Page 7 of How To Resist Mr. Wrong (Mr. Wrong Chronicles #1)

Present

Emily was out of the office before Seb could return with the food.

She took the back door to avoid him. She wasn’t proud of it.

But she was too embarrassed with her behavior, or at least her contribution to the ‘activities that shall never be talked about,’ to face him again.

She felt stupid, like she was back to being the starry-eyed kid who thought Seb hung the moon.

How could she fall for his act again? How could she believe a word that evil deserter said again? Yes, Emily did see the irony in her line of thinking.

But she decided to valiantly put all the thoughts of the cold-hearted traitor and what Emily was going to rename ‘the random act of insanity by her brain’ aside.

She drove back home and holed up in her office to finish the work, this time without any interruptions.

She didn’t know what Seb wanted from her, but she still had her priorities straight.

The next morning, Emily woke up tired after working through half the night and spending the rest tossing and turning. Then she remembered she wouldn’t need to go to the office until later in the day, and it made her morning a little better.

Wait, she wasn’t supposed to count avoiding Sebastian as a win anymore.

Because it was insignificant. He was insignificant.

She spent the morning finishing her run, making and eating her breakfast, and not thinking about anything at all.

She did catch herself touching her lips more than once, but that was just a weird quirk she had picked up randomly overnight.

Okay, maybe her plan was a work in progress!

She had a couple of client meetings downtown, so she took her time getting ready and waited for the company car to pick her up. Right on time, she got the message that it was downstairs.

She got off the elevator and exited the building, scrolling through her phone. But when she located the car, she almost dropped it.

“I got you coffee. Two sugars and cream, right?” Sebastian walked towards her with his hand extended, offering her the cup. Once she accepted it, because obviously she did, he walked back towards the car.

“Why are you here?” she asked, rushing to keep up with him.

“Oh, the car picked me first. Marissa texted this morning that I should sit in on this meeting. Good way to get a lay of the project,” he explained, opening the door for her and waiting beside it.

Emily went on the other side and opened her door (thank you very much) and got in. “Of course, she did!” she mumbled.

“Huh?” Sebastian asked once he slid in.

“Fine! But don’t open your mouth unless it’s for something productive,” she warned.

“Are you sure? Didn’t work out so well the last time I tried that,” Sebastian teased.

It did not. Her mind helpfully brought back the images of what happened when she gave the instruction last time. To make things worse, her cheeks got hot and she was blushing.

She didn’t dare to look at Seb. She made conversation with the driver for a couple of seconds, ignoring the third person in the car.

But of course, no one can put Seb in a corner.

Once there was a lull in their conversation, he jumped in, “So, I couldn’t help but notice your office was empty when I came back last night.

Still running from our problems, are we, Em? ”

Emily narrowed her eyes and stared at him. What right did he have to say that? “Maybe a few things that I picked up from you haven’t faded yet,” she retorted. But as soon as she said those words, she realized she had taken Sebastian’s carefully crafted bait.

He didn’t miss a beat. “Now that you bring it up, we should really talk about that,” he said.

“You know what, no! We are here as professionals, and all we can talk about are professional things. So, I apologize for bringing up whatever you thought I brought up,” Emily said. Sebastian looked hurt, but he did a good job hiding it. “Let me just brief you about today’s meeting,” she diverted.

Sebastian was thankfully quiet almost the entire meeting, only speaking when he was directly addressed or to make jokes now and then.

Once she was sure she wasn't going to be ambushed by his attempts at explaining a past Emily had completely wiped from her memory, Emily could focus on her work again.

The drive back to the office was just as quiet. It helped that Emily had remembered to pack her headphones and shoved them in as soon as they were in the car.

She knew it was the right decision because Sebastian didn’t shut up once she had to remove them on the walk up to their floor. She tried tuning him out, but it wasn’t easy.

“Ray just wouldn’t shut up about the movie, so I gave in. And you know what? It wasn’t bad. Have you seen it yet?”

Emily gave him a withering look. She didn’t have to be nice to him outside of work if she didn’t want to, right? That wasn’t a requirement of professionalism.

“C’mon, Em. Colleagues talk about movies,” Seb complained, as if he could read her mind.

“Oh, look, we’re here,” Emily said, getting out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

She could feel Sebastian rolling his eyes behind her back, but it was easier to ignore because she could finally see her office, which, until yesterday, was her safe space.

