They looked at each other across the desk.
“Is this about work?”he asked.
Andy nodded quickly.“Um, sort of.It’s work-related.”She took a deep breath.“Are you attracted to men?”
Ian’s brain skidded to a halt.He stared across his desk at her.
She slowly turned red.“I really don’t care, I was just curious,” she said.“It was none of my business, I shouldn’t have asked.”She was saying the right things, but something in her face made him think that it did kind of matter somehow.
Ian ran a hand across his jaw.Okay...“So, you don’t need to talk about work.”
She ducked her head.“Sort of.I mean ...No.I was just ...I’m sorry.”
“Does it matter to you if I’m gay?”
She jerked upright.“No!”This time he believed her—she looked at him like he had completely missed some point.What the fuck?
Andy closed her eyes after a second and leaned forward to massage her forehead with her hand.“Listen,” she said.“It’s none of my business, it’s just that Tierney’s a known homophobe, and I know he’s a college buddy of yours.I thought, if you were gay and didn’t know about him ...? She shrugged stiffly.
Ian coughed.“I’m well aware Tierney’s a ’phobe.”
Andy nodded slowly, looking down at the surface of his desk.Ian stared at her, thinking hard.He hadn’t expected this to happen quite this soon.He had a planned answer for these kinds of situations, but now that he was facing it ...
Wuss.
Fine.He unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth and took a breath.“Yeah.I’m gay.”
Andy’s eyes widened.“You seem sostraight.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.The first time he’d ever come out to anyone outside his family, and that’s the reply he got?
“Oh, God,” Andy moaned, covering her face with her hand.“I’m so sorry, that was the lamest thing to say.Just tell me to shut up.”
“Shut up.”
“Thank you,” she said from between her fingers.
“You’re welcome.”
Another uncomfortable pause, then they both spoke at once.
“Since you and Tierney are working on that project—”
“Listen, I’ve never told anyone I work with—”
They shut up in unison.
Ian held up a hand and tried again.“Tierney doesn’t know, okay?You’re officially the only person I’ve ever worked with who knows, and I’m trusting you to keep quiet until I tell people—”
Andy overrode his hand.“Oh my God, Ian!I would neveroutyou.What kind of person do you think I am?”
“The kind of person who asks her boss if he’s gay?”
She bit her lip.“Oh, crap.I guess I did do that.I won’t tell anyone, you can trust me.And at least we don’t have anyone else in this suite to worry about overhearing us yet.”
Ian jumped right on that subject as a viable escape from the current one.“Yeah, we need some help around here.Are we ready to start interviewing?”They needed to hire two coordinators to assist them and a secretary for the brand new Interagency Disaster Relief Coordination Department that Ian headed in the Health Division.
“Yeah, um, that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about.My little brother has some secretarial experience, and—”
