His Secret Santa Read online

  “Mr. Weeks, I’d love to take this conversation up with Mrs. Girdler,” Devyn said through gritted teeth.

  “Oh, and what will she do? There’s no way she would take up for you after the quality time you spend with her.” A shit eating grin spread across his face.

  Before Devyn could think, her hand connected with the side of his cheek. The slap echoed through the hallway. She froze in place, the sound echoing in her ears as realization set in.

  Rage boiled under Chad’s skin and whatever fury Devyn had felt was deflated. It left the moment her hand collided with his cheek. Holy fuck he was pissed.

  “You only got this job because you’re a woman,” Chad nearly yelled at her, shaking his head hard in her direction. “You went and fucked that up though. You really have no idea what you’re up against do you?”

  Devyn stood there frozen. There was no way she could backtrack from this one, so she being defensive was her only move.

  “What does being a woman have anything to do with me getting this job? I worked my ass off for it. I went through four years of business classes and have worked retail since I was 16. Just because I got the job and you didn’t, doesn’t mean I don’t deserve it.”

  Chad scoffed, pushing off the wall.

  “I’m calling corporate. We’ll see what they have to say about this incident.”

  3

  “If I don’t fix this, he’s going to try to get me fired.”

  Devyn paced across her living room, and if she didn’t know any better she would have believed that she could burn a hole. She was going on lap 15 around the living room. Her feet slid across the fuzzy carpet, tingling from the friction. Her mind wouldn’t let her rationalize.

  Her sister had been trying and definitely not succeeding at watching the most recent reality TV show that was out. Maria sighed and turned the show down. She turned her body to face Devyn, who had already broken into a sweat and was chatting to no one in particular.

  “How do I fix this? He hates me. I’m going to lose my job if don’t do something.”

  “You need to calm down,” Maira said.

  Devyn stopped, staring at her. She hated when people told her to calm down.

  “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Let me try that,” she snapped at her roommate, glaring down at her.

  “How are you going to get fired?” Maria ignored the comment, giving Devyn a stern look.

  “Because you literally walked into him. You aren’t going to get fired because you bumped into him and he spilled coffee on himself. That is ridiculous.”

  Devyn watched Maria flip her hair over her shoulder before rolling her eyes at how silly the situation was. She had no idea.

  “You don’t understand.” Devyn dropped her head into her hands.

  “What don’t I understand?” she shot Devyn a look from across the room. She needed to stop pacing.

  “He is vindictive. He hates me. He wants my job, andI don’t understand why because I’m miserable.” Devyn let out a breath. A laugh escaped her before she could catch it. “And because I may have left out the part about how I smacked him when he told me I slept with my boss to get my job.”

  “Please tell me you’re joking Devyn.” Maria shook her head, staring at Devyn with a look she had seen all too much growing up. “Que carajo.” What the fuck?

  Devyn flinched. The Spanish words slipped off her sister’s tongue too easily. Normally, Devyn didn’t mind when her sister swore, but she never liked it when it was aimed at her.

  “First of all, you’re overreacting. He isn’t going to get you fired. If he goes to corporate then everything else that happened is going to come to the surface. We can try to smooth things over between you two, but you have to tell me what’s really going on. I know you. This is more than a slap across the cheek. What else is going on you aren’t telling me?”

  Maria crossed her arms over her full breasts, another trait she had taken straight from their mother’s bloodline.

  “I got him for Secret Santa.” Devyn bit her lip. “I was hoping it could be easy, but they established new rules this year. I have to be there to give him the gift, and I can’t go get a gift card like I had hoped. So, I pulled his name. I have to buy him a gift, and I don’t even know him. I don’t know how I’m supposed to buy a gift for him if I don’t even know him and I know he wont let me get close to him to figure it out.”

  “You have to apologize,” Maria said.

  “Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly?” Devyn was dumbfounded. It was in that moment she realized her sister had surely lost her mind.

  “Hear me out.” She put her hand up. “You apologize to him. That will clear up you slapping him and it might actually get him to play nice. He sounds like a child who doesn't know how to be nice because his mommy babied him too much. If you are nice to him and apologize, there is a chance it will boost his ego and make him not want to tell anyone how you smacked him in fear of making him look bad. This way, he will know you don’t want any bad blood between the two of you and that you want to make things right, even if you are only doing it to make your life easier. Maybe ask him out for coffee since you made him spill his. The point is, you make him feel like he is the one who is in control of the situation, even though you are the one calling the shots.”

  “I don’t understand. If he says no then he is in control.”

  “He won’t say no,” Maria said confidently, sitting up straighter.

  “Why not?”

  “Because he wants to feel like he is ‘the big strong man’ who is in control of the entire situation. Play damsel and his attitude will change.”

  “I am not pretending to be a damsel. He is the one who needs a reality check, not me.”

  Devyn’s blood boiled and showed on her cheeks. Playing damsel would go against everything she had ever known herself to be. She had worked from the ground up to become the strong willed person she was today, and she wasn’t going to let someone she worked with take that away from her.

  “I know he is,” she said, “but if you want him to make your life easier, you need to play your part. You two could make this work and give each other what you both want. If you don’t want to play along, that’s fine, but he is going to keep pushing your buttons until you blow up and when you do, you’ll find yourself in hot water.”

  Devyn slumped, feeling defeat in the pit of her stomach.

  Maria made a good point. She fought hard to get to where she is today. The position she was in had taken months of continuous, gut-wrenching work to prove she was worthy. Was she really going to throw it all away because some guy didn’t know how to behave? She chewed on her bottom lip, toying with the idea of giving him an inch. If she did, would he take a mile?

  She glanced back up at Maria, her attention already straying away from their conversation and back to the show on the screen.

  What’s the worst that could happen? He could refuse her apology, but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Unless he went to corporate and got her fired.

  No. That was, not, a thought she needed to cross her mind if this was going to work. Devyn may have to sacrifice her pride in the process, but at least she would still have her job, right?

  “I’ll try,” she admitted, making Maria spin around to her.

  “You will?” She looked puzzled, trying to process how her words might have gotten through Devyn’s thick skull.

  “Yeah,” Devyn sighed, rubbing her sweaty palms across the thin fabric of her leggings. “The worst thing that happens is he tells me to fuck off. I can’t let him win. I’ve worked too hard.”

  Devyn straightened her back before crossing her arms over her chest again, shielding herself from the day she had ahead of her. Even with Maria’s reassurance, she doubted he would bite. Maria didn’t know Chad the way Devyn did. Hell, she wasn’t sure if anyone knew Chad quite the way she did. Devyn had seen him at his worst. His most cruel.

  “I’m going to get some sleep,” Devyn called over her shoulder, be
fore climbing the stairs.

  "Oh Devyn," she called over her shoulder, "Don't forget we're putting the tree up tomorrow."

  Devyn stalled, remembering the overly large Christmas tree in their storage shed.

  "How could I forget," she groaned before opening the door to her room and going to bed.

  4

  Chad spent the entirety of his night reminding himself of why he hated Devyn Kennedy. He hadn’t slept much. Truthfully, he didn’t know how he had dragged himself into the office this morning. The copious amounts of caffeine he had ingested, wasn’t helping. He was no less tired, but he was just as frustrated as the day before.

  Chad never made mistakes. He didn’t question his actions, so why the hell was he questioning yesterday? It seemed it was getting harder to remember when Devyn’s sassy mouth got ahead of her and she stood up to him. He had walked into her on purpose, trying to find a reason to speak to her. Or better yet to give her a reason to speak to him.

  He didn’t hate that she got the position he wanted.

  He hated that he wanted her even though she was his boss. He also hated that she’d never give him the time of day. The thought of her excited him and also gave him a headache. Chad loved the way he could get her to let loose and show him how she really felt.

  Devyn never held back with him.

  He wished he could have kiss the smirk off her face when she had retorted back at him yesterday. He ached to feel her soft lips on his and her sweet voice say his name.

  Then her hand connected with his cheek.

  A knock came on his office door, jolting him from the memory.

  “Come in,” he called, holding the day’s newspaper over his face.

  “Hello Mr. Weeks,” Devyn’s velvet voice echoed through the same corridor as if his thoughts came to life.

  He felt her strong gaze from across the room, and despite his quick wit, he was lost for words. He held his breath, waiting for something clever to come out of his mouth, but failed. Chad was frozen, holding the newspaper in place.

  He forced a cold expression onto his face before he looked up at her. He had a part to play here.

  “What do you want?” He spat, hoping the words felt as venomous as he tried to make them.

  She closed the door behind her, the slit in her dress exposing the tender underside of her knee. He’d never wanted to touch someone’s leg so badly in his life, but he made himself sit still.

  “I wanted to apologize to you,” Devyn said, putting a hand on her elbow to hug her middle. Her eyes lowered to the floor, and she chewed on her bottom lip before finding the courage to continue.

  “I know that I haven’t made this easy since I got the promotion. I know you really wanted it, and I haven’t been very accommodating to you. I hope we can find a way to get past it because I really don’t want any hard feelings between us.”

  A washed up version of Devyn Kennedy stood in front of him. The timid version of the girl looked uncomfortable in her own skin as she stared at the ground instead of looking at him head on. He never knew how much he loved the fire inside her until it was gone. Devyn inched forward, sitting a brown cup on his desk. It was the same coffee he had forced her to spill on him yesterday.

  “Maybe I can make it up to you, and we can go get a cup of coffee.” She twisted her fingers in her hands. Chad couldn’t tell if she was nervous or if she just didn’t feel like herself.

  Well, one way to find out.

  “What kind of coffee is that?” He raised an eyebrow, only lowering the paper enough to show the twisted smirk on his face.

  She opened her mouth, but he stopped her.

  “It doesn’t matter.” He put the paper down. “I don’t need your pity or your apology.”

  Devyn’s face shifted. She was trying to hide the frustration building behind the fake smile she plastered on her face before walking through his door. He watched as the mask started to slip, revealing the frustration pent up inside her. Her muscles reacted. Her eye twitched and her brow furrowed at him.

  Chad didn’t want her to apologize for his shitty behavior.

