Hush (Just This Once 1)

***

“I thought you were on top of your game, Evan.” Jack leans back on my sofa so he can rest his feet on my coffee table. “You didn’t have a condom so you borrowed one from a guy who never gets laid?”

I laugh aloud. “He’s gotten laid at least twice that I know of, but I assure you I’m not counting. He had a condom in his hand when I was desperate for one. You would have taken it too.”

“Probably.” He shrugs as he draws a pull from a bottle of beer. “Remind me again why we aren’t at the hockey game?”

“You gave your tickets to me and I gifted them to the couple who live down the hall from me. “

“Christ, I’m a nice guy.” He chuckles. “Why did you feel the need to give away more tickets that I’ve paid good money for?”

“The two guys who live down the hall got married over Christmas. They’re working their asses off to get through med school. I know that drill so I gave them the tickets so they could at least have one night of fun.”

“I’m not going to say you’re wrong for doing a good deed, but I’d like to sit my ass in one of those seats at some point this season.”

I turn on the television and flip through the channels until I land on the game. “Besides, we can watch from the comfort of my home. What’s better than that?”

“A toast to the fact that you’re still kid free.” He holds up his bottle in the air. “Here’s to dodging bullets.”

I raise my bottle too. Jack doesn’t need to know that Chloe can’t conceive. I left that detail out when I told him that she’s not pregnant. I wouldn’t have mentioned it at all, but I made a frantic call to him last night after Jordan filled me in on his broken condom.

“Let’s hope we avoid the parent trap for years.” Jack tosses me a smile. “I know I’m not ready and there’s no way in hell you should be parenting a kid.”

I don’t argue that point. I barely have my own life in order. A baby is the last thing I need.

Chapter 22

Chloe

Gabi follows me into my office. “Do you want to talk about anything? You know I can clock out for a few minutes and put on my best friend hat if you need me to.”

“Your best friend hat?” I smile. “Is that different from your assistant hat because I was under the assumption that they were one in the same.”

She twists her mouth into an over exaggerated frown. “You know what I mean. We can push aside all the work we need to go over and talk about what happened before you got to work yesterday.”

“Nothing happened,” I lie.

I didn’t say a word to Gabi yesterday about my awkward conversation with Evan. I raced to my office after I left the café, trying to regain some of the composure I’d left behind.

I wasn’t successful.

I breezed past Gabi’s desk and slammed my own office door behind me.

She was on my heel and as quickly as I closed the door, she opened it back up with a demand that I tell her what was going on.

I couldn’t. The words wouldn’t form on my tongue so I waved her away with an excuse about a work problem.

She didn’t buy it since she’s the one I’m always confiding in when something goes wrong in the office.

“Gabi.” I take a step toward her so I can hold her hands in mine. “I love that you’re concerned about me but you don’t need to be. I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

“If it was nothing you wouldn’t have looked the way you did.” She tilts her head so she can look me directly in the eyes. “I know you. Something happened that knocked your world off its axis. You know you can tell me anything.”

I do know that. Gabi is one of the few people in my life I can say anything to and I know that she’ll never repeat it.

The professional part of that is related to the non-disclosure agreement she signed when she started working for me. The personal side of that is based on the strength of our friendship.

I give in because I can tell by the look on her face that she’s not going to let this go. “I saw Evan yesterday morning and we talked about some stuff.”