Chapter 5: The Drama

When Emily woke up the next morning, the events of the previous night seemed like a figment of her imagination. The date with the rich business guy was nice, though. It made her smile as she got out of bed and hurried to get ready for work. In the sobering light of day, she decided it was for the best that nothing futher came of it. Byron may have been charming and heartstoppingly handsome, but his mood swings were not a good sign. Emily grew less and less starry-eyed when the reality of Josh being in town sank in. She didn’t know if he was here on a visit or if he had decided to move here just to stalk her, but it was a good idea to report him to the police, or at least get some advice. When she got to the office, she looked for her friend Pam, who worked in sales. They were old university friends, and Pam knew all the details of Emily’s life. She would probably love to hear about last night, but sadly she was away at a sales meeting. Emily already knew Pam would be telling her to go get that handsome rich guy. Pam was a go-getter. She didn’t always understand that Emily was not like that, even if sometimes Emily wanted to be stronger and more assertive but didn’t know how. As Emily went to her usual cubicle, she found it hard to keep her mind on the design for the latest marketing campaign. Just out of curiousity, she did want to look Byron up on the internet. Part of her didn’t want to because obviously he wasn’t interested in her, and she had held back from doing it all morning, but after she completed some of her work, she entered “Byron Pomeroy” into her computer’s search engine. The things that came up blew her away. She covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to release an exclamation of surprise for everyone else in the office to hear. “Are you okay?” one of the ladies in the cubicle beside her asked. “Yeah,” Emily said. “It’s just a cough.” She had expected maybe a social media account or two for his personal page or his business. But there were countless entries about him. The articles that came up about Byron Pomeroy talked about a ruthless billionaire who destroyed his competition and shut down entire corporations if his coffee happened to be served one degree colder than usual. He owned a whole empire of companies, and Emily thought it was amazing she hadn’t heard of him before. Of course, she didn’t read business news unless it had something to do with the fashion industry. The man in the photos looked just like that sweet, handsome man who helped her, but she could hardly believe it was him. Why did he bother helping her? Maybe even this evil enterpreneur had a soft spot, a weakness for women on the run. She remembered what he told her about his parents’ divorce. He must have felt sorry for her, Emily thought. There was never any attraction there. Emily looked up from her screen to see if anyone else had noticed her reaction. It was okay; everyone else was working or chatting about other things in their cubicles. But then she saw the receptionist walking in with... Josh. This was her wrost nightmare coming true. “Emily, there’s a friend here to see you,” the young receptionist said, “Make it quick, though. The managers don’t like too many social visits.” “That’s not my friend,” Emily said, unable to comprehend how he was here. “Emily, we have to talk,” Josh said gravely, as if she was some kind of troublemaker. “It can’t go on like this. Could you come outside with me for a moment?” He approached her desk, but she was paralyzed with shock. He was acting like this was normal, barging into her workplace and demanding to talk to her. “No,” Emily said. “Get out! This is my office.” She didn’t really have her own office, but the words came out like that since this was her territory much more than his. She couldn’t decide if she was more scared or angry seeing him here. “Okay, if you’re not going to come with me, I’m just going to have this talk right here, right now,” Josh declared. “Is this guy bothering you?” Sam, one of her colleagues whispered to Emily. “I’m going to call security.” “Thanks,” Emily whispered back. “I really don’t want him here.” “There’s nothing to talk about,” Emily said to Josh, “Please go away. Whatever you say right now, I’m not even going to listen.” She was reassured by the fact that Sam was quietly calling the building’s security services. Other people stopped their work and focused all their attention on the unfolding scene. “I don’t care,” Josh replied obnoxiously. “You don’t seem to care about my feelings, so why should I care about yours?” “I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Emily said. It was bad enough that inside Josh’s mind she was the cause of all his misery, but now it seemed like he would persuade all her co-workers that she was somehow hurting him. “I know you’re just seeing all those different men to make me jealous!” he shouted. Everyone in the office seemed to be judging her now. Of course, she did date different men because she was single, but he was making her sound like some kind of loose woman, something that the other ladies in the office clearly picked up on. One of the older women pursed her lips, while the young receptionist actually giggled, happy to find something to gossip about later. “I can’t do this,” Emily said as tears sprang to her eyes. She hardly knew what she was doing, but she suddenly got up from her desk and walked quickly out of the communal office and into the hallway, trying to get away. As much as she was torn between staying there and defending herself and running as far away as possible, Emily realized that the more she talked to him, the more it appeared as if he had some real claim on her time. She just wanted to be far, far away from this man. Sheer panic drove her deeper into the maze of offices and cubicles in the back of the building. There was a fire exit she could take. It was around here somewhere...