It's been a few days since my negotiation at the office with Mr. Whitlock, and I haven't heard from him yet. I don't have his phone number, so I can't reach out to him until he reaches out to me, I suppose, just another way I'm under his control. As per our agreement, I have gone into work today at the university bookstore with the intention of resigning, and I am absolutely dreading it.
I've only had the job for a couple of months, and I have really enjoyed it; my co-workers are great, our boss is really lovely, and the work hasn't been too stressful or hard. I kind of wish I didn't have to quit. I don't want my life to end up revolving around this man, especially if I'm not even sure if I like him that much.
You see those women around town who have rich, successful husbands, and all they do is go shopping, get lunch with their friends, and go to the spa; and I don't want to become one of those women. They fill their days with wine and petty friendship drama and doing pointless charity events because you just know that they are so bored with their lives. That's what I know I am going to become if I don't have a world outside of the contract I've signed. He wants me to be available to him all the time when he barely knows anything about me. While at the same time, I know very little about him, and I am so willing to say yes to quitting my job. He really charmed me at that dinner, and I fell for it, so now here I am.
"Morning, Alice," I say to my boss as I walk into the back of the store and peek my head into her office. She sits at her desk, scrunching her eyes whilst looking at a computer monitor, hair falling over her face. She doesn't have her glasses on at the moment; she's probably lost them somewhere. She looks away from the screen and smiles widely at me.
"Morning to you too, sweetheart, everything okay? You look a little down." It's like she can read my mind, though I hope she can't read it too well as I've signed a non-disclosure agreement. I give her a half smile and sit down in one of the chairs across from her desk and take a deep breath.
"Yeah, I um, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to give you my 30 days' notice. I'm really so sorry. I have really loved this job and everyone else here, I just have so much on my plate at the moment with school and everything, and that's where I need my focus to be. I'm sorry if I'm leaving you high and dry but I can help you advertise for someone new and—and I can train them before I go, I really feel so bad, I'm so sorry, Alice," I ramble and talk quickly just so I can get it all out and over with, like ripping off a bandaid.
Alice pauses for a moment and absorbs what I've said before nodding her head. "That's okay, honey, I understand, thank you for telling me. School kind of getting on top of you, huh?" The concern in her voice cuts me like a knife; I really hate lying to her when she's been nothing but good to me. But I have to do it this way, legally I can't tell her the truth. 'Hey Alice, have to quit, my new super-rich hotel mogul sugar daddy hates me working shh don't tell anyone!' Yeah, that wouldn't work.
"Yeah, I just really want to do well this year, so that's where I need to focus. I really am so sorry," I bite my lip softly to stop myself from crying, Alice sits back in her chair and stands up.