He smirked.“I haven’t.”
Caleb looked back at me again, this time with a shade of pity.“Are you going to tell him soon?The poor boy looks like he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going.”
I bristled.Something about this whole situation – about being made to think this was a date and how embarrassed I was by how fast and loud my heart raced for a moment; about this strange relationship and having no idea what it all meant; about being kept in the dark by my boss, who refused to let me quit and apparently found it amusing to torment me…
All of it put together made me bold and fearless.
What was he going to do if I was rude?Fire me?
“Okay,” I said.I stopped dead in the hall, even though the three of them ahead of me were entering a richly-decorated dining room where three elegant places were already set.It took a beat, but when Mr.Harvey realized I wasn’t following, he stopped and looked back.Aubrey and Caleb soon did the same.“That’s enough.Firstly, I’m not a boy, I’m thirty-one years old.Secondly, what’s going on here?You need to tell me, now, or I’m calling a taxi and going home.”
Mr.Harvey grinned at me – actuallygrinned, though I didn’t like the look of this particular smile at all because it made me want to find a pair of stilts so I could punch him in the face – and spread his arms wide to indicate the room around him.“What does it look like?”
“It looks like a joke at my expense,” I said, stomping my foot and then immediately regretting how much of a child it made me seem.“And I don’t particularly like being the punchline.Mr.Harvey?I gave you until the end of the work day like I promised.I quit.”
And I turned on my heel, back towards the door and the driveway, where I hoped and prayed I would be able to get enough signal to call someone to pick me up.
Olly
“Wait,” I called out.Panic flared in my chest.I hadn’t imagined that Keaton would actually try toleave.
Keaton stormed away from me without looking back.He reached out for the door handle.I was quicker.I grabbed his elbow and spun him to face me.We were close in the hallway.Keaton was almost pressed up against the door.There was no way I was giving any ground.
“Let me go,” he snapped.
“I told you,” I said.I leaned forward and pressed one hand against the door above his head.He wasn’t leaving right now even if he turned and grabbed the door handle again.Not until our conversation was over.“This was the deal we made.You have dinner with me tonight.Thenyou get to decide whether you quit or not.The work day isnotover.”
“Then tell me what’s going on, right now,” he retorted.I bent my head over him.He was small like this.Exactly the kind of small I could fold up so easily in my arms.Just the right height to lay his head on my shoulder.
I smiled.I noticed again how uncomfortable that seemed to make him.He wasn’t used to it.My fault.I had to be the boss at work.I forgot sometimes to be a person as well.“It’s pretty simple,” I said.“Caleb and I played together.We’re old friends.”
I watched him trying to work it through his brain.He wrinkled his nose.It was the most adorable little movement.His glasses shifted on his face.“But… you’re…”
“Rivals?”I suggested.“Enemies?”
He nodded.“That’s what everyone says.That’s whatyousay.”
“Is it?”I asked.But I wanted to put him out of his misery.I truly did.There was no benefit to stringing it along any further.“We’re not rivals.We’re old friends.We’re just rivals in public to give the media something to talk about.”
Realization slowly dawned in Keaton’s eyes.“To stop them talking about other things,” he suggested.“And so that you can catch out people who would try to play you against each other.”
“Exactly,” I said.I locked eyes with him deliberately.I had to duck my head to get him to stay connected.I dropped my voice.“That information doesn’t leave this room.”
Keaton shivered.A pink flush spread up his cheeks.That was… unexpected.“I won’t tell anyone,” he said.There was a beat of silence.A half-hysterical laugh bubbled up out of his chest.“It’s not like anyone would believe me if I did.”
“Hm.”I raked my eyes over his face one more time.He seemed genuine.I could see the freckles across his nose much more clearly this close up.His wide eyes behind the lenses.The way his lower lip trembled slightly.
Why was it trembling?
I had an urge to reach up and touch that lip.Still it.Soothe it.
Meet it with my own.
“Why are you showing me this?”he asked.His voice was nothing more than a whisper.
“It’s not a joke,” I told him.“You’re not a joke.”
“So…?”
