“—Says she heard them talking in the parking lot,” one of the girls ahead of me on my way out the door is whispering. “She was berating him for opening her car door. She said they should let the valets do that.”
“Oh, my God. How pompous can you get?” another hisses.
“Shh.” The third one elbows the other two, and all three turn plastic-fake grins on, just in time for me to emerge from the office.
My face turns beet-red. But I can imagine who told them that. Caroline. My heart sinks, remembering my lighthearted teasing of Jasper. I guess from the outside that might have sounded douchey… But I didn’t mean it that way. Surely Caroline must have heard the way I said it, how we were joking.
I think about what Jasper told me, about them hooking up once years ago. Is that why she hates me now?
Is that why these other girls are casting sideways glances at the rock on my finger, and tittering and elbowing one another, as though I can’t see them, as though I’m not standing right here?
“So, accounting,” I say, in an attempt to stave off any more banter. “Pretty boring assignment, huh?”
“I’ll find anything we’re assigned to do here fascinating, I’m sure,” one girl replies with a turn of her shoulder.
Another offers me an apologetic smile—the one who told the other two to shush when I approached—but she, too, turns away to follow the others down the hall.
“Some of us have to work for our positions, after all,” the first girl who spoke mutters as we march through the corridors.
I drop my head, clench my fists inside my pockets where no one will be able to see them. Where no one will be able to see the ring, either. How much more of this can I handle?
This isn’t forever, I remind myself. I just need to keep my head down, work hard, and get a good recommendation from Jasper. Then move on, go to school, get a better job, somewhere I won’t immediately be branded as the gold-digger sleeping with the boss.
But they’re right, aren’t they? says out the little nagging voice at the back of my head. That’s exactly what you’re doing, isn’t it?
So I should be punished for it? I argue back mentally. These girls don’t know me or Jasper. What if it was true love?
What if it is?
I shove that feeling down into the pit of my stomach. There it can grow, turn to poison, sicken me from the inside out. But I refuse to even think it. Not when this has already blown up into a bigger, more complicated mess than I ever anticipated.
What have I gotten myself into?
The moment I get a minute to myself, I slip into the bathroom to text Melissa back. I tell her the whole story—the hookup, the mornings after. The return to the office, and the glares I’m getting from just about everyone else here.
Okay, well firstly, screw those gossipers, she replies, which makes me almost smile. Let she who is without sin cast the first stone, or whatever, if we’re going Biblical. But more importantly—how was it???
Amazing, is the only thing I can think to reply. Because it was. He was, more than I’d ever expected. But I don’t know if it’s worth all this fall-out, I add quickly. I should be keeping my eye on my professional goals right now.
Girl, you do. You’re a workaholic, you love cars—I have exactly zero doubts that you’re pulling your weight at this internship. Who cares what those other girls think? They don’t know the full story. All that matters if that you’re enjoying yourself. And that hunky-as-hell husband of yours.
She adds a whole slew of winking faces, and I snort. This time, my smile is almost fully real. Thanks. I’ll try and remember that. But I can’t shake the nagging sensation that maybe, for once in our years-long friendship, Melissa might be wrong. Because if this is how other girls in my own office are judging me for the side-gig I’ve accepted, how will it look once the wider world learns I’m supposed to marry Jasper Quint?
“How was your day?” Jasper meets me in the lobby with a bouquet of flowers and a huge, shit-eating grin on his face. But his expression dips a little when I don’t return it.
“Not bad,” I say, accepting the flowers with a forced smile. I lean up to kiss his cheek.
“Uh uh.” He leans away. “Not buying it. What happened?”
“Nothing happened.” My cheeks turn bright red, not for the first time throughout this long, long day of pretending I didn’t overhear all the stuff the other girls were saying while we worked through a huge stack of overdue invoices down in accounting, inputting them into the computer, making up spreadsheets… “I just got put into accounting for my first rotation. It’s fine, just…”
“A lot of busywork?” Jasper nods, knowingly, to my surprise. “Been there. My dad started me in accounting for the first two years I worked here. Wouldn’t let me advance into any of the fun stuff until I got a grasp on how the financial side of the business worked.” He smiles a little wryly.
“Well. Two years? I certainly can’t complain about two weeks then.” I laugh. But my worried expression remains, and after a beat, he rests a hand on the small of my back and shoots a glance over my head toward the receptionist’s desk on the far end of the lobby.
Caroline is not so subtly glaring daggers at us over her computer screen.
“Did anything else happen?” he asks. “Did Caroline try and mess with your head? She’s done that before, to another girl I had a fling with down in engineering…”
“How many girls here have you had flings with?” I roll my eyes and elbow his side. “Sounds like you should be getting the flak around here, not me.”
“You’re getting flak?” A worried crease appears between his brows.
“No, I mean… That’s not…” I shake my head. “It’s fine.” The last thing I want to do is stir up more trouble, or get anyone a bad name with higher-up management just because they’re spreading perfectly true gossip about me.
“What’s going on? Talk to me, Dee.”
“It’s just hard, you know?” I draw my left hand out of my pocket for what feels like the first time in hours and let the ring catch the overhead lights as we stride through the lobby, out toward Jasper’s car. “I feel like I just painted a target on my back. Everyone knows who I am now, and not for anything I’ve done, but just because I’m Jasper’s Quint’s out-of-nowhere fiancée.”
He laughs for a second. “That sounds like the bad title of a romance novel.” Then he sobers, after a glance at my face. “No, I understand. I have to admit, I didn’t really think about this side of things when we made our, ah…” He waits until we clear the doors and reach the empty parking lot, and are halfway to his car before he speaks again. “This arrangement.” He opens the door for me like usual, and I smile up at him as I climb into the passenger side seat.
“It’s okay, really. I’ll get used to it.”
“If you’d prefer, you don’t have to work with the other interns,” he says, once he’s in the driver’s seat. “I can have you moved to another area of the company—”
“Oh, no. That would only make it worse.” I wince, just imagining the rumors that would fly then. She’s sleeping with him so he’ll play favorites and give her whatever assignment she wants. “Really, Jasper. I have to handle this fall-out from our bargain. I’ll deal with it, okay?” I rest my hand over his on the gearshift. “Now, do you mind dropping me off at home?”
“I can.” His gaze drifts to me. Holds mine. “Or we could go back to my condo.”
My heart skips a beat. “Are you sure?” I ask. Not what I meant to say. What I meant to say was Thanks but I need to go home first. I have to change, I need to drop off my luggage… Instead, I find myself leaning across the console toward him, smiling, as he mirrors me and leans in too.
“Absolutely,” he murmurs. Then our lips meet, and I sink into his kiss, and I forget about it all. The worries. The fear about what people are saying. Who cares about any of that?
He slides one hand around my waist, draws me toward him, until I’m practically half on the gear
shift, and his hand runs up the front of my dress, caressing my bra, teasing my nipple, taunting me with what’s awaiting me back at his condo. Back when we’re alone again, just the two of us, no pressure from anybody else to be or say or do what they find appropriate.
I have what I need right here, I think, and sink into his kiss.