In the Company

“Oh my God, I am going to rip that no-good, dumb-ass, motherfucking douchebag to pieces!”
I knew that stomping around our office wasn’t a good idea, but I couldn’t control myself anymore. David had called three times this morning for Rose – calling the company after not getting a response on her cell – and I was ready to walk down to the lobby, catch a cab and go curb-stomp that bastard.

“Ry…” Rose’s voice was quiet from her place at her desk. No amount of makeup had been able to cover the redness in her eyes, and the telltale bags beneath them that she was tore up about it and hadn’t slept a wink since.

“No! It’s not okay! He can’t pull shit like this and expect nobody to get mad! You’re my best friend, and I’m not going to let some douchebag walk all over you!” I winced when she did, realizing that I hadn’t lowered my voice when I turned my conversation to her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to yell,” I mumbled, walking over and sitting on the corner of her desk to give her a hug. She leaned in, and I rubbed her back softly. I knew she shouldn’t have came into work today, having only had yesterday to cry and let the whole thing wash over her, but Rose was Rose, and so here she was, bright and early Monday morning when nobody would have blamed her for taking the day off.

“I know,” she nodded, and then sighed before going back to looking through emails. I was too restless to sit and do the same, and when I saw Brayden, Claude and Max walk by jumped on the opportunity to do something. Tyler was leaving for his day with the cup late this afternoon, and so Deena was talking with him now.

“Hey, how is she?” Claude asked as soon as he turned to see me coming down the hall after them.

“Not good,” I admitted, and saw all three of their expressions fall. “I don’t know what to do! She’s upset – obviously – and I just want to punch his motherfucking—”

“Ryleigh?” I cut myself short as I whipped around to see Deena poking her head out of her office.

“Yes ma’am?” my voice shook slightly, and all I could do was pray that Deena hadn’t heard me. She waved me over, and the guys followed along until we were inside Deena’s office. Tyler sat at the end of the table, looking a little miserable and fiddling with a pen.

“Mr. Seguin is leaving to head back to Brampton later today, and we are going to need someone to accompany him. I’ll leave it to you and Rosaline to discuss and decide who it will be that will go with him,” she told me, and after nodding I herded the boys out of her office and down to the break room, because I wasn’t sure what state Rose was currently in.

“So what are you gonna do?” Tyler asked, once I’d started a pot of coffee. The four men all sat down at the table; Brayden fidgeting, Claude on his cellphone and Max in his own little world. I sighed and shrugged, not sure what to do.

“I’ll have to talk to Rose… I just don’t think this is going to be a good idea,” I admitted, and Max’s head snapped around.

“Why is that?”

“Because right now I don’t know that she’d be ready to fly out to wherever in Canada you’re from, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to leave her behind here where David can keep being a grade-a asshole,” I explained, and concern crossed all of their features.

“Did he do something else? Aside from what happened at the bar Saturday night?” Claude asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, he’s been calling non-stop. And when he couldn’t get an answer from her cell he started calling the office,”

Claude let out a growl that echoed what the other men all seemed to be feeling; everything from their facial expressions to their body posture screamed tension and anger. It was silent for a while, Tyler was staring at his phone, and Claude reminded me of my cousin Jeff when he got angry trying to protect any of us girls; taking on an almost brother-like role.

“I think it might be better if she went to Brampton,” I jumped, spooked when Brayden was the one to speak up. Max nodded, as did Tyler. Claude still didn’t look like he’d made a decision about anything.

“Why’s that?”

“Because then she can leave all of the David mess behind for a little while. It might do her some good, let her clear her head,” he explained quietly, and I nodded. It made sense, and worse case scenario I hauled some of the guys with me up to Brampton to go and take care of her.

“That’s actually a really, really good idea; thanks Bray,” I grinned, and his face turned red faster than I knew was physically possible. He managed to mumble some sort of response, the corner of his lip tugged up into a partial smile.

“Well, if you guys want to hang here for a little bit I’m gonna go talk to Rose; text Patrick and Taylor so they know where to find you, all right?” I instructed, and after some rolling of eyes I got a yes out of them before leaving the break room and heading back to my office.

“Rose? You all right?” I asked, knocking softly before letting myself in. I got a sad nod in response, and let myself in.

“So… I just talked to Deena. She wants one of us to go with Tyler to Canada,” I started, and saw her eyebrows raise in alarm. I swallowed hard, hoping she would think Brayden’s idea was a good one as well. “We, uh, thought you might want to be the one to go with him.”

“You what?”

“Well, it’s Brayden’s idea, really. Then you can have a few days completely asshole free; minus Tyler,” I teased, getting a little smile from her. “You can just turn the cell off, spend some time up there hanging out, relax, party a little bit, keep Tyler from getting into any trouble, and be able to just clear your head a little.”

She stared at her desk for a moment or two, enough to make me nervous, before she nodded.

“That sounds good, actually. When is he leaving?”

“At like five o’clock tonight, so we need to get you home and packed up,” I answered, and for the first time since Saturday night and the douchebag episode she smiled.

“It’s warm enough to swim there, right?”

“As far as I know, yeah,” I nodded. She sighed and began packing up her things, leaving me scrambling to do the same. We were headed towards the break room, to tell the guys the news, when we met Patrick and Taylor in the hallway heading toward us.

“What are you two up to?” Taylor asked with his usual, easy smile. Patrick’s eyes did a quick sweep of Rose, and he relaxed when he saw her looking a lot happier than she had the last time he saw her.

“I’m headed to Canada,” she announced, continuing toward the break room. I laughed, seeing Patrick and Taylor’s eyes widen and jaws drop as they stared after her. They obviously had no clue what she meant.

“She’s going with Tyler for his day with the cup; Brayden’s idea so she can forget about douchebag for a few days,” I explained for them, giving them each a tug by the arm of their T-shirts to get them to follow me toward the rest of the guys.

“That’s quite the idea,” Patrick mumbled, and I tried to hide my smirk as we walked in.

“So, you’ll be ready to go by like three thirty?” Tyler asked, and Rose nodded.

“For sure,”

“Great, I’ll get the taxi to go past your place and I’ll pick you up, sound good?” Tyler asked, getting up to leave and head back to his hotel. Knowing him he still needed to pack, if he even had things out of the suitcase he’d brought to New York with him.

“Yes it does,” she agreed, and I saw the smiles Claude, Max, Brayden, Taylor and Tyler all wore. Seeing Rose so distraught over David had been hard on all of them too.

Patrick however, looked less than pleased about the fact she was leaving. I was definitely going to have to talk to him about that one.