As soon as Tate shook her hand, he turned to Jo.
“Is she single?” he said in a faux whisper.
“She’s saving herself for Sam Allen,” Jo said without missing a beat.
Tate looked confused, and Emma’s brows furrowed, but Evelyn cackled. Jo didn’t care that no one else got the joke.
Having Evelyn there was probably not helping Jo’s relationship with Emma, who continued to keep her distance, but overall it was definitely helping Jo. It made her feel young, honestly, shut away in her office and giggling with her best friend. The fact that Evelyn loved her enough to board a plane just because Jo was upset over a girl helped, too.
“Why is she still out there?” Evelyn whispered. “It’s past five; when does she go home?”
“Oh,” Jo said. She hadn’t thought about it. “Emma!”
Evelyn’s eyes went wide, but Jo ignored her. Emma came to stand in the doorway.
“Yes, Ms. Jones?” she said.
“I’m all set here,” Jo said. “You can go home for the night. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Emma gave her a nod and offered a smile in Evelyn’s direction. “Have a good night.”
Evelyn waited a reasonable amount of time for Emma to get out of earshot before saying, “Does she not have regular hours? She doesn’t leave until you dismiss her?”
“Well, usually she checks in,” Jo said. “She probably didn’t want to interrupt us, or something.”
“Do you think she’ll be that submissive in bed, too?”
“Evelyn!” Jo snapped because, no, they were not going to talk about Emma like that. As though this whole thing weren’t inappropriate enough.
“I’m teasing,” Evelyn said. “C’mon. Let’s talk about this.”
“You don’t want to talk about it, you want to make fun of me.” Jo felt petulant.
“A-Jo,” Evelyn said quietly. “I’m serious.”
Jo sighed. “What is there to say?”
“How are you feeling? How do you think she’s feeling? What do you want to do? What are the next steps for getting whatever it is that you want?”
The questions all seemed too big to fathom. What were the next steps? There were no steps. She couldn’t have what she wanted. Even if she could, she didn’t deserve it. What did she bring to a relationship? Money, fame, scrutiny. Nothing substantial.
“I’m feeling stupid,” Jo said. “I’m feeling like a cliché. Middle-aged boss and her assistant, how unique. It’s all made worse by the fact that the paparazzi seemed to figure it out before we did.”
Jo opened her desk drawer, rooted around under some folders to find the magazine with that first picture, and tossed it across her desk toward Evelyn.
“I used to look at this and wonder,” she admitted.
Evelyn looked at the picture for a moment.
“You’re allowed to want her,” she said.
“I’mnot,” Jo said. “I’m not, Ev. She’s more than a decade younger than me and she’s my assistant. Talk about a predatory lesbian.”
“You’re not a predatory lesbian,” Evelyn insisted. “You’re not treating Emma likeprey. You have feelings for her. You’re allowed to. You’re allowed to tell her that. Maybe not right now. But she’s going to stay onInnocentswhen you move on, right? Maybe tell her then. You’re allowed.”
Jo was forty-one years old and there were tears in her eyes over a girl. It was embarrassing.
She deflected.