Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 94: Options

Chapter 94: Options

For whatever reason, Derek Haven did not want her getting a job. And he had been smooth about it too. At first, Emily had thought that she was just regular black listed. That he had badmouthed her to the point that every one in the industry would turn their noses up the moment she walked in, like she smelled bad or something.

But he had not, instead Derek had told every one that she was still working at Haven Group. When she had checked the employee listing, she was still there, and to drive the point home further, Emily had gotten paid. Her regular pay with a bit extra on top, all of her over time coming in.

Somehow, Derek had managed to wrangle it such that everyone thought Emily was on leave. She had no idea how the man had done it, and even though she was curious, she was not curious enough to go back and ask.

Sure, it had turned out that his personality had not gone from zero to cruel overnight, but what he was doing was still very manipulative, and Emily would not play into it. She was not going back, whenever the set time for the ’leave’ that she had apparently taken was over, he would have to face the music on his own. Emily wanted no part of it. But Derek had boxed her in.

Everywhere she applied, people already knew who she was. They wanted her to join their firms, but they also expressed regret that they could not have her since she was already with Haven Group. It was so infuriating that Emily had to remind herself several times a day why she had chosen not to go to Haven Group and knock Derek out with a solid right hook.

She was mad at him, and not just because he was effectively forcing her to come back to Haven, but because she wanted to go back. She wanted to go back to Haven, to her office, her desk, her chair...her Derek. She wanted to see him every day, he was the best boss that she had ever had, and she missed the work, missed him.

But that was why she could not go back.

Her nightmares were now even worse than when she had decided to quit. She forgot things as easy as k owing whether or not she had put sugar in her tea or not. Often times being halfway through the cup before she realized that it was just water. She could hide such things at home and pretend that it had been her plan all along, but at work, where she handled important accounts, she was sure to make a monumental mistake.

And even when he was being so unfair and selfish, clinging to her when she was trying to free both of them, Emily could not let him down like that. So, no matter what, she could not go back. But now he had made it so that she could not go forward either. It was a difficult situation, one that weighed heavily on Emily. So much, so that in the nightmare that woke her that night, she was not being suffocated by thread, or by water like she was used to. But by pieces of paper. The paper having either Derek’s picture, where he was smiling charmingly in each one, or his name stamped across it.

The papers had fallen on her from a great height, deceptive in how feather light they were. Pretty soon they had been up to her waist and she had been unable to move. They had kept on falling, piling up and squeezing and squeezing, her body deprived of oxygen while all around she could see just Derek’s name and his smile.

The nightmare had awakened her three hours back, and now she was spending her night as usual, embroidering. But now instead of just embroidering to keep her hands busy and clear her mind, Emily was doing it to think too.

She needed to figure a way out of her situation. So far she saw only two options. A, if she went to Derek she would end up beating him to a pulp for lying about her having a job. Then she would be arrested, go to court, go broke paying lawyers, go to jail, and find it even more difficult to get a job with a criminal record.

She already had enough problems she did not need more. Plus she had a hunch that being locked up would not be very helpful for her nightmares.

Then there was option B. With option B, she gave in to her desires, took advantage of the window that Derek had created and went back to work like nothing had happened. But that road led to nothing but a souring of relations. She could return but she could no longer push herself anymore, it was bound to end badly if she did return.

And so Emily thought on the matter, pushing thread through cloth as she did, thinking on the matter at different angles until she finally had an idea.

Derek Haven came from not only a rich family, but a powerful family. He had influence. And people with influence, who’d had it all of their lives, tended to be limited in some respects. He had blocked her when it came to seeking employment in prominent places. But he did not think to contact the smaller establishments, places with low paying jobs, cleaning, waitressing and the like. Those were jobs that Derek would not think of, but Emily would, and such places mostly hired in person, rather than reading a resume online.

In those places she was guaranteed to get something, no problem. Feeling hopeful once more, Emily put aside her embroidery and fetched her laptop. Then she got busy editing her resume again. Come morning light, she would be out in the city dropping off her applications at various places, throughout the city.