章 8: Existing Next to Him

'I need to keep out of the pantry. If they locked me inside, Elijah could only fetch me for lunch.'

Keagan feigned her smile and bowed to wordlessly apologize to everyone. Then again, the chatters faintly echoed, and her ears couldn't help but listen to their derisive giggling.

"Stay at the desk over there. Don't touch her things or cause a mess you cannot clean." Elijah still led her to his office first. He continued to remind her nonstop while he was gathering needed documents for the morning meetings.

Keagan only listened and assented as she cleaned around the office. The secretary had already cleaned the place, but Elijah still saw a few things that needed to be rearranged. Keagan was already receiving the earful that he wouldn't give his secretary. This was better for her than being left alone with those people looking to harm her.

However, Elijah still had to leave. She moved to the vacant desk and saw how the person seemed to have left two days ago. She then murmured, "Maternity leave… I wonder when I can say something like that. But getting pregnant has a high chance of ruining my body…"

And Elijah didn't like that.

"Hey, Keagan," someone called out her name, and she turned to find one of the males leaning on the top of her cubicle wall. He was grinning at her, his eyes seemingly enjoying the angle he had to look down at her. "That was just one glass. How could you get drunk with just one?"

"Sorry, I got sick from the food." Keagan would normally smile at Eljiah's friends, but she decided not to keep eye contact longer than necessary. She even took out a small unruled logbook to sketch clothes she figured would look good on her.

However, the man moved closer to the cubicle's opening and snatched the logbook. He even browsed it as he leaned against the thin wall. "You keep drawing these weird things, huh? They don't seem to be pretty in any way. Why waste ink on garbage?"

Keagan stared at the man, not knowing how to deal with the situation. She could either laugh and educate the man to boredom or stand up for herself and snatch the logbook back. The first option would make her reputation sink deeper, but the second option might incur people's wrath. In the end, she chose to just sit and watch him without a sound. He would return it if he found no fun taking it.

The third option seemed to work, but the man only closed the logbook and stared at her. He then placed the logbook back down, giving him an excuse to step inside the cubicle and lean closer toward her.

"You're not wearing your usual perfume. That smells like a man's." His lips pulled up in a menacing grin. "Do you like that kind of scent? What do you think Elijah will say if you—?"

"I think he's going to be satisfied." Keagan took her logbook and spoke loudly as if attracting everyone's attention… as if seeking help from anyone. "This is his perfume. If you like it, I can recommend shops where you can buy it."

The man's face twitched at the loudness. Before he could even straighten his back and play it cool, someone already laughed: "As if he can afford the things the boss uses!"

For a moment, the office was filled with laughter. The sound surely pissed the man off as he looked around and found everyone chattering and laughing at him. Keagan reached for her logbook, so he grabbed her wrist and squeezed it tightly. The pain made Keagan wince, but he cared too little about that.

"You think you can get away with this?" He huffed before throwing Keagan's hand away. "Later, you'll find what you're looking for. Elijah's perfume? Let's see if he smells that on you when he gets back."

The man left and went back to his desk, growling at the neighbors who teased him. Keagan just consoled her sore wrist and looked at her logbook. She just picked up a pen from her bag and started sketching again. For a moment, she only prayed for the hours to crawl without anyone speaking to her.

…

The printer's sound was loud enough to help Keagan dissociate from all the office noises. She was tasked to collect printing documents with over a hundred pages. She stood in front of the printer, waiting for the documents to finish. Then, she would have to sort them and staple the relevant pages together. Her mind was already picturing her task, hoping to find a stapler in the desk she stayed at.

Then, a hand tapped her back. When she turned, it was one of the girls in the office. She mockingly smiled at Keagan. "Hey, didn't the boss ask you to apologize to us? What you did that night put us to shame. How are you looking to resolve that?"

"…I didn't mean to…" Keagan wanted to get away from this scary lady. This lady named Fiona liked Elijah, but she couldn't make advances because Elijah already had a hot girlfriend. The boss even warned her from doing another stunt. That was why she kept taking it out on Keagan when this hot girlfriend continued to be dumb and defenseless.

"What? What do you mean, it's not your fault?" Fiona feigned her shock and loudly gasped, making the others look in their direction. She even acted sulky. "How dare you say people wouldn't have done that if we weren't laughable from the beginning? Take it back!"

Keagan gasped softly. How delusional! However, between her and Fiona, the office would believe the latter. Even if those who knew Fiona would deride Keagan for the fun of it.

She turned to face the other woman. "I didn't say anything like that! I was sick—"

"You are sick of us? You're the worst! Just because you're the boss's girlfriend, you can't insult us like that, Keagan!" Fiona shrunk her shoulders and held her hands to her chest. "Why did you become so mean? Did you plan on humiliating our office when you threw up at the madam? How could you—!"

"Aren't you pushing it a little too much?" Keagan murmured as she watched Fiona's performance in horror. The girl was lying, but Fiona's words would become true because it was spoken against her. One look around the office was enough for Keagan to confirm that grim theory.

Another girl got up and huffed. "Hey, being the boss's girlfriend doesn't excuse you from saying awful things toward us! We're his pride in this department, you know? Heh, what does a slut like you know about making someone proud?"

Someone cheered from their seat, "Yeah, tell her!"

Keagan looked around again, seeing how those eyes cast down on her as if they wanted to rip her apart. She didn't know what she did to incur everyone's wrath.

Was simply existing next to Elijah her consent for them to say things like this to her?