“Yes, I thought I’d come and check on everyone, see how you’re all doing.”
Honored he would sit with us, the guys don’t waste a second chatting with him. A few of them are having some issues with scripts, and Lex offers to come and spend the afternoon with us to help out.
It’s odd to sit next to him like this, pretending we’re nothing more than work acquaintances. I long to touch him, graze his arm, steal a bite of his dish, laugh with him… But I have to keep up with appearances, to pretend we weren’t having sex all night long and that I’m not entirely obsessed with him.
Whatever the future holds for us, I need to be patient. And if—when—the time comes to make it official, I hope it’ll be far enough from the sale of my app to avoid having to deal with gossip. It would wreck me if people had the wrong assumptions about it just because I’m sleeping with my boss.
“Are you okay?” Lex asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. When I look up, everyone’s looking at me, having noticed my lack of participation.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m just tired. I didn’t get much sleep,” I explain, even though Lex knows that.
“Did someone keep you up all night?” It’s Brian trying to humor me.
Mason lets out a sassy “Mhmm,” and I stare at him wide-eyed. “What? It’s not my fault if he guessed!”
When I kick him in the shin to make him shut up, it’s Brian who jumps and bends with a sobbing, “Ouch!”
“Sorry,” I apologize with a grimace. “Mace, shut up!”
But it’s too late. Next to me, Lex turned his stoic mask on, and I, for once, can’t tell what’s on his mind.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Steven says.
Ah, shit, not that word. It’s so official, so… final. “I’m—I don’t want to talk about it,” I stutter.
“But you have a boyfriend?” Brian insists, still bent over to massage the spot I accidentally kicked.
My skin is now crawling with embarrassment, and I don’t dare to glimpse at Lex anymore. There’s no way I’m telling them I have some sort of sex arrangement with someone until we figure out where to take it. Especially not with the someone right next to me.
“Drop it, man. Andy will tell us about it when she’s ready,” Oli says. I nod to reinforce his words, and Brian sighs.
Eventually, they start talking about some random world-famous gamer, dropping the matter of my short night. Lex isn’t taking part anymore, and I can feel his discomfort. I push around the rest of the food in my lunchbox but don’t eat anything.
The break ends, and we all move to the Trolls’ Lair. “I’ll get my laptop and handle a few things before coming back here to help,” Lex tells us. Half a minute after he leaves, my phone buzzes with a message from him.
Lex
Come up.
Ah, shit …
Reluctantly, I turn my screen off and get up to follow him. He’s waiting by the opened door. I feel like a lamb going to the slaughterhouse. He closes the door behind us, and I courageously face him, ready for whatever will come. After a few seconds of insufferable silence, he finally speaks.
“Boyfriend?” he questions with just enough humor for me to understand he isn’t mad or annoyed—just intrigued.
A relieved sigh escapes me as I laugh a little, helpless. “I never usedthatword. Mason guessed I had a date yesterday because I look like I barely slept, so he drilled me with questions.”
“Hmm, I see. I guess I shouldn’t have asked so much of you.”
“Oh no, please, keep asking.”
“But you should always come into work well-rested,” he points out with wit, reminding me of the exchange we had during my first week here.
It feels like ages ago. So many things have happened since. I can’t believe how annoying I used to find him. The rage he could conjure in me is still vividly clear in my mind. All those explosive feelings evolved into something even more flammable but so much better.
“I have the feeling my boss likes me. He wouldn’t fire me over this,” I say with a crooked smirk.
“And what gives you that impression?” He feigns skepticism, and I bite back my smile.
