He Carried Her Up the Mountain, I Carried Myself Out of His Life Novel – Chapter 1 During the company hiking retreat, I wore a brand-new pair of sneakers, and before we even made it halfway up the trail, they had already rubbed my ankle raw. I limped along at the very back of the group. After hesitating before finally texting Gavin Mercer: [Can you slow down a little? My foot’s torn up.] He replied almost immediately: [Hang in there. We’re almost at the top.] I looked up at his tall figure farther up the mountain, then slipped my phone back into my pocket. He had never once given me special treatment in public. The company had a strict no-dating policy, and somehow, after five years together, our relationship remained the best-kept secret in the office. But when I finally made it to the summit, I saw him crouched in front of the intern.
She was wearing a brand-new pair of ankle boots, and he was holding her foot with careful hands, as if she were made of glass. “Why would you wear shoes like that on a hike?” he said, sounding reproachful, but the way he pressed a Band-Aid over her skin was impossibly gentle. “Does it hurt?” The intern swung her foot a little, the tips of her ears turning pink. “I can’t walk anymore. Mr. Mercer, would you carry me down?” While our coworkers laughed and teased them, the man who always maintained a calculated three-foot radius around me at work was now bending down to let her climb onto his back. The wind tore across the mountaintop, and my ankle burned so badly it felt feverish. That was when it finally hit me. His so-called professional boundaries had never been rules for everyone. They had only ever been rules for me.
On the first workday after the retreat, I left my resignation letter on my desk, right beside the box of Band-Aids he had tucked into my drawer. Then I bought a one-way ticket home. ******** When the boarding announcement echoed through the station, I stood in the concourse and looked long and hard at the city I had lived in for five years. Because Gavin was still here. The thought of leaving had first taken root at the end of last year. When year-end bonuses were handed out, the company calculated them by project, and one of the biggest payouts should have gone to the account I had led from start to finish. Instead, because I had let the new intern help with some of the wrap-up work near the end, ninety percent of the bonus had been assigned to her in the final review. That project had taken two months of my life. Derek Lawson looked uncomfortable when he broke the news to me.
“Elena, this came from Gavin.” That intern had only been brought onto the project because I made an exception for her in the first place. I had wanted to mentor her, paying forward the help I never received. I just hadn’t expected my two months of work to become someone else’s reward. Derek sighed and said, “Gavin wanted the company to make a point of rewarding promising new talent like Chloe Bennett.” Chloe was the intern. And Gavin Mercer, the executive everyone deferred to, was the man I had loved for five years