Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 80: Crossing Lines

Chapter 80: Crossing Lines

Over the years, Derek had often heard a lot of people say that they had lost track of time. To him, the statement had never rang true. How could anyone lose track of something that was always there, punctuated by each heartbeat that their body gave?

For him, paying attention to time came as easy breathing, a habit borne from years of doing nothing at night, but watching as the minutes ticked by, giving way to hours until the numbers finally signaled the start of a new day.

But now he finally understood what they meant.

He did not know how long he stood there watching the rain. When he finally did move, it was with the slowness of an old machine coming back to life. Gears grinding against one another as they came back to life. It was only after blinking several times that he finally realized that he was still holding her resignation letter.

He blinked down at the piece of paper, struggling to process it.

Resignation. She had quit.

What? The words refused to make sense. Emily Molson and quitting did not belong in the same sentence. Emily Molson leaving him to look for employment elsewhere just did not compute.

"Why?" He asked the piece of paper. And when all it did was keep showing him the words that he did not want to see he tore it in half. The action so satisfying that he put the torn pieces together and basically shredded them with his bare hands. By the time he was done, the letter was reduced to confetti and he let it fall.

It fell to the floor in a million pieces, and Derek stepped on them for good measure. And then, looking down at the paper, something clicked for him. He had no idea how long she had been gone, but he had to stop her. Rushing out of his office, he hoped and prayed that it was not too late. If he was lucky, she was probably still in the building, but he doubted it.

His plan to run out into the pouring rain looking for her came to a halt when he glanced at her desk.

Her work laptop was still on, and when he moved closer, he realized that her mail was still open. An error message blinking softly.

Mail not sent, it read, and Derek’s heart rate picked up.

Emily had quit. He should leave things as they were, and let the message reach Human Resources. Doing anything else would be illegal and cast serious doubt on his character...Derek moved closer still, then he took two steps back. Then closer again.

No.

Do not do this, Derek! The part of him that championed all that was right in the world screamed.

But if you do not do it, then HR will see it, and she will really be gone. Do you want that Derek? Do you want her gone from your life for good? The other part of whispered.

If you do not do this you will never ever see her again, it whispered, and the part that was all about doing the right thing died a silent death mourned by absolutely no one, least of all Derek.

As quick as anything, he moved, going to the unsent message and clicking on it.

Good, just as he had thought, it was her resignation letter to HR. Clearly, the rain must have been affecting the network connectivity in the building. He deleted the email without a thought.

Emily could not quit, he needed her.

But she does not need you, she is done with you. A toxic voice whispered, and Derek tried to block it out but it kept coming.

She is gone and she is never ever coming back. And it is all your fault.

The voice finished, twisting the knife in deeper. But Derek had no idea how it could be his fault. She had said that she had been over-stressed for a long time.

But since when? Since when had she been feeling that way? Why had she hidden it instead of saying something? And how had he missed it? Did she really think that he was that cold, that unfeeling, that he would not have afforded her a mental health break had she told him that she needed one? Was that really the vibe that she got from him. Other people he could understand thinking that of him. But why would she have such an idea in her head? Sure the two of them often worked late, and did a lot of overtime. And there were the times that they worked weekends. And recently there had been that whole thing with the solar panel plant.

But she had never once complained. So how was he to know that he was pushing her too hard. But had he really? Had he been so focused on setting and achieving goals that he had failed to notice the strain that she was under? His epic beat down on himself was stopped when the part of him that had prompted him to the email in the first place spoke up.

Whatever you did wrong, now you have a chance to fix it. Since you have a chance to get her back.

And Derek realized just how dangerous the voice was. It made what he knew to be a bad choice sound so logical that he just went with it. Tapping at Emily’s laptop again, Derek typed another email and set it to send not only to HR, but to himself as well. Then he went back to his office to check if the email had arrived.

It had not, good.

When the connectivity was fixed, he would receive the email and gladly approved its contents. Emily had only ever taken leave once in her time there, she had earned some time off.

Six weeks was a good enough time.

Feeling more hopeful than he had been since Emily had handed in her resignation, Derek let himself breathe a sigh of relief...he still had a chance to get her to come back.