Swept Away by My Janitor Husband novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Overtime
Working late on her own engagement slides, Jean finds her fiance with her best friend in the break room, throws the ring into his coffee, and is framed for a data leak; the night janitor pushing a cart past is the CEO.
I was building my own engagement slideshow at nine-thirty on a Thursday night.
Forty-one photos of Colin and me, set to a song he picked.
The sixth floor of Wexler Freight was empty except for the hum of the copiers.
I had stayed late to finish the COO's quarterly report, and then I had stayed later for the slideshow.
My fiance's party was in two days.
My parents had already given Colin eighteen thousand dollars for the club deposit.
At nine-thirty-five I carried my mug to the break room to refill it.
The door was closed but the blinds were not.
Colin was inside with his tie loose and his hands in Brooke's hair.
Brooke was my best friend.
She had been my best friend since the second week of college.
She was sitting on the counter beside the coffee machine in my cardigan.
It was the green one I had lent her in March.
I stood there holding the mug.
Neither of them noticed me standing there.
Then Brooke laughed against his mouth and said, "She's going to cry so hard at that slideshow."
"She cries at car commercials," Colin said.
I pushed the door open with my shoulder.
They sprang apart.
Brooke slid off the counter and tugged the cardigan closed.
Colin smoothed his hair with both hands.
"Jean," he said. "It isn't what it looks like."
"It looks like my fiance and my best friend," I said.
"How long?"
Brooke looked at the floor.
Colin looked at the ceiling.
"Since March," Brooke said finally.
"Since March," I said.
I had planned my wedding in March.
I had picked out napkins.
I set my mug on the counter.
Then I took off the ring, which was the hardest thing I have ever done with one hand.
Colin's coffee sat on the table in his Wexler Freight Sales Leader mug.
I dropped the ring into it.
It sank with a small, ugly plop.
"The napkins are non-refundable," I said. "Enjoy them."
Brooke started to cry, and I did not care.
"Jean, please, don't make this a scene," she said.
"You wore my sweater to do this," I said. "Take it off before you leave the building."
Colin's face changed.
The sorry look dropped away.
What stood there instead was the man who did his sales calls in the stairwell.
"You think you're so special," he said. "You're a secretary."
"An executive assistant," I said.
"You get coffee for people who run things, and I run things."
He picked up the mug and fished out the ring with two fingers.
He wiped it on his shirt.
"Nobody else is going to marry you, Jean. You know that, right?"
My throat closed, but I did not let it show.
"I'll take the risk," I said.
I turned for the door.
That was when he said, loud enough for the hall to hear, "Security."
Two guards were already at the end of the hallway.
Colin followed me out with his phone held up.
"At nine-forty tonight, someone used Jean Marrin's badge to pull the Brandt Haulage bid file," he said.
"Our bids have been going to a competitor for months, and I just found the log."
My mouth fell open.
"It's nine-forty right now," I said. "I'm standing here."
He smiled at me.
"Then you did it from your phone," he said. "Badge. Hand it over."
I looked at my desk down the row.
My bag sat open on the chair.
I had not left it open.
The guards were polite and enormous.
One held out his palm.
I unclipped my badge from my lanyard and put it in his hand.
Behind me, a cart rattled.
A man in gray coveralls was pushing a mop bucket down the aisle.
He had a cap pulled low and a cleaning cloth on his shoulder.
He kept his eyes on the floor as he passed Colin and the guards.
He stopped at the break room door and began to mop up the coffee I had spilled.
When he straightened, the light caught his face.
Gray-green eyes.
A strong jaw, and a long scar running down his forearm below the rolled sleeve.
I had seen that face exactly once.
It was at the holiday party two Decembers ago.
He had shaken my hand over a plate of lukewarm lasagna and signed my bonus card.
I had typed his name on the board minutes for four years.
The man mopping the break room floor was Glenn Wexler.
He owned the building.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend