"Chrissy! Open the door!"
Just as I'm watering my beautiful kumquat and trying to distract myself, the phone beeps, and I growl as I realize that I'm not the only whose day was ruined because of Mr. fungus's annoyingness.
Is this your hot boss shou...
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Five hours. Five precious hours I spent choosing between roses and peonies with a thorny Briar. Since I have not called her for a couple of days, she pulled out the big guns and threatened to sue me for not getting her baby breaths planted in time.
Luckily, I'm finally out of her property and racing my way back to Tropical co. before the foreman arrives and opens the infamous drawer again. Having already called Ashton and asked him not to leave the company, I nervously push on the honk for cars to move away.
The second Jazzmine opens the gate for me, I jump out of the car leaving everything in it, and run to the elevators. When I hear the beep on the eleventh floor, I rush out of the cabin and smile as I find Ashton's office still lit up.
"I'm so sorry traffic was crazy," I explain on my way in. Only my plans to greet him with a kiss fails as I stand still to contemplate the massacre scene before me.
Not a single piece of furniture stands intact, making the room look like it got hit by a hurricane. Despite the number of broken chairs and scattered documents, a pair of opened and thrown drawers catches my attention and confirms the suspicions I was having.
"You knew all along?" asks an exhausted Ashton, his shirt all crumpled and streams of tears marked on his cheeks.
"I promised I only found the will earlier today," I confess, tears blurring my vision.
"He doesn't want me," he says, flashes of hurt and regret staining his expression. "I've always tried my best to be a good son to Perry Green. And every single time he shoots me down."
"Ashton, honey," I run to sit next to him and take his hand in mine, "I talked to Marc, we can still salvage this. The paper might be fake."
Shaking his head from left to right, Ashton takes the will and inspects it again only to let a faint smile tinted with hurt creep on his face.
"I'd recognize his handwriting anywhere."
Only then, and when I notice the incoming stream of tears Ashton is trying hard to oppress, I wrap my hands around him, feeling every ache that sends his body to shake like a leaf.
With every breath taken, he buries his head deeper into the crook of my neck and inhales its scent as if his life depends on it. Minutes later, he calms down and stands to light a cigarette while I remain on the floor, watching him roam the room.
"He used to say that I reminded him of her. Sometimes he'd refuse to see me just because of that," he recalls bitterly. "But it all ends tonight. I don't want him anymore."
Running as fast as the stilettos allow me to, I pick up the pace to catch Ashton on his way to the conference garden. While a few messages ding in my pocket, I chose to ignore them.
- Chrys, I was told something is happening at Tropical and co. - Dan
- Talk to me, are you okay? - Dan
"Here you go," screams Ashton the second he finds his brother having a rather intimate meeting with Regina.
When Samuel takes the paper, a wave of color flashes across his face as he reads it thoroughly, focusing on a single line that must've done wonders to his already inflated ego.
"From this day forward I don't want a thing that reminds me of you nor Perry. You got the company, you have everything now. Enjoy it while it lasts,"
With that, Ashton walks to the parking lot, shoulders down as if holding the weight of the planet. When I call him to wait for me, he turns around, an apologetic look darkening his features,
"Chrysanthemum, I cannot do this anymore." From this sentence onward, every single word he utters is a knife that slices through me, not minding my crumbling heart or burning soul, "I'm so sorry I couldn't be the guy you wanted. Feel free to stay, I know how much you value your career."
As the sun throws its last rays into the sky, Ashton disappears in the dark, leaving me in the garden to process whatever happened.
It feels like an eternity of me standing still, repeating over and over in my head the one sentence I would have never in a million years thought I'd hear coming from Ashton: I cannot do this anymore.
After all this work, and me doing everything in my power to engage in symbiosis with him, the fungus disappears just like that, leaving me like an insignificant detail he deems unnecessary now that he's done from the company.
Chrysanthemum," screams a proud parasite, his voice flamboyant with victory, "my assistant offer still stands. Tropical and co. would love nothing more than to preserve a talent such as yourself."
My ears feeling on the verge of falling off, I turn around and snatch a few leaves of the poison Ivy I'd used the first time Samuel and I sat alone in here.
"Unless you'd like a tattoo to remind you of me when I'm gone, I don't see how I could still talk to someone like you. I quit. Good luck with the T.Rex."
When I finally reach my car, I sit behind the wheel and contemplate all that just happened. As if magically transported, I find myself traveling back in time. Jobless, loveless, and with a rash killing my hand.
Just then another couple of messages resonate in the barely lit car.
Though impossible, my heart wishes the sender to be Ashton. The things I'd do for a single word from him. Only Dan seems to be having an existential crisis as he explains,
- They found the will - Dan
- I'm so sorry Chrys, this will be all over the internet in an hour. There is nothing I can do to stop them - Dan
Mustering the last bit of energy left in me, I sigh when I hit send,
- Everything is over anyway
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