A Waltz With Wolves (Book II in The Harrison Inc. Series) | ✓

Chapter Ten: 'Petty' Is My Middle Name

He just laughs, like this is a joke to him; like six pairs of eyes aren't watching him. I envy his nonchalance.

"This is funny to you?"

"Yes, it really is," he answers; hearing his hateful tone gives me shivers. "You burst into my office and come at me with this bullshit?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Claude rubbing his eyes; he's tired of watching me continually do everything he tells me not to do.

"It isn't bullshit. I'm your publicist. It's my job to represent you and your name in a good light to the public! And the fact that you're putting yourself out there in this way just to make me mad is absolutely immature and disgusting." I narrow my eyes up at him. "I expected better from you."

Sebastian laughs again. "God, you really are as self-centered and egotistical as I thought you were."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe we should leave—"

"No!" Sebastian shouts at the people on the couches, who are stunned into silence and stillness. He looks back down at me and replies:

"Claire and I are going out, Leslie. And I didn't kiss her to 'make you mad.' I kissed her because it's true."

Fuck.

I'm shrouded in embarrassment, humiliation, shock and denial. No one says a word, like they can feel the second-hand embarrassment from my accusation quickly being debunked.

"C-Claire?" I finally drawl out, like her name is poison. "You're going out with Claire? The red-headed groupie whom you've met two times? One of them being when she was on top of you in a cloud of marijuana smoke!?"

"Yes." He replies plainly. "That Claire."

I can't help but cackle to hide what I'm really feeling. "That is ridiculous. You can't possibly be going out with her. That's impossible. This is just a publicity stunt, orchestrated by...unnamed forces, that I was not aware about."

"This isn't a publicity stunt," he tells me. "And I don't understand why you're so upset. Your job as my publicist is to maintain my image, not stamp off who I should and shouldn't be dating!"

"You literally met her once! Twice, at the most! One of these times with you being too coked up to even remember what her name was. So you want me to believe that you're dating her because you 'like' her?"

"Yes," he answers plainly. And I'm rendered speechless.

The two minutes I've been in this room, I've manage to endure blow after blow while surrounded by the last people I'd ever want to be humiliated in front of. Sebastian wants to dominate his power over me, giving off the impression that our discord isn't impacting him in anyway. And I can see it in his eyes; he's finding amusement with telling me that him and Claire are a thing.

"You know what I think?" he asks, smiling. "I think you're jealous."

My jaw drops, "J-jealous? You think I'm jealous? God, you are so full of yourself! I'm just doing my job, which is to be informed of everything you tell the press. The fact that you get 'jealousy' out of that is—"

"You're right, you're right. You aren't jealous. You're envious. Because jealousy is when you're afraid of losing something that's already yours. Envy is when you want something that you can't, don't, and will most likely never have," Sebastian looks down at everyone and continues with: "Envy seems like a more suitable word then, right?"

They all nod, like subjects agreeing to a king's words. I'm so mortified and humiliated that I'm shaking, my lip is quivering, and I can't look Sebastian in the eye.