“Did Gage actually try to make a joke back there?” she asked.
My laughter echoed in the empty room, and she joined in. We laughed at my brother. At ourselves for being caught. At the ridiculousness of the entire situation.
Tears flowed from both of us, at least now from our hysterics. The yo-yoing of emotions we’d been dealing with was exhausting. I pulled her to the floor with me, unable to stay on my knees any longer. She fell onto my lap, a fit of laughter still escaping her as she did.
“It feels good to laugh instead of cry,” she said.
“It does. Though he’s a dick for saying I’m a poor choice for you.”
We both smiled.
“I’m not going to tell you I told you so, but I knew he’d be OK with us,” I said.
There was an unsure nod from her.
Then I got the text.
Gage: Is she OK
I showed Maryellen my phone for her to see for herself. “He’s not a monster.”
“I know that,” she said. “It’s just that I have a lot of respect for him and didn’t want to be breaking the rules.”
Me: We’ll be back in a sec, she needed a minute
Gage: Of course
“C’mon,” I said, shifting her weight from me. “I told him we’d head back.” She took my outstretched hand, and I pulled her to standing and into my arms. “You a bit better?”
She nodded. “Yes, let’s head back.”
Once out of the room, our haven was left behind and the real world awaited us. As we walked down the hall together, hand in hand, her steps were a tad slower than mine. Her confidence waned as we approached his office, I could feel it as she squeezed my hand tighter.
Once we reached her desk, I handed her a few tissues to clean the streaks of makeup from under her eyes.
“Is it really bad?” she asked. Her hands immediately went to her undereye area, rubbing and wiping. She blotted with the tissue, the black lines almost gone. “Better?”
“Perfect.” And she was perfect, always, in my eyes. Even with her puffy, bloodshot eyes, she was gorgeous.
We walked into my brother’s office together, as a team. A duo.
A couple.
He looked up from his computer as we entered, and his eyes went straight to our clasped hands. Mare noticed and tried to letgo, but I wouldn’t let her. We continued into the office, to the sitting area, and sat on the couch next to each other.
Once Gage joined us, he didn’t sit but remained standing.
“Chase, do you mind if Maryellen and I have a talk?” His face was unreadable as he first glanced at me, then his assistant. He didn’t appear angry. “Alone?”
“Uh…” I started to object, but Maryellen touched my leg.
“Of course he wouldn’t mind,” she said.
As I waited for them to finish theirchat,I sat at her desk. My brain went to all kinds of places while they were in there together. Without me. He could be trying to convince her I’m no good for her. Or he could be reading her the bylaws of the company and how it is against the rules for us to be together. Maybe he was telling her about all the girls I’ve been with in the past few months to discourage her from trying this with me. But that couldn’t be, I don’t think he knew.
Funny how the only thoughts my brain allowed me to have were negative ones. Whenever I tried to think of him possibly in there discussing our attempt to make this work, my brain hijacked me and took over.
I heard them approaching the door, laughter between them as the door opened. As a form of defiance, since I was an immature brat, I remained sitting at her desk.
