Having slept on yesterday’s meeting with Miguel, I decided to approach Sophie in her office and find out if there was something specific going on with Miguel. I wanted to know what I was dealing with in regards to his relationship with Carson, but she and Miguel were out with a client. When they returned, I was in a design meeting, which Carson had begged out of, citing a previous appointment. By the time Booker, Luz, and I had finished, Soph was gone again, and according to Nyah, there was no telling when she’d be back.

I finished my day, feeling frustrated. It didn’t help that I ran into Carson at the elevators.

“Annabelle,” he said.

“Carson,” I returned.

The rest of the staff had already left. It was just the two of us.

“I owe you an apology,” he said.

So it was snowing in hell? Because, honestly, I had not thought Carson was the sort of person capable of apologizing for anything ever.

“Oh, really?” I asked. “For what exactly?”

Was he going to own his awful behavior toward me and try to make amends? I’m not a grudge holder by nature, too exhausting, but I wasn’t sure if I was on board with that. He’d caused tension between me and my friend, and I really resented it.

“I was wrong,” he said. He looked contrite and then he grinned and said, “Your office is going to be mine within three months when you blow your probationary period as we both know you will. I mean, Christ, you can barely get here on time. How much longer do you think you can fool everyone into thinking you’re qualified to be creative director?”

He looked smug. For the record, smug isn’t a good look on a man. I mean, it’s not a good look on anyone but most especially a man, okay, this man in particular when he was looking at me.

As a typical bully, he wanted to make me react. He wanted to see me pout, cry, whine, or lose my temper. Yeah, no. I knew the best way to defeat a bully was by not giving him the reaction he wanted, so I squelched my urge to stomp on his instep or knee him in the junk, and instead, I just tossed my hair over my shoulder and kept my face free of any emotion.

“It’s weird how you’re so intimidated by me,” I said. I adjusted the strap of my purse on my shoulder and reached around him to press the down elevator button.