You Cant Hide A Hundred Years In The Ghetto.

“You can’t hide a hundred years in the ghetto.”

Sorry I left you on read for 3 months, I was stuck in an endless self isolation and self destruction cycle bc I thought I deserved to be alone. (It will probably happen again.)

After Hours

Part 9

Previous part here

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How long was he there?

How much did he see?

Has he been there before?

Did he know it was me onstage?

What is he thinking?

The questions that she had no answers to were swirling around in her head nonstop, and as Y/N kept reliving the moment she and Robert’s eyes had met outside the club, she felt like she was going to die both from embarrassment and from the nervous anticipation of when they’d see each other tomorrow.

Of course, she was completely unable to sleep, instead worrying about how Robert was going to react, what she was going to say to him, and how this would affect them.

It couldn’t be that big of a deal, right? It’s not like she’d done anything wrong. And while it’d only been earlier that same day, she had told him she had another job.

As she remembered that, Y/N groaned and pulled her pillow over her head. She was positive that this was not the kind of job Robert would have imagined her having when she’d told him that.

But what was he doing there? In all the time she’d worked at Plume, she’d never seen him there before. Had he been there but she’d just never noticed? Had he seen her other times, but never said anything?

As she got ready for work the next morning, Y/N’s heart was pounding the whole time. Of course, the easy thing to do would just be to call in sick, but Robert would know she was just avoiding him if she did that. And despite how awkward it would be, she decided it’d be better to just face him and address it than dodge the situation. She couldn’t avoid it forever, and she prayed that it wouldn’t be anything that would throw things off between them too much.

She could only hope that it would end up being something they would laugh about.

•.•.•.•.•

“So, with the selection of our school for the grant, the Dean would like to recognize Fischer Morrow at the upcoming alumni dinner.”

Sitting at the large table in the boardroom, Y/N was only half listening as the meeting with the board and the representative from the School of Arts continued. The meeting began first thing in the morning, and Y/N and Robert had yet to connect.

Sitting across from each other at the table, their eyes had met several times, but Y/N couldn’t read the look on Robert’s face, and she’d quickly looked away each time for fear that he’d see her blush. She could sense a vibe from him though, and she was nervous, as he seemed to be…she didn’t know what, exactly, but it wasn’t what she usually felt from him.

He was very much his business self today, all authority, serious, a firm tone, and brief answers. She couldn’t help but think it had everything to do with the fact that he’d seen her last night, and she now worried that his opinion of her had changed.

It shouldn’t have. He knew her well enough to know that her working at Plume didn’t mean she was suddenly a different person, or so she thought. She just had to find a moment to explain things to him.

When the meeting finally came to an end after what felt like an eternity, Y/N’s heart began to race again. Everyone rose from their chairs to leave, and she knew she had to try and speak to Robert now, because she just couldn’t wait until later.

Fortunately, someone had stopped him to talk on the way out of the meeting, and so he and Robert were still standing near their chairs at the table as everyone else filed out of the room. Y/N discreetly made her way nearer to them, lingering close enough to tell when their conversation would be over, but not hovering. Her heart began to race again as the two men started to wrap up their conversation. Once they’d shaken hands and began to move towards the door, Y/N stepped forward, a little surprised that Robert clearly didn’t plan on staying behind to talk to her — she knew that he knew she was still there.

“Robert?” she spoke up before he’d made it to the door. “Can we talk for a minute?”

Why was she so nervous? She hadn’t done anything wrong.

Turning his head over his shoulder, Robert finally acknowledged her.

“Sure, but you’ll have to make it quick,” he said very matter-of-factly. “I have another meeting in fifteen minutes.”

Finally, he fully turned to face her, and Y/N took the remaining steps to close the distance between them, stopping in front of him. He looked at her not with the warmth he usually did, but with the chillier business persona he used when things were serious.

Taking a deep breath, Y/N spoke.

“Are you upset with me?” she asked him quietly.

“No,” he replied, but his attitude didn’t have her convinced. “Should I be?”

“Listen, I know it was probably a surprise for you to see me there last night,” she began, both of them knowing exactly what she was talking about, not needing to elaborate.

“A bit,” he agreed simply.

“Had you, I mean, were you…have you been there before?”

“No,” Robert lied, shaking his head. “But a friend of mine has been, and he’s considering investing to open another location. He asked me to check it out and see if I’d be interested in going in on it with him.”

Y/N nodded slowly, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Yeah, I’d heard about that possibly happening a while back,” she said.

Robert shifted and put his hands in his pockets as he stood up straighter.

“So, when you didn’t want to make plans last night, I went there instead and finally checked it out,” he said.

Y/N shook her head and frowned.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to make plans with you,” she said adamantly. “But I had to be there last night. They were expecting me.”

“I’m sure they were,” Robert said coldly, his expression condescending.

Y/N frowned again. Her heart pounding once more, she could tell she was losing him, but she wasn’t even sure exactly why. Why was he so angry?

“Robert,” she began again, shaking her head, “I’m…I mean, I realize you must be wondering a million things, but I—”

“Can I just ask one question?” Robert suddenly said, cutting her off.

“Umm,” Y/N’s heart was racing and she felt like she was being interrogated for a crime she didn’t commit. “Sure.”

“Do you choose the songs you perform there?” he asked, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.

Y/N’s brow furrowed, unsure where he was going with this.

“Well, yes,” she said slowly. “Why?”

Robert shook his head and made a face of dismissive judgment.

“Just wondering,” he said. “Obviously, you must have chosen them because you can relate to the songs based on…personal experience, right?”

For a moment, it was completely silent in the room. But as Y/N processed what Robert said and his implication, he saw her expression slowly change from nervous and confused, to pained and shocked. And then the silence was suddenly broken when the loud smack of her hand slapping across his cheek echoed through the room.

Robert barely had time to register the change in Y/N’s expression before he felt the sharp sting of her palm across his face. When her hand had lowered and he looked at her again, she gave him no chance to say anything before she looked down and pulled her planner out of the stack of work documents in her arm. Shifting, she then dropped everything but her planner onto the table, the sound of which echoed in the room almost as loud as the slap she’d given him had.

Looking up again, Y/N met Robert’s eyes a final time.

“I quit,” she said to him.

Then she turned and grabbed the door handle, opening the door and walking out without another word.

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