Ethan lingered at the guest room door for a while as if he wanted to say something more but ultimately held his tongue out of consideration for the sleeping girl in his lap.
The next day, the secretary's Instagram post featured Ethan's silhouette once again.
This time, it was a sarcastic rant.
[Got gossiped about yesterday. So annoyed. Ethan and I have a perfectly normal boss-employee relationship, but some people just can't seem to understand that. Whatever.]
[My amazing boss took me shopping. No one has ever cared for me like this before. So happy! I'm definitely going to cling to him forever, no matter what!]
I exited the page without leaving a trace. As I prepared to take more leave, I received a message from Jane.
[Emma, thanks for looking out for me all this time. I'm leaving.]
A sinking feeling hit me. The work group chat then lit up with a message announcing Jane's termination.
I called Ethan.
The background noise on his end was chaotic as he snapped at me impatiently.
"My company doesn't tolerate gossipy employees. Besides, I gave her severance pay when I fired her. What more does she want?!"
He hung up.