I shook my head. “I’m not sure why, but he doesn’t. He was upset because I’d been investigatinghim.”
“So you were both investigating each other. It’s very funny, really.”
“It’d be funny if I hadn’t fallen for him,” I said. A tear slid down my cheek before I could stop it.
Grant pulled me in and hugged me. “You both omitted a few truths. You checked each other out. Something was going on, and thereisa guilty party somewhere. I think it’s only natural that we were all suspicious and questioned people who were new to us.”
“You’re making it sound so reasonable,” I laughed. I wasn’t used to hearing Grant talk so sensibly. “I can forgive him up to a certain point. But I don’t understand why he didn’t tell me before we…well, you know. Before we gotintimate.”
Grant’s face clouded over, and his jaw tensed. For a second, I was skeptical of his “not in love” answer.
He seemed to wrestle with something and finally said, “You should turn your phone back on and have a conversation with him.”
A smile grew on my face, and I put a hand on my hip. “When did you become so reasonable?”
He shrugged and pretended to dust off his shoulders.
“Well,” I started, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I appreciate you taking the time to come and check up on me. If you give up all the sexual harassment, we can be real friends.”
“I’ll give the innuendoes a break. I only tease you, you know,” he said, eyes twinkling.
“Oh, I know. And you’ve only been a slight annoyance. But give it a rest, will you? And delete that video of me in Maggie’s office!”
He gave me a mock salute, pulled up the video, let it play one last time, and then deleted it. Then he said, “I had better start on my drive back so I can get some rest tonight.”
“Sorry you made such a long drive for no reason.”
“It was worth it,” he said with a smile that didn’t exactly reach his eyes.
The rest of the night felt lighter. Nothing had changed, but Grant’s admission that he wasn’t harboring any romantic feelings for me was a relief, though I wasn’t sure I was convinced.
What I couldn’t stop thinking about waswhyColin had asked him that. It had no bearing on the investigation. It had no bearing on our jobs. Was it possible he had true feelings for me? I didn’t want to hope because I was familiar with the experience of having your hopes cut down in an instant.
Ben and I swapped failed love stories until he got a text that his girlfriend was done with her networking event.
“Treat her right,” I warned him.
“Absolutely. She might be the one,” he said. He gave me a brief nod and left to find his aunt, who’d just finished her own rendition ofI Will Survive.
Back at my mom’s, I told her I’d head home the next day. She told me she’d miss me terribly, but I saw the look of delight on her face.
The bus drop-off was just a block and a half from my apartment in the city, and I went inside, showered, and got ready to at least work half a day on Thursday.
When I walked in at noon, Monica and Jessica popped their heads up as if they’d been waiting for my arrival.
“You heard?” Monica asked.
I stood close to their desks. “Heard what?”
“Maggie was let go,” Jessica squealed, her voice shooting up an octave. “You didn’t know?” she added, eyes wide.
“I didn’t,” I admitted.
Whatever I thought I was walking back into, it wasn’t this.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was a shock to learn that Maggie had been fired. Colin must have had little doubt that Maggie had done what we’d feared. It was surprising that Grant hadn’t given me this bit of information the night before.
