A/N: BIG thank you for hanging in there with me and my once a week updating. I would writer every day if I could!
I decided to go in a different direction in this update, to move forward with the story. I hope it works :D
Thank you to everyone who reads!
"Stefan, it's me" she said quietly into the phone. "I need to see you."
"Is everything okay?" he asked, and she could hear him shuffling papers on his end of the line, almost as if he was setting them aside. "Where are you?"
"I'm at work" she told him. Elena opened her mouth to explain, but a knock on her car window caused her to gasp loudly and drop her phone. Elena could barely see Gregory standing next to her car, through her frosted car window. Stefan's voice was still coming through the phone and she quickly hung up on him.
Gregory was still standing there expectantly when she got out of her car. "You're going home?" he asked, clearly disapproving of her choice.
"I … I don't feel well" she told him, being as confident as she could in his presence.
"You look fine" he told her sternly.
Elena felt a sudden surge of confidence as she scoffed at his statement. How dare he try and discount how she felt. "Well I don't feel fine" she snapped at him. "I have sick leave for a reason" she reminded him defiantly.
"The day is half over already, just stick it out" he said, matching her defiant tone. "We have too much to get done right now for you to be taking time off because you don't feel well" he said, mocking her from earlier.
Elena crossed her arms defensively. "Excuse me?" she asked. "I have all of my work done. Maybe you're the one who needs to spend the weekend working" she told him. "Oh, wait. I forgot. You're going out of town this weekend" she said, slightly angry.
Gregory looked at her with a warning glare. "I've been working 80 hour weeks the entire year to keep this company going at the rate it is" he told her, pointing his finger at her. "If I want a weekend fishing trip with the boys, I'm going to take a God damn weekend fishing trip with the boys" he nearly growled at her with frustration.
This only agitated Elena more. "Huh, weekend trip with the boys?" Elena asked sarcastically. Gregory narrowed his eyes at her, unappreciative of her sarcastic tone that she was taking with him. Elena could care less though. She was fired up and she couldn't stop. "Who is she, Gregory?" Elena finally asked.
Maybe a little part of her wanted herself to be wrong about Gregory cheating on her. She had put so much effort into their relationship and the thought of it being over was scary. But what was scarier was the thought of being alone, even though she had basically been alone in her relationship anyway.
As Elena thought all of that over in her head, she realized that Gregory wasn't answering her. He wasn't defending himself. He was just staring at her with a blank look like he didn't know what to do. "Do I know her?" she finally asked, and the hatred in her voice was evident. "Come on Gregory!" she said, raising her voice at him. "Tell me about her. She's obviously important to you if you're been cheating on me with her!" she all but yelled. A prickling sensation was gathering at the backs of her eyes, but she damn sure as hell wasn't going to cry in front of him. She never cried in front of him.
And without much effort, he answered her finally. "Don't make this any harder for yourself than it needs to be" he told her, as if he was giving her the best advice anyone could give. She took offense to it though, scoffing at him like he was the most unbelievable person she had ever met. "My relationship with her doesn't change how I feel about you" he added.
That was the biggest slap in the face for her. "You did not just say that" Elena said in disgust, shaking her head as she backed away from him.
"Elena" he said, stepping towards her. "Nothing between us will change" he told her with such sincerity that she was pretty sure she was dealing with a psychopath.
Elena glared at him. "Everything just changed" she told him confidently. "I spent years trying to make our relationship work!" she nearly yelled at him. "I never asked for much in return. Hell, I even made up excuses for you. But this? Cheating on me? There's no excuse for that. I don't deserve that kind of disrespect" she said boldly.
He smiled at her then, confusing her and pissing her off at the same time. "Do you really want to be alone right now? Just before the holidays?" he asked, figuring her could trap her into staying with him that way. No one liked to be alone for the holidays.
She squared her shoulders and took a step towards him. She wanted to hurt him back. To let her anger out in a way that would cripple him like he was crippling her, though she wouldn't show it. As soon as her anger dissipated, she would feel all of those other emotions she didn't want to feel. Sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and insecurity.
But for the moment, she could piss him off for the hell of it. "Don't you worry about me being alone" she told him. "Stefan Salvatore will make sure I'll be taken care of" she said. "All. Night. Long" she said slowly, pronouncing each word for that little extra push to piss him off.
