‘Have decided that there are better jobs out there? More exciting career prospects? More...thrilling opportunities?’ he completed harshly.
Abby’s grey eyes were calm as she looked up at him and met his fulminating gaze.
So, he was angry. She’d more or less expected that because she knew, without any vanity, that he valued their working relationship and would find it annoying to go through the hassle of finding someone else, especially given his none-too-fabulous track record when it came to hiring PAs.
Tough.
‘There are always alternative opportunities out there when it comes to work, Gabriel, and of course I’ll make sure that I find a suitable replacement.’
‘Jesus, Abby, is thatallyou have to say?’ He slammed his fist on the table and pushed back his chair to stand up. He looked at her for a few seconds then began pacing the huge office, scowling, while Abby twisted round to look at him.
She’d taken ages to compose the eight-line letter of resignation, longer, indeed, than it had taken her to decide to resign in the first place.
Booking that intimate table at that intimate restaurant had sealed the deal for her. She’d thought she could see things through and philosophise her way past her heartache, but she’d been wrong, and there was no point clinging to the hope that that might change any time soon. She was in love with a man who didn’t return her love and it was never going to get better unless she left.
‘What else do you want me to say, Gabriel?’
‘I can tell you what Idon’twant you to say!’ He planted himself directly in her line of vision and glared.
‘What’s that?’
‘What Idon’twant is a load of crap aboutmore exciting opportunitiesandthanks for the good times...’
Abby stared down at the creased piece of paper on her lap. Her eyes blurred. What did he want from her? The truth? Anger coursed through her and she raised her eyes to him, met his thunderous glare with cold disapproval.
‘Does it matter what words I use, Gabriel? I can’t work for you any more. That’s the long and short of it.’
Resuming his restless pacing of the office before coming to perch on the edge of the desk, and then, as though that might be too relaxed a position for him, swerving once again to sit in his leather swivel chair, Gabriel shot back, ‘You told me that you would be able to resume working with me without any problems.’
‘I was wrong. Okay?’
‘As far as I can see, we’ve been doing just fine.’
‘Please don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be, Gabriel. I’ll make sure my replacement is as good as I am. I’ll fill her,or him, in on every single account and how to manage them.’
‘Why couldn’t you just stick to the programme?’ Gabriel looked at her with frustration, almost as surprised as she was to hear himself utter that question.
‘Because I’m not you,’ Abby replied in a low voice. ‘And, yes, I really thought that I could keep my emotions out of it, but in the end I couldn’t.’ She looked him squarely in the face. So he wanted an explanation? Then she would give him one, but not until she was sure that the minute she walked out of that office she would not be walking back into it, replacement or no replacement.
‘Gabriel,’ she hesitated, ‘I don’t suppose you know this, but I’m due holiday.’
‘Come again?’
‘I’ve stored up quite a bit of holiday which I haven’t got around to taking. Five weeks, in fact.’
‘You haven’t been on holiday for the past year?’
‘I’ve had weekends here and there but, no, I haven’t had a stretch of time off for quite a while. With my mother not being well, I’ve found it better to go down to see them as often as I can.’
‘What does that have to do with anything?’
‘What I’m saying is, because I’ve just had snatched weekends here and there, I have holiday to take and I’m going to take it so that I can leave sooner. I’m sorry if you think this is the equivalent of leaving you in the lurch, because I won’t be devoting time to finding my replacement, but I don’t think it’s going to work, my staying on here any longer than I have to.’
She drew in a deep, steadying breath. ‘Under normal circumstances, I would have stayed until I found someone suitable to replace me, but these aren’t normal circumstances unfortunately. I know you’re probably put out but I’m hoping that you do the decent thing and release me without trying to find ways of making me stay. I don’t mean to blow hot and cold but...things have been said that can’t be unsaid. My position here is now untenable.’
She thought of walking through that office door, never to walk back through it again. Never to see him again. Never to smile at something witty he might have said, never to appreciate that wry sense of humour or to shoot him one of her disapproving looks when he teased her just a little too close to the bone. Not that there had been any of that since they’d returned from Seville.
‘I can’t think of anything worse than chaining you to your desk and making you work out your notice when you’d rather walk away without turning back.’
