Hey y’all. Sorry for being MIA. So much to catch you up on though.

So Mike started being really nice to me at work, including me in everything and constantly asking for my opinion. And he was just like, softer. One day after a meeting, both of us stayed in the conference room kind of debriefing. And then he was telling me about how he became the senior vice president. How he’d sold mattresses right out of college and hated it even though he was really good at it. He realized that he wanted to do more. He wanted to elevate the company because he knew the potential was there. And after being given an opportunity to go work corporate, he increased sales of the entire company by 25% in just six months.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“I thought like a consumer. That’s why a lot of companies don’t turn a profit. They think about the business, not about who makes the business. And you think like a consumer. That’s why you’re so successful here,” Mike said.

I nodded. “I mean, I am the ultimate consumer myself.”

Mike laughed. I’ve only seen Mike laugh or even smile a handful of times and never because of something I said or did. That conversation changed something. That evening after work, Mike texted me, “Nice talking to you today, Reese. And keep up the good work.”

The next morning Mike emailed me and asked me to stop by his office as soon as I got in.

“I want to see an increase in engagement,” he said as soon as I stepped in. “It’s not enough to just send email blasts everyday. Everyone’s doing it and no cares.”

I nodded. “Okay. So what did you have in mind?”

“You tell me. You’re the ultimate consumer.” Mike looked up at me and he actually smiled. He was actually treating me like a normal person who existed.

I walked out of Mike’s office and ran right into Scott, who was on his way in.

“Hey,” he greeted me. “Did you have a meeting with Mike?”

“Briefly. I can fill you in if you want,” I replied.

And I meant I could fill him in later after he finished his own meeting with Mike, but Scott followed me to my office right then. I felt kind of bad because it honestly wasn’t that important, but Scott is always the one saying he needs to know every time I talk to Mike and what we talked about. And then Scott sat in my office and proceeded to give me ideas for how to increase engagement for an hour.

Eventually I said, “If Mike wanted you to do this then wouldn’t he have asked you?”

Scott laughed, but I was totally serious.

Later on in the week, Scott invited me to lunch (on him) so I agreed. We mostly talked about some of the projects we’ve been working on and general company gossip (not about people, but about numbers and competitors).

And then Scott said, “You know, Mike really likes you. He thinks you’re doing really well.”

“Good. Mike’s opinion is important to me,” I said.

Scott smirked. “And mine isn’t?”

I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t say that. Everything isn’t always about you, Scott.”

“I know. I’m giving you a hard time. I hope you speak as highly of me when I’m not around too,” he said.

When we got back to our respective offices, Scott texted me, “For the record, I think you’re doing really well also. I’m glad to have you around.”

I said, “Thank you. Your opinion counts too. :-)”

Scott drunk texted me that weekend trying to get me to come meet him at the bar. I played with him for a little bit, pretending like I was going to come, until Brady wanted to know who was blowing up my phone. So then I felt bad and stopped texting back.

Scott’s last text message said, “I guess you aren’t coming. Fine. See you Monday.”

Jeez.

And so as soon as I saw Scott on Monday, I asked, “How was your weekend?” in front of everyone.

“Thank you, Reese. I had a nice weekend,” he said, avoiding eye contact.

And then when we both went to our respective offices, he texted me, “I wish I’d spent it with you though.”

Mike started giving me more assignments and responsibilities. I feel like he realized that I’m actually pretty smart and started trusting me to do things. He had a lunch meeting that ran late and texted me asking to start the company wide conference call. And one day he gave me his password so I could log into his account and text him some sales numbers while he was out of the office. Clearly he trusts me more than he trusts Scott if he’s giving me his password.

This went on for a couple weeks – Scott texting me when he was out and drinking, me responding by playing coy, but never actually meeting up with him. And Mike randomly asking me to come visit him in his office to give me new things to do or ask my opinion on things. Scott would text me all the time like, “What did Mike want?” or “Anything important?” Because I can’t talk to Mike without Scott knowing about it. He’s worse than my actual boyfriend.

One night Scott and I texted for several hours. We weren’t really talking about anything – drinking, bars, food, traveling. Nothing important. And then he said, “Can I tell you something honestly? With no repercussions?”

And of course I just wanted to know what his confession was so I said, “Sure.”

“I never expected to feel this way about you, but I really like you, Reese. More than I should. And I know I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I really want you to know.”

“I don’t know what to say…” was all I could think to respond.

“You don’t have to say anything. But I love you Reese.”

At this point I wanted to jump off a bridge. What the fuck? Why would Scott even think it was okay to say that to me? I suddenly regretted everything – meeting him at Starbucks, accepting a job offer from him, texting him and ever seeing him outside of work. I know it’s hard to hate me ( 🙂 ), but this was ridiculous.

