She squints at me. “It’s easy for you not to be stressed. You’re her boss.”
“Exactly. I’m the boss. You’re not in trouble.”
“Yeah, you’ve become pretty hard to fire,” Karen notes dryly. “Alexander, however… We’ll need to ensure there’s no perception of favoritism. Unless we hire someone as head of the dev team, we’ll have to closely monitor everything since you’re her direct supervisor. Any decision you make about Andrea—projects, promotions, work trips—will go through me first.”
“Noted.”
“Also, I’ll print out the PDA rulebook. I want you both to read it and follow it to a T. No slip-ups, no exceptions, and no messes for me to clean up, alright?”
Andrea and I nod in agreement.
The whole process takes about fifteen minutes. The urge to crack my knuckles grows distracting. It only hits me when I’m tense, overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, and I’d say I’m all three at once right now. So, I don’t fight it. I grab my index finger and pull it back until the joint pops. I crack each knuckle in slow succession, chasing the fleeting relief it brings. The rhythm keeps me steady, keeps my expression neutral. When I’m done, my fingers flex once before I let them fall still.
The fact that I’m Andrea’s superior makes it much more complicated than a relationship between colleagues, and I’m not sure I anticipated just how procedural things would get. But I can’t risk Kelex’s future, so I’m ready to comply with whatever rule Karen wants to set. It’s her first time handling such a situation, so she explains she’ll come up with a complete list of do’s and don’ts by the end of the week.
As Andrea and I walk back to my office with our signed contract in hand, I wonder what comes next. It seems she has the same questions, because she asks, “Do you think we should… get ahead of things and tell people, before Mason slips up or something?”
“You want to go downstairs and tell everyone?”
“Well, maybe not everyone. But the dream team, at least. They’re my friends, and I feel like they deserve to know first.”
“If we tell them, the entire company will know by the end of lunch break.”
“Let them. I’m tired of hiding. They’ll eventually hear about it, anyway.”
“Aren’t you worried about what they’ll think of you anymore?”
She ponders, her lips pressed together as she frowns. “A little, yes. But you’re ridiculously attractive, so I’m sure they’ll realize I wasn’t sleeping with you to get a promotion or something.”
“You’re right. I’m also very rich, so maybe that’s why you—”
She shoves my shoulder with a soft jab. “Idiot,” she chuckles. She gets pensive for a moment, then meets my eyes. “No matter what they think or say, I don’t care anymore. We have something worth fighting for, so I can take it.”
“If someone says something, I’ll fire them.”
Andrea laughs again. “I’m sure Karen would have a lot to say about that.”
We’ve reached my office now, so I get inside to drop the papers off on my desk. When I return, Andrea looks anxious, hands fidgeting around her rolled-up contract. “Do you really want to do this?” I softly ask.
“Yes. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”
“Only if they know you’re mine in return,” I answer, laying a possessive hand over her hip.
“Oh, they’ll know, baby.”
The tension as we make our way downstairs is palpable, but there’s also determination in our steps. We’re all in. No going back. A few faces turn when we enter the Troll’s Lair, where there are also two people from the design team—one sitting with Oli and one with Steven.
“Do you want me to do it?” I ask Andrea. She gulps hard and nods. “Everyone, if I can get your attention for a minute,” I demand with a clear, firm, and confident voice. “Andrea and I have been seeing each other and will continue for the foreseeable future. HR has been notified, and I shouldn’t need to say this, but I will not allow the spreading of nasty rumors. If you decide to share the information with your colleagues, do it with decency. Is that clear?”
Everyone in the room nods, and while I can tell some of them are shocked by the revelation, no one says a thing or asks any questions. Before they can, I rest a hand on the middle of Andrea’s back and suggest, “I’ll come back in half an hour for lunch, alright? We’ll eat together.”
She gives me a tense nod, her eyes still on her colleagues, and I graze her back discreetly, hoping it can help soothe her nerves. There’s officially no going back now. The world knows, or at least,ourworld knows, and all we can do is move forward.
I need to tell Kevin. If he hears we took the leap through anyone other than me, I’ll never hear the end of it. Beyond that, I’m actually eager to share the news with him. God knows he’s been waiting for this moment.
Chapter 22
“Iknew before all of y’all,” Mason proudly says to the team.
