I covered my face with my hands. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“Bullshit.”
“It was just a slip. A moment of weakness. We got caught up in the magical moment.”
Abby put her hands on her hips and held my gaze. “You can lie to me if you want, but don’t lie to yourself. That was a legit kiss.”
I shrugged out of my coat. “It can’t mean anything. He’s my boss. This is all supposed to be fake. There’s an NDA and a campaign strategy and an end date. It was just a kiss.”
“You’ve been falling for him since the Christmas party. Ever since you laid eyes on him. And tonight, he kissed you. And unless I missed it, I didn’t see any photographers documentingyou two sucking face. That kiss was just for the two of you. And your nosy roommate.”
“He pulled away.”
She waved a hand. “Only because he was about to put a baby in you.”
“Abby!”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing. I’m going to do nothing. I’m going to go to work on Monday and pretend this never happened.” My voice cracked. “Then I’m going to use my next paycheck to buy a same-day flight back to Wyoming and never look back.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t I?” I looked at her, and I could feel tears threatening. “I came to New York to find love, Abby. Real love. The kind that changes your life. And I found it—except it’s with my boss, who doesn’t believe in love. He’s only giving me the time of day because it’s good for business. How messed up is that?”
“He doesn’t think it’s just business anymore. If he just wanted to sleep with you, I feel like he would have already done it already. He likes you.”
“This kiss was a mistake. A slip of the tongue. Literally.”
She snorted. “Where do I sign up for a hot billionaire to accidentally slip his tongue in my mouth?”
“It’s not funny.”
“I know this is scary. I know it’s complicated. But running away to Wyoming isn’t going to change how you feel about him.”
“Maybe not. But at least in Wyoming, I won’t have to see him every day.” I squeezed my eyes closed because I suddenly felt exhausted. “I feel like the most pathetic cliché—the assistant who fell for her boss. I’m the silly girl who couldn’t separate fantasy from reality.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Abby said.
“How?”
“I don’t know yet. But it will be. You’re not going to let a little thing like falling in love with your emotionally unavailable boss break you.”
“It feels pretty breaking.”
Abby held out her hand to me. “Come on. Let’s make some tea, put on a ridiculous movie, and tomorrow you can figure out what you’re going to do.”
I took her hand and let her help me up. “What if I don’t know what to do?”
“Then you’ll figure it out as you go. That’s what grownups do. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
We went to the kitchen and I made tea while Abby scrolled through streaming options, settling on some romantic comedy I’d seen a hundred times but never got tired of.
But even as we settled onto the couch with our tea and the movie playing, my mind kept replaying that kiss.
There had been nothing fake about it.
But I had to distinguish feelings from lust. Desire versus emotion.
