Chapter 3

I didn't have time to answer. Our lunch break was already ridiculously short, so Janet and I found a little conference room where we could eat quickly.

Then Martin barged in without knocking, holding up his phone on a video call.

“You little tease. God, you're sexy. Come on, let me see…”

He spotted us and cut himself off. The woman on his screen kept cooing in a breathy voice.

“Want a better look, baby? Send me twelve hundred dollars.”

Janet and I both looked down at our lunches. I wanted to disappear under the table.

We knew Martin was a creep. We hadn't realized he was this brazen.

A sex chat. In the office conference room. In the middle of the day.

He hung up fast. Then, face darkening, he rounded on us.

“What are you two doing in here? Is this the time to be eating?”

“It's our lunch break, Martin.”

Janet's quiet attempt to defend us earned her a full-volume dressing-down.

“Then why didn't you eat earlier? What if somebody wants to start work early and needs the conference room? You think everyone here has time to sit around slacking like you two?”

I was about to answer, but he was too embarrassed and angry to listen. He drove us out before I could say a word.

I was so hungry that any remaining desire to be a decent human being had evaporated. Naturally, somebody chose that exact moment to test me.

“Claire. Didn't you see my messages? Why aren't you answering?”

I didn't even register who was speaking. My starving brain had disconnected from every filter I owned.

“Questions, questions, questions! Jesus, look at the time! I'm on my break. I don't owe anybody answers to work messages while I'm off the clock. Can you corporate assholes—and the assholes sucking up to you—give people five goddamn minutes to eat?”

Apparently everyone had a breaking point.

Letting the profanity out did wonders for my inner peace.

Then my brain came back online.

I stared in horror at the man in front of me. Nathan had gone perfectly still, looking just as stunned as I felt.

Beside me, Janet discreetly raised a thumb.

“Cursing out the boss to his face,” she whispered. “Absolute legend.”