Chapter 97

Chapter 97

Now that Fabian’s feelings were known, his efforts to undermine my authority seemed to triple. In a week, he ignored–or half–assed–every request I made of him. Even most of the other employees were getting tired of him because they had to pick up his slack.

When I complained to Lily, she took Fabian off of planning and put him on setup and clean

Then she gave me another speech about asserting myself and being dominant. This did nothing to improve Fabian’s attitude or mine.

After the call with Lily, Fabian took off early–no warning, no explanation. I wanted to call Lily back and tell her, but it seemed like a waste of time. Fabian was more of a hindrance than a help by this point, anyway.

By the time I had dinner with Andrew, I was in a foul mood. I barely spoke to Andrew as he welcomed me into his mansion and took me back to the dining room. Even as we started to eat, the most I said were one–word answers.

Halfway through dinner, Andrew set down his knife and fork and stared at me.

“Crystal, are you all right?” he asked. “You’ve been awfully quiet tonight.”

I swallowed my bite of steak and shrugged.

“I’m fine.”

“Wow, two words. Now, I’m feeling special.”

My l*ps quirked slightly at his attempt at humor, but my joviality did not last.

“It’s not you. It’s work.”

“What’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything.”

My eyes darted to him. He watched me with kind, understanding eyes as he patiently waited for me to decide that I could talk to him. I set my utensils aside and wiped my mouth with my napkin.

“I’m just having problems with a colleague. He’s giving me a lot of pushback, and I don’t know how to handle it.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not doing what I’m telling him to, at all. It’s been happening all week.”

“Did you tell Lily?”

Twice. The first time got us both reprimanded, and Fabian started to rebel against me even more. The second time–which was today–resulted in him being demoted and me being

reprimanded again.”

Andrew’s brow furrowed.

“So, she’s blaming you, too?”

I nodded as I swirled the wine around my glass.

“She says that I need to be more assertive and dominant, but that’s not going to help with

He hates me because he likes Samantha and thinks that she should have been Head Wedding Planner instead of me.”

this

guy.

“Samantha, that’s the one who got fired for stealing?”

“Yeah. He blames me for that, too.”

Andrew cringed and poured some more wine into both of our glasses.

“That seems like a pretty impossible position to be in. You can’t make him like you. Honestly, if he isn’t willing to work with you regardless, he probably shouldn’t work there anymore.”

“I think so, too, but Lily won’t fire him, for some reason.”

Andrew swirled his wine around his glass before taking a sip.

“That would solve your problem, wouldn’t it?”

“It would solve a lot of problems. We might even be able to hire someone else to pick up the slack that currently everyone else is having to deal with.”

I shook my head, picked up my utensils, and cut off another piece of steak.

“Like I said, though, it doesn’t seem like Lily’s going to do that any time soon.”

Andrew smirked.

“You never know. She might just change her mind.”

When I came into work the next day, Lily sent me a surprising text.

I fired Fabian last night, she said. You and Terri can start looking for his replacement.

I raised my eyebrows at the message, but I did not complain. I sent her a quick confirmation text before entering the bridal shop.

“Hey, Terri,” I said as I walked in. “Did you get a text from Lily about Fabian?”

Yeah. It’s wild, isn’t it?” Terri said from behind the counter. “Especially why he got fired.

Chapter 97

I set my bag behind the counter.

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t hear? I would think you of all people would know.”

Terri’s playful smirk confused me more than anything else.

“Was it because he wasn’t listening to me?”

“Well, maybe, if that’s why Andrew would personally complain to Lily about him.”

My eyes widened.

“He did what?”

Terri’s eyes shifted conspiratorially before she leaned towards me.

“You didn’t hear it from me, but apparently, Andrew called Lily last night to complain about Fabian’s lack of professionalism and horrible work ethic. He gave her such an carful that she felt that she had to fire Fabian or else we might lose Lisa’s wedding.”

I nodded, chewing my bottom l*p.

“Uh–huh. And how do you know this, exactly?”

“From the horse’s mouth. I pressed Lily to find out why she had finally fired him when she refused to before, and she confessed the whole thing about Andrew.”

Crap. That probably meant it was true, then.

Terri tilted her head at me.

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah. I just have someone that I need to talk to.”

Andrew came over to my apartment that night. We ate fettuccine alfredo and drank white wine. I avoided the topic of work for the entire meal, unsure of how to bring up what he had done.

As we cuddled on the couch to watch TV, though, I could no longer avoid the subject.

“How was work today?” Andrew asked when a commercial came on.

I cleared my throat, a bit anxious to begin.

“Well, it’s interesting that you should bring that up,” I said. “Fabian was fired last night.”

12:46.

Chapter 97

“Oh, was he?”

“Yes. Apparently, someb*dy complained to Lily about his professionalism and work ethic.”

“It’s not surprising, considering the way you said he’s been behaving lately.”

I sighed. He wasn’t going to make this easy.

“I heard that you were the one who complained, Andrew.”

He hesitated.

“Who told you that?”

“Terri, who heard it from Lily herself.

He squeezed my shoulders and pulled me closer to him.

“Is that a problem?”

I wiggled out from his grasp and turned to face him.

“Yes, Andrew, it’s a big problem. You shouldn’t have interfered.”

Andrew faced me, his brows burrowed in confusion.

“I don’t understand. You didn’t mind me interfering on your part any other time.”

“This is different. I just wanted you to listen to me. I didn’t want you to solve my problem for

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“You could have asked! This is about respecting my boundaries, about knowing when you should and should not defend me. You can’t always be there running interference for Andrew.”

Trested my head on my forehead. I could feel a headache starting to form.

“Sometimes, I need to stand up for myself.”

me,

Andrew grabbed my free hand in both of his and lifted it to his l*ps. He k*ssed it gently on the knuckles before lowering it to his lap.

Tonly want to protect you from every threat.”

And you can protect me from the big threats and from those things that I ask for your help with. There will be times, though, when I will need you to just listen to my problems. Be there for me?

moved my other hand on top of his.

can redive everything

Andrew’s jaw set. His n*eck muscles clenched, and his hands tightened their grip on inbow His eyes flashed, but he kept his voice even and calm.

Tandemand. I will try and work on that.”

I leaned forward and k*ssed him tenderly on the l*ps.

Thank you. That’s all that I want.”

I dropped the subject for the night, but I knew that the conversation was not over.