“I’ll take care of the hotel bill. They should’ve charged everything to my card.”

“It’s okay,” she insists. “I took care of it.”

“No, it was your birthday present.”

“You left. You said it was going to be unforgettable and you were right,” she says.

I flinch at her tone.

She wouldn’t understand. This only shows me there’s no way we can work things out, if we want to make this work, she has to learn to separate our relationship from the company.

“I had to. We were about to lose the account,” I say and step away from her, reminding myself that we can’t be together.

“We had a couple of weeks. Why did all the timelines move? I don’t understand.”

“This market is unpredictable. You have to be prepared for everything. You can’t trust anyone, not even the client.”

Not even the woman you care for.

As I repeat those words, I realize how much I fucked up. Business 101: never let anyone distract you from your goals. She’s a distraction. How am I supposed to handle her now?

Things are stickier with Gary’s promotion and her probation. Detaching from her is going to be hard, but I have to do it.

“Claire, I’m not sure if —”

“Why wasn’t I up for the promotion?”

“You were. We have plans—”

“I deserved it.”

“He has what this company needs.”

“I uploaded everything,” she says, chewing her lip. “I’m not sure what happened—how he…but I don’t think you’re going to believe me.”

“I had to make a choice. He threatened to go with another company. I can’t lose him.”

She smiles and nods. “You can’t lose the stuff he gave you, so you had to make a move.”

“Yes, you understand.”

“Well then, I quit.”

My head explodes when I hear those two words. “You can’t quit.”

“See, this is me quitting. I. Q-u-i-t.”

“Claire, you can’t do that. By contract, you have to give us a two-week notice, and I wouldn’t accept it.”

“According to your minion, I’m on probation, Emperor,” she says with the same coldness I’ve been using. “I failed him. After three years of working nonstop, I’m on probation because someone played me.”

She grabs her bag and smiles. “My guess is Gary broke into my computer and stole everything I uploaded. But maybe I’m just saying this out of pettiness, and I didn’t do shit and left for Cancun. Either way, I’m gone.”

“Fine, just take a couple of days to calm down,” I say.

I don’t want to lose her and damn, she needs a job. Where is she going to get one with the market the way it is?

“I’m resigning, effective immediately,” she says firmly. “Have a nice life, Hannibal.”

“Claire Solis just emptied her desk.”