Page 143 of It's Not PMS, It's You

It hurt so bad.

The last thing I would ever want to do was hurt Nick.

I would never forget that look on his face.

Disappointment. Anger. Regret.

I could see them all in his eyes.

My life was falling apart.

I couldn’t think straight.

What was I going to do now?

I was desperate.

I took two deep breaths, thinking of the fountain in my backyard.

Then a couple more breaths.

I sighed. “Suck it up. This is not the time to fall apart.”

Giving up was never an option.

I would need to dig deep because this was the most painful thing I had ever gone through.

Dee could help me.

Pulling out my phone, I saw that I had five messages.

“That was stupid,” I mumbled to myself, realizing I could’ve avoided the confrontation with Nick if I had just checked my messages earlier.

Too late now.

I had one voicemail message from Nick and four text messages from Dee. I didn’t need to listen to what Nick said in his message because he had already drilled that into me in person inside the restaurant. I scrolled through Dee’s text messages.

Dee: Big trouble. Call me.

Dee: Where are you?

Dee: Okay, here’s the deal. Mason convinced Gary to give him the go ahead to make a deal with Mathors Aerospace behind your back. They screwed you over.

Dee: There’s only one way to fix this. I’ll keep digging to see what else I can find out. Let me know if you need backup.

My pulse pounded hard in my temples as my pity party suddenly turned into exasperation. I was furious that someone on my own team would stab me in the back like that after all I had done for the company.

Mason messed with the wrong person.

I tapped my reply to Dee.

Ruth: On my way to the office. It’s better if you don’t get involved. This could get ugly.

I was going into full-on warrior mode.

No backup from Dee was necessary.

I knew what I had to do—the decision wasn’t difficult.