Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“More? I don’t know how to find her. I’ve been everywhere.” I look up and down my street as though Autumn will somehow magically appear.
“No, you haven’t, or else you would’ve found her. Non?” She pushes a baguette my way, and I reach into my pocket to pay her for it. “No money today. Only help. Eat. The bread will help you think, see your path clearly.”
I don’t know how that’s remotely possible, but I’m not one to turn down Madame Laurent’s bread or her advice, so I take it from her shaking hand and press an appreciative kiss to her cheek. When she’s not looking, I drop a bill in the can she uses to hold her cash. “Merci, Mademoiselle.”
She smiles at the slight improvement in my tone and the smart flirt. “Oh, you are much too young for a woman like me, but perhaps you’re exactly what Autumn needs.” She winks and shoos me off down the road.
Somehow, I do feel better. Or at least like I still have a mission—find Autumn. Then what? I don’t know, but we have to talk this out. If it doesn’t work, I will have to find a way to accept the loss, but I won’t do that without trying. Autumn and I deserve to have that, without anyone else’s interference.
At the office, I fall into my chair and take a bite of the baguette as I gauge how long it will take me to pack up. No more than an hour, which is ridiculously pitiful considering how much of my life has been wrapped up in this office, this company, this life.
My door swings open unceremoniously. “I found her,” Tobias pants out.
Normally, I’d give him shit for being so rushed and mussed, but not today. “Where is she?”
“America.”
“What?” I hadn’t considered that option at all. I’ve been searching all over Paris, trying to catch her at one of the places she enjoyed so much, hoping something in my city would call to her.
I should’ve realized that home is where most people go when they need comfort. It simply didn’t occur to me because . . . I don’t have one.
The closest thing to a home I’ve ever known is curling up with Autumn in my arms. And now, like before, I’m homeless. It has nothing to do with a roof over my head but rather, a sense of aloneness in the world.
“I’m going to the airport. Can you see when the next flight to Massachusetts is?” I ask Tobias.
He shakes his head. “New York. She went home to New York.”
My brow drops low, furrowing. “Not home to her mother?”
Tobias shrugs. “I don’t know. I texted her that I needed to make sure she was safe or we would call the police, and she responded that she’s fine and home in New York.”
“Okay, New York, then. I’m heading to the airport now.”
Tobias blocks my way, his hands spread wide on the doorframe to stop me. “Non, you are going to the meeting this morning. Do what you need to do, say what you need to say. Tell Jackie to go fuck herself, and I will book your flight so that you can leave as soon as it’s done.”
I look at him shrewdly. “How do you know I would dare tell my aunt anything of the sort?” Tobias lowers his chin. He’s probably seen this coming long before I did. I nod, telling him that he’s right. “I already told her. Gave my notice, effective immediately. I’m only here today to clear out my office, which seems useless when I could be on a flight to Autumn.”
“Go to the meeting,” Tobias urges. “Do it publicly and professionally, not only between you and Jackie. You deserve to walk out with your head held high, on your own terms, not whatever she tells the board.”
He has a point. A small one in comparison to reaching Autumn a moment sooner, but a good point. “Fine. Book me that flight, please.”
I enter the conference room, and all eyes turn to me, then flick back to Jacqueline at the head of the table. I wonder what she was saying before I entered, which makes me grateful for Tobias’s advice.
“Pardon me for my lateness. I have another matter to attend to, but I very much would like to hear the final results of the competition.” I sit in my usual chair, holding Jacqueline’s eyes steadily.
She has no power over me anymore. At most, she can kick me out of this room, and I’m leaving in moments, anyway. I know it, and she knows it too. She also will not air private laundry in such a public setting. It would be distasteful to her.
Unfortunately for her, I hold no qualms about brutal honesty.
“Not that the results will be authentic,” I declare, “considering the entire third show was sabotaged by Jacqueline, Chloe, and Beatrice.”