Ever since the night that you went to the party and eventually got drunk, Ethan has been acting different. He knows that something happened between you and Tony and he's annoyed that you don't admit it. But what can you do? You can't tell him that seeing Tony with another woman hurt you and that you're still not over him. That will only cause more trouble between you.
"You're staying for the party afterwards, right?" Anne asks you as she appears on your office door.
"Of course" you smile.
"Is Ethan staying, too?" she adds.
"I'm not sure, I haven't talked about it with him at all" you answer.
"Should I go ask him or will you do it?" she asks.
"I'll do it, I haven't even seen him much today" you tell her.
"Okay, let me know" she says and you nod.
The company closed a big deal and for a reward you're throwing an after work party. You all worked hard on it for months and this party is something that everyone deserves. As soon as you have some time, you leave your office and go over to Ethan's. The door is closed but he gives you permission to enter when you knock on it.
"Hey" you say nicely.
"Hi" he doesn't sound excited at all.
In fact, he doesn't even look at you for more than half a second before turning his eyes back to work. You don't get disappointed though and walk over to his chair, standing right behind his body.
"The party is still happening later, will you stay?" you ask him.
"I don't think so, I'm very tired" he shakes his head.
"Not even for a little bit? It'll be fun" you rest your hands on his shoulders.
"Sorry" he doesn't change his mind.
"Will you at least look at me at all?" you show him your annoyance.
He sighs, lets go of the papers he was holding and finally looks at you. You can tell his look is still the same pissed look he's had all these days and he's not even trying to hide it.
"Are you not joining us because you're still mad at me?" you ask.
"I'm not mad at you" he replies.
"Yes, you are" you tilt your head, knowing very well that he's lying.
"I am just patiently waiting for you to tell me what really happened with Stark" he folds his arms.
"I've told you a thousand times, nothing happened. I only saw him and he ruined my mood because I wasn't expecting to see him there" you sigh.
"Fine" he slightly shakes his head.
"So, will you stay?" you ask again.
"I can't, I really am very tired and I won't even be done with work for at least a few more hours" he explains.
"Can I do any of these to help you out?" you point at the files in front of him.
"You're already helping with the reports you're working on currently, which by the way you should be working on right now" he finally smiles at you.
"I'll get back to them as soon as possible, boss" you smile back at him.
He stands up from his seat and stands right in front of you. Even with the heels you're wearing, your're still shorter than him so he's looking slightly down into your eyes. He forgets about his bad mood lately and leans into you for a sweet kiss on the lips.
"I'm sorry for missing the party. Anne and Sebastian are staying, right? You'll have good company" he asks to make sure.
"Yes, don't worry about it" you smile.
"Okay, good. Now get back to work before your boss notices you're wasting time outside your break" he jokes.
"He wouldn't do anything, rumor has it he likes me" you giggle.
"You're really lucky that he does" he smiles.
"I know" you nod.
"Work. Now" he spanks you.
"Yes, boss" you peck his lips and return to work as you should.
You had a lot of work to do so the rest of the work day went by fast. People started working on the party soon after they were done with work but you took some extra time until you joined. All those reports that Ethan talked about earlier required a lot of concentration and work and this why you didn't rush them.
Ethan ended up staying for around half an hour at the party to make you happy but he was indeed so tired and you could see it so he left early. After a couple of drinks you finally felt more loose and free, and since this is the first time you've had a relaxing time with Anne and Sebastian since the night that you saw Tony, you started opening up to them about what happened.
"What spell does that man have on you and you can't get over him after all that has happened?" Sebastian asks in disbelief.
"And you don't even know everything" you shake your head and take a sip from your drink.
"Right, because you have your big secrets" they both make fun of you.
"Why is it so hard for you to believe that I indeed have secrets?" you ask in shock.
"Because you always come running to us as soon as something important happens and tell us everything" Anne replies.
"I wouldn't say always. Maybe 90% of the time" you shrug, knowing that she's right.
You've all been close friends for so long, you always open up to them. The real reason that you broke up with Tony might be one of the very few things they don't know about you and it's killing you. You derperately needed to tell them then and you still do. You feel guilty every time you think about the whole incident and talking to someone about it would definitely help to release some weight from your shoulders.
The guilt only got worse during the rest of the party because you kept thinking about it. You even remembered how Andrews got fired for a very similar reason, which definitely didn't help your case at all. All this led to you drinking one drink after another and both Anne and Sebastian noticing that something's off.
