The Bride He Took For Granted novel Chapter 41

Chapter 41

That was what Landon liked about Joan. She was independent without making him feel unnecessary, and vulnerable just often enough to make him want to protect her.

Joan let go of his arm and looked up at him.

“Let’s work on a proposal for Echoes of Will tonight. I’ll catch Harold in the parking garage tomorrow and talk to him myself.” She smiled confidently. “I’ll get Firefly Glow on board.”

“Elise already did.”

Joan’s smile faltered.

“What?”

“Firefly Glow agreed to move forward,” Landon said. “I’m sending someone over tomorrow to sign the provisional agreement.”

“She actually pulled it off?”

The light in her eyes dimmed, but Landon didn’t notice.

“Looks like it. She’ll be working with your department for the next few days, so help her out where you can.”

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Joan fell silent as an idea began to take shape.

Then a strange smile touched her lips.

“Of course.”

She sat back and lowered her gaze to her phone.

Caleb Foster, Lynn’s boyfriend and someone Joan knew from college, was in charge of digital content. Unless the assignment changed, Elise would most likely be placed on his team.

Landon had once told Joan that although Elise had been raised to behave like a perfect lady, she was easily embarrassed. She cared deeply about appearances and hated being put in

awkward situations.

Joan’s smile deepened.

She would have to give Caleb a heads-up so he could take especially “good care” of Elise.

******

Elise worked on the proposal until well past midnight.

What she didn’t know was that rumors about her were already spreading through Marketing Team One’s private group chat.

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[Caleb, why are you dropping some random woman’s picture in here?]

[She’s gorgeous. Is that your girlfriend?]

Caleb replied:

[She went to college with my girlfriend. Pretty, isn’t she?]

Then he sent another message.

[I heard she used to work at a bar in college. Apparently, guys from our school used to go there just to see her, and she hooked up with some of them.]

[She looks innocent, but supposedly she’s nothing like that in private.]

[You’ll all meet her tomorrow.]

The next morning, the moment Elise stepped into Marketing Team One, she noticed the strange looks people were giving her.

She would only be there for a few days, and she had no intention of making friends, so she ignored them.

The team supervisor told her to choose any available desk.

Elise looked around. Several desks were unoccupied, ut they:58

Chapter 41

were covered with other employees’ belongings.

The only truly empty desk was tucked into the far corner, its surface coated in dust and grime.

She placed her bag on the cleanest spot she could find, rolled up her sleeves, and asked the cleaning staff for a bucket of water

and a cloth.

When she returned, her bag was lying on the floor.

Her compact mirror, lipstick, and powder compact were scattered across the carpet.

So were her sanitary pads and painkillers.

Her period was due in the next few days, so she had packed both just in case.

Someone had pushed the pills out of the blister pack and scattered them across the dirty floor.

The sanitary pads had been torn open. A muddy shoeprint stained the white surface of one of them.

Anger surged through Elise.

For one sharp moment, she wanted to demand to know who had

done it.

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Then, at the height of her fury, she remembered why she was there.

It had taken too much effort to get inside Firefly Glow. She couldn’t afford to lose sight of her real goal because of a few petty bullies.

She slowly looked around the room.

Several people quickly turned away. Others made no attempt to

hide their smirks.

Elise swallowed her anger.

Without saying a word, she crouched down and gathered her belongings.

Once she had cleaned the desk and thrown away everything that had been ruined, she sat down, opened her laptop, and began working.

******

That afternoon, Elise gave the proposal one final polish, reviewed it from beginning to end, and sent it to Kevin.

Kevin passed it on to Harold, who returned it with a list of

revisions.

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< Chapter 41

“Reworking a proposal,” Elise said wearily,

“A proposal?”

Chloe looked confused for a moment. Then she remembered that Elise had mentioned working at Firefly Glow,

“So, how was it? Is the pace as intense as everyone says? Firefly Glow hires some of the brightest people in LA. It must be a great place to work, right?”

Elise shook her head.

“Turns out a fancy degree doesn’t stop someone from being an

asshole.”

Chloe immediately sat up straighter.

“What happened?”

Elise almost never swore. If she was calling someone an asshole, they had definitely crossed a line.

On the screen, Chloe rolled up her sleeves as though she were preparing to fight someone.

The sight alone took the edge off Elise’s anger.

“Someone dumped the sanitary pads from my bag on the 19.59

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