Gregory's smile had long faded as he listened to her. "You've been sleeping with him?" he asked, keeping his temper in check.
Elena shook her head. "No, you see. I respect you more than you apparently respect me" she told him. "Had I known you were cheating on me though?" she asked. "I would have let Stefan have his way with me the other night" she told him. She took another small step closer to him and lowered her voice. "And I'm sure it would have been mind-blowing" she told him.
Gregory glared at her again, clearly angry. He grabbed ahold of her wrist suddenly and she could see how angry he truly was. "Shut up" he told her in a low, cold voice.
Elena pulled her arm away from him, but he only held on tighter. It was starting to hurt and he was starting to scare her. He had never done this before. "Let go" she told him, using her other hand to try and pry his hand off of her. "Gregory, you're hurting me" she said, feeling the distress seep into her voice.
"You don't throw Stefan in my face like that" he said angrily, pushing her against her car and tightening his grip on her wrist. "You want to be with him, huh Elena?" he asked in an overbearing tone. "He's about to go bankrupt any day now. Is that the kind of life you want? Failure?" he asked.
"He's not a failure!" she yelled at Gregory, surprising both herself and him by defending Stefan. Gregory's eyes narrowed at her and still, he squeezed her arm harder. "Ow" she whimpered, fighting back tears that threatened to spill.
"Let go?" he asked her. "And then what?" he asked, clearly trying to still intimidate her.
"And then I'm going to kick your ass" Stefan said from behind him.
Stefan's sudden presence distracted Gregory just enough so Elena could get her arm free. She slipped past Gregory, but he grabbed onto her arm to stop her. "Elena, wait" he told her, more calmly this time.
His hand was slapped away by Stefan who clearly was done with Gregory touching Elena. "You have 30 seconds to get back in that building before I physically show you how much I hate you" Stefan warned him.
Gregory glared at Stefan. "This is between Elena and me" he told him, taking a step towards Stefan. "Not your business, Salvatore."
"It just became my business" Stefan told him, staring him down and determined to win.
Gregory seemed to be sizing Stefan up and Elena watched nervously. If Stefan did hit Gregory, Stefan would be the one in trouble, especially on Gregory's company's property. Gregory looked over at Elena finally. "This isn't over" he told her, taking a step back from them and turning to leave.
Stefan paid him no mind as soon as he was a safe distance away. "Are you okay?" he asked, searching her eyes. His gaze fell though, down to her wrist.
She moved it behind her back awkwardly so he would stop staring. "I'm fine" she told him, looking anywhere but at him. "What are you doing here?"
"You called saying you needed to see me, and then you hung up suddenly. I was worried" he told her. Thank God he had decided to drive over to check on her.
Elena realized that she had called him, though she hadn't meant for him to come to her. She had planned on going to him. But if Stefan hadn't shown up when he did, Elena wondered just what Gregory would have done. "Thank you for coming to make sure I was okay" she told him.
"You're welcome" he told her, and his sincerity nearly killed her. He had to stop being such a great guy to her. "What did you need to see me about?" he asked.
"Nothing" Elena told him. She honestly didn't know what she was thinking. Running to Stefan because her lousy boyfriend was cheating on her was pathetic. Stefan was looking at her like he didn't believe her, but he wasn't pressing her for clarification either. "Really, it was nothing" she told him again.
"Okay" he said, nodding. He would drop the subject. For now. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, gently pulling her arm out from behind her back to examine her wrist. It was red where Gregory's fingers had gripped her, and he was sure it would bruise by the evening. He ran his thumb over the red marks softly. Her wrist was so small and he knew that Gregory could have easily crushed her wrist had he decided to.
Elena's eyes were glued to his hand, softly touching her aching wrist. "I'm sure" she said.
Stefan nodded. "Can I drive you home or something?" he asked, finding it increasingly hard to be normal around her right now when all he wanted to do was grab her and hug her tight to make her feel better.
"No, thanks though" she told him, pulling her arm away from him. "I should get home and ice this" she said, pointing to her wrist. She turned and opened her car door, but stopped before getting in.
He could tell that she wanted to say something to him, and he waited for what seemed like minutes only for her to talk herself out of saying something to him and getting into her car instead. He forced a smile though as he waved to her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Elena spent the better half of the night crying and by the time she woke up the next morning, her eyes hurt like hell. But she did her best to put herself together and the makeup did its job in hiding how sad and tired she was.
