Disregard the Lies

Sadie stormed into the building, ready to confront Lydia. She was furious that Lydia hadn’t at least given her a warning that she was going to publish the article so soon, and she wanted to know why Lydia had gone behind her back like she had.

She went up to the correct floor, and walked past the secretary, Carrie, who gave her a curious look, probably trying to figure out what Sadie was doing there, when she had been given clear orders not to come inside the building before the article was published.

Sadie ignored her curious look and her name being called as she walked past her and straight towards Lydia’s office. She saw that Lydia was sitting at her desk, and Sadie didn’t even bother to knock on the door, instead walking straight inside her office. “Sadie!” Lydia exclaimed, obviously surprised to see her employee in her office.

“What the fuck, Lydia?” Sadie yelled, not bothering to censor herself in front of her boss. Lydia looked taken aback at Sadie’s language, but Sadie continued talking. “You told me that I was going to get a couple of extra weeks to get the article put together!” she cried.

“The article was perfect the way it was,” Lydia said calmly, which infuriated Sadie even further. “We have plenty of information to go on, and I have no doubt in my mind that this story is going to be huge. You should be proud of yourself, Sadie,” Lydia told her with a smile.

“You didn’t even warn me!” Sadie yelled.

“Sadie, I don’t need to warn you about anything. I chose to go with my original deadline. I don’t need to run anything past you,” Lydia said, narrowing her eyes at Sadie.

“A warning would have been nice! I lost my best friend and my boyfriend because of this!” she cried.

“Your boyfriend?” Lydia questioned. “Why would your boyfriend be upset about this?” she asked, and Sadie immediately knew she made a mistake by saying that to Lydia. Sadie didn’t respond, and Lydia’s eyes grew wide. “Your boyfriend wouldn’t have been upset, unless you were dating a player!” Lydia cried, and Sadie tried to remain calm and not give anything away. “That’s it, isn’t it? Which player were you dating?”

“Lydia, stop it!” Sadie screamed.

“Don’t worry, I can easily find this out. That will be the perfect thing to put in the article. Ice Girl Involved with Player!” Lydia said with a grin on her face. “This story’s going to catch so many people’s interest!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“That is not going to be part of the story,” Sadie stated through gritted teeth.

“Sadie, sweetie, you have no say in the matter. I’m the editor, and I can add in anything I’d like,” Lydia said with a smirk on her face.

“But, I’m the writer of the article,” Sadie argued.

“And, again, I’m the editor, and I can add whatever I’d like.”

“This is bullshit!” Sadie screamed.

“You know, if I were you, I wouldn’t talk to your boss like that,” Lydia told her, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Fine, then you’re not my boss any longer,” Sadie stated.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lydia questioned.

“I quit,” Sadie said, spinning on her heel and walking out the door, leaving Lydia sitting at her desk with her jaw dropped, unable to respond. She stormed back out of the building, not even slowing down when Carrie tried to talk to her. She walked to her car, getting in and trying to figure out where to go. Not giving it a second thought, she drove to the first place that she could think of.

She knocked on his door, praying that he was home and was willing to talk to her after everything that had happened. She was happy when the door swung open and she found him standing there with a small smile on his face. “Sadie, come on in,” he said, moving aside to let her enter.

“I’m assuming Jonathan hasn’t talked to you yet,” Sadie said, glancing at Henrik, who motioned for her to have a seat on his couch.

“No, I’ve talked to Jon,” he told her. “He filled me in on everything that happened.”

“But, you’re still talking to me,” Sadie said slowly. “I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. While she was grateful that Henrik was still talking to her, she was surprised. She was sure that Jonathan would have told his teammate to stay clear of her.

“Listen, I don’t agree with what you did,” Henrik said, choosing his words carefully. “And, it’s not even that you were working undercover to get a story. It’s that you didn’t tell Jon. If you would have told him from the beginning, he would have been fine with it. Hell, he would have gone along with it. But, you kept it from him this entire time. I can understand why he’s so angry,” he explained.

