Chapter 3: Last Night Never Happened

I rushed to the office, heading straight for the president’s office, pushing the door open as I spoke.

“Eli, you left too quickly this morning, listen to me—”

All three people inside turned to look at me at once.

“Vice President, Director, sorry to interrupt, please continue.”

I quietly backed out.

Eli called me back, and I stopped obediently.

“That’s all for now. You two can go.”

The VP and director left, giving me those knowing, smug looks—like, oh, we totally get what’s going on here. Ugh.

Great, I’d caused another mess.

I could only stand there awkwardly.

Eli yanked at his tie, clearly irritated.

“Autumn, let’s just pretend last night never happened.”

I thought he must have misunderstood, so I hurried to explain.

“Actually, I—”

He cut me off.

“If you want compensation, just say so. But don’t expect anything else.”

I tried to process what he meant.

“You think I came to you for money?”

Eli walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the traffic below, his voice weary.

“Autumn, I guess we’re just from two different worlds.”

My eyes filled with tears, but I kept my voice steady.

“Don’t worry, I’ll know my place from now on. I won’t get any more foolish ideas, Mr. Whitaker!”

With that, I ran out of the office, hid in the bathroom, and cried for a while.

Eventually, I calmed down.

Suddenly, it all made sense. In the end, I wasn’t losing out.

Just think of it as a free night with a top-tier escort. Fine by me.

If I ever catch feelings for Eli again, I’ll eat my hat.

Meanwhile, rumors about me and Eli flew all over the company.

But the two of us acted even more distant than regular coworkers.

After a while, everyone came to a conclusion:

Eli dumped me!

That was the nice version.

Worse ones said I tried to seduce him, got rejected, and was humiliated.

I just treated it as office gossip.

Back in the day, I was the one who dumped Eli, after all.