Scott and I didn’t mention what he said again after that conversation, but we were both being nicer to each other. I tried to avoid him at work, but he’d send me meeting invites all the time and instant message me to ask if I was busy and did I work to get together to work? This sounds bad, but I was completely taking advantage of Scott’s confession. I knew that I could get my way at work no matter what. Whatever I requested, Scott said yes. And he was actually putting me in charge of things and giving me the responsibilities that I wanted so I couldn’t complain.

It was all fun and games until Brady went through my phone one night. Brady doesn’t ever go through my phone – like ever, so I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. But I’d given him my passcode so he could print something from my email and I guess Scott texted me while he had my phone. And Brady confronted me (Reese style) when I walked in the kitchen.

“Scott says he’s thinking about you,” Brady mumbled.

“Oh…”

“Are you having an affair with your boss, Reese?” he asked.

“No! Are you kidding?” I exclaimed.

“He said he’s in love with you. Isn’t he married?”

“Yes, but-”

“But what? I don’t understand how you’re going to try to talk your way out of this one.” Brady handed my phone to me and stormed out.

I followed him to the living room where he was pulling his laptop out. I sat down next to him on the couch.

“Listen, I know it looks bad, but it isn’t what you think,” I said.

“Reese, just leave me alone right now. I don’t care what you do,” Brady said.

I sat there watching him for a few minutes until I realized that he was right and that I was 100% in the wrong. I should have stopped Scott the moment he started making inappropriate passes at me.

Brady didn’t talk to me for the entire week and both of us spent a lot of time at work. I was frustrated with myself and also Scott, but only took it out on Scott. It was his fault for falling in love with me obviously. (And honestly, what made him think he was in love with me anyway? I’m nothing but a huge bitch to him and he really knows nothing about me at all outside of work).

One day Scott and I got in a huge disagreement about the way he runs his business. I obviously think I could do a much better job, but I also think there’s a ton of stuff I don’t know because Scott won’t teach me. He prefers to do everything himself and then makes me do stupid shit like organize files. And I like to remind him that I didn’t go into student loan debt to organize files.

“Scott, you’ll never get out of your current position if you don’t ever train anyone. You have to invest in your employees. If you don’t think I’m capable of handling this stuff then why did you hire me?” I said.

“I think you’re capable of doing my job and much more, Reese,” he said in his stupid accent.

“Then will you please let me actually do things? I’m not a child,” I said.

“I know you’re not a child. If you want to do more things, I’m more than happy to let you. Just let me know what you want to do and I will let you,” Scott said.

So I demanded to do everything hence why I was working my ass off and not spending much time at home. No complaints though.

Friday afternoon, I came home from work and Brady was already home and changed into regular clothes.

“Hey, Hunter is coming this weekend. I just thought I’d let you know,” he said.

“K,” I replied, passing him.

“I’m getting him from the airport now…if you want to come.”

I agreed and during the long drive to O’Hare on a Friday afternoon, we somewhat made up. I say somewhat because we argued about Scott for a little while before Brady finally changed the subject and we didn’t talk about it anymore. I was just glad that we were speaking again.

On Friday night, the three of us went to a couple of bars to hang out. Do y’all remember that red head chick Hunter met at Mariano’s last time he was here? I was shocked and confused when she showed up at the bar.

She skipped in and gave Hunter and big hug then said hi to me and Brady. I turned to Brady like, “What’s this broad doing here?” and he shrugged.

The ginger hung out with us all night until the last bar when she said she was calling it a night. And to my horror, Hunter turned to Brady and said, “I’ll meet you back at your place.”

I said, “Don’t you think you should just come with us right now?”

Hunter looked at me and then to Brady and then Brady looked at me and said, “Come on, let’s go to the bar.”

“He’s going to cheat on Dom, isn’t he?” I said as we walked away.

“It isn’t any of our business,” Brady said.

“Yes it is. Are you just going to let that happen?” I continued.

Brady ignored me and walked into the next bar. I was so disgusted by it all that I couldn’t even finish my drink and just watched while Brady kept drinking and making friends.

Hunter came home at like 7:30 the next morning. I heard Brady get up to buzz him in then get back in bed. And being the nosy bitch that I am, I got up to greet Hunter.

“Wow, walk of shame, huh?” I said.

Hunter grinned and shrugged.

“I thought you were better,” I said, honestly.

“You’ll understand when you’re married and have kids. It isn’t easy,” he said.

“It isn’t easy to not cheat on your spouse?” I clarified. “You know, last I checked it wasn’t hard to not be a shitty person.”

Brady appeared next to me. “Reese. Stop.”

Hunter looked at Brady and rolled his eyes like I was being crazy or ridiculous. And maybe I was. I don’t know why I was so concerned about him and his relationship, but I just thought about how Dom must feel being at home taking care of the children alone while her husband is having sex with some random woman in Chicago.

Brady wasn’t happy with me for confronting Hunter even though Hunter deserved it so I was not invited to hang out with them for the rest of the weekend.

I really need to get ready for work tomorrow, but I have so much more to tell y’all. So look for another post later this week! Love you!!!!!