  He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is there something you’d like to say to me Devyn?”

  Her face relaxed, and she swallowed the insult that had edged so close to escaping her lips. “No, that's it.”

  Chad’s stomach dropped, disappointment rising in his gut.

  “’Kay. You can leave now.” He lifted the newspaper back above his face and pretended to ignore her.

  She walked away, letting the door swing shut behind her.

  5

  Devyn let her feet carry her down the narrow hallway and back into the security of her office. The door clicked behind her, enclosing her in the dark room. She let her breath out in a rush ragged from holding it in and from verging on hysteria.

  She slumped over, wrapping her arms around her middle before sliding down the door and letting a sob escape.

  She tried.

  She had given him what he wanted and he had thrown it back in her face. She should have known better than to give him anything, considering how awful he had been in the first place. She should have listened to her intuition and left the silly idea of making peace with Chad Weeks. He wouldn’t give her that luxury.

  Another sob wracked through her body.

  She was done for. He had spent the last six months making her life a living hell, and her only sliver of hope was just washed away.

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket, shaking her from her state.

  She climbed out of the floor, pulling her phone from the waistband of her pencil skirt. The caller ID was blocked, but there weren’t many people who knew her personal number.

  She debated whether or not answering the call would be in her favor. She stared down at the buzzing screen and swallowed.

  “Hello?”

  “Ms. Kennedy I have called you two times already. Is there a good reason as to why you haven't answered your phone?”

  Shit.

  “I’m sorry Mrs. Girdler. I’ve been trying to get things prepared for the conference this evening—”

  “You ignored my phone calls for a conference?” Her tone sharpened. Her boss wasn’t happy. The woman usually never was if Devyn was being honest with herself. Alex Girdler could be angry over anything and rarely found a positive in any situation.

  When Devyn was hired, Mrs. Girlder reminded her that she wasn’t home free just because she was chosen for the job. Devyn had a rude awakening when she finally started in her management position. She thought she’d stop working herself into the ground. She had never been so wrong. Devyn had been working overtime to avoid phone calls with her boss.

  “No ma’am. I’m just trying to get some last minute preparations ready for you.” Devyn had tried the sucking up approach at first, but she stopped once she realized it only brought punishment.

  “Well,” Alex over the phone, pondering the choice of her words carefully, “I’m cancelling the meeting.”

  A sense of relief rushed through Devyn, but she didn’t dare show it. She didn’t have the results Mrs. Girdler wanted, and she couldn’t promise to have them anytime soon.

  “But Devyn,” her cool voice was sharp on the other end of the phone, “if I don’t have the shipments I want by the end of this week, it’s your ass on the line.”

  The line went dead and the anxiety Devyn was all too familiar with began creeping up in the back of her throat once more.

  A tear slipped over the edge of her eye, falling to the ground. She couldn’t muster anymore strength. She had been fighting a losing battle since she was promoted here. She wanted to be a CEO and build her own empire, but instead she was standing in her dark office crying while building an empire for someone else.

  She thought this experience could take her to the next level. Thus far, all she had learned was how difficult her dream was going to be to achieve.

  Devyn took a moment and gathered herself, then flipped on the lights. The soft humming noise from t
he fluorescent bulbs lessened the intense silence of her office, while the light they emitted showed her that this wasn’t her company. This room hadn’t been designed and decorated by her. But it also grounded her to the reality that this was, in fact, her life.

  Devyn forced her way to the desk. She stopped in place, noticing the red card tucked into the notebook on her desk. She slipped it free, and pulled a Christmas card from the envelope.

  The green card stock mocked her.

  Devyn,

  I left you something somewhere in your office. See if you can find it.

  She slipped the card stock with Penelope’s scrawled lettering back into place before she sat back at her desk.

  She breathed a sigh of relief before her door flew open.

  Chad stood in the doorway with a hard expression on his face. He was the last thing she needed to deal with right now, but she didn’t have the energy to protest him. He stalked forward, shoving the door closed behind him.

  “What’s your fucking problem?” He threw the question at her without warning. The vulgar word ripped through her reminding her where she was and the standard that were to be met in this office.

  Devyn narrowed her eyes at him before standing at her desk. “I don’t have time for this right now.”

  “Funny,” Chad scoffed, a half hearted chuckle falling from his lips, “You never have time for anything.”

  “Can we just settle this? I’m sick and tired of you going out of your way to mock me and tell me how bad of a job I’m doing.” Devyn stared at him with tired eyes.

  “What was this morning about? Was it some kind of trap?”

  Devyn wrinkled her brow. “I was trying to be civil.”

  “Bullshit Devyn,” he spat again, moving closer to her desk this time. He hadn’t moved until then. Devyn counted down from 10 in her head, trying to remain calm. “That was not being civil. You wanted me to blow up on you with the act you pulled.”

  Devyn stepped from her desk and took a long stride toward him, “You think I just come up with these silly plans to piss you off? I have so much shit on my plate that I can’t even think straight half the time, let alone include you in it. This morning I was apologizing. I was trying to make our lives easier by ending whatever this is going on between us, but instead of hearing me out, you shot me down and barked for me to get out.”