Holidays with the Billionaire

Chapter 32

Adlee

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I wake the next morning to my phone ringing. I blink open groggy eyes and narrow them at the shrilling device. I thought the Taylor Swift ringtone was cute at the time, but right now, it’s obnoxious. I swipe my finger over the screen. “What, Gabe?” I groan.

“That fucking cunt!” he yells.

I’m more awake now, and I sit up. “Who?”

“Lea Jordan!”

“What? I’m so confused...”

“Screenshots incoming,” he says. “Sent!”

I put the phone on speaker and toggle to my texts. It’s screenshots of the comments on Gabe’s viral video.

LeaLuvsMoney: OMG that’s my boss and coworker! WTF?!

Dozens of comments underneath bombard her:

User1233439943: Who are they

GossipGurl22: What company is this

EstelleTheGazelle: What are their names

She responds:

LeaLuvsMoney: It’s Fox Investments in Denver. That’s Kelton Fox and Adlee Phillips. Wow she tries to take my job and now my boss. I had plans for that sexy man...

LazyDog85: Now Mr. Foxy makes sense, lol

“What the fuck!” I scream. I literally scream.

“Ow,” Gabe says. “But yeah, I did the same thing. Woke my roommate. We are so screwed, babe. I never intended for this to get out. I took all the precautions! I didn’t even know that bitch was following me or I would have blocked her.”

I put my thumbnail to my mouth. “But Lea’s still on medical leave... she didn’t sign the NDA.”

“Bingo. But they’re still gonna be so pissed. Fuck. I’m gonna be doing nothing today but watching Fox Investments’ stock drop. Just watch. Damn that stupid bimbo bitch! Of course she had to do it in the middle of the night when I was sleeping and I couldn’t delete her comments and block her in time. Her comment has over three thousand likes on it!”

My stomach churns. “I have to tell Kelton.”

“I know. Please do it in person. If he’s not familiar with the app he may not understand how it happened.”

“He’s on it, but he just follows the Avs and a bunch of other hockey and sports shit. And news and stock pages. Yawn.”

“Yawn is right.”

“Well, I better get to it,” I say, flopping the covers over and dragging myself to the bathroom. “I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for letting me know.”

“No worries.”

“And, Gabe. This isn’t your fault. I’ll be going to bat for you.”

“Thanks, babe,” he replies and ends the call.

“Fuck, this is gonna suck,” I mutter to myself as I turn the shower on. Then I shoot a text to my boss boyfriend.

Me: Happy Saturday. I’m headed to your place. We need to talk.

Kelton: I just woke up, but I’ll be ready when you get here.

Once I arrive, He greets me with a hug and a kiss and immediately notices the look on my face. “What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Let’s sit,” I say. I’m so dreading this conversation but it has be had.

“Do you want anything? Have you eaten? I can do bacon and eggs. And toast.”

I shake my head. “Maybe in a little bit.” I sit down on the sofa and say nothing.

He sits next to me, and after too much awkward silence, he looks at me. “Just spit it out, Adlee. I can tell something is bothering you—aside from the rest of this bullshit we’re dealing with.”

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. “Did you know that Gabe has a TikTok channel?”

He shakes his head. “No? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, he’s pretty successful with it. You’ve met him, his cheery and flamboyant personality gets him a lot of views and followers. He likes to do skits about stuff. Right now, he’s on an office drama kick. He started using real life stuff that happens but without sharing names, locations, you get the idea. Like when Lea fell and broke her leg and then I had to take over. He started with saying there was rumors about us hooking up.”

“But we weren’t, and why would he—”

“I know,” I cut him off. “He knows, too. I may or may not have admitted that I thought you were hot. And well, so does he. He calls you Mr. Foxy behind your back. But he only means it in good fun.”

“I’ve heard,” he says dryly.

“Well, the series really picked up and when the photos were leaked...” I trail off, biting my lip.

His face turns white. “Did that little asshole post them?”

“Yes, but... he blurred out our faces and still never said our names. He only refers to me as ‘ol’ girl’ and you as ‘Mr. Foxy.’ Nobody would suspect it’s a play on your name. Just that you’re a fox.” I smile.

But he’s not smiling. “When did he post them?”

“Before the NDA. I can assure you.”

“Then he has to take them down,” he snaps.

“I agreed at first, but now it’s too late.” I sigh and suck my lip into my mouth again.

“What happened, Adlee? Just spit it out already.”

I take a big breath. “Lea saw the posts. She made a comment that the photos were of her coworker and boss, and when people in the comments asked who, she spilled everything. Our names. The company name. All of it. I’m so sorry, Kelton.” I look down and wonder why I’m apologizing.

“Well, fuck. She didn’t sign the NDA so she wouldn’t have known, but goddamn. Can’t that little bimbo keep her mouth shut and have some tact? I’m firing her once she gets back.” His face is red now.

“She made the comment in the middle of the night. We were all asleep. Gabe’s horrified. He’s since deleted all the comments but the damage is done. I’m sure people have screenshots.”

