My boss blinked, so I blinked back.

“Hi, Gunner. Can I speak with you in your office?”

He stood up straight, eyes flicking toward Trevor, probably taking in the casual jeans and polo shirt he had on, and dismissed him. “I don’t have time, and I’m not giving you any more leave if that’s what you’re trying to ask for.”

What a wonderful human being. “No, I’m not here to ask for more time off,” I assured him. And thank you for asking, my elbow is healing just fine. Dick. “I wanted to give you this.” I handed him the sheet of paper.

He didn’t take it.

“It’s my two weeks’ notice,” I explained, holding it out closer to him.

I’d swear he scoffed. He might have even snickered too as he raised an eyebrow as well. “Your notice?”

Did it seem like that ridiculous of a thing to do? I nodded.

I held it out to him just a little closer. “I’ll work through two weeks from now until then—”

“I’m already short staffed thanks to your little buddy Deepa leaving out of the blue. You can wait until—”

Was he for real? That was a dumb question; of course he was. “I’m not going to wait.”

He definitely scoffed then. “I don’t give a shit what you—”

I hated him. I hated him so bad I could taste it. I had been so relieved the last three weeks being away from him and his toxic behavior that I’d forgotten how crappy he made me feel. And you know what? I hated myself too for not just using the edge of the paper to papercut his ass across the neck, but c’est la vie. Hopefully, he got one between the webbing of his fingers on his own. He was such an asshole.

“Take her notice,” came Trevor’s voice from behind me.

Shit. I poked at Gunner’s stomach with my notice, set and ready to take advantage of my ally. “Yeah, take it.”

He didn’t.

What he did do was look at Trevor with a frown.

“Take the notice. Let her work her two weeks,” Trevor said in that calm, cold voice.

I nodded and poked him again with the edge of it.

But he didn’t listen. “No.”

“That’s not how this works,” Trevor said calmly before sliding a glance toward me. He already looked exasperated two minutes in. “Just do it and tell him.”

I paused, then mouthed, “Tell him what?”

He tipped his head to his side like he genuinely thought I knew what the hell he was talking about.

Trevor though rolled his eyes again. “What would the other kid tell you to do?”

The other kid? Zac?

Oh. Oh.

He’d say he was proud of me and what I’d built.

He’d tell me not to let this ass push me around.

Then he’d probably say, “What would Shania do, kiddo?” Just to make me laugh.

And Shania… Shania would probably tell me I didn’t deserve this shit.

And I’d had it.

Tipping my chin up, I thought about the man who would elbow bump me. My friend, who if I would have told him what I was doing, would have come with me. But I hadn’t. Because of my own damn fault and my own dumb feelings.

Instead, I had his manager in his place.

Which reminded me again of what I needed to do later today or tomorrow at the latest.

But right then wasn’t the moment to focus on that too much.

This was about now. Right here. My future.

The one I had made mostly all on my own but with a bit of help and support from people who cared about me.

I was doing this in honor of all the employees this man had driven away. And I was going to do it with a whole lot of pride. I’d tried to be the responsible one, even though I didn’t want to. So.

Maybe Jessica the Asshole had forgotten me. Maybe so had Zac for a little while, and if this fucker only remembered me for a little while, I was going to give him a reason to.

“Actually, I’m going to go ahead and quit now,” I said.

It was his turn to scoff. “Don’t expect me to give you a reference.”

“I don’t need one, Gunner. I have a successful business that pays me a lot more than you do. I was going to quit before Mr. DeMaio even sold the gym, but… I’m done now. One day if you’re bored, look up The Lazy Baker online. Maybe she’ll look familiar.” I shot him a bright smile, while he dead-eyed stared, and turned around before lifting my hand and wiggling two fingers at him. “Good luck with employee retention!”

Trevor wasn’t smiling when we made eye contact, but it was pretty damn close. “Good job.”

He didn’t even complain on the drive back to his house while I went over all the details again like he hadn’t been there to witness them in person. He even nodded and kept the eye rolling to a zero. And when we got to the house and I saw Zac’s car in the driveway that couldn’t dampen my good mood either while we got out of Trevor’s car, and I practically skipped up to the front door, relieved and honestly feeling about fifty pounds lighter. I was free! Free!

“Thank you so much, Trev,” I told him again as he walked behind me into the main living area of the house. “That was one of the best moments of my life.”

He didn’t snicker or chuff or anything, but I could tell there was pleasure in his voice as he said, “No need to thank me. If you tell anybody I like seeing birds spread their wings, I’ll deny it until I die.”

I started laughing just as I spotted Zac standing beside the kitchen island. He was watching us.

That took a little bit of the wind out of my sails, but I still managed to say, “Hi.”

“Hi.” He frowned for about a split second. “Did you eat already?” he asked, his voice slightly funny. “I was just textin’ you to find out.” He looked at Trevor again as the older man went around to grab his computer from where he’d left it on the island. “Hi, Trev.”

“Zac. I’ll be in the office. I have a call I need to make.” Then he was heading down the hall, leaving us alone.

And those blue eyes that were mixed with milk moved back to me.

Right. “I ate earlier,” I admitted. “Thank you though, but I’m not hungry.” That was a lie; I was always hungry, but I’d blurted out the words before reminding myself that this wasn’t how I wanted to be with him.

It wasn’t what he deserved.

And he knew I’d screwed up, or regretted it, from the frown that carefully formed over his features again.

Shit.

“Bibi,” Zac said slowly, maybe even carefully, his gaze roaming my face while he kept on leaning against the island. He looked tired. “What’s goin’ on?”

He deserved better than this. Better than me, I told myself. So I had to try for him. “Nothing. Why?”

“Because you sure have been actin’ weird, darlin’,” he replied, still speaking slowly.

I shrugged both my shoulders, but it didn’t work.

He kept going, his frown getting deeper and deeper by the second. “You barely talked yesterday. Then you ran up to your room the second we got back after dinner.”

He’d noticed that?

“You didn’t text me this mornin’ either,” he told me. “If I did somethin’, tell me.”