A Charger, A Secretary, And Our Final Straw

When we're in a meeting during an overtime shift, Jazmine Garcia's secretary, Alvin Bauer, whisks a powerbank from her bag, as if it's the most natural thing to do in this world.

Jazmine merely glances at him. She opts not to comment anything and just continue the meeting instead.

The next morning, I hand over a divorce agreement that I've just printed. Jazmine chucks it into the trash can impatiently.

"All this just because Alvin used my powerbank?"

I nod for a moment before shaking my head.

"It's because he never told you that he wanted to use your powerbank, and yet he took it from your bag in a natural manner. On top of that, you didn't stop him from using your powerbank, too."

Jazmine shoots me a nasty glance at my words. Then, she drops her signature onto the divorce agreement before throwing it at my face.

"You really have too much free time on your hands! All you do is pay attention to such menial matters and picking fights with me over them!

"I've already signed the divorce agreement! I'll have you know that since you have the guts to bring up divorce, you should be ready to suffer from the consequences! I will never go back to you!"

Jazmine and I are childhood friends, and our relationship has spanned for more than 20 years. She refuses to believe that I'll give up on our relationship over such a petty matter in such a short time.

But the straw that ends up crushing the camel is never the final straw.

Jazmine Garcia slammed the door behind her as she left and ignored all of my calls and text messages. She was certain that I would be the first to give in and compromise.

That was why she kept acting as arrogant and high-and-mighty as ever, planning only to accept my apology if she was in a good mood.

However, all I wanted was for her to sign the asset division settlement.

Since she refused to talk to me, I sent the agreement back home instead to let both our parents talk it out.

I thought that we wouldn't be crossing paths again after this. However, that evening, HR came to me and said, "Colin, there's a dinner tonight, and Ms. Garcia said that everyone in the company is to attend.

"She specifically mentioned your name and said that you were not allowed to excuse yourself. Otherwise, all of your sales bonuses will be cancelled for the year."

I didn't want to put my wallet on the line, so I just packed some of my things up before driving over to the dinner venue. Yet, before I'd even stepped in, I heard Jazmine playfully saying, "Sure. If you can top the sales for next month, then I'll fulfill one of your wishes. It can be anything."

"Anything?"

I saw through the glass in the door to the private dining room that Jazmine was sitting in the corner, her cheeks slightly flushed like she was tipsy, right next to her personal assistant, Alvin Bauer. He was gently kneading her hands at that moment, tucking strands of her hair behind her ear carefully as he looked at her endearingly.

The other colleagues didn't dare to watch and just focused intently on the food on the table.

I sat down in the farthest corner from them and asked simply, "I haven't seen any large sales coming in. What's this dinner celebrating?"

"This dinner is specifically to celebrate and commemorate Alvin closing his first-ever sale," Jazmine said, suddenly getting up and raising her glass of red wine while scanning the room.

When her eyes landed on me, a hint of impatience surfaced in her eyes. Then, she announced loudly, "Alvin has shown a lot of improvement over the past few months ever since joining the company. Although the sale was only worth a few hundred bucks, it's still worth celebrating and encouraging!

"Now, everyone, you will send your heartiest congratulations to him in the form of cash transactions. As previously stated, nobody is allowed to give less than 1,000 dollars."

My jaw dropped. The rest of the colleagues also looked shocked and reluctant.

Jazmine's gaze then found me again. She pointed at me and said, "As for you, Colin Whitaker. You're the Deputy CEO. You should give him a bonus of 20,000 dollars. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

In the past, she used to give encouragement to our company interns who managed to close the deal on a huge sale. And back then, I thought that since Jazmine and I were married, we moved as a unit, and therefore, I didn't want to let her down.

So, I would always back her up for these dinner celebrations, making the reservations, doing the preparation, and even forking out a 1,000-dollar bonus from my own pocket just to encourage them.

Our other business partners heard about our little program and decided that Jazmine was a very good and trustworthy boss, so they gave her even more business, which improved our company's sales.

But now, I could see that she was basically on the verge of kissing Alvin on the mouth, and I couldn't care less. I just replied perfunctorily, "I don't have any money."

Jazmine slammed her glass on the table and sneered coldly, "All he did was use my powerbank for a bit. I didn't even cheat on you. Why the hell are you still making such a huge fuss about getting divorced?"

The red hickey hiding under her collar would occasionally pop out to greet me from time to time. However, we hadn't slept together in a very long time ever since Alvin appeared.

"I'm not making a fuss. I'm really divorcing you."

Jazmine was stunned when she met my stern, determined gaze.

Alvin got up just then and held her by her shoulders, patting her gently as he smiled at me.

"It's my fault for taking Jazzy's belongings without asking her first. It's just that it was an urgent situation back then, and I didn't think much about it. Obviously, I also never thought that Mr. Whitaker would continue holding it against me for so long.

"Jazzy, I think we should just stop showing up in the same places to give Mr. Whitaker peace of mind in the future."

Alvin then let go of her shoulders with a hurt look on his face. However, Jazmine immediately grabbed his hands and pulled them back around her shoulders as she explained frantically, "No, it was never your fault!

"It's Colin's fault for being petty. He's the one not bringing in any sales because all his time is spent on watching my powerbank to make sure no one else can borrow it!"

Alvin looked at her shyly and acted hesitant about it.

"Mr. Whitaker might be extremely jealous and possessive, Jazzy, but he is still your lawfully-wedded husband. You should be more considerate of his feelings. It doesn't matter if I get wronged in the process."

Jazmine cast me an ugly look and immediately began clarifying things as if we weren't the least bit related to each other at all.

"Colin and I are only married in name! If he never set up that scheme to freeze my family's finances to force me into marrying him, I would never even have looked at him twice!"

Her lips curled up slightly as she continued to provoke me on purpose.

"Mr. Whitaker, you should never have done that in the first place. You were the one who forced Jazzy to marry you. So, you should cherish her even more than ever! How could you keep getting into arguments with her?

"Also, she is not your possession. It only makes sense that she also has friends in her own circle!"

I smiled emotionlessly. "So, do you mean that I, as her lawfully-wedded husband, shouldn't even bother or do anything about it that she's friends with a 'boyfriend' like you who's obviously trying to steal someone else's wife?"

He didn't think that I would expose him so directly in public. He just pointed a finger at me and stammered for half a minute without being able to get a word out.

Jazmine immediately shielded him behind her and screamed at me with a finger in my face.

"Colin Whitaker! What the hell do you think you're saying?"

"What do you think I'm saying?" I countered. "Well then, would you dare to show everyone how you saved his contact in your phone? Is the heart emoji still next to his name? Or, would you prefer to show them your daily transfer records with dozens of hearts in the transfer descriptions?"

Jazmine's face was red with anger. I pulled out my phone and tapped on a chat window from an unsaved number that sent me tons of her lewd photos in bed.

"Or, would you prefer instead to show everyone who the people in these photos—"

"Shut the fuck up!"

She threw the entire bowl of fruit punch in my face, and she also snatched my phone before flinging it onto the ground in fury, where it shattered into pieces.

The other colleagues wanted to stop us, but they didn't dare to move from their seats. They just cast pitiful looks in my direction.