“There goes our stocks and the board is going to have my head on a platter. I’m definitely resigning on Monday.”

“No, you’re not. I’m quitting.” I stand up.

“Adlee, I need some time to think about this. I think you should leave.”

The venom in his voice rocks me, but did I expect him to hug me and say it’s okay? No, I didn’t.

I let myself out through the front door and close it behind me quietly. Once I’m in my car, I start crying.

What a mess we’ve made. All of us.

All we wanted was to be in love.

“I had to turn the fucking comments off,” Gabe says as we eat lunch together at a pizza buffet chain.

“I bet,” I murmur, staring at my untouched mac-n-cheese pizza.

“People kept asking who, and others would answer, then I’d delete the comment, but they just kept coming. I had to either delete the post altogether or turn off commenting, which really fucks my algorithm.”

“Maybe you should delete the post. Or at least private it for now. Kelton’s uber pissed. He says he’s firing Lea and honestly, Gabe, don’t be surprised if he cans you, too.” I look away out the window at the dreary, gray weather. “I’m definitely quitting.”

“I’ve already got some prospects for another job because I know it’s coming. I do okay with my TikTok money but I need benefits and stuff still. But if Fox tells my new employer what happened I’ll never get another accounting job,” he says, picking a bottle of tabasco to add to his cheese pizza.

“I’ll talk to him about that. Once he cools down.”

“He hasn’t contacted you at all since yesterday morning?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Nope. Like I said, he’s pissed. But I’m going to work tomorrow to put in my resignation.”

Gabe grabs my hand. “Are you sure you wanna do that, hon? I mean, he can’t fire you. And he said he’s gonna resign, right? Then you will work for someone else.”

I shake my head. “I don’t want to work there anymore. Even though he said he was thinking about promoting me to junior market analyst eventually. That would have been a really good stepping stone.” I sigh.

“Damn. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I guess. What’s done is done. We just have to deal with the fallout now,” I reply.

After we say our goodbyes, I head home and stop when I see the ice skating rink Kelton and I went to in the large park I always drive by. Something in me stops. I park and get out, watching skaters of all ages glide around the ice. Some are stumbling and falling. I pull my gloves from my jacket pocket and slide them on, then head to the booth to rent some skates.

“Size eight please,” I tell the attendant. I look around and a sign catches my eye:

Skating in the Park. Sponsored by Keystone Industries, Inc.

I scowl and almost leave. I don’t want a dollar of my money going to that jerkface’s company.

“That’ll be five dollars,” the attendant says, a smile on his wizened face.

“Do you work here independently?” I ask, fishing cash from my pocket.

“Yes, these are my skates and my booth. Why?” he asks.

I smile and hand over a five-dollar bill. “No reason. Thank you.” I hand him my boots for safekeeping and lace up the skates.

Like Kelton pointed out, I used to dance, but I’m no ice angel. It took me a while to get used to ice skating, but the memory quickly comes back to me. I enter the “rink” carefully and begin to slide on the ice as gracefully as I can.

Icy wind blows my face but I don’t care. This feels good. I was too cramped up in my apartment and I’d even turned down a family dinner today because I wanted to sulk. But Gabe made me go out to lunch with him, and while it didn’t really make me feel better, it was better than being in my place all alone. This is definitely helping though.

“We meet again,” a deep voice says as someone skates up to me. “It’s Addie, right?”

Jet Keystone.

I scowl at him but don’t correct him. “You have some fucking nerve talking to me.” I push myself to skate faster to get away from this smug asshole.

He catches up, his face a look of surprise. “What is that supposed to mean?”

All the anger and frustration from the past week comes bubbling up. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You ruined my life, Jet Keystone .” I spit his name like a curse.

He chuckles. “Glad you remember my name. But I’ve done nothing to you, except some harmless flirting. I won’t pretend that I’m not trying to steal you from Kelton Fox.”

I snort. “Good luck with that. Now go away.”

“Why are you being so hostile?” he asks.

I come to an abrupt stop like Kelton showed me and put my hands on my hips. I stare into his flirtatious hazel eyes. “You’re seriously going to stand there and deny that you leaked photos of us to our entire office, trying to ruin Kelton’s name, along with mine, and to try to make our stocks plumet just because Kelton won’t sell you some stupid real estate? Seriously?”

He grins and spins in a circle before stopping. “Did it work?” Then, the bastard has the nerve to lean in and kiss me!

“Ew!” I cry. I feel the anger rising and my cheeks suddenly aren’t cold anymore. I reach up and slap him across the face. It doesn’t have much impact through my glove but it felt good anyway. “Go fuck yourself, Jet Keystone!”

I skate away from him as fast as I can, and once I reach the perimeter near the skate rental, I hop off and back to the booth. I angrily yank off my skates and collect my boots and leave. I can’t wait for Kelton to hear this shit.

If he ever contacts me, that is.