The Cars Were Always Mine

Jacob didn't get home until the middle of the night.

He'd had a lot to drink, unsteady enough that his walk swayed.

Then he stepped inside and saw me sitting in the living room, still awake.

He gave a little jolt.

A third of the drunkenness cleared out of him in an instant.

"Silvia, why are you still up?"

I looked at him with a cold smile.

"You think I'm in any mood to sleep?"

At that, Jacob came straight over and sat down beside me.

He put his arm around me and asked in a gentle voice, "Are you upset about tonight?"

"What do you think?"

"Lucinda's young. She doesn't know any better."

"Oh."

I answered flatly. "She's young and doesn't know any better, so I deserve to be humiliated?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I mean, my girl has a kind heart, and she's beautiful and gracious."

"There's no need to get into it with an intern."

His words only stoked the fire in me.

"To go along with her."

"You'd rather let your own girlfriend be humiliated in front of everyone, take all that grief?"

"Who exactly is your girlfriend?"

Jacob pulled me in tighter.

"You, of course."

"Heh..."

I let out a cold laugh. "You want her to replace me, don't you?"

"There is absolutely nothing like that going on."

"Don't overthink it."

"I'm overthinking it?"

My eyes were fixed on Jacob's neck.

He'd deliberately pulled his collar up to cover it.

But I could still just make out a lipstick mark he hadn't wiped off clean.

"Jacob, you're the boss of a company now."

"You haven't learned how to run a business."

"But you've gotten pretty polished at trading favors under the table, haven't you."

Jacob looked confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I lifted his hand off me and stood. "I may not measure up to those young things, but don't you forget."

"I bought those cars. I never abused company resources."

Seeing that I was angry, Jacob still wanted to smooth it over.

I went straight to the bedroom.

And locked the door behind me.

The next morning.

I woke to the frantic buzzing of messages.

I opened my phone and looked.

Turned out the company work chat had blown up.

Ten minutes to clock-in.

But today the company drivers hadn't pulled up outside their doors on time to take them to work like usual.

"Where are the drivers, old Zach and old Walt?"

"Why didn't the company cars come pick us up today?"

"I've been standing outside my door waiting twenty minutes."

"Where'd the cars go?"

"We're going to be late. Somebody tag Assistant Winfield, quick."

Dozens of them tagged Lucinda at once, and she replied, "Hold on, don't panic. I can't reach the drivers, I'll handle it as fast as I can."

"Why can't you reach them?"

"We're about to be late here."

"Assistant Winfield, you're the one who said joining the report against Miss Henson would get everyone a car to use, but now we don't even have a car to get us to work."

"Right, and who's covering the pay we lose for being late?"