He smiled and leaned down toward me. "When I come into town, Mark and I always go out for wings. But see what I'm thinking is we turn it into an employee thing. What do you say? You up for wings tonight?"
I took a moment to think and felt a rush of panic go through me. If I turned his offer down, it could look suspicious or thought of as standoffish. I didn't want to offend him. As much as I knew Mark enjoyed being with me, I wasn't a fool. His business meant the world to him. If his partner started to give him trouble over me, who knew what would happen? Even worse, I didn't want to lose this job and all the benefits that came with it.
But if I said yes, that could mean trouble. The more time I spent around Mark and Josh, the more opportunities there were for a mistake that could get us found out.
As all these thoughts marched through my brain, I felt my phone vibrate in my purse. "Let me just look at my calendar."
"No problem. Take your time. I'm more than happy to just stand here and wait, beautiful."
I didn't like it when he referred to me in the same manner that Mark would have. It wasn't the same. When Mark said it, I felt beautiful, but when Josh said it felt like too much.
I suddenly wished that Josh could just go back to whatever vacation or business trip he'd been on and stay there. He wasn't the worst guy ever, and I did have to admit he could be funny. Still, something about him put me off.
Maybe it was the fact that I was having a secret love affair with his friend and business partner and trying to avoid his flirting with me.
I looked and saw a text from Mark on my phone.You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but he won’t stop pushing if you say no.
That didn't mean I couldn't try.
"It looks like I have some things to do at my place tonight. Thanks for offering, though. I'll try for the next time."
As if on cue, he said, "Stuff to do at your place? Nah! Come out with the two of us. Mark says you've been an amazing help to him here, and I want to hear more about the beautiful woman who he can't stop raving about.”
I blushed and hoped it wasn't too obvious how much Mark's compliments meant to me. I sighed and out of the corner of my eye saw Mark watching from the door to his office.
Sensing I'd have to relent at some point anyway, I smiled and said, "Okay. I’ll go."
Thrilled, he clapped his hands together and grinned. "Excellent! You hear that, Mark? She's coming for wings. Our first company retreat."
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his eagerness. His personality was one of those that you couldn't help but be drawn in by, even if you didn't want to be. A glance over at Mark as he stood in his doorway, though, told me he wasn't at all happy with Josh being around. His body language screamed it to the whole room, but Josh didn’t notice at all as he picked up his cell phone and went outside to make a call.
Mark smiled at me as I quietly said, "I can make an excuse and beg off, if you want."
He shook his head and tried not to frown. "It's fine. We just have to be careful. Besides, you'll have fun. Everyone loves it when Josh is around, and you clearly have another admirer."
I rolled my eyes and scrunched up my face to show him how much I didn't care about that, but Mark's expression never changed from the serious one he seemed to wear all the time when his business partner was around.
Josh came back into the office and clapped his hands together. "Okay, you busy bees! Enough of this working shit. I'm starving."
We filed out of the house, and as we hit the sidewalk, Josh took a deep breath and nudged Mark. "I've been all around the world, but there's no smell like New York City."
Without thinking, I said, "You must love the smell of garbage because that's all this city has with the sanitation strike."
Josh threw his head back and laughed as he elbowed Mark. "I like this one. She's a smart ass like me."
He winked as he looked over at me, and I felt myself blush once more. Maybe going out with my bosses had been a mistake. The look of disgust on Mark's face said he definitely thought it was.
We got to the restaurant, and for the most part, Josh and Mark just talked about business. It was a little tedious, but at least it seemed like he didn't suspect anything. The wing joint was a little hole in the wall place with brick walls and old wood floors. A sign on the wall claimed this was once where gangsters hid out, but I had no idea if that was true.
Halfway through our wings, Josh looked over at me and said, "Okay, I want to hear about this mystery woman who's come to save us from a mountain of paperwork and endless unanswered phone calls. You must be some kind of angel."
I had opted to sit next to him in the booth to stay as far away from Mark as possible, so for the first time, I felt like I was a captive audience who couldn't get away. "I don't know. It wouldn't be very angelic of me to say yes, now would it?"
"Not angelic at all," Josh replied with a devilish look in his eyes.
"Leave her alone, man. While you're off traveling the world, she helps me keep down the fort. Good secretaries are hard to find, so I don't want you chasing her off."
Josh pretended to be hurt by his partner's criticism. "Chasing her off? Why would you say that? I'm just trying to get to know her."