Diana and I grew up together.
Her parents were close friends of mine. When they passed when we were in our twenties, we enfolded her into our family. She got married and lived in Los Angeles, but after her divorce, she returned and has become a fixture.
She’s close to my sister and sister-in-law. She goes on spa days with my mother. My father adores her. She works at Winter Financial as the Chief Financial Officer. We spend a lot of time together at work.
My colleagues joke and call her my ‘work wife’.
When I ask my assistant to let my wife know I’ll belate, she teases and asks me which one. It’s usually Mia who has to hear from my assistant.
I don’t love Diana. Not like I love Mia. However, over the past two years, since Diana returned to Vermont and started working for me, I have been to more restaurants with Diana and had more meals with her than with my wife.
“Be careful,” Huxley, my oldest and closest friend, warned me when we met a few months ago for drinks.
He owns a chain of hotels across the state. We met in high school and have been close since.
“What do you mean?” I asked, perturbed.
“You’re planning a business trip and missing your wedding anniversary.”
“And?”
“And…you’re taking a business trip with Diana to Paris.”
I shook my head. “What the fuck are you trying to say?”
“I’mnottrying, Aiden, I’mtellingyouthat you’re having a fucking affair and you’re going to lose your wife over it.”
I laughed. Hard. “I’m not having an affair. Diana is family, Hux. We’re colleagues and?—”
“You’re having an emotional affair. Your colleagues call her your work wife.”
I waved a dismissive hand. “Everyone has a work wife. Means nothing.”
“How does Mia feel about her?”
“My wife isn’t insecure,” I snapped.
“She’s not happy about all the time you spend with Diana. I can guarantee that, even if she hasn’t said a thing.”
It’s not like she hadn’t, but she understands that work is work, and Diana is family. She brought it up a lot when Diana first moved back to Vermont, but I shut it down by telling her to grow a spine and trust me.
“You don’t know Mia, so stop pretending like you do.”
“But I know Diana,” he pointed out. He did. We all grew up together. “She wants to be your wife.”
“But I don’t want her. Not like that. Never like that.”
He gave me a measured look. “You sure about that?”
I lied to him then and said I was.
But the truth?
I enjoy Diana’s company.
She looks up to me and talks to me like I’m some kind of financial genius. It soothes my ego.
Mia is a kindergarten teacher. She knows nothing about high finance. I love her.Butfor a while there, she didn’t excite me.