"Are you planning on finishing all the liquor in the room?" Sebastian asks playfully.
"Hey, this isn't funny. Something is definitely going on here" Anne says more seriously.
"I know. I'm just trying to approach it carefully" he throws his hands in the air.
"Guys, relax. I'm okay" you try to reassure them.
"I don't know what you are talking about but you don't look that good to me" another coworker comments as he passes by.
"Screw you" you jokingly say and he laughs as he walks away.
"For real, Alice. What's going on? Is it Ethan?" Anne asks.
"No, no" you quickly shake your head.
"Is it Tony?" Sebastian then asks.
Your silence and the way your face quicky drops give away the answer. Sebastian shakes his head with disappointment and Anne sighs. They are both so done with Tony always causing you trouble. Even now that you're not dating he's still managing to mess with you.
"You are with Ethan. Also, you told Tony to move on, why are you so upset that he's with other women?" Sebastian just can't seem to keep up with you.
"Because I'm still not over him" you say but thankfully manage to keep it between the three of you.
"He cheated on you, you forgave him and then you broke up again. What more does he need to do for you to realise he's not good for you?" Sebastian asks.
"I know he's not good for me but that doesn't change the fact that I love him" you admit.
"Hey, keep it down. Last thing that we want is someone hearing you saying things like that" Anne warns you.
"She's right, be quiet" Sebastian agrees.
"I'm sorry, it's just all so difficult" you almost tear up.
"Alice, baby, he listened to your private conversations. Move on" she advises you.
"That's not even the worst" you gulp.
"What do you mean?" she creases her eyebrows.
"I can't" you shake your head.
"You can trust us, what did he do?" Sebastian holds you by your shoulders for comfort.
You feel yourself ready to cry so you quickly leave the room before everyone notices. You get inside another room and soon Anne and Sebastian follow you. Between the three of you, you feel more comfortable and that's why you allow yourself to cry. They're both quick to stand by you and embrace you until you feel better and stop crying.
"Did something else happen at that party?" Anne asks carefully.
"No, nothing that I haven't told you" you say.
"So what is it then?" they're concerned.
You look around to make sure you're alone in the room. You feel ready to let them know the truth and it's definitely been too long of you hiding it.
"Promise me you won't say anything to anyone" you look into their eyes.
"You know we won't" they reply and you trust them.
"The real reason that we broke up wasn't because he listened to our conversation. Not the only reason at least" you admit and feel your heartbeat rising.
"Then what was it?" they're concerned.
You take a deep breath and prepare yourself to say the truth out loud for the first time. It's not as easy as you thought it'd be, even if you trust them completely.
"Tony knew who our investors were during the conference and was able to steal them from us because he hacked my phone and found all the confidential files" you finally admit it.
"What?" they both gasp and take a step back.
"You promised you wouldn't say anything" you start panicking.
"We won't but this is a lot to process" Sebastian looks at you with terrified eyes.
"I know, it has been killing me ever since I found out" you gulp nervously.
"Does Ethan know?" Anne asks.
"Of course not. He would have fired me on the spot like he did with Andrews" you say.
"You don't know that" she says.
"I do. He told me himself that if I was the one that did something serious he would fire me" you bite your lip.
"Are you saying that we would have won that conference if Tony hadn't used you like that?" Sebastian asks, still shocked.
"I don't know, maybe. Their project was still getting many votes anyway" you close your eyes desperately.
That's the moment that your heart skips a few beats. Not because you told them the truth, but because you heard a noise from outside the room. A noise that definitely sounded like a broken glass, which was confirmed as soon as you ran to the door and opened it, only to see that someone droppped their drink from their hand and disappeared.
"Oh my God" you gasp.
"Did you see who it was?" Anne asks, equally panicked.
"No" you reply with tears in your eyes.
Sebastian quickly runs out of the room and enters the other room where everyone's at. When you join him, you see that almost everyone is looking at you with the same look. A look of horror, disgust and definitely shock. Everyone knows.
"I'm sorry" you manage to say before you burst out.
Most of the people shake their heads, look away or sigh. It doesn't take them long to eventually leave the company and the party behind. Only you, Anne and Sebastian are left, along with your uncontrollable tears and panic. Now the only thing left is to get ahead of the situation and confront Ethan about it before he hears the news from someone else.