Bed Sheets II

67. That's Not Fair

Draven knew the names of a few editors that had worked previously with him. Anna Brielle, Jessica Dim, Harry Burk. He was proud he remembered those three, but the others were not that impressed with his memory. They needed to remember all fifty-seven of them, and Draven unfortunately recollected only three.

When they met together one night at his home, Miranda, Rebecca, Jason, Hector and Eric, they all crowded as many names as they could onto a shoot. The moment Draven eyed the sheet, he furrowed his brows, "I don't know half the names on this list."

"That's terrible," Miranda mumbled as she stood from her seat to grab another bottle of wine from Draven's cabinets. "We need their addresses too."

"That we can easily find in the system without Sophie's help," Hector said.

To which Jason raised his an eyebrow, "What are we going to do anyway? Show up at their doorstep and beg them to come back?" He leaned forward in his seat, "They most likely found other jobs."

"It can't hurt to try," Eric breathed quietly.

And Rebecca, who had been quiet so far, cleared her throat and suggested, "Maybe have Draven visit all of them, and speak to them—"

"And fucking say what, Rebecca," Jason spat coldly, which all of them noticed.

The room felt quiet for a moment, and Eric cleared his throat before adding, "That's not too bad of an idea. He could explain that's he's re-grouping his old team members and that he's having a meeting at his building in a week. If they want to return, they show up. If not, he understands."

"Not too shabby," Miranda agreed when she returned to the living room with a bottle of red wine, "I like that idea. What do you think, Rebecca?"

Jason scoffed, "Why are we asking Rebecca meanwhile she just got back on the team?"

Draven rolled his eyes but kept quiet when he noticed Miranda react before he could. "Because she's part of the team, like you just stated. I get what happened between the both of you, but this is no place to express those."

"You don't get it, clearly," Jason snorted, shaking his head and taking a sip of his wine glass, "she cheated on me with a douchebag."

"We all know the situation, Jason—"

"Did you know I proposed to her?" Jason snapped when Hector spoke. That caused the entire room to fall quiet, all their eyes widening. To which Jason stood and placed his glass of wine on the table, "No, you all didn't. So no, don't act like you know the situation when you know absolutely nothing about it."

He stormed towards the door, to which Draven jumped to his feet and followed him to the hallway. Jason had rushed to his shoes when Draven had been able to tap him on the shoulder, "Hey, buddy listen—"

"No, I thought I could stand her but I can't," he hissed, glaring down the hallway, "she cheated on me with some asshole while promising me a life with her."

"I understand, I really do get it Jason. I thought you'd be alright with it, but clearly you're still hurt. If you want me to make her leave, I can—at the end of the day, she betrayed us and you never did anything to me."

He paused for a moment, before pulling open the door while shaking his head, "It's fine, I just need a bit more time to get used to her being back around us."

Draven tilted his head, "You sure you don't want to stay?"

"I'll see you tomorrow," and he shut the door behind him.

The very next day, Draven visited twenty-three places; it had taken the whole day and most of them were unhappy to see him, many not even opening their doors to which he left a note in their mailbox or under their doors. However, there were numerous that also seemed very forgiving and promised to be at the meeting next week.

Unfortunately, there was one more person he could not stop thinking about, and as he glanced upwards to the sign stating Adelina Malcom Co., he cursed under his breath before stepping inside the building. He reached Adelina's floor, receiving the same shocked gaze from all the employees and rushing past the desks before eventually finding Sophie seated at hers.

It was directly beside Adelina's office, and Draven glanced at his watch, recalling that Adelina was usually on break at this hour. He stepped towards Sophie's desk, and the moment she glanced upwards and saw him, her heart immediately fell.

"Not a single chance—"

"Sophie, please, just five minutes of your time."

"No," she stood from her desk, "I'm calling security." Draven reached for her wrist before she could grab the phone, and immediately Sophie shouted, "Can someone call security?"

"I'm not here for long," he noticed a few fingers dial numbers on their desk phones and knew that he did not have much time before security appeared. He reached within his suit and pulled one of the flyer notes he had done, "Next week, we're having a meeting at my building. I'm regrouping all my editors and those who wanted to be hired again are coming to this meeting. If not, I understand, I just wanted to let you know the memo, okay? I love you, always Soph."

And he stormed from the floor before security could even arrive.

***

Draven had been successfully returning to his regular self, and although plenty of people were proud of him, there were a few enraged by his recovery, especially one.

"That's not fair," he smashed his face against the desk for the seventh time, the bruising beginning to form and blood trickling down his nose. "That's not fair, that's not fair." He switched the news again and heard about the same reportage.

Every news station was covering Draven's rehiring at Waterfalls Agency, and how he had reformed his team. "That's not fair," he said, tears leaking from his eyes as he gripped his burgundy hair, "That's not fucking fair."