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Sticking with the decision I'd made, I was dressed in a pressed, crisp white blouse and black dress pants the next morning, grabbing my salad for lunch from the fridge and pulling on my thick, fur, winter coat. I left the apartment and was careful not to slip on the frost in my boots as I got into my car and made the commute to work.
I was feeling nervous, but I trusted Caden when he told me that he would ensure nobody gave me any shit. I didn't want to run to the boss everytime it happened, so I knew I had to try and be strong and just deal with it. I had called Caden the night before to let him know I'd be returning and he genuinely sounded thrilled. I expressed my concerns to him, to which he repeated that he would make sure things were fine and he also told me that he hadn't heard anything from anyone about it, so there was a chance that Alicia and Alex hadn't told anyone.
As I drove to work, my argument with Keira the day before flashed through my mind.
'Are you out of your fucking mind, Ava?' she yelled, grabbing fistfuls of her hair in her hands. 'I can't believe you are actually that naive!'
'Don't call me that!' I snapped back. 'You weren't here when we talked; you don't know how our conversation went!'
'Let me guess, Caden said all the right things and you forgave him?' she scoffed, and I took in a slow breath as I had no comeback. 'Yeah, exactly!'
'Keira, with all due respect, it has nothing to do with you anyway,' I murmured.
'I've been here for you through every single nasty and cruel thing he has done!' she cried. 'How many times are you going to give in to him before you realise he is bad for you?'
'It's not about that!' I exclaimed. 'We aren't together, I don't have feelings for him, it was just-!'
'It's not just sex for you, Ava!' Keira snapped. 'If it was just sex, you wouldn't get emotional over the other things he does and says to you! You are not the type of person who just sleeps with someone; it's not in your nature! I encouraged it at first but then I saw how much he fucked with your life and I can't watch you go through it again!'
'I won't go through it again,' I sighed.
'Ava, this isn't you!' she cried. 'You don't do this shit, you don't sleep with your boss, you don't sleep with toxic men who know exactly how to drag you in!'
'You're pissing me off,' I told her, sternly.
'Good!' she cried. 'You need to realise the facts! You can do so much better than being Caden's play toy. You're not that type of person, Ava. Come on, you're a good-.'
'Don't you fucking dare call me a good girl,' I warned. 'I swear to god, I won't be able to stop myself from saying something I'll probably regret if you dare patronise me with those fucking words!'
