Chapter 8 -No Real Competition

• It takes me a moment before I realize I know who this woman is. I remember her; she’s Natalie, a model who was recently listed in the Top 50 of young women in the workplace!
• She’s the spokesperson for one of our company's most recent product drops. She walks with perfect posture and strut, and it makes me self-conscious without my realizing it.
• Seeing Natalie up close like this, I realize just how striking she is. Stunning and flawless, her sharp beauty is a stark contrast to how I must look right now.
• “Oh, no!” I finally find myself saying, stumbling over my words at her judgmental stare. A woman like this, appearing in Derek’s home with no nerves or embarrassment?
• The girl’s words quickly spring back to the front of my mind.
• “Do many women want to be your new Mommy, girls?”
• “A lot of them,” Tris had replied quietly.
• “But we never liked any of those ladies,” Bea finished.
• It seems that the sisters’ claims of women coming and going were true. I’m still baffled by everything, and I'm still struggling to speak to Natalie.
• My thoughts continue to remain sour, wondering what on earth Natalie must be doing inside Derek’s house. Of all the places to meet her, she’s spending time here, with his girls, out of the office?
• It seems…unprofessional.
• “No,” I finally speak, clearing my throat. “I’m their new neighbor, Esme.”
• Natalie’s chin remains pointed in the air, holding her head high. “Oh, then you’re in luck—” she stops, her eyes quickly scanning me before smiling with a plastic, fake look. “But, just a reminder, the man in this house is very much taken.”
• What the hell?! Is Natalie seriously staking her claim like Derek is some prize to be won? Who does she think she’s talking to?
• I have half a mind to laugh loudly at her ridiculous accusations. Truly, does she think I have nothing better to do than to stalk my own boss and pressure him into a relationship?
• I’m stunned, but I still say nothing.
• Natalie takes a few loud steps toward me. Her heels click on the hardwood floor as she makes her way closer to me. I release the girls to go play away from the adults.
• However, I should have considered using Tris and Bea against Natalie. She doesn’t seem like someone who particularly enjoys being around children.
• “You should know you don’t have much of a chance against me, right?” She says it with a sneer on her face. Maybe it might look innocent, but I know how to read between the lines on a woman’s face.
• Still, I’m speechless at her accusations! She’s just sitting here hurling insults toward me. She may not know who I am, but to stake a claim in a man like Derek?
• It feels childish and incredibly rude.
• I already know not to have thoughts about my boss, but now I won’t even bother to pretend anything could ever happen. If Natalie wants to start off on the wrong foot, then so be it.
• “Sorry, ma’am, you are being just a bit offensive. The ‘man or this house’? I can assure you that we don’t have that kind of relationship.”
• I narrow my eyes at the model, but I don’t break away or back down. I cross my arms over my chest and instigate her to keep pushing me.
• If she really thinks she can just scare me away, then Natalie’s got another thing coming.
• She’s very annoying, but no wonder the sisters don’t tend to like these women.
• Though, it seems that most beautiful women are like this, and I’ll never be free of that grasp.
• But if she thinks I’ll cower away with my tail between my legs, she has another thing coming for her.
• “What?!” Annie shouts, the majority of the pub halting in their conversations from the outburst. “Your hot boss is your neighbor?!”
• I look around, shushing Lily for her raised volume. I feel the heat in my cheeks rising, wishing that I could melt away into the floor.
• “Keep your voice down!” Annie tells our friend, shoving her arms into Lily’s. “You want the entire country to hear you?”
• “If my boss was this hot and living next to me, I’d be screaming every night to gain his attention!”
• “Lily!” I whisper-yell. “Ew!”
• “It’s not ‘Ew,’ Esme! You’re missing the absolute golden opportunity in front of you!”
• I roll my eyes. I haven’t mentioned Natalie just yet, and that fact alone is all I need to keep my distance from Derek outside of work.
• “Well, he’s divorced. I’m getting a divorce,” I explain.
• “And?” Annie questions with a raised brow.
• I shrug. “Maybe he invited me to use the housing subsidy so he can see me more often? To be closer?”
• I hear the reaching in my logic. It’s so flawed that any sane person would see through it. But not my friends, who start giggling and squealing in their seats.
• “Oh my God, this is just like all those romance novels!” Lily practically shrieks.
• “Yes, just like the ones I read late at night with no one around to judge me,” Annie confirms.
• Lily does a little dance. “A female subordinate living next door to her male boss? That’s a gold mind!”
• I roll my eyes a second time. “You two spend way too much time locked in fantasy worlds while the rest of us are trying to just survive.”
• “Oh, come on now, let us have some fun,” Annie insists, bumping her arm with mine to show her concern for my mind.
• “Can you just spare me?” I beg. “I saw our spokesperson for one of our newest products coming out of his room.”
• The girls are silent immediately, and I know they’re listening. “I don’t have a chance with him even if I wanted to. There’s nothing there, I swear.”
• But just because I say it doesn’t make it true.
• Lily takes a sip of her drink before she speaks. “You never know.”
• “I think I do,” I respond.
• “When he came here after your first text, he wasn’t here like you’re just his underling. Mr. Derek looked at you the way most people stare at water while dehydrated: with incredible thirst.”
• I let my jaw fall open to Annie’s words, refusing to believe what she’s said. “Look, you guys might think there’s something between us, but I’ll continue to be living in the real world over here. Derek doesn’t like me, and there’s nothing going on.”
• But that’s not true, is it?
• “Hot guy and beautiful woman, you can imagine how happy they probably are in bed,” Lily states, very blasé. “Meanwhile, I haven’t had sex in a month, and I’m fucking ravished.”
• “That sounds like an issue you should handle,” Annie retorts. “I don’t know how you’ve lasted this long.”
• That’s when my best friends turn their attention back to me, and I watch as each of them refuses to drop their eye contact.
• This is not how I wanted to tell them about my sex life. It’s mostly non-existent at this point, which in hindsight, should have been a damn warning bell in my head.
• But there’s no getting around it. The two won’t drop a topic of conversation no matter how hard I try.
• “You really have to interrogate me about my sex life?” I groan.
• “Always,” Lily states. “What else are we going to bother you with?”
• A third eyeroll. Must be a record for eyerolls in a single conversation.
• I look down at my hands, picking at my cuticles as I slowly draw out my time.
• “Technically…six months,” I say quietly, feeling a bit embarrassed. God, I’m pathetic.