

Winifred said,

"I can't very well throw the things away. You bought them, after all."

I bought them,

but if I'd known from the start they'd end up in another man's hands,

I'd have thrown them out myself.

Conrad came out of the office, all smiles.

Someone winked and made faces at him.

"See? I told you Ms. Cooley only drinks the coffee you bring her."

Conrad touched his hair.

"She's just gentle, that's all."

Then he walked over and asked me, eyes crinkling.

"Blake, do you want some coffee? Winifred says it's good too."

I shook my head and kept looking at my computer.

But my hands only pounded blindly at the keyboard.

Winifred doesn't like bitter things. I only found that out a year into our relationship.

Because around me, she always went along with what I liked.

I actually thought I was the special one, the one who could make someone who hated bitterness willing to try it.

The day dragged by in a fog like that.

I organized my files, getting ready to resign.

By the time work ended and I'd just reached the ground floor,

I heard someone scream.

"There's someone on the roof about to jump!"

The phone in my bag buzzed without stopping,

and the second I answered, Winifred's furious shout came through.

"Get up to the roof right now, this instant, and come see what you've done!"