Emily hated that this building, her favorite place in the world, had now become somewhere she had to be on a constant lookout. She couldn’t just chat people up in the break room, slowly sipping her coffee. She couldn’t enjoy the long parties the teams so often had.

She couldn’t randomly stop in the hallways to look at the pictures anymore. There were more than a hundred, all around the space. She encouraged her teammates to print new ones out and put them up.

All because she didn’t want to leave herself exposed to being attacked by the enemy. That’s how you found yourself on the Nature Channel.

At least when the day ended, she didn't have to worry about facing Sebastian.

She was all the more excited about leaving that day because it was her parents’ anniversary party, and it had been more than an acceptable amount of time since she’d seen her mother. Not that she would get to spend any time with her that day, with them entertaining God knew how many people.

Baileys didn't do subtle. The waiters in uniforms carrying champagne and hors d'oeuvres were the perfect examples of that. When she finally found her parents, they were deep in conversation with her mum’s frenemy, Martha Rodriguez.

“Oh, my baby!” her mother exclaimed when she spotted her. Emily hugged her and then her father. She greeted Martha the only way appropriate, really pretentious, not-touching air kisses.

“Did you bring any young man along, dear?” Martha asked.

“Why, Martha? I thought Stuart had finally cut down time on the golf course and was home more often now,” Erina said, before Emily herself could come up with a way to disappoint her. Her way probably would have been nicer, too. But she was happy to know her mother always had her back.

“Calm down, Erina! I was just asking because I wanted Emily to meet my boy Ronaldo. They’ll look so good together,” she said, clapping and rubbing her hands. “Hold on,” she said and left everyone hanging, probably looking for her ‘boy’.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” her mother said excitedly, watching Martha walk towards a man who was definitely not a boy.

“Mom!” Emily said, scandalized. So, she wouldn’t always back her up.

“Emily, Ronaldo isn’t a bad man. I think I talked to him once, didn’t I, Erina?” Her father looked at her mother.

“No, honey, I think that was Martha’s gardener,” her mom corrected.

“Oh, then maybe Emily can meet him. He was a nice young man who knew just what to do to keep the grass thick enough to walk on barefoot,” her father nodded.

“Sure, honey. SEBASTIAN!” her mother suddenly shouted, looking behind Emily, her eyes lighting up.

Emily closed her eyes. This can’t be happening. Her mother, her sweet, sometimes backstabbing mother who was supposed to be on her side, was hugging the man she couldn’t stand.

When they were done, Seb came around and stood between her and her father, smiling at him. Suck-up!

“Son,” her father said, patting his back. “How’re you settling in at work?”

“Splendidly, sir. Emily has been a big help,” he said, wrapping his hand around Emily’s shoulder and squeezing once before dropping it.

Emily was mid-internal eyeroll when Martha joined the group, her boy in tow. “Ronaldo, this is Emily,” Martha introduced.

“Hey,” Ronaldo said with a distinct lack of embarrassment that the situation required.

Emily smiled at him. “Hi—”

“Hey, Ronaldo,” Sebastian interrupted her mid-awkward hey. “Sebastian,” he said, offering up his hand. “You can call me Seb,” he offered, shaking Ronaldo’s hand.

“Sebastian? Why does that sound familiar?” Martha asked Erina.

“Oh, Emily and Sebastian were inseparable in high school. You may have met him then,” Erina said, looking between Emily and Sebastian with a huge grin.

After an awkward minute where everyone was looking at everyone with expressions ranging from confusion to betrayal, Emily’s parents excused themselves to meet other guests, and Martha followed their lead.

“So, Sebastian, what do you do?” Ronaldo asked.

“Oh, I’m in marketing,” Sebastian said.

“That’s something, I guess,” Ronaldo said and smirked, looking at Emily as if they were in on a joke. Emily just raised an eyebrow. “I just took over Dad’s company. So, as a CEO, I appreciate the marketing people,” he said, patting Sebastian’s arm.

“That’s great, man!” Sebastian said. “Hey Em, you were going to give me that book I asked for, right?” He looked at Emily.

Emily wanted to say no. She really did. And she was going to.

Sebastian’s attempt was so transparent, probably coming from the right place too, even though he was a horrible, arrogant ass.

But taking his out meant playing along and spending at least some time with him, and that wasn’t acceptable to her.