“Tonight,” I answered back.
I snapped a picture of Abbi walking away from the car, but made sure not to get CJJ Public Relations in the shot. I didn’t want anyone knowing where she worked. I sat there watching her until she turned back to wave at me before walking inside, and the door closed behind her. Doing what Abbi suggested, I made my first post on my stories. Posting the picture of my wife, I captioned it. ‘Honeymoon’s over. Back to work.’
Chapter Twenty-One
Abbi
Even though Catherine had hired me and was my boss, she wasn’t who I reported to. I’m not sure what Catherine had said to Melanie about why I’d started work a week later than originally planned, but the moment I walked in the door, I knew she already hated me.
It’s not that Catherine needed to say anything. The entire world knew I’d married Reeves Jenner in Vegas; it had been splashed across every magazine. You couldn’t have gone online without seeing a still photo of us walking out of the chapel drunk off our asses, and I didn’t even want to know how many views all the videos on YouTube received.
Since I woke up that morning, I’d been focusing all my energy on my new situation. Once again, it had changed. Jenner and I were no longer enemies. We were married lovers. It was a strange thought. So much had changed in the last week. It felt more like two months than eight days.
In the span of those eight days, I’d gone from hating the man I now was sharing a bed with to, dare I say, falling for him. I was definitely falling for his cock, hands, and mouth. They always knew exactly how to touch me. Jenner had shocked me. He wasn’t the asshole he portrayed himself to be. Instead, he could be sweet and caring, and I was delighted to know I was one of the few he let in to see that now.
A figure at my door caught my attention. It was my boss, Melanie. I almost cringed at her laser-like glare. I was sure if she could annihilate me with her eyes, she would have done so.
“You’re going to be late for the meeting,” she hissed.
Meeting? As far I knew, there wasn’t anything on the schedule, but one look at Melanie’s pissed off face, and I knew not to argue with her. Jumping up, I grabbed my laptop, pen, and paper, and quickly followed her out of the main area and down a long hall. I hadn’t received a tour yet, so I had no idea where we were going. Every few seconds, she would look over her shoulder to see if I was still following her. She then looked annoyed she hadn’t lost me along the way. I didn’t understand her. Was she trying to get me fired? If so, why tell me about the meeting?
The second I walked in, Catherine smiled, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Melanie. Her eyes narrowed as she lowered herself into the chair next to me.
“Now that we’re all here. I want to introduce the newest member to our team, Abbi Jenner. I’m happy she’s in the office after working remotely for a short time.”
I smiled and gave a tentative wave to everyone.
“Now that we’re at the end of the day, I would like to go around the room and get any necessary updates on our clients. I know weekends can cause a lot of fires that we have to put out.”
A round of light laughter filled the room. I sat and listened as members spoke up about their clients. More than half of them had clients who were in trouble or were being slandered. They talked about what they’d already done about it, and then we got to interject anything we thought could be helpful. I liked it. Even though we each had our own people we were in charge of, Catherine made it feel like a team effort.
“Great. You’re all doing good work. As you know, I’ll be out of the office for the next week, so please use each other if you need help. I ask that you only contact me in case of an emergency. Jim and Nancy will be in charge while I’m gone. Now, if nobody has anything else, we can all go home.”
I had no idea Catherine would be leaving town when I started to work at the office. While she wasn’t my supervisor, she was the one I felt most comfortable around.
As everyone stood to leave, Catherine called out, “Abbi, I’d like to talk to you before you go.”
Melanie’s eyes cut to me with daggers before she turned her back on us and walked away.
Sitting back down, I placed my notebook on top of my closed laptop.
Catherine stood from her seat at the other end of the table and came to sit across from me. “I wanted to see how your first day in the office went.”
“It was okay. Busy.” I hesitated to tell her about my feelings toward my supervisor. I didn’t want to complain on my first day at work.
“Whatever it is, you can say it. I won’t judge you.”
And I knew she wouldn’t, but it still gave me pause. Maybe I’d read the situation wrong, but I didn’t think so. Plus, I didn’t want to complain. I could manage just fine if Melanie didn’t like me.
“I hate to say this, but I think Melanie hates me. She’s barely said anything to me all day, and when she’s around me, she keeps throwing me nasty looks.”
Catherine’s gaze went to the door, but I knew she couldn’t see anyone since the conference room was down a long hallway. “It might not have been my best move to have her as your supervisor. I assigned you to her before things changed, but I probably should have switched it up before you arrived.”
I didn’t understand why Melanie would hate me before we’d ever met.
The question must have shown on my face because Catherine answered my unspoken question. “She’s had stars in her eyes for Jenner since my first meeting with him, and the fact that he’s not a bachelor anymore, being married to you might have soured her feelings toward you.” She let out an amused laugh. “Not that she ever had a chance. He never even looked at her once, let alone gave her the time of day.”
That explained why Melanie had acted the way she had. Not that it gave her any right. It wasn’t like they were dating, and he upped and married me.
“Did they ever hook up?” I cringed after the words slipped from my mouth. I couldn’t believe I’d just asked my boss if my husband had had sex with one of my coworkers. I wasn’t sure I could work with someone day in and day out if he’d had sex with them. Not now.
“No.” She shook her head as her phone pinged with a message. “Like I said, he never gave her the time of day.”
“I’m not sure how selective he was, so I wasn’t sure,” I fired back.
“True, but he kept his dick out of the CJJ well. If Melanie continues to be a problem, let me know, and I can assign you to someone else. I need to get going in a minute, but I wanted to reiterate about keeping Jenner out of trouble. Especially while I’m gone, he needs to stay out of the news for a while unless it’s favorable. I’ve been fielding a mountain of calls about him no longer being on Alpha Blue and tamping down rumors he was a problem to work with. Unfortunately, their statement seemed to only fuel the fire.”
“I’ll do my best. When I asked him what his plans were for the day, he seemed . . . I don’t know what exactly. Kind of sad. I think he’s used to being busy a vast majority of the time and doesn’t know what to do with himself.”
“I’m sure that’s a big part of it, but I think now that he’s in a good place, it might do him some good to find himself. It’s not healthy to work constantly, and that’s what his dad trained him to do. I can’t tell you how happy I am Jenner fired that man. He’s been making a lot of good changes lately.”