“No, no. It’s fine. We had to address it, or else things might have been weird and then both of us would have had to walk on eggshells and five years down the line, one of us would get drunk at the Company Ball and things might get out of hand. Wow, that sounded like the plot of a terrible reality show. But you got the point, right?”
She laughed, and it hit me how beautiful she was. No wonder Lucah had fallen for her. And just as that thought ran through my mind, I wanted to stab it and pretend it had never existed.
“Yeah, I figured out what you were saying. So anyway. This is the last time I’ll bring it up. And I’m done.” She pressed her lips together and pretended to seal them.
“No big deal.” I hoped I was playing off my nonchalance, because I was still freaking out on the inside. “We’re both professional women, right?”
“Right,” she said, opening her mouth. “Oops, I wasn’t going to talk, but it’s kind of hard to converse without words. If only I knew sign language.”
“I know a few signs, but none of them are complimentary.” Sloane had dated a guy once who had a deaf sister and he’d taught us every dirty sign we could cram into our brains.
We both laughed and finished our desserts and I thought that maybe this was going to be okay. We’d gotten past the minefield that was Lucah and we had a lot of things in common. This was going to work. This was no big deal.
“Oh, I meant to ask you about those cute shoe notes you had on your desk. Where did you get them?” she said as we walked back to the office.
“They, uh, they were a gift.” From Lucah, I didn’t say.
“Darn. Well, they are adorable.” I just smiled as best I could while she opened the front door for me and we took the elevator back up to our floor.
“So we should make this a regular thing,” she said. “This was nice.”
“Yeah, definitely. Just let me know.” We sort of waved goodbye to each other and I walked back to my office, with Lilia watching me the whole time. I knew she knew. I was just waiting for her to come to me and tell me she knew. It was the quiet ones you had to worry about. Always.
I texted Lucah when I sat back down at my desk.
Had lunch with Violet. All is well.
It took him a few minutes to respond.
Good. Never forget.
I wouldn’t.
~*~*~
We ended up staying another night at the hotel, but we just slept in the gigantic bed and watched movies and ordered more room service. It was an absolutely ordinary evening after the previous one. Both of us were still recovering from that.
On Friday night we went out as usual, and then Saturday was another day with Lucah’s family. This time I didn’t bring anything. I thought better safe than sorry.
“Good plan,” Lucah said. It was raining when we got to his brother’s house, so the girls didn’t run out to meet us, but as soon as we walked in the door, they were dashing across the floor.
“Rory, Rory!” Gracie yelled.
“Roar!” Fiona added as they both threw themselves at my legs. I looked down at their sweet faces and I kicked myself for not bringing something.
“Girls, let Rory get her coat off,” April said, looking a little more frazzled than last week. Her hair was carelessly thrown back in a ponytail and her jeans had floury handprints on them.
“Hey, you.” She smiled and hugged Lucah and then took my coat and gave me a hug as well.
The girls jumped and frolicked at my feet and then Tate came out, looking like he’d emerged from a trance.
“Sorry, work call.” I got a hug from him as the girls kept bouncing.
“Where do they get their energy from? I wish I could bottle it,” April said with a sigh.
“Rory?” Gracie said, pulling on my pants leg.
“Gracie, what have we talked about? You say, ‘Excuse me, Rory,’ remember?” Gracie thought about it for a moment.