“What are you so excited about?” Zach asked Sierra.
“Penny’s secret rendezvous with James Hunter during lunch.”
“Is that why you keep ditching us for lunch?” Tavon asked. “You’re eating with the boss instead? I feel slighted.”
“Well, yes and no.” Now was as good a time as any. Especially since I had gotten caught red handed. “I…”
“Wait!” Tavon said cutting me off. “Let us all guess what you were doing.”
I sat down. “I’m just going to tell you.”
“No, this is more fun. Zach, you guess first.”
He shook his head. “She was probably complaining about a super annoying new coworker.”
Tavon laughed. “I’m sure she was complaining about you. What is your guess, Sierra?”
Sierra stared at me for a second. “Working her way to the top?” She giggled at the thought.
I could feel my face turning red.
“Oh, shit!” Tavon said with a laugh. “You’re cheating on your fiance with your boss, aren’t you? Classic.”
“No.” My voice sounded way more defensive than I intended it to.
“Yes you are! Your face is bright red. How the hell did you pull that one off? He’s like the most eligible bachelor in the city.”
“Wait, I thought you said he was engaged?” Sierra said.
“This just keeps getting better and better!” Tavon said before I could reply. “You’re engaged, he’s engaged, and you’re both cheating and sleeping with each other. That’s pretty fucked up.”
“You’re such an idiot. Clearly he’s her fiance,” Zach said. He was staring at me intently. “James the telemarketer, I’m guessing?”
“Yes. Zach wins.”
“Oh my God, what?!” Sierra squealed again. Her voice was starting to hurt my ears. “You’re engaged to James Hunter? Are you serious? You’re so lucky.”
Tavon snickered. “So Sierra was kind of right. You slept your way into this job.”
“Dude,” Zach said. “You shouldn’t be messing with her now. If I remember correctly, you made some pretty shitty hypotheses about her fiance before you knew who he was.”
“Penny,” Tavon said. “We’re cool right? Obviously James Hunter isn’t whipped or desperate or controlling. I didn’t mean it.”
I laughed. “He actually is controlling. It’s fine. I’m not going to tell him you said that.”
“Wait, I think I remember reading about this,” Sierra said. “James Hunter took a break from corporate America after selling Blive Tech International.” She snapped her fingers. “He was a professor at some school for a year or something. And he got fired for sleeping with a few of his students.”
“He resigned. And it was just one student.” What is wrong with people?
“You?”
“I’m going to go get some coffee. Anybody want anything?” When no one said anything, I got up and walked toward the break room. They didn’t need any other specifics. Everything they wanted to know was online. I’d hide out here for a few minutes until they were done looking. I grabbed a mug, poured myself a cup, and walked over to the sugar. When I turned around, Zach was standing there with his arms folded in front of his chest.
“So the bruise?” He touched his cheek. “Was that him?”
Oh God. “No.” I tried to walked past him, but he blocked my path.
“If you don’t want to talk to me about it, you should talk to someone you…”
“No, I actually mean no. It wasn’t him.”
“Who was it then?”
“Why don’t you believe me?”
“Well, for one, you’re avoiding the question.”
“I’m not. I’m just…”
“So tell me then. If it’s not him, it shouldn’t matter.”
“Fine, you got me. I’m actually in a Fight Club.”
Zach laughed.
“Really. And I can’t talk about it. The first rule about Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club. I don’t want to be kicked out.”
He laughed again. “You’re too scrawny.”
“You wanna bet?”
“Look, if you have a nickname for what your fiance calls slapping you around, it doesn’t make it any better. You can lie to me but you shouldn’t lie to yourself.”
I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I didn’t want to be talking about this with a stranger. “I’m not lying. And I don’t see why this is any of your business.”
“It’s not.” He stared at me for another second before grabbing a cup of coffee for himself. It didn’t seem like he believed me at all. “But you admitted that he’s controlling and if he’s hurting you…”
“He’s not. Zach can you please just drop it? You can call me Fight Club as much as you want, but I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Okay, Fight Club,” he said and shrugged his shoulders. “I was just trying to help.”
“So why are you such an expert on this anyway?” He had spiked my interest. The tattoos and the tough look seemed to just be a show. He seemed kind and intuitive and for some reason genuinely cared about my safety. Maybe some kind of dark past. Everyone should be asking him questions, not me.
“I don’t see why that’s any of your business.” He winked at me and walked back toward our desks.
I rolled my eyes and followed him out of the break room. I knew he was just trying to be nice, but I didn’t appreciate all his prying. Especially if he wasn’t willing to give anything away about himself either.
“You have quite the sensational past,” Sierra said as I sat back down.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“So let me get this straight,” Tavon said. “You fucked your professor. Got caught. Lost your scholarship to the University of New Castle and the respect of your peers. And had to switch schools because of all the scandalous rumors?”
“I chose to transfer to NYCU. We wanted a fresh start.”
“So how did you pay for it? NYCU is an expensive college. Especially without instate tuition.”
God.
“I’m going to take your silence as confirmation for what I already thought. James Hunter paid for your education. And he obviously got you this job. Everything in your life has been handed to you. This is kind of bullshit. Do you know how hard I had to work to land this internship? How many interviews we all had to do before we got accepted?”
“My transcript is just as good as yours or I wouldn’t be here.”
“I think we all know that’s not true.”
“I think you’re missing the silver lining here,” Zach said.