But he wasn’t entirely wrong. “It makes a sort of sense, right? She would always have someone available to her even if the othersweren’tavailable.”
Thomas still wasn’t convinced. “You are out of your goddamn mind. Even if we were all on board with this, it still couldn’t happen. She’s our employee.”
“If we moved her so that she wasn’t working directly for us, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Zach said.
“And have her work for the junior associates?” Thomas sneered. “She’d be running circles around them in a day.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked. “Since you know everything.”
“That we leave her alone!” he said. “For her sake and ours.”
It was the smartest thing any of us could do, but I couldn’t do it. Every piece of me wanted to drag her out of Zach’s office now and declare my feelings for her. It was ridiculous and childish, but I wanted it all the same. “We don’t even know if she would agree to such an arrangement,” Zach pointed out, sounding resigned.
“We could ask,” I countered. “She’s an adult. She should get to decide.”
“Wait.” Thomas rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, obviously frustrated. “We haven’t even agreed to how this will work first. We can’t bungle our way through this.”
“Don’t you think she should also be a part of that conversation?”
Thomas’s frown was so deep that I nearly teased him about wrinkles, but now wasn’t the time for jokes. Especially about age, considering we were talking about jointly dating a twenty-four-year-old. The thought alone made guilt spike through me. “We’re all getting fucking fired,” he muttered. “I’m calling it now.”
7
ALEX
“Mr. Wagner asks that you come to Mr. Jacobs’s office,” CarrieAnne informed me, barely poking her head into the office. The door shut behind her sharply. I guess I hadn’t made a bestie there. She hadn’t been super happy with me ever since she brought me lunch. I had insisted that she not bother, but “Mr. Wagner had insisted.”
I’m getting fired, I thought.I amdefinitelygetting fired.
Zach had felt guilty for kissing me. I knew that the second he’d wrenched away from me, apologizing, before he ran out of the office. But I didn’t know he’d felt so guilty that he would run straight to Jake.
At least Thomas’s brief was in order now. I could give it to him before security walked me out of the building.
“Thank you for lunch today,” I said to CarrieAnne as I came out of the inner office. “I know Mr. Wagner asked you to do it, but I still appreciate the gesture.”
CarrieAnne glanced away from her computer, and for once, she didn’t force that professional smile onto her face. “I wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t told me to,” she admitted. “Don’t thank me.”
I shrugged. “It was nice, anyway.”
A small smile curled at the corner of her mouth. “You’d better go,” she said. “They don’t like to wait.”
I nodded and, tucking the files under my arm, walked out of the office. My heart was so loud in my ears as I walked to Jake’s office. I was sure that everyone could hear it. I tried to give off that unaffected air that some people could just effortlessly maintain, but I knew I looked like I was walking to my own execution.
What I didn’t expect was for Jake, Zach, and Thomas to be standing, obviously waiting for me, when I opened the office door. Jake’s assistant’s desk was empty. “Am I fired?” I asked, staring at the three of them.
Jake shook his head. “No,” he said, and it sounded like a promise. “No, that’s not why we called you down here.”
I looked at each of the men, and my heart did somersaults beneath my ribs. “Do you want to clue me in? Because I’m freaking out a little.”
“We’ve been talking—” Zach started.
“You told them that we kissed, right?” I interrupted, and he nodded. “I figured you would. You kind of ran out of the office like I’d set your hair on fire.”
Thomas snorted. “Dude,really?”
“Shut up,” Zach hissed at him before he turned to look back at me. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Truly. I don’t want you to think that I didn’t enjoy kissing you.”
I hadn’t thought about it quite like that, but now that he mentioned it, my insecurities had flared to life. I resisted the urge to fidget with my clothes and hair and did my best to keep my eyes in their direction. “Did you?” I asked and hated myself for it.