“Keep your voice down,” I scold him, wary of the many prying eyes and ears of Pacific Creative. Aaron’s so high on hormones it’s like he swallowed truth serum. Damn these open workspaces.
“What? We’re all adults,” he says to me, crossing his arms. “I don’t believe you’re as much of a prude as you pretend you are. Not anymore.”
“I’m not a prude,” I say reflexively. “I just don’t want everyone at work knowing our business.”
Aaron’s eyes narrow. “I knew it was a kinky sex cult. What else have you been keeping from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you can do it too. Brennan said as much last night,” he replies.
“Not exactly,” I counter with a frown. “But what else did Brennan say?”
“There wasn’t a lot of talking, Jude,” he says now.
“Aaron, I’m serious,” I tell him, pinching his arm. “What’s he saying about me?”
“Ow, nothing. Just, you know, that you’re all basicallyTheCraftmeets midlife or whatever, and that he’ll take me down into your spooky ritual basement and show me how the Kool-Aid gets made next time. But only if I blow him first, which I then did with aplomb.”
My jaw unhinges and my hand drops from Aaron’s arm. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Why would Brennan say all that? Why take such risks? Aaron’s attractive, of course, but he’s hardly sell-the-family-Bible hot.
“You went to Medusa?” I ask, realizing my mistake. Of course Brennan took Aaron back to Medusa. He lives there.
“No,” he insists when he sees how upset I am. “We got a room at the Four Seasons. Brennan says he never takes dates home, something about his possessive landlord. And I didn’t want to wake you. I’m going back at lunch for a littleafternoon delight.”
At least I can relax about that much. I lift a hand to my head, try to keep the room from spinning.
“Don’t worry,” Aaron says with an exaggerated tone, thinking he understands my concern. “I’m not gonna tell your little secret.”
I scowl at him. “I don’t levitate, Aaron,” I tell him. “Or do sex magic. Whatever Brennan told you, he’s lying.”
“Why would he do that?” Aaron asks, unconvinced.
“My question exactly,” I reply. I had every intention of going by the condo after work to check in sinceKerrythe maintenance man told me tear-out would start today after the plumber leaves, but maybe I’ll take an early lunch instead. Use the condo as my excuse and go track Brennan down before Aaron shows up for more horizontal refreshment.
Aaron is about to respond when Jessica from HR rushes over. “Jude,hi. Can we talk?”
He backs away, our private moment over, and makes a yawning gesture behind her back as I sit back down at my desk.
“Uhh, Jessica, I actually still have a lot of work to catch up on. I was out the other day with food poisoning. You may haveheard? My nurse called.” I turn and begin straightening papers on my desk unnecessarily, lifting them in stacks to tamp against the cheap wood.
“Yes,” she says too pertly. “So glad you’re feeling better. I just want to go over some figures with you.”
“Figures?” My heart begins to pitter-patter in my chest, anxious.
She scrunches her nose. “Mystery numbers we can’t quite make heads or tails of.”
“O-okay. But I don’t deal directly with accounts, so…”
She plops into a nearby chair. “It’ll only take a moment.”
I can’t really refuse, so I watch as she pulls out one expense report after another with my name attached to it. Not only the whiskey I’d seen before, but dinners, hotel rooms, even a Movado watch.
Men and their timepieces,I think. It seems after I covered for him the first time, Calvin decided to use my name on his doctored reports again. And again.And again.
I look at Jessica. “Why would I buy a Movado watch? These are wrong, Jessica. I didn’t make these purchases.”
She purses her lips to one side. “Sure, sure. I hear you. No one’s accusing you, Jude. But Eric in accounting says he went over these with you already and you cleared them.”
