Reckless (Irresistible 6)

AJ: As hard as possible

ADAM: You don’t have to worry about that. See you at 1

In case anyone was looking my way, I refrained from chewing the corner of my lip.

But I did wait anxiously for lunch, eyeing the clock more than usual as I sifted through the applications that had come in for my job as Adam’s assistant. The posting had apparently been put up on the company website the day we signed Knox, so there were already loads to go through.

I had finally found a decent one when Kenzie came by my desk, craning her neck to look into Adam’s office.

“He’s out for a meeting,” I said.

“I know.”

I looked up. She was standing right next to my desk now, playing with her hair as she stared at the resume on my screen.

“Do you need something, Kenzie?” I asked, frowning because I could already feel a strange vibe coming off of her. For starters, she never hung out at my desk, but it seemed that for once, she’d come by to talk not to Adam, but me.

I sensed eyes from the office peering our way as she just stood there, leaning over now, reading this resume over my shoulder.

When she finally stood up again, she said, “I’ll be his new assistant.”

“You can always apply if you want,” I said, since it was better than saying, you do not possess the attention span or actual skill set to perform well in this job.

Kenzie’s mouth spread in a placid smile as she slid her eyes to me. “I was at the party,” she said.

I frowned. “What party?”

“The Minx party.”

My heart dropped.

Suddenly, her odd little smile made a lot more sense to me. I could feel my stomach lurching, my pulse picking up as I tried to figure out what to say to fake cluelessness. But she hadn’t actually said anything incriminating yet.

Of course, that all changed within the second.

“You guys are a cute couple.”

My blood rushed in my ears as I felt the spotlight on me brighten, getting bigger, wider by the second, just like Kenzie’s smile.

There was a taunting malice in her voice as she asked, “How long have you guys been together?”

“Kenzie—what are you talking about?” I finally said. “We attend events together all the time. There’s nothing new about this.”

“You don’t have to pretend, AJ. Why else would he threaten to quit if you weren’t promoted instead of Davis?”

I stared.

Everyone did.

Somewhere down by The Pit, someone said “no fucking way.” Maybe Davis, but I couldn’t tell, because along with my heart hammering in my ears, I heard this ringing sound now. Panic.

I felt like I was drowning in it, but I made sure to give nothing but my best poker face as I spoke calmly to Kenzie.

“Kenzie, none of that is true. But I’m not going to dignify this conversation by explaining to you that I earned that promotion. My work here speaks for itself,” I said, returning her challenging stare until she arched an eyebrow, smirked and walked away.

My heart continued to slam as I exchanged “what the fuck” looks with the people around me. They were offended, just as perplexed as me.

At least they were in that particular moment.