Page 85 of The Law of Attraction
She’d known, obviously, that Adam hadn’t been her biggest fan before. He’d made that pretty clear. But she hadn’t known his dislike of her had run so deep, that he’d had so little faith in her abilities he’d actually tried an end run to avoid taking her with him to Texas.
“Hey, you okay?” Gavin must have realized she wasn’t paying attention because he was frowning at her.
“Sorry.” She shook her head, tuning back in to the present. “Just tired.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “Listen, the CIO’s out today, so the postmortem on Walhalla’s gotta wait until tomorrow. If you want, you can work from home for the rest of the day.”
“Okay.” She rubbed Adam’s reference letter between her fingers. The corner she was holding was becoming felted from the friction. “Thanks.”
Gavin waved his hand in friendly dismissal. “Go on. Get out of here.”
As Olivia walked away from Gavin’s office, her eyes went automatically to Adam. He was hunched over his computer with his back to her still. She stopped, unsure where to go or what to do next.
Adam’s head swiveled around, as if he’d sensed her watching him. When his gaze found her, he did that thing where he smiled with only his eyes.
Olivia turned away and headed for her desk. She retrieved her purse and shoved the reference letter inside, not caring if it got crumpled. While she was packing up her computer, Adam came over.
“Hey.” He stood just outside her cubicle, resting his forearms on top of the partition. “You leaving?”
She didn’t look at him as she shoved her laptop into her bag. “Gavin told me I could work from home today.”
“Nice. Did you get the reference letter I left on your desk?”
“I did. Thank you.” She grabbed her travel mug and started for the elevators.
“I’ll walk you out.” Adam trailed along behind her, his long legs easily keeping pace.
When the elevator came, he got on with her. She jabbed the button for the lobby and stared straight ahead, facing the doors.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as they were alone. “Did Gavin say something to piss you off?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“Olivia.” Adam’s fingers brushed her arm. “Talk to me.”
She turned to face him. “Did you go to Gavin after the meeting with the CIO last Monday and ask him to send someone else on the trip instead of me?”
He looked confused. “Yes.”
“You told him you didn’t want to work with me.”
“I asked him if there was someone else he could send instead of you.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
“I thought traveling together would be awkward after I’d declined to give you a reference.”
“You thought it would be awkward,” she repeated in disbelief. “So you decided to torpedo my credibility with my boss to save yourself the inconvenience of a little social discomfort?”
“I told him it didn’t have anything to do with your job performance. That it was an interpersonal conflict that would make things tense between us.”
“Oh, well, that’s fine, then. I’m sure it won’t affect my professional reputation at all that you couldn’t stand to work with me because of an interpersonal conflict. Jesus, Adam!” She dug into her purse for the recommendation letter. “You can take this back. I don’t want it.” She shoved it at him, but he refused to take it.
“Don’t say that. Come on—”
She ripped the paper in half. “I’d rather get a reference from someone who actually believes in me.”
His whole face seemed to sag as he stared at the shredded letter in her hands. “I apologize. In hindsight, it was a shitty thing to do.”
