My Bonus for Her Ring? Watch Me Board This Flight.

The proposal landed on my desk at 7:42 p.m. and I knew, before I read a single word, that he was going to fire me with it.

Forty pages. Two months of my life. Meridian Logistics — the client I'd cold-called fourteen times. The CFO I'd driven forty minutes to meet on a Saturday because he refused to see anyone on weekdays. The deal that, when it closed, had pulled Vantrel Corp out of a quarter so red the board had stopped returning Elliott's calls.

The author line read: *Jade Wren.*

My name was nowhere on it.

Jade was already standing over me, one manicured hand pressing the stack flat. Her smile was the kind you'd give a barista who got your order wrong.

"Elliott wants the final draft before he leaves tonight. And his office needs tidying — water cooler's low, you know how he is."

I didn't look up. "This is my account."

"*Was*." She tilted her head, the way you'd look at a dog who tried to sit at the dinner table. "He reassigned it last week. Didn't he tell you?"

She knew he hadn't.

"You can still help with the formatting. You're so good at that." Her heels turned. "Oh — and Elliott took me to that steakhouse on Lexington tonight. The one with the window table? You'd love it."

The one he'd taken *me* to, three years ago. On what I'd thought was our anniversary.

She walked away before I could answer. The open office was emptying — monitors blinking off in waves, somebody's lipsticked coffee mug abandoned on the printer. I flipped to page two of the proposal. Half the market analysis was lifted word-for-word from my original deck. She hadn't even changed the font on the charts.

A door opened on the mezzanine.

Elliott Shane appeared at the top of the marble staircase, adjusting the cuff of a deep blue blazer I'd never seen him wear. He looked like a man with reservations. The cologne hit me before his shadow did — woody, sharp, with that amber base note. Jade had presented it to him at the year-end gala, on stage, with a ribbon-wrapped box, while two hundred people clapped.

He wore it now like it had always belonged to him.

His eyes swept the floor. Passed over my desk. Passed over me. Like headlights crossing a guardrail — registering nothing.

"Elliott." I stood up. My voice carried just enough.

He didn't slow down.

"The Meridian proposal. We need to talk."

He paused at the second-to-last step. Half-turned. His expression was the patient blankness he reserved for vendors and waiters.

"Jade's handling Meridian now."

"It's my account."

"It *was* a business decision, Nora. Don't make this personal."

"Did you read the deck? Half of it is mine."

"Then it's a team product. We're a company, not a credit board." He glanced at his watch — the one I'd helped him pick out for his thirty-fifth birthday. "I have a dinner. We'll discuss tomorrow."

He was already moving. The fire door clicked shut behind him.

I sat there with the proposal still open, my fingers pressing white crescents into my palms beneath the desk.

Then I closed the binder, stood up, and walked into his office.

***

The cleaning crew came at 9:15. Marta, the older woman who hummed while she mopped, gave me the same sympathetic look she'd been giving me for two years.

"Still here, honey?"

"Almost done."

I wasn't almost done. I'd swapped the five-gallon water jug — heavy enough to make my shoulders ache. I'd organized the proposal into a labeled binder. Now I was at the small sink, scrubbing the tea-stained ring inside his coffee mug. One thousand and something nights of this. Refilling. Cleaning. Formatting. Staying late so his mornings ran smooth.

Tonight was the third-to-last time.

My phone buzzed.

A social media notification. Jade had posted three minutes ago.

I should not have looked.

The photo was warm-toned, candlelit. The same steakhouse Elliott had taken me to three years ago. Same window-side table. Same heavy leather chairs.

In the photo, he sat across from her, body angled in, a steak knife in his right hand. He was cutting her steak into small, even pieces, his focus entirely on her plate. The kind of quiet attention he gave to things that mattered to him.

The photo was cropped just below his left hand. No ring visible.

On purpose.

The comments were already piling up.

*So when's the wedding?? 💍*

*Boss and his queen 👑*

*You two are GOALS*

Elliott's reply sat at the bottom. Three dots and nothing else: **…**

Not a denial. Not a confirmation. Just enough ambiguity to keep everyone guessing and Jade glowing.

I locked my phone, set it face-down on his desk, and finished drying his mug. I placed it upside down on the paper towel exactly the way he liked it. Turned off the lamp. Closed the door.

In the elevator down, my phone lit up again. A reply on Jade's post. From Tara in HR — *I knew it! When are we expecting the announcement??*

Forty-seven likes already.

Three days. I had three days left.

***

The apartment was dark. I didn't turn on the living room light. I walked straight to the study, sat down at the desk, and opened the calendar pinned to the wall.

Three squares left. I'd crossed off every day for the past month with red pen. The ink was bleeding through the paper.

My phone rang.

The screen read: **Elliott Shane — Office.**

I picked up.

The voice that came through wasn't his.

"Nora? Hi, it's Jade." Smooth. Creamy. The voice she used when she was doing you a favor you hadn't asked for. "Just wanted to say thank you for pulling that proposal together. You're always so helpful. Seriously, what would Elliott do without you?"

A pause. In the background, his voice — low, easy, lighter than I'd heard in five years.

He laughed at something off-mic. Short. Real.

In five years, I had never made him laugh like that.

"Anyway," Jade said, "get some rest, honey. Big week ahead. Oh — and Elliott says don't bother coming up tomorrow before ten. He's got back-to-back. Just leave anything urgent with me."

The line went dead.

I sat very still.

She wasn't just stealing my work anymore. She was rerouting my access to him. Filtering him through her. Making herself the door.

The red pen was already in my hand. I drew a slow X through today's square.

Two days.

After that, the voice on the other end of that phone would never be my problem again.