All He Really Needs(64)

“I’m not going to let you sell your house!”

“But—”

“God, you’re so stubborn.”

“I am not.”

“Of course you are.” Tasha twisted in her seat. “Look, you’ve helped with my tuition for the past four years. I’m not going to let you sell your house.”

“I didn’t help that much,” she protested. She’d just chipped in here and there.

“You helped enough. I can get out of my apartment lease and move in with you. We’ll share the mortgage payment. We could even get by with one car if we had to. And I’ve still got my job at the law library. We’ll make it work. You’re my sister. I’m not going to let you lose your home without a fight.”

Tasha’s words should have made her feel better, but they only made her cry more. It turned out she had a financial safety net after all. It was just her emotions that were free falling.

Griffin had ripped all of her long-sought-after security right out from under her. Her entire adult life, she’d worked to become financially independent. She’d struggled and scraped and starved to get where she was now…or rather, where she’d been a week ago. And because she’d slept with Griffin, she’d lost it all.

She should be devastated. She should be curling into a ball on the ground in tears. And she was devastated…just not about that. The job, the money, the security. She could live without all that. So she’d have to start over. Big deal. She could do that. Even without the safety net of family to help support her through the tough times, she’d still be fine.

No, what devastated her was that she’d lost Griffin. True, she’d never really had him. Her brain had never believed they’d get to be together, but somehow, despite that, her heart had believed it. Her heart had wanted and dreamed of what her brain had never dared to imagine: a life with Griffin. Her heart would have been happy in Houston, working for Cain Enterprises, or in sub-Saharan Africa. She would have gone anywhere to be with him. Unfortunately, he didn’t want or need her.

She’d get over losing her job, but she might never recover from losing him.

*

In the end, Tasha didn’t need to move in with her. The grueling search for a new job ended up being neither grueling nor long. The day after her big fight with Griffin, she’d resigned from Cain Enterprises. At first, he refused to even accept her resignation. He even went so far as to offer her a stiff apology. She didn’t wait around to hear him out, but had left her letter on her desk on the way out. Four days after that, she got a call at home from Sheppard Capital. Sharlene offered her a job.

At first, Sydney was tempted to refuse. It smacked of charity. She didn’t want a pity job merely because Griffin felt badly about giving her no option but to quit.

“Don’t be ridiculous, dear,” Sharlene had said, brushing aside her protests. “Griffin didn’t call me. Dalton did. He was furious that Griffin put you in this position. Even in the heat of an argument, he should have known better. Dalton wanted to hire you himself, but he doesn’t start with the new company for another three weeks, so I insisted I get first dibs. After all, I know how hard a good assistant is to come by. Besides, I also know what it means to be a man’s assistant. To spend your every waking moment anticipating his needs only to find out he doesn’t need you at all.”

In the end, she had let Sharlene convince her. Not because she really wanted the job, but because it was easier than fighting her. Besides, she did need a job. The pay was nearly what she’d made at Cain Enterprises, and it was nice to go to work somewhere where no one knew that splotchy skin and red eyes weren’t normal for her.

Sharlene’s own assistant, apparently, had been wanting to move to their office in Dallas and so, after a week of unemployment, Sydney started work as Sharlene’s new assistant.

A full week passed while she settled numbly into her new job. It was midway through her second week at the new job when Griffin walked into the office.

Seeing him at work was the one thing she hadn’t anticipated when she’d accepted the job from Sharlene. The sight of him was like a kick to the solar plexus.

It took every ounce of willpower she had to swallow back her tears, muster her professionalism and ask politely, “Is Ms. Sheppard expecting you?”

Griffin looked her up and down without a trace of his normal easy smile. “No,” he said simply. “I’m not here to see her.”

That gave her a moment’s pause. She hoped to hell that he was in the wrong office then because she just did not have the energy to be polite to him when all she really wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry. For about a month. Or even two.