Slowly, I took a step backward up the stairs, my hands on the railing. My eyes flew to find Jordan in the crowd. Adam was still dripping wet, staring at me with narrowed eyes. Some of the younger employees were laughing, including Charles. I couldn’t find Jordan, but my eyes landed on my dad. A sob escaped my lips when I saw the look on his face—utter humiliation.
Oh God. Oh God! Could this have been any worse? I was shamed in front of the company where I’d worked for nearly a year, and on top of that, my dad was here among them—among people he would be working with for years to come. My vision blurred and I stumbled on one of the steps, this time landing hard on my knee. I pushed to my feet again.
Someone wrapped a towel around my back. The person was taller than me. All my hopes gathered in one single thought—Jordan? I turned. No, not that tall. It was a woman. Short, dark hair. Mia.
She slid her arm around my shoulders and turned, guiding me up the stairs. Before we reached the top, I’d already completely broken down. However, even though I was blinded with tears, I still managed to see a scuffle at the base of the stairs.
“Slut-shaming bitch!” Katya yelled and was on Cari with a mean right hook. The huddle of men broke to pull the women off each other. A tall man bent to yank Katya away from Cari, rescuing her from Kat’s attack. I blinked a few times to see who it was—Jordan. He yelled at her to calm down.
And that was it, the final humiliation. Jordan didn’t come to my rescue. Didn’t stand up for me. Instead, he was saving Cari from Katya.
I couldn’t look away from him, but he never once looked toward me. Everyone was now watching the scuffle between the two women. Kat was still trying to break free from his hold, hurling insults at Cari, who was cowering behind some of the other guys in hopes of keeping her face intact.
He uses women. Everybody knows that.
Mia jostled my shoulders. “Come on, let’s go get you covered up.”
We went into the clubhouse and, ironically enough, Mia led us to the exact changing room where Jordan and I had just had sex a half an hour before. I’d walked out of there filled with hope and happiness, and now I was walking back in, disgraced and humiliated.
I slumped onto the bench, still bawling. “I’m s-sorry.”
She grabbed some tissue from the small vanity, handed it to me, and then looked around the room. “Where are your clothes? Did you put them in a locker?”
I handed her the key that I had pinned inside the bodice of my swimsuit. In the locker were my purse and the clothes I’d worn over my bathing suit when I’d arrived. Mia grabbed the key and told me she’d be right back with my stuff. Before she could step away, however, both my Dad and Adam could be heard outside the door. I whimpered.
Mia stepped out, closing the door a crack. “She’s not decent. I’m going to go get her things.”
I heard her footsteps as she walked away, and then I was privy to the heated words on the other side of the door. Dad was pissed. More pissed than I’d ever heard him. Adam sounded like he was trying to talk him off a ledge.
“I can’t begin to tell you how mortifying this is,” Dad said. “She should be fired immediately. I don’t want special exceptions because she’s my daughter.”
“I’m going to wait until she can talk to us and explain what happened.”
“April is going home with me. Now. But I expect you to terminate her. There’s no excuse for her behavior.”
“David, I appreciate where you’re coming from, but she is a grown woman and my employee, so I’m going to speak to her. This—”
“Excuse me,” Mia muttered, asking them to move out of the way so she could slide back into the dressing room. When she came in, her face was full of sympathy. She handed me my bag of belongings. Then, she bent down and whispered, “I’ll try to distract Adam so you can slip out. Not sure about your dad, though.”
I shook my head, slipping my shorts and tank top over my now ruined suit. “I came with him. He’s my ride.”
Mia bit her lip and looked off to the side, as if thinking.
“I can’t avoid him. But thank you for everything.”
She gave me a weak smile, and I grabbed my bag and then opened the door. The two men stopped talking. I stepped forward, relieved to see that no one else was here, just the two of them. I swallowed, avoiding my dad’s eyes as I turned to Adam. He was still soaked from being tossed in the pool, his hair, t-shirt and board shorts dripping wet.
“I’m sorry,” I began, “I wanted to tell you weeks ago, but…I was too scared. I’m really sorry for all the trouble I caused you and the company.”