“I know!” Sadie cried, putting her head in her hands. “I was stupid. But, I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t tell anyone.”

“But, you knew he was going to find out eventually,” Henrik pointed out.

“Yes, but, I thought I was going to have a couple of more weeks before the story was published. I was planning on telling him as soon as he got back. And, then he wanted to go out to eat, and I decided I would tell him as soon as we got back, but Kyra kind of ruined that. She’s pissed at me,” Sadie told him, not sure if he knew about Kyra’s reaction to the whole thing or not. “She won’t even talk to me right now. But, she was quick to tell Jon.”

“Yeah, I’m working on Kyra at the moment, too,” Henrik said offhandedly, and Sadie looked up at him, a curious expression on her face. “Sadie, I know you didn’t mean to hurt anyone. And, I know that you care about Jon and Kyra. I’m trying to get them to at least listen to you. If you give Jon just a little bit more time, I think he will. Kyra, though, it’s going to take a lot more convincing. She feels betrayed by you. But, I’m trying to convince her, too,” he explained.

Sadie wrapped her arms around Henrik, thanking him profusely. “I don’t know what to say to you. You’re amazing! You shouldn’t even be talking to me right now, and you’re trying to help me out.”

“Sadie, they’re both hurting right now, and I just want everything to go back to normal. I know that’s not going to happen with everything that’s gone on, but that’s what I’m hoping for,” Henrik told her.

“I quit my job,” Sadie said randomly.

Henrik gave her a second glance, trying to figure out if he had heard her correctly. “You quit?” he questioned.

“Yeah, I just quit. My boss is threatening to put shit in this article that I never intended to be in there. I have a feeling that she’s going to ruin any chance that I ever had with Jonathan. Even though I know that that chance was very small to begin with,” Sadie told him quietly.

“What is she going to put in there?” Henrik asked.

“I was an idiot and said something about how this story caused me to lose my best friend and my boyfriend, and she put two and two together and figured out that I’ve been dating someone on the team. I didn’t mention Jonathan’s name, but I’m sure she’ll be able to figure it out with just a little digging.”

“You better warn Jon,” Henrik said.

“He won’t even talk to me,” Sadie reminded him. “He wants nothing to do with me, just like Kyra. And, I don’t even know what to warn him about. I don’t know what or even if she’s going to add anything about him in there.”

“I’ll try warning him,” Henrik told her.

“Thank you,” Sadie said with a small smile. “Listen, I’ll get out of here. I just didn’t know who else to come to right now. I don’t really have any friends any more, and I was hoping that you’d just listen to me rant for a little bit. I really appreciated it.”

“I’m always here for you,” Henrik told her, giving her a quick hug.

“Bye,” Sadie said, walking out the door. She got down to the parking lot, and she saw Jonathan pull up next to her car. Not knowing what to do, she gave him a small smile when he got out of his car. “Hey, Jonathan,” she said.

“What are you doing here?” Jonathan questioned as he walked towards her.

“I needed to talk to someone, and I didn’t know where else to go,” she admitted.

“So you go to my teammate?” Jonathan asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Jon, we need to talk,” Sadie said, hopeful that he would agree to the conversation.

“What do you need to say?” he asked.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Sadie suggested.

“Whatever you need to say, you can say right here. Sadie, I don’t want to go somewhere and talk. I came here to see Hank, not you,” he stated.

Sadie inhaled deeply, hurt by his comment. “I just want to warn you that I’m not sure exactly what’s going to be in this article,” she told him.

“How can you not know what’s in the article?” Jonathan questioned. “You wrote the damn thing.”

“It’s complicated,” Sadie began.

“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” Jonathan cut her off. “I’ll see what’s in the article when it’s published. Bye, Sadie,” he said, turning away from her and walking towards Henrik’s condominium, leaving Sadie standing there, trying to keep the tears that had formed in her eyes from falling.