Elena checked her wrist and saw that it had turned black and blue. She touched it and winced. That bastard had gone too far the day before.
Elena knew she couldn't avoid Gregory forever, but she wished she could. She would just have to suck it up and pretend like she didn't care about him or what he did anymore.
When she did set foot into her office, she was met by two security officers. "Miss Gilbert" one of them nodded. "You need to gather your belongings and exit the premises" he instructed.
"I beg your pardon?" Elena asked. "What is going on here?" she asked.
"You've been fired" Gregory said, standing behind her. She jumped slightly before turning around to face him. "You have five minutes to gather your things" he told her.
Elena felt that same sick feeling return that she had the day before when she had discovered that he was cheating on her. "You can't fire me" she told him.
"As CEO, Elena. Yes, I can" he told her, giving her no indication that he was going to back down. "I've decided that you're not the best fit for the company anymore" he shrugged, as if to say he had put a lot of thought into it.
"I made this company what it is" she reminded him, keeping her emotions in check with the security guards present.
"No, Elena. You, did what anyone with your degree could have done" he informed her. Elena's jaw nearly dropped at his comment. "So pack your stuff and get the hell out of my building" he said before turning and leaving. "Boys, give her a minute, would ya?" Gregory told them, waving them out.
Elena stood stalk still as they left and waited for the door to be shut. She had five minutes, and Gregory would count and make sure she didn't get a second longer. She quickly went to her desk and tossed her bag down, digging through it for her memory stick and sticking it into the computer. It took her all of about one minute to get what she needed off of the computer. The last few minutes were spent grabbing various things from her desk – things she knew he wouldn't forbid her for taking.
Sure enough, he was back in five minutes. "Got everything?" he smirked.
Elena threw her bag over her shoulder and stormed towards him. "Go to hell" she spit at him before storming past him. She didn't care that everyone was staring at her as she left. They probably all knew that she had been fired. Gregory had probably sent out a mass e-mail to the company about it.
She was going to storm out of there with her head held high.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It wasn't until she was in front of the Salvatore building that Elena let herself break down just a little. A few tears escaped on her, but she wasn't planning on staying long enough to let them fall uncontrollably.
Betty jumped to her feet upon seeing Elena come walking down the hallway. "Miss Gilbert" she said politely.
"I need to see Stefan" Elena said, refusing to look at Betty. She could feel herself begin to get worked up and the last thing she wanted to do was become an emotional mess in front of this woman.
"He's in a meeting. He should be out in about 45 minutes" Betty informed her.
But Elena shook her head, feeling her frustration begin to build. "I need to see him now. Please call him" she said quickly.
Betty didn't hesitate to pick up her phone and proceed to tell Stefan that he needed to leave the meeting right away.
Stefan was walking down the hall a few minutes later, looking a tad frustrated with Betty. "Betty, that meeting is important. What's going …" he trailed off, seeing Elena standing off to the side. "Hey" he said, concern washing over his face. She looked up at him and didn't bother to hide how miserable she was. "Come here" he said, placing his hand on her back and leading her into his office. "What happened?" he asked her when his door was shut.
"You need this" Elena told him quickly, shoving the memory stick into his hand. "Everything I've created for his company. All the models I used. All of it is there" she told him, continuing with her rapid speech that had him confused. "Look them over and implement them. They will save your company" she finished before heading for the door once again.
Stefan stood there confused as Elena walked out the door. He looked at the memory stick in his hand, wondering what in the hell she had given him that for. Elena was dead set on never, ever letting Stefan know about her work. Yet she had just given him everything.
Stefan went to his computer and sat down, sticking in the memory stick and opening up the contents on his computer. Sure enough, there were hundreds of documents on the memory stick. He clicked through a few of them, finding models and analysis. He studied them carefully. These were everything Elena had used to make Gregory's Coffee so successful so fast. And now he had them.
There might have been hope for Salvatore Coffee after all.
He should have been excited and thrilled that he now had Elena's secrets for creating a successful company. But instead, the only thing he could think about, was her, and whether or not she was okay.
A/N: Yeah, Gregory is kind